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2 Friday, January n, 2008 | The Red & Black UGA TODAY ► Blood Drive. Sponsored by the American Red Cross. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Main Library. Contact: 678-227-4650 ► Campus Coffee Hour. Sponsored by International Student Life. 11:30 a m. to 1:30 p.m. Memorial Hall Ballroom. Contact: 706-542-7911. >- Swimming and Diving vs. University of Texas. 2 p.m. Austin, Texas ► Meeting: Curriculum Committee of the University Council. 3 p m Peabody Board Room. Contact: 706-542-6358, tstone@uga edu. ► Observatory Telescope Public Viewing. The 24-inch telescope at the University Observatory is open tonight for public viewing. If it is cloudy, there will be a talk titled “Pluto’s New Family: The Kuiper Belt Objects." 7 to 9 p m. Physics Building Roof Contact: 706-542-2870. jss@hal.physastuga.edu. ► Gymnastics at Utah. 9 p.m. EST. Salt Lake City, Utah. ► Ice Dogs vs. Tennessee. 10 p.m. Atlanta Ice Forum, Duluth. Contact: 706-410-2535, www.ugahockey.com. ► Dawgs After Dark: All Nighter. Sponsored by University Union. Video game tournaments, massages, Build-a- Bear. custom pillow cases, giant games, fun photos, obstacle course. Breakfast food provided Students free, all others $5 10 p.m. Ramsey Center. Contact: union@uga edu. Saturday, Jan. 12 • Seminar Introduction to Immunohistochemistry for Histologists and Technicians. Sponsored by the College of Veterinary Medicine. Terminology, theory and tech nique introduction and update for histologists SIOO students. $125 non-students. 7.5 CE hours. For more information and registration visit http://www.georgiacenter uga.edu/conferences'2ooß/' Jan/12'immuno.phtml, Georgia Center Contact: 706-542-1451. ► Swimming and Diving vs. University of Texas. Time TBA. Austin, Texas. ► Family Day: Modem Landscapes. Sponsored by the Georgia Museum of Art. Learn about landscapes by touring the exhibition, redefining the modem landscape in Europe and America, ca 1920-1940 and working on a gallery activity. Then use colors from the paint ings in the galleries to create a landscape while learning how to blend colors and create different textures. 10 a m to noon. Georgia Museum of Art. Contact. collardj@uga.edu. ► Memorial Celebration of the life of Professor Andrew Ladis. The distinguished art his torian and beloved member of the University faculty, who died Dec. 2, will be remembered by the University community. Reception follows at the Georgia Museum of Art. 2 p.m The Chapel. >- Men’s Basketball at Mississippi State. Lincoln Financial TV. 2 p m. ET Starkville. MS ► Miss UGA Scholarship Pageant. Sponsored by the Student Government Association and the Department of Campus Life. University women compete for $2,500 in scholarship money and prizes. Emceed by Osjha Anderson. Miss UGA 1999, with an appearance by Ashley Foster, Miss UGA 2007. $8 students and $lO non-students, available at the Tate Student Center Cashier s Window or at the Fine Arts Building box office on the night of the pageant 7 p.m. Fine Arts Auditorium Contact: 706-542-8514. janthony@uga edu >- Ice Dogs vs. East Carolina 10 p m Atlanta Ice Forum. Duluth. Contact: 706-410-2535, wwwugahockey.com - Please send submissions for UGAToday to news@randb.com. Listings are published on a first-come, first-serve basis CORRECTIONS The Red & Black is committed to journalis tic excellence and pro viding the most accu rate news possible. Contact us if you see an error, and we will do our best to correct it. Kditor-in-Chief: Juanita Cousins (706) 433-3027 Jcousinsdv randb.com Managing Editor: Shannon Otto (706) 433-3026 sottoru randb.com Obama receives Kerry’s approval CHARLESTON, S.C. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the White House Thursday in a timely slap at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as his own vice presidential running mate. Quoting a black American hero in endors ing the man who hopes to be the first black presi dent, Kerry told a cheering crowd, "Martin Luther King said the time is always right to do what is right." Now is the time, Kerry said, to declare “that Barack Obama can be, will be and should be the next president of the United States.” Kerry delivered his endorsement in South Carolina at a time, two weeks before that state's primary, when Clinton is riding a wave of enthusi asm following her victory over Obama in the New Hampshire primary. Kerry said there were other candidates in the race whom he also had worked with and respect ed. “But I believe more than anyone else, Barack Obama can help our country turn the page and get America moving by uniting and end '„ ' -'V- <———fc fWWjftt* B ? * JACQUELYN MARTIN A.vm.iatv!> Furs'! ▲ District of Columbia medical examiner’s office personnel remove the first of four bodies from a house in southeast Washington Wednesday. Fbur girls discovered dead in woman’s home WASHINGTON A woman found in her home with the decomposing bodies of four girls faces murder charges, and authorities believe she is their mother, officials said Thursday. Banita Jacks. 33, was expected to appear Thursday in D C. Superior Court, where the charges will be formally presented, prosecutors said. “We are working on the assumption that these are her four children,” police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a news conference. The bodies of the girls ages 5,6, 11 and 17 were found Wednesday when dep uty U.S. marshals served an eviction notice at the apart ment. Medical examiner Dr. Marie Pierre-Louis said the bodies were likely there more than 15 days, “based on the insects that were found there.” Jacks, who faces four counts of murder, could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. “I don’t think anyone in the city can remember a case involving this many young people who have died in such a tragic way,” Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said. How the girls died remained under investiga tion, but Pierre-Louis said it appeared the oldest child might have been stabbed in the abdomen. The other three children might have been poisoned or asphyxiat ed, she said. The medical examiner’s office was trying to identify the girls using dental records or DNA. The home where the bod ies were found is in one of the city’s poorest, most violent neighborhoods. The block is lined by virtually identical apartment houses near Bolling Air Force Base. About one-third of the city’s homi cides last year occurred in the area, according to pre liminary police statistics. Mindy Good, a spokes woman for the D C. Child and Family Services agency, said Wednesday that the agency had received one report about a family at that address The Wire ing the division we have faced,” Kerry said. Kerry dismissed Obama critics who say the Illinois senator lacks the experi ence to be president. And he took a swipe at Clinton, saying, “Some have sug gested in this campaign that Barack is guilty of raising false hopes.’ ... My friends, the only charge that rings false is the one that tells you not to hope for a better tomorrow.” In last Saturday’s debate in New Hampshire. Clinton said in comparing her ability and Obama’s to fulfill pledges to bring about change: “I think it is clear that what we need is somebody who can deliver change. And we don’t need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered. The best way to know what change I will produce is to look at the changes that I’ve already made.” Returning to the sub ject, Obama said when he took the microphone from Kerry: “In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been any thing false about hope." Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the third contender in the Democratic presidential race, was Kerry's vice pres idential running mate in NATION in April through the city's child abuse and neglect reporting hot line. “We made several attempts to make contact with these people. We were unable to have any face-to-face contact with them.” Good said. “On the last attempt (in early May), it appeared they were no longer living at the address." Good said investigators later found anew address for the family in Maryland and alerted county authorities there of the report on the family. She would not say where the family was believed to be living. DC. Council member Marion Barry, who represents the neighborhood where the bodies were found, ques tioned why no one had reported that four people were missing. “Somebody should have known that some people were not in school," Barry said. None of the children thought to be living in the home was enrolled in the school system, said D.C. schools spokeswoman Mafara Hobson. One child at that address had attended Stuart- Hobson Elementary School but withdrew in 2006 as a fifth-grader, she said. Larry Jones, who lives next door, said a woman and two or three children lived at the home, but he had not seen them since the summer. He said the children appeared healthy at the time. Jones added that in recent months he has noticed a "strange odor" coming through his vent. “We thought it was probably dead mice in the vent or something," he said. Resident Rowand Simpkins said her neighbors tend to keep to themselves and that she never saw the woman or children. * "It’s really a mystery,” she said. Associated Press NEWS. TOP STORIES FROM AROUND THE STATE, NATION AND WORLD BSt '* ■ I . 1 1 '- K' q ffu ■ Ify| ■ CHARLES REX ARBOCAST | Aasociatbd Prim ▲ Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-lll.) waves after being introduced and endorsed by former Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in Charleston, S.C., Thursday. 2004. Despite their politi cal alliance, the two men were not close personally and differed behind the scenes on campaign strat egy in a race that President Bush won. Edwards responded to word of the endorsement with a diplomatic state Rebels hand over hostages Two flown to Corneas SAN JOSE DE GUAVIARE, Colombia Colombian rebels freed two women held hos tage for more than five years, handing them over Thursday to Venezuelan officials who flew them toward Caracas where a trium phant President Hugo Chavez awaited. Chavez said he spoke by telephone with the two women, Clara Rojas, an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez. “I said hello to Clara and Consuelo, who were thrilled.” The Red Cross, which was involved in the han dover. confirmed that rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had turned over the women. It said the mission was headed to the Venezuelan border town of Santo Domingo before flying the women to waiting relatives in Caracas. It was the most important hostage release in the Colombian conflict since 2001, when the FARC freed some 300 soldiers and police officers. Chavez said he hopes the mission opens the way for the release of more hostages. “Venezuela will con- ‘Lost’ star freed after 18 days LOS ANGELES Former “Lost” star Michelle Rodriguez has found her way out of jail. Rodriguez was released from a Los Angeles County women’s jail in Lynwood on Wednesday after serving 18 days of a 180-day sentence for vio lating probation in a drunken driving case, authorities said. She was released early under a program that deals with jail over crowding by allowing nonviolent female inmates to serve as little as 10 percent of their sentence. The same thing happened two years ago when Rodriguez served just one day of a 60-day Jail sentence for probation violation. As many as 50 women a day are released early, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. "She was treated the same way we do with all females because of the extent of overcrowding," he said. Rodriguez was sentenced in October for failing to prove she had done community service and for drinking while wearing an alcohol monitoring device. The judge who sentenced Rodriguez ordered that she serve the entire sentence. The judge was con sulted about the early release but the ment: “Our country and our party are stronger because of John’s service, and I respect his decision. When we were running against each other and on the same ticket, John and I agreed on many issues.” Kerry had withheld his endorsement, hoping to WORLD " tinue opening the way for peace in Colombia. We are ready, and in con tact with the FARC, and we hope the Colombian government under stands. I’m sure they will understand.” Chavez said. "The world wants peace for Colombia.” Rojas was kidnapped in February 2002 while campaigning with Betancourt in a FARC dominated region of southern Colombia. Gonzalez was abducted by the FARC in September 2001 near the city of Neiva. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe authorized Venezuela to lead the rescue mission despite a bitter clash with Chavez over his involvement in Colombia’s half-century old guerrilla conflict. In November, Uribe abruptly ended efforts by Chavez to broker a swap of 46 high-profile hostages including Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors for hundreds of jailed rebels. He accused Chavez of unauthorized direct contacts with Colombia's mili tary. But relatives of the hostages urged Chavez to continue, and the FARC, which deeply dis trusts Uribe, rewarded his efforts by offering to release the two women and Rojas’s 3-year-old son, Emmanuel who Sheriff’s Department had the final say when jail safety was involved, Whitmore said. “The sheriff supports, obviously, the desire to have inmates serve their full sentence,” but the county has only one women’s jail and it is “bursting at the seams,” Whitmore said. Rodriguez was on probation after plead ing no contest to drunken driving, hit and-run and driving on a suspended license in connection with two Hollywood Incidents in 2003. While still on proba tion, she spent five days in a Hawai'i jail in 2005 after pleading guilty to drunken driving there, which led to her one-day jail term in Los Angeles for probation violation. Rodriguez appeared in one season of ABC’s “Lost." Her film credits Include “The Fast and The Furious," "Blue Crush” and “Girlfight.” Associated Press have an impact on the race and avoid the fate of fellow Democrat A1 Gore, the 2000 nominee who endorsed Howard Dean in 2004 shortly before the for mer Vermont governor’s campaign imploded. Associated Press was fathered in captivity by one of her guerrilla captors. That fell through: The FARC accused Colombia’s U.S.-backed military of sabotaging the handoff with opera tions in the area, while Uribe’s government said the guerrillas backed out of the deal because they didn’t have the child hostage. Chavez immediately sided with the guerrillas, calling Uribe a “puppet” and “lapdog” of Washington. DNA tests later proved the rebels did not have Emmanuel, ! who has been in a Bogota foster home for more than two years. Still, Uribe's govern ment bent to domestic and international pres sure to open its airspace for the new Venezuelan rescue mission and sus pend military operations in a Vermont-sized slice of jungle in southeast ern Guaviare state, a FARC stronghold. Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said his troops held their fire as they saw the Venezuelan helicopters land just more than a mile from where they were sta tioned, adding that troops would wait until sundown before resum ing operations. “The minimum we can do is offer all sides the tranquility that we’re going to respect all the ground rules,” he said. Associated Press NAMES & FACES RSI RODRIQUEZ