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2 I Wednesday, January 26, 2005 | The Red & Black
THE WIRE
In Brief
$427B national debt
projected for 2005
WASHINGTON — The
White House will project
that this year’s federal
deficit will hit $427 billion,
a senior administration
official said Tuesday, a
record partly driven by
wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The official, among
three who briefed
reporters on condition of
anonymity, said the esti
mate was a conservative
one that assumed some
higher spending than
other analysts use. Last
February, the White House
projected that the 2004
shortfall would hit $521 bil
lion, only to see it come in
at $412 billion.
The official said
the figure represented
progress because it would
be smaller than last year’s
record $412 billion shortfall
when compared to the size
of the growing U.S. econo
my. That ratio is a key
measure of the deficit’s
potency.
“Our projections will
show we remain on track
to cut the deficit in half by
2009,” one of President
Bush's budget goals, the
official told reporters.
Man robs bank with
broken beer bottle
NORCROSS, Ga. — A
man robbed a bank armed
with a broken beer bottle,
then stole a car and
caused at least five acci
dents Tuesday as he was
chased toward Atlanta
along Interstate 85,
Gwinnett County Police
said.
Bobby Tyrone Hill, 45,
was arrested without resis
tance by police from
Gwinnett and other agen
cies and was taken to the
Gwinnett County
Detention Center. Charges
were pending.
Three people were
taken to hospitals with
non-life threatening
injuries from the acci
dents.
Police said the suspect
went into the Bank of
America branch in
Norcross, demanded
money and broke a beer
bottle he held in his hand.
A teller gave him an undis
closed amount of cash,
some of which he dropped
on the floor as he went into
the parking lot and car
jacked a pickup truck from
Mary Burton, 52, of
Livingston, Texas, police
said.
Actress charged with
drunken driving
LOS ANGELES —
Emmy Award-winning
actress Stockard Channing
was jailed for nearly three
hours last month after
being arrested for alleged
drunken driving, city offi
cials said Tuesday.
Channing, 60, who won
an Emmy for her role as
first lady on NBC’s “The
West Wing,” was stopped
by a California Highway
Patrol officer on Dec. 14 for
allegedly driving on the
shoulder of Highway 101,
city attorney spokesman
Frank Mateljan said.
Two misdemeanor
counts of driving while
under the influence of
alcohol were filed against
her Monday, Mateljan
said.
Her blood-alcohol levels
were .12 and .13, said
CHP spokesman Alex
Delgadillo. The legal limit
in California is .08.
Channing’s manager,
Ernest Johns, didn’t imme
diately return a phone
call Tuesday seeking com
ment.
She was arrested, jailed
for nearly three hours and
then released without bail,
the Los Angeles County
Sheriff’s Department said.
— The Associated Press
CORRECTIONS
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American hostage begs for life in video
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HADI MIZBAN | The Associated Press
A An Iraqi man walks past the election poster of the Iraqi United Coalition reading, “When the others
failed we will save our children,” on Tuesday. Iraqis are to choose a 275-member National Assembly
and legislatures in each of the 18 provinces in Sunday’s balloting.
WORLD NOTEBOOK
BAGHDAD, Iraq — An American
kidnapped in November pleaded for
his life in a video aired Tuesday, and
at least a dozen Iraqis died in
Baghdad as political violence con
tinued to plague the country five
days before Sunday’s crucial elec
tions for a new National Assembly.
On a day the U.S. military
announced that six American sol
diers died, Iraqi police engaged in
fierce shootouts with insurgents,
including gunmen who were handing
out leaflets warning Iraqis not to
vote or risk seeing their families’
blood “wash the streets of
Baghdad.”
In the hostage video, a bearded
Roy Hallums, 56, speaking with a
rifle pointed at his head, said he had
been taken by a “resistance group”
because “I have worked with
American forces.” He appealed to
Arab leaders, including Libya’s
Moammar Gadhafi, to save his life.
Hallums was seized by gunmen
Nov. 1 along with Robert Tarongoy
of the Philippines at their compound
in Baghdad’s Mansour district. The
two worked for a Saudi company
that does catering for the Iraqi army.
The Filipino was not shown in the
video, and it was not known when
the video was made.
“I am please asking for help
because my life is in danger because
it’s been proved I worked for
American forces,” Hallums said.
In Westminster, Calif., his daugh
ter, Carrie Cooper, 29, said she last
saw him at a family reunion last
June.
“My heart’s broken to see my dad
with a gun to his head. ... He’s fear
less, and he wanted to help the peo
ple there and rebuild Iraq,” she told
KNBC-TV.
Hundreds trampled at
Hindu temple event
WAI, India — An accident that
crushed several people inside a Hindu
temple grew into a bigger tragedy
Tuesday when angry pilgrims outside
learned of the deaths and set fire to
shops along a crowded walkway,
triggering a stampede that killed more
than 200 people, police said.
An estimated 300,000 people had
gathered for a festival in and around
the hilltop Mandra Devi temple in
western India near the small town of
Wai, about 150 miles south of Bombay.
Police chief Chandrakant Kumbhar
said the incident began when the tem
ple floor became slippery from a cere
mony that involved breaking coconuts
in front of a deity. Some pilgrims
slipped and were trampled to death by
others propelled forward by the mass
of people behind them trying to get
into the temple to make offerings.
“A couple of devotees slipped and
fell on the floor. A mob from behind
walked over them,” Kumbhar said.
“When their relatives, who were still
climbing the stairs, heard the news,
they became angry and set fire to some
shops.”
The fires were set along a packed,
narrow walkway lined with tea stalls
and shops leading up a hill to the tem
ple. They set off what witnesses said
was a stampede of screaming crowds
fleeing in horror.
The death toll was at least 222 peo
ple, most of them women and children.
— The Associated Press
Democrats pledge to oppose Rice nomination
NATIONAL NOTEBOOK
WASHINGTON — A handful of determined
Senate Democrats on Tuesday assailed President
Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and said they
would oppose Condoleezza Rice’s nomination for
secretary of state as a principal architect of a
failed policy.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the senior
senator, said Bush with Rice’s help steered the
country into an unprovoked and unjustified war
based on false information that Iraq was a train
ing ground for terrorists.
“Dr. Rice is responsible for some of the most
overblown rhetoric that the administration used
to scare the American people into believing that
there was an imminent threat from Iraq,” Byrd
said.
Kicking off the Democratic assault,
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts
charged that Rice, as Bush’s national security
adviser, provided Congress with “false reasons”
for going to war. Had she not, Kennedy said in a
speech, “it might have changed the course of his
tory.”
Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) accused the Bush
administration of lying and said he was voting
against Rice’s confirmation as a way of trying
to stop mistruths. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.)
charged she concealed the Central Intelligence
Agency’s skepticism that Iraq was trying to
obtain uranium for a nuclear weapons program
from Africa.
Rice claimed there was a “consensus” within
the administration on Iraq’s activity when the
Energy Department and the State Department
had reservations. “She exaggerated and distorted
the facts,” Levin said.
Homeless person’s fire may have
knocked out New York subway line
NEW YORK — A subway line serving tens of
thousands of New Yorkers a day was knocked out
of service and another severely limited, possibly
for years, because of a fire that authorities
said may have been set by a homeless person
A New York City Transit workers watch as
an A subway train enters the Chambers
Street station Tuesday near the scene of a
fire apparently set by a homeless person
Sunday, that spread to a vital equipment
room. Hundreds of thousands of riders on
two of the city’s busiest subway lines face
significant delays and overcrowding lasting
up to five years.
trying to stay warm.
It will take “several millions of dollars and
several years” to rebuild hundreds of relays,
switches and circuits that track train signals and
locations, NYC Transit President Lawrence
Reuter said.
It was the most serious damage to the sub
way’s infrastructure since the Sept. 11, 2001 ter
rorist attacks, which destroyed tracks and sta
tions underneath the World Trade Center, Reuter
said.
The fire was set Sunday in a shopping cart in
or near the Chambers Street station in lower
Manhattan, fire officials said. It ignited cables
above the platform and spread to a room full of
switching and signal equipment, said NYC
Transit’s parent agency, the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
Authorities believe a homeless person trying to
keep warm set fire to the cart full of clothing and
wood, but no suspect had been located.
— The Associated Press
OSCAR NOMINATIONS
The 77th annual Oscar nominations were announced
Tuesday in Beverly Hills, Calif., by the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences.
Picture: “The Aviator,” “Finding Neverland,” “Million Dollar
Baby,” “Ray,” “Sideways.”
Director: Martin Scorsese, “The Aviator”; Clint Eastwood,
“Million Dollar Baby”; Taylor Hackford, “Ray”; Alexander Payne,
“Sideways”; Mike Leigh, “Vera Drake.”
Actor: Don Cheadle, “Hotel Rwanda”; Johnny Depp,
“Finding Neverland”; Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Aviator”; Clint
Eastwood, “Million Dollar Baby”; Jamie Foxx, “Ray.”
Actress: Annette Bening, “Being Julia”; Catalina Sandino
Moreno, “Maria Full of Grace”; Imelda Staunton, “Vera Drake”;
Hilary Swank, “Million Dollar Baby”; Kate Winslet, “Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
Supporting Actor: Alan Alda, “The Aviator”; Thomas Haden
Church, “Sideways”; Jamie Foxx, “Collateral”; Morgan
Freeman, “Million Dollar Baby”; Clive Owen, “Closer.”
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, “The Aviator”; Laura
Linney, “Kinsey”; Virginia Madsen, "Sideways”; Sophie
Okonedo, “Hotel Rwanda”; Natalie Portman, “Closer.”
DISNEY, FILE | The Associated Press
A This promotional photo released by
Disney shows a scene from the animated
film “The Incredibles.” The film was nomi
nated for best animated feature film during
nomination announcements for the 77th
Oscars Tuesday. The film also received a
nod for best original screenplay for Brad
Bird.
Perdue announces $100M green space initiative
STATE NOTEBOOK
ATLANTA — A year after killing
off his predecessor’s program to pre
serve public green space, Gov. Sonny
Perdue announced a $100 million ini
tiative of his own on Tuesday, calling
it a better way to encourage long
term protection of the state’s natu
ral resources.
The plan will create a trust fund
and a revolving loan fund which
local governments can use to pro
tect lands which are important for
recreational, cultural, environmental
or other reasons.
The money would enable govern
ments to buy the lands outright or
to purchase a conservation ease
ment which, while leaving the prop
erty in private hands, would effec
tively bar its development for com
mercial or other purposes.
Perdue called the proposal “an
investment in our future” and hailed
it as “more far-reaching than any
previous conservation efforts.” He
said it “encourages creative partner
ships that will allow us to stretch
our conservation dollars further.”
He announced the initiative at
a news conference in south
Fulton County on the grounds of a
pioneering, mixed-use community
which promotes comprehensive
planning and the trading of develop
ment rights to preserve greenspace
in fragile areas while encouraging-
higher-density development in oth
ers.
The state’s last such program was
former Gov Roy Barnes’ Greenspace
initiative, which Perdue allowed to
languish after defeating Barnes in
2002. A major criticism of the pro
gram from the Perdue administra
tion was that it was geared to help
urban areas most of all. Perdue’s
program would be statewide.
Legislative bill banning
abortion making rounds
ATLANTA — A sweeping bill to
make abortion illegal in Georgia was
proposed Tuesday by a Republican
state lawmaker, a far-right measure
suggested many times by the
most conservative lawmakers. But
there’s something different this time
around — GOP control of the
Legislature.
Republican leaders assured
reporters that the bill wouldn’t pass
— it appears to be patently uncon
stitutional — but Democrats crowed
that now the ruling GOP must
distance itself from its far
right, just like Democrats long
struggled to rein in their most
liberal members.
The bill, introduced Tuesday by
Republican Rep. Bobby Franklin of
Marietta, would make abortions
illegal except to save the life of the
mother. There would be no excep
tions for cases of rape or incest,
and any doctor caught performing
an abortion would be guilty of a
felony.
Several Republicans signed on to
the measure, although some of them
concede the bill is mostly a political
show.
“In all honesty, I think it’s more of
a position statement,” said Rep.
Mike Coan, a Republican co-signer
from Lawrenceville. “Just being
practical, I don’t see it happening
anytime soon.”
Even top Republicans were
quick to distance themselves from
the bill, which appears to directly
contradict U.S. Supreme Court deci
sions on a woman’s right to
abortions.
— The Associated Press