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In 1952, Jacob \"Jay\" Gurley explored a Marshall County, Alabama, curiosity known as Bat Cave.Amazed by its stalagmites and sheer enormity, he purchased the site and began transforming it into Cathedral Caverns, a spectacular tourist attraction that eventually became a national natural landmark in 1973 and a state park in 2000.

Although direct predator-prey interactions are unobservable in the fossil record, predation has been used to explain many evolutionary trends. Evidence of predation supporting such hypotheses is often presented as isolated instances of preserved sublethal damage, and less commonly, as the frequency of such injuries. For instance, numerous morphological and ecological trends and innovations observed in Phanerozoic crinoids have been causally linked to predation, and whereas the high frequency of arm regeneration in living crinoids is generally assumed to represent intense predation, attempts to assess regeneration frequency and patterns in paleontological samples are few. Can the frequency of fossil injuries be assessed to test hypothesized predation-driven trends, or are such data unavailable? To address this question, we analyzed regeneration in crinoids from the lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian) Maynes Creek Formation near Le Grand, Iowa, a locality renowned for the preservation of thousands of crinoids in tangled masses of crowns, stalks, and holdfasts. Nine percent of the specimens that we examined contained at least one regenerating arm; however, whereas some species lacked evidence of regeneration, others preserved up to 27% arm regeneration. Furthermore, we observed specimens with all arms regenerating, multiple adjacent arms regenerating from the same place along the arm, and a specimen with a damaged and regenerated primaxil and anal sac. The highest regeneration frequency was observed in the most abundant species, Rhodocrinites kirbyi, a significantly higher value than expected under a model of no taxonomic selectivity (binomial: p < 0.05). Furthermore, bootstrapped simulations of the probable number of regenerated individuals suggest that the number of regenerated arms observed in our sample is two to three times less than what existed in the living population. Rhodocrinites kirbyi constituted over 40% of the individuals in the Le Grand crinoid fauna and had the longest stalk of the studied species. In addition, regeneration in R. kirbyi is size related, with individuals above median dorsal cup height (7 mm) displaying nearly 50% regeneration, and smaller individuals only 2% (a statistically significant difference; χ2 test: p < 0.001). The regeneration patterns in R. kirbyi are consistent with predatory attacks that target the most apparent prey. Moreover, this study suggests that predation is the most likely explanation for the regeneration patterns observed in Le Grand crinoids, and that the fossil record potentially provides a valuable, yet overlooked, data source for testing hypotheses pertinent to the role of predation in the evolution of Phanerozoic marine life.

Morphological and environmental taphonomic gradient analysis provides insights into morphological, behavioral, and environmental influences on the preservation of fossil organisms. This paper explores morphological and environmental taphonomic gradients in six crinoid morphotypes (diplobathrids, monobathrids, dichocrinids, platycrinitids, cladids, and flexibles) from three stratigraphic units (the Maynes Creek Formation and the Starrs Cave and \"Ollie\" Members of the Wassonville Formation) representing distinct depositional environments along an onshore-offshore transect within the Early Mississippian (Kinderhookian) Wassonville Cycle of southeast Iowa. Taphonomic differences in stalk, calyx, and arm disarticulation, calyx compression, and arm orientation were categorized independently and subjected to a non-parametric ranking test with bootstrapping (rather than a parametric approach, due to the non-additive nature of the data analyzed herein) to explore taphonomic patterns. The results suggest that the disarticulation of the stalk, calyx, and arms behave independently, although patterns of arm disarticulation may be influenced by the disarticulation of the calyx. In general, preservational integrity in fossil crinoids appears to be a function of the relative proportion of articular to non-articular surface area, skeletal innovations, tissue type and properties, survival response behavior, and thickness and rapidity of burial. Furthermore, these results demonstrate a general decrease in preservational integrity from onshore to offshore environments in the Wassonville Cycle and that sedimentation dynamics associated with episodic events are more influential than background deposition in determining preservation in fossil Lagerstatten. The methodology employed herein also could be used effectively to identify morphological, behavioral, and environmental taphonomic influences on other fossil organisms.

\"We do have a process in place for ditch systems and this system works very well,\" Marshall County Commissioner Gary Kiesow said. \"The only problem is that the department refuses to pay.\" \"If we don't get the money we're owed, we're going to have to raise taxes,\" Marshall County's Kiesow said. \"Twenty years ago, much of this land was swampland,\" he said. \"It's not anymore, because of drainage, and that's a good thing.\"

  They were taken to Marshall Medical Center North for treatment. [Marshall County Coroner Marlon Killion] wouldn't release the names of those involved, pending notification of the next of kin.

The suspect, 50, father to the 15-year-old victim and step-father to her 17-year-old half-sister, allegedly abused the girls sexually \"all the time\" and threatened to kill them and their mother if they told, an officer said. They were afraid to tell their mother because they feared the man would confront them, or \"kill or hurt the girls and their mother,\" police said. In addition to the alleged sexual abuse, the 15-year-old girl said her father beat both girls physically, and had \"choked\" her in the past.

\"I have lived here 40 years, and this is the worst,\" said Carolyn Weilbrenner, who lives near Bloomfield in southern Iowa's Davis County. \"The roads are bad all over,\" said [Ken Crabill]. \"It can't bottom drain, so it just becomes a super-saturated bowl of silt,\" [Marshall County Engineer Royce Fichtner] said.

Most Indiana counties are behind schedule to mail spring property tax bills and receive payments by the May 10 deadline -- delays many say are rooted in the statewide property tax reassessment of 2002. The problem is compounded in 14 counties that have not finished reassessment, including Lake, Allen and Noble counties. Taxpayers there are still waiting for 2003 tax bills, which will be followed closely by this year's bills. That would normally have occurred last August, [Marshall County Auditor Jan Quivey] said, but the county was occupied then by the massive 2002 reassessment, the first to incorporate market values for tax values.