Dolly Parton pledges additional $3 million to Tennessee fire victims

Cindy Watts - USA TODAY - Friday, May 05, 2017

More than five months after wildfires ravaged portions of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Dolly Parton hasn’t stopped surprising her hometown fire victims with her generosity.

In December, Parton announced her My People Fund and promised each family who had lost its primary residence in the fires $1,000 a month for the next five months. When Parton arrived this week to help dole out the final payments, she brought the nearly 900 families an unexpected bonus – another $5,000 each for a total of $10,000.
She also revealed another surprise – the creation of the Mountain Tough organization to provide ongoing support to fire victims over the next three years and the pledge to fund it with at least $3 million.
Mountain Tough will start June 1 and pick up where the My People Fund left off. Its goal is to help individuals and families impacted by the fire by providing resources for low-income individuals and families in Gatlinburg and the surrounding areas with an eye on the long-term needs of those impacted. The organization will be staffed with case managers who will identify the immediate needs of residents and the most effective ways to use funds to help, which could include transportation to a job or medicine for health conditions caused by the fire.
“It makes me feel humble,” Parton said of being able to raise and donate money to the fire victims. “It makes me feel proud that I’ve been able to do something. But I don’t put myself on any kind of pedestal for doing this because it’s the right thing to do. I’m a Smoky Mountain girl, and I’ve been blessed in my life to become a celebrity. And when you’re in a position to help, you should help.”
The Sevier County area is rebounding from the blaze. Parton said, “everybody has pulled together and things are back to normal ... “All of Sevier County is really up and running,” she said. “It’s better than ever.” www.mountaintough.org

N. Korea accuses CIA of plot to assassinate Kim Jong-Un

North Korea on Friday accused the CIA of plotting with South Korea to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un, amid soaring tensions in the flashpoint region.
The CIA and Seoul's Intelligence Services have "hatched a vicious plot" involving unspecified "biochemical substances" to kill the hermit state's young leader during public ceremonial events in Pyongyang, the Ministry of State Security said.
For the CIA "assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results will appear after six or twelve months," the Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.
The accusation comes as Pyongyang issues increasingly belligerent rhetoric in a tense stand off with the administration of US President Donald Trump over its rogue weapons programme.The war of words between the West and the reclusive regime has spiked in recent weeks, and Pyongyang has threatened to carry out a sixth nuclear test that would further inflame tensions.
The CIA and Seoul's Intelligence Services (IS) have "ideologically corrupted and bribed a DPRK citizen surnamed Kim" to carry out the attack on Jong-Un, the statement said."We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists of the US CIA and the puppet IS of South Korea," the statement said, adding that the plot was tantamount to "the declaration of a war".
"The heinous crime, which was recently uncovered and smashed in the DPRK, is a kind of terrorism against not only the DPRK but the justice and conscience of humankind and an act of mangling the future of humankind."
The statement did not give any information on how the plot was foiled or what happened to the alleged spy.
North Korea maintains extensive surveillance operations over its own population, and open dissent against the regime is considered extremely difficult.