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A night of a thousand Dollys

Post author By wkujour
Post date October 28, 2019
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This fall, Dolly Parton celebrated her 50th anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. The impersonator Carla Jean Morgan is keeping Dolly’s image — and legacy in country music — alive on the party-town streets of Nashville.

Lead photo — **It only takes Carla Jean Morgan 30 minutes to “put on her Dolly.” The breasts are already there, she says.**

Story by Sara Krog

Photos by Sofie Skødt Mortensen

Carla Jean Morgan comes driving down Lower Broadway in downtown Nashville in her red truck. The street is busy and full of lights, bars and dolled up bachelorettes getting their drink on. This is NashVegas, ground zero for country music and its fans, a place where T-shirts, cowboy boots and an atmosphere of picking — and lots of grinning — plays on, 24-7.

Even though she’s partially hidden inside the car, Carla Jean’s blonde wig makes people on the street take a head-turning gaze. That’s a feat if you consider the buzz and the cast of characters parading this flashy venue on a Music City Saturday night.

Could it be? Fans look at Carla Jean and then look at each other with eyebrows raised.

“Was that Dolly Parton?” they whisper before taking another look.

Carla Jean’s truck takes a turn left into a parking lot. She opens the door and jumps to the ground before she puts on her black heals, a necessity for her outfit. In Dolly’s world, there are no flat shoes. And nearly everything has some sparkle.

Soon the crowd realizes – this is not the real Dolly, but it’s a pretty good Almost Dolly, as Carla Jean calls herself.

Drake Kizer Long Reads Uncategorized

The ‘Principal’ of wrestling

Post author By wkujour
Post date October 24, 2019
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In God’s house, powerslams and piledrivers are the mission for promoter and school leader Tortorello

Steve Tortorello, the principal at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and owner of Warrior Wrestling, addresses the crowd prior to “Warrior Wrestling Six” in the MCHS West Gym on Sept. 1, 2019.

Story by Drake Kizer

Photos by Basil Mahmud

In a dimly lit venue about 30 miles south of Chicago, 800 professional wrestling fans cry out to their favorite, and least favorite, competitors with reckless fervor.

“Moose!”

“Cero Miedo!”

“S-C-U!”

“This is awesome!”

They represent only a handful of the chants that rain down on the wrestlers flying off the ropes and slamming each other onto the mat. The ring is almost entirely black except for a gold “Spartan” helmet logo emblazoned in the center of a weathered canvas. Above that, the phrase “Warrior Wrestling” is etched in gold.

The passionate cries echoed through a high school gymnasium in a struggling town where wrestling fanatics paid as little as $35 or more than $100 to watch costumed villains and heroes pretend to inflict harm on their enemies — all for the purpose of keeping the students who use the gym for standard athletic fare from doing or suffering the same fate in real life.

Steve Tortorello, a lifelong fan of professional wrestling, sits and watches the action with a discerning eye. But as chatter rings through his headset, Tortorello is reminded he’s not just an onlooker.

Long Reads Uncategorized

From pictures to a president

Post author By wkujour
Post date August 27, 2019
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Evan Sisley’s photo of “Sully,” President George H.W. Bush’s service dog, taken at the president’s memorial service received more than 280,000 “likes” on Instagram.

By Laurel Deppen

On the evening of Nov. 30, 2018, former President George H. W. Bush laid in his bed, surrounded by his family as Ronan Tynan, a member of the Irish tenors, sang “Silent Night.”

The president loved Christmas carols, and as Tynan sang by his bedside, Bush mouthed the lyrics.

“You can’t help but maybe take a step back and kind of look at this from a historical perspective, but he wasn’t just a patient,” said Evan Sisley, a former Western Kentucky University student and Bush’s personal aide for the last four years of his life. “He was a mentor.”

About four hours later, Bush died.

Taylor Metcalf

Impaired driving in Bowling Green

Post author By wkujour
Post date August 24, 2019
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By Taylor Metcalf

Drunk driving is a constant problem across the United States, and it is no different in Bowling Green.

Like any other city, Bowling Green had seen its fair share of impaired driving. Warren County Sheriff Brett Hightower had seen several drunk driving instances in his time as an officer and since his election as sheriff in 2018.

“Drunk driving is an issue that has plagued a lot of communities,” Hightower said. “When you don’t put a plan in place [for getting home] early on, you make poor choices.”

However, in the past near decade, record rates of driving under the influence in Bowling Green have decreased nearly half. In 2009, records showed that 799 instances of drunk driving were recorded, while 2018 had only 464.

McKenna Mitchell

Modern Language changes: It’s a smaller world after CAPE

Post author By wkujour
Post date August 24, 2019
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By McKenna Mitchell

Junior Erin Woggon was never able to speak to her German grandparents before they died. She knew very little German, such as asking what someone’s favorite subject in school is, and was only able to have a conversation with them if with the help of her parents.

Despite being a German dual citizen, Woggon said her family only spoke English in the home while growing up in the United States. While this helped her learn English for school, it formed a language barrier between her and her father’s German family. She was never able to overcome this barrier before both of her grandparents died while she was in high school.

After her loss, Woggon entered college with a goal in mind.

Feature Miles Schroader

Making limestone a lifestyle at Mammoth Cave

Post author By wkujour
Post date July 27, 2019
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By Miles Schroader

According to the U.S. National Park Service, more than 318 million people visited the 58 national parks across the country in 2018. But only about 20,000 get the pleasure of making a career out of the National Park Service.

People who get a job in the park service may be from different walks of life, but most of them will tell you they got into the job for a similar reason to Jackie Wheet of Bowling Green, a park ranger and tour guide at Mammoth Cave National Park.

“I know you’re not making the big bucks; you don’t see park rangers driving new Corvettes,” Wheet said.

Feature Laurel Deppen

Women carve out a place in STEM at WKU

Post author By wkujour
Post date July 18, 2019
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By Laurel Deppen

Women make up just 37 percent of the students in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering, as opposed to Western Kentucky University as a whole, where 59 percent of undergraduate students are female, according to the WKU Fact Book 2018.

The statistic mirrors a global trend. According to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization report, around 30 percent of women in higher education are pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.

Quick Reads Samantha Mallon

Groceries on the go for Bowling Green’s food deserts

Post author By wkujour
Post date June 19, 2019
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By Samantha Mallon

BOWLING GREEN — A green-and-white clad school bus-turned-grocery store joined Bowling Green’s weekday traffic at the beginning of March, thanks to the work of staff at the Housing Authority of Bowling Green.

The bus, donated by Warren County Public Schools, carries cargo far different from that of most school buses. In an effort to relieve the struggles faced by the city’s low-income residents who live in food deserts, this bus has been refurbished into the Housing Authority’s Mobile Grocery Store, which is especially utilized by elderly and disabled residents, said Lori Richey, the authority’s elderly and disabled service coordinator.

Jake Dresman Quick Reads

Emotional support animals provide variety of benefits for WKU students

Post author By wkujour
Post date June 11, 2019
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By Jake Dresman

WKU senior Hailee Bernard says the struggle of owning a dog on campus is worth it because her strong bond with her dog, Beverly, forces her to get out of bed in mornings when she might not have otherwise, giving her a purpose in times of need.

The number of support animals on has increased on college campuses nationwide as more students experience emotional stress, according to US Health News.

Quick Reads

Answering Faith’s Call

By Mackenzie Montross

The quaint, white house that sits between Student Publications and the Confucius Institute can often be overlooked by those passing by.