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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL 3&ntsfem flxtly .TjuuriuU Perry Office 1210 Washington St. P.O. Box 1910 Perry, GA 31009 (478) 987-1823 See us online at www.hhjnews.com Reader OKF® Classified Advertising: Call (478) 987-1823 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. You can fax an ad 24 hours a day to (478) 988-9194. Display Advertising: Call Nicole Crofutt at ext. 224. Delivery by mail: Delivery by mail is available for $62 in-county and SB2 elsewhere per year paid in advance. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: P.O. Box 1910, Perry, GA 31069 The Houston Home Journal, A peri odical, mailed (ISSN 1526-7393) at Perry. Ga., is published Tuesday through Saturday for $62 per year by Evans Newspapers Inc., 1210 Washington St., Perry, GA31069; (478) 987-1823 Fax (478) 988-1181. Not published Thanksgiving and Christmas. Office Hours: The office in Perry is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. NEWS TIPS: Call (478) 987-1823 ext. 231 Newsroom Fax: (478) 988-1181 Presentation editor: Contact James Tidwell at jtidwell @ evansnewspapers.com Corrections: The HDJ strives for fairness and accuracy, and will print a correction or clarification when one is in order. Call ext. 231. Advertising errors and omissions: The advertiser agrees that the pub lisher shall not be liable for damages arising from errors in advertisements beyond the amount paid for the space actually occupied by that portion of the advertisement in which the error occurred. There shall be no liability for non-insertion of any advertisement beyond the amount paid for such advertisement. This newspaper is a member of The Georgia Press Association, The National Newspaper Association and The Associated Press State Briefs Woman cleared of homicide charges DOUGLAS (MNS) - The parents of four of five chil dren killed in an all-terrain vehicle accident in Coffee County said they were sad dened that a jury found the motorist who collided with the ATV not guilty of charg es of homicide by vehicle. “It’s another blow,” said David Varnedore Jr., who lost a son and daughter in the Sept. 20, 2003, accident. “You think you’ve got your feet back under you after three years and then you get them knocked back out from under you.” The Coffee County Superior Court jury began hearing evidence and testimony Aug. 22 and deliberated about four hours Saturday before finding Amanda Troupe of Ambrose not guilty of 15 counts of homicide by vehi cle. However, the jury found her guilty of driving under the influence. The accident occurred on Smith Cemetery Road near Ambrose while Corrane Meagan Nelson took friends and relatives who were attending her 14th birthday party on a ride on her fami ly’s Yamaha Bear Tracker. The children headed out Smith Cemetery Road in the dark and collided a short dis tance away with a Lincoln LS driven by Troupe, who had babysat Nelson when the child was younger. Nelson was killed, along with Kayla Varnedore, 13, Dustin Varnedore, 11, Lindsay Joyner, 13, and Nelson’s cousin, Courtney ■—— Htlin Off ICE FWRNITORE THE LARGEST SELECTION OF NEW & USED OFFICE FURNITURE IN CENTRAL GEORGIA OVER 30,000 SQ. FT. wwmfaHwlßM * Item*. Bal- iMM btiu, H^cO-^OOftSl YOUR WEATHER TEAM! TODAY’S Today's Weather Local 5-Day Forecast Fri 9/1 / 87/67 Isolated thunder storms. Highs in the upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s. Sunrise Sunset 7:10 AM 8:00 PM Thu 8/31 89/69 Scattered thunder storms possible. Sunrise Sunset 7:10 AM 8:01PM TFtEIMT WILLMON a little more livin’ Mrsio is sole Georgia At A Glance i i/ X \ Atlanta ~ \ \ 83/68 OW X Augusta \ / 83/70 I f / \ J Nv \ Warner Robins \ \ 89/70 J V V \ * x Savannah / Periy 89/72 I ' 89/7& X S ) to { / Valdosta <n \jJ • 91/72 X'* Area Cities Mi EE Albany 92 71 t-storm Athens 83 68 t-storm Atlanta 83 68 t-storm Augusta 83 70 t-storm Bainbridge 90 73 t-storm Brunswick 90 76 rain Cartersville 84 67 t-storm Chattanooga,TN 81 66 t-storm Columbus 89 71 t-storm Cordele 91 71 t-storm National Cities Hi Lo Cond. [City Atlanta 83 68 t-storm Boston 71 60 mst sunny Chicago 74 59 sunny •Dallas 94 73 pt auiwiy Denver 85 57 t-stam (5)2005 American Profile Service Arsenault, 10. Only Heather Bass, who is now 16, sur vived. Barrow, Burns battle at debate MILLEDGEVILLE (MNS) - Independence, influence and immigration took center stage Monday in the first showdown between U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D- Ga., • and former Rep. Max Burns, the Republican who preceded Barrow and hopes to follow him. In a twist for a year when Democrats are expecting an anti-GOP tide to sweep them into office, Barrow down played his party ties while Burns used them to hammer the freshman congressman. “I ran on the promise of being an independent voice in Congress for the people I represent,” Barrow said, adding it was a promise he believed he had fulfilled. But relying on a recent survey of members’ sway, Burns suggested Barrow wasn’t a very influential congressman. “He is the least effective member of the Georgia dele gation, right behind Cynthia McKinney,” Burns said. Burns also attacked Barrow, during and after the debate, for being a member of a party that wants to offer a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants. “They’re going to swamp or Social Security system, swamp our health-care sys tem,” Burns said after the debate, referring to the Democratic Party and its plans. STATE AND REGION Sat 9/2 89/66 Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the upper 80s and lows in the mid 60s. Sunrise Sunset 7:IIAM 7:59 PM Mi Lo Cong. EE Dalton 85 68 t-storm Dillard 77 62 t-storm Dublin 90 69 t-storm Duluth 82 66 t-storm Gainesville 82 69 t-storm Helen 80 65 t-storm Lagrange 86 67 t-storm Macon 87 70 t-storm Marietta 83 66 t-storm Milledgeville 87 70 t-storm Hi Lo Cond. City Houston 95 72 pt sunny Los Angeles 83 65 sunny Miami 87 79 t-storm Mkrneaaedis 80 60 sunny New Yatoti 76 63 pt sunny Municipal judge laces gun charges COLUMBUS (AP) - A municipal court judge from Columbus is headed to state court as a defendant on charges of pointing a gun at two motorists. Columbus Municipal Court Judge Haywood Turner, 62, waived a preliminary hear ing Monday on two misde meanor charges of pointing or aiming a gun or pistol at another. The charges stem from an alleged altercation Wednesday on J.R. Allen Parkway, where Turner is accused of brandishing a gun after a nearby vehicle moved erratically around him. Muscogee County State Court Solicitor General Ben Richardson said he believes the case will come to his office because the counts against Turner are misde meanors. Felony charges go the Muscogee County District Attorney’s Office. Cleland treated for trauma disorder WASHINGTON (AP) WARNER ROBINS SUPPLY OF PCRRY We Rent! 612 Ball St. Perry, GA 987-2334 Meteorologist Jerry Methewson ■elms wen o—i*i Turns tor Hews* Sun 9/3 89/67 A few clouds. Highs in the upper 80s and lows in the upper 60s. Sunrise Sunset 7:12 AM 7:57 PM Moon Phases • « New Aug 23 m • Full Sep 7 UV Index Thu 8/31 I Very High Fri 9/1 I Very High Sat 9/2 I Very High Sun 9/3 ■ Very High Mon 9/4 ■ Very High The UV Index is measured on a 0-11 number scale, with a higher UV Index showing the need for greater skin pro tection. 0 , JMMi 11 w Peachtree City 85 66 t-storm Perry 89 70 t-storm Rome 86 68 t-storm Savannah 89 72 rain St. Simons Island9o 76 rain Statesboro 90 75 rain Thomasville 92 73 t-storm Valdosta 91 72 t-storm Warner Robins 89 70 t-storm Waycross 93 71 rain | City Phoenix 101 82 t-storm San Francisco 74 57 sunny Seattle 72 53 sunny St. Louis 83 66 sunny Washington, DC 78 64 rain - Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, who has battled bouts of depression since los ing three limbs in Vietnam, is being treated for post traumatic stress disorder. Cleland, who represent ed Georgia in the Senate from 1997 to 2003, said he believes the condition - cases of which are increas ing rapidly among Vietnam war veterans - was in part triggered by the ongoing vio lence in Iraq. “I realize my symptoms are avoidance, not wanting to connect with anything dealing with the (Iraq) war, tremendous sadness over the casualties that are taken, a real identification with that. ... I’ve tried to disconnect and disassociate from the media. I don’t watch it as much. I’m not engrossed in it like I was,” Cleland said in an interview with WSB-TV in Atlanta. LONGHORN m : r BUTCHER SHOP i ■ i -s ■■ 4f :s * B ' Bam-6pm Tues. - Sat. « Closed Sun. & Mon. Fresh Pork Boston Butts 38 ■ Small Pork Ribs LB BOX | s lßl L-W Q^'*?** • il 4 rM Mon 9/4 90/68 Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the upper 60s. Sunrise Sunset 7:12 AM 7:56 PM First Aug 31 Last Sep 14 Mi Lo Conti. Hi Lo Cond. Obituaries D.K. “DOT” HOUGHTON PERRY - D. K. “Dot” Roughton, 86, died on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006 at his residence. Memorial Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Sep. 1, 2006 at Watson - Hunt Funeral Home with Horace Woodruff, Billy Powell and Dr. Billy Key officiating. Internment will be private. Please omit flowers and make donations to the charity of your choice. “Dot” was a lifelong resident of Perry. He was a WW 11 Army Veteran, a member of the Perry United Methodist Church and the Men’s Bible Class. Survivors include a sister, Eunice Covington of Stone Mountain; brothers, Rawlings Roughton of Marietta and Dick Roughton of Perry; stepchildren, April Bowen of Ellaville, Vanoe Shepherd of Warner Robins and Patti Jackson of Tallahassee, Fla.; 12 step granchildren. Please sign the online* register at watsonhunt.com NANCY EVELYN EDWARDS PERRY - Nancy Evelyn Edwards, 62, died on Monday. Graveside Services were held Tuesday at Evergreen Cemetery. Nancy was the daughter of the late Ernest Ervin and Evelyn Young Edwards. Please sign the online register at watsonhunt.com. Georgia climbs in SAT rankings By DORIE TURNER Associated Press Writer ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia crawled out of last place this year for SAT college entrance exam scores despite a three-point drop in the state’s mean score for read ing and math. Gov. Sonny Perdue and state schools Superintendent Kathy Cox touted Georgia’s rise in the rankings as a sign of progress. But just how far Georgia rose in the rankings depends on whether the new writ ing portion of the exam is included. Georgia ranks 49th among states based on the combined reading and math mean score, according to state test results released Tuesday. The state’s combined mean score in reading and math fell to 990, with the highest possible score at 1,600. Perdue and Cox, however, said that when the new writ ing portion is considered, Georgia now ranks 46th. “Compared to our nation al peers, we’ve jumped over Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Hawaii and nobody’s going to take that away from us,” Perdue said. Georgia’s combined mean score on all three portions was 1,477 out of a possible 2,400. Because the writing por tion is new, writing scores cannot be compared to last year’s. But combined read ing and math scores can. South Carolina and the District of Columbia - which were at the bottom of the list with Georgia last year - saw bigger drops than Georgia in this year’s combined read ing and math. The District of Columbia ranks last this year in combined reading and math, with a mean score of 959, while South Carolina, which ranks next to last, scored a 985. Georgia fell just a few points shy of the scores in Hawaii, which had a 991, and We Custom Cut Black Angus Rib Eye Steaks To Order WEDNESDAY, AUGUST3O, 2006 ♦ Florida and Pennsylvania, which both had a 993. North Dakota topped the list with 1,227, fol lowed closely by lowa with a 1,215. The high school class of 2006 recorded the sharpest drop in SAT scores in 31 years, in part because some students took the newly lengthened test only once instead of twice, accord ing to the test’s adminis trators, the College Board. The national score fell seven points to 1,021. The College Board discour ages the use of the test scores to compare education from state to state because the percentage of students who take them varies widely. But that hasn’t stopped politicians and some educa tion officials from using the scores prominently when talking about state schools. During the 2002 guber natorial campaign,' * Perdue blasted then-governor' Rby Barnes for low SAT scopes. Perdue aired television com mercials claiming that the scores showed Barnes’s aggressive education reforms had been a failure and ham mered at the issue during debates. When scores bumped along at roughly the same level during Gov. Perdue’s tenure, never getting bet ter than 49th in the nation, he shifted his focus - high lighting last year’s six-point score increase, for example. Last year, he said Georgia scores “bode very well for the future.” Democrats, meanwhile, have blasted the lack of marked improvement, say ing Perdue made SAT scores a litmus test for education, then failed to significantly improve them. Subscribe today Call 987-1823 Subscribe today Call 987-1823 100% Pure Fresh Regular Ground Beef 10LB. BULK ONLY isall 21, Heavy Western T-Bone Steak V LB. 3A