Toll on military families mount as war lengthens

Clarksville, Tn. (AP) _ Far from the combat zones, the strains and separations of no-end-in-sight wars are taking an ever-growing toll on military families despite the armed ser-vices’ earnest efforts to help.
Divorce lawyers see it in the breakup of youthful marriages as long, multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan fuel alienation and mistrust. Domestic violence experts see it in the scuffles that often pre-cede a soldier’s departure or sour a briefly joyous homecoming.
Teresa Moss, a counselor at Fort Campbell’s Lincoln Elementary School, hears it in the voices of deployed soldiers’ children as they meet in groups to share accounts of night-mares, bedwetting and heartache. ``They listen to each other. They hear that they aren’t the only ones not able to sleep, having their teachers yell at them,’’ Moss said.
Even for Army spouses with solid marriages, the repeated separations are an ordeal. ``Three deployments in, I still have days when I want to hide under the bed and cry,’’ said Jessica Leonard, who is raising two small children and teaching a ``family team building’’ class to other wives at Fort Campbell. Her husband, Capt. Lance Leonard, is in Iraq.

WKCTC names local students to Dean’s List

The following Tennessee area students have earned recognition for their academic work by being named to the West Kentucky Community and Technical College Dean’s List for the Spring 2008 semester. To be named to the Dean’s List, a student must be a full-time WKCTC student earning at least a 3.5 grade point average (GPA) and successfully com-pleting 12 hours or more of course work numbered 100 or above for the academic term.
OBION CO, TN: Melinda Sue Whitt. WEAKLEY CO, TN : Sandra Kay Roudenbush.
CARLISLE: Katherine Elizabeth Brown, Lauren Catherine Brown, Elyshia Renea Franklin, Andrew Wayne Hayden, Vicki Lynn Kingery, Jesse Terrell Norris, David Michael Reeves, Ross A. Teasley, Debra A. Webb, Jerry Francis Wilson, Natalie D. Wilson.
FULTON: John Robert Curry, Julia A. Jackson, Chasity
D. Nicholson, James Eric Potts, Lauren Vaughn, Justin Paul Williams.
HICKMAN: Thomas W. Lee, Timothy Jarrod Burgess, Carl Creason, Courtney B. Creason, Penelope J. Edmaiston, Jeremy S. Veatch.

More students going online for college classes

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) _ College administrators say there's a jump in online stu-dents as gasoline prices contin-ue to rise.
While convenience, time constraints and other factors come into play, college offi-cials think fuel prices might be the biggest reason for the increase.
At the University of Memphis, Provost Dan Lattimore said there are more than 1,000 students taking online classes this summer, up from fewer than 700 a year ago.
Many of the courses still require in-class final exams and some require lab work on cam-pus.
Online learning is a compo-nent of a University of Tennessee plan to increase the number of Tennesseans with a bachelor's degree by nearly half.