About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 2018)
NATION The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Tuesday, November 6, 2018 5A Trial begins over 2020 census citizenship question BY LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK — Ajudge launched a trial Monday in New York City over challenges to the federal gov ernment’s decision to put a citizen ship question on the 2020 census by urging lawyers to put as much as possible on public record because of high interest in the issues. U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Fur man told lawyers to publicly file summaries of interviews lawyers conducted with key witnesses in the case. “Public access to court docu ments is particularly important in this case given the public interest in it,” Furman said just before tes timony began. The first witness — Duke Uni versity Professor D. Sunshine Hillygus — said there was consid erable evidence that adding the question will depress participation by noncitizens. Hillygus, who served six years on the scientific advisory com mittee for the census, said she has concluded plans by the U.S. govern ment to take steps to prevent dam age to the overall count by adding the question are unlikely to be adequate. The decision, she said, “violates the spirit” of guidelines set up to protect the census and “under mines not only the accuracy and completeness of the census ... but the integrity.” The trial stems from lawsuits brought by a dozen states and big cities, among others. They say the citizenship question will discour age immigrant participation and dilute political representation and funds for states that tend to vote Democratic. New York Attorney General Bar bara Underwood attended the trial Monday. Furman, who is hearing the case without a jury, has harshly criticized the federal govern ment’s efforts to delay or stop the trial. He called them remarkable because government officials insist a speedy resolution of lawsuits is necessary so census preparations can proceed. When he took the bench Mon day, he acknowledged that the U.S. Supreme Court said Friday the trial can proceed over the objections of the Justice Department. “It came down to the wire but here we are,” Furman said. The Justice Department insists Furman should decide the case based only on the administra tive record rather than evidence gathered by the plaintiffs, which includes the deposition of Com merce Department officials and others. Furman said he will allow evi dence to be submitted during the trial before he decides whether it is appropriate to consider it when he issues his opinion. In a recent opinion, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Clarence Thomas essen tially invited Justice Department lawyers to request to stop the trial. When the high court ruled Com merce Secretary Wilbur Ross did not have to submit to an immediate deposition, Gorsuch wrote a partial dissent. In it, Gorsuch — joined by Thomas — suggested that Furman delay the trial and await further Supreme Court guidance. Furman struck back in a writ ten decision giving the trial a green light: “It is the Government’s con duct in this case, not the Court’s review, that is ‘highly unusual, to say the least,”’ he said, highlighting a partial quote from Gorsuch. Gorsuch had written the trial would probe the Commerce secre tary’s “mental processes.” “This is all highly unusual, to say the least,” Gorsuch said. Three days after Furman ruled, the Justice Department returned to the Supreme Court, seeking to block the trial. Girl Scout, mom killed in Wis. crash remembered STEVE KINDERMAN I Associated Press Girl Scouts sing as hundreds of community members turn out in the rain Sunday evening, Nov. 4, for a candlelight vigil at Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls, Wis., in remembrance of three fourth grade Girl Scouts and a parent who died Saturday, after being struck by a pickup truck while their troop was picking up trash along a rural highway. Hundreds of residents gather for candlelight vigil BY IVAN MORENO Associated Press JEFF WHEELER I Associated Press Sherri Jasper, a Girl Scout board member and counselor at Halmstad Elementary School, leads the program for a candlelight vigil at the school in Chippewa Falls, Wis., Sunday evening, Nov. 4. MILWAUKEE — A mother and one of three Girl Scouts killed in a hit- and-run crash in Wisconsin shared a love of crafts and couldn’t live without each other, a family member said Monday. Sara Jo Schneider, 32, and her 10-year-old daughter Haylee Hickle were among a group of adults and chil dren picking up trash in the ditches of a rural highway when a pickup truck that veered off the road struck them Saturday morning, said police in Lake Hallie, a town about 95 miles east of Minneapolis. The truck driver later told authorities he was inhaling chemical vapors before the crash. Judy Schneider said her daughter and granddaugh ter’s deaths are “still not real for any of us.” “We all expect them to come back,” she said. Nine-year-old Jayna Kel ley and 10-year-old Autum Helgeson, both of Lake Hallie, were also killed. Another 10-year-old girl who was struck was in stable con dition at a hospital Monday. Lake Hallie police said the 21-year-old pickup driver, Colten Treu, and a passenger told investiga tors they had been huffing just before striking the Girl Scout troop. Authorities said Treu sped off after the colli sion, but surrendered hours later. He is being held in the Chippewa County Jail on $250,000 bond and faces 13 possible charges, including four counts of intoxicated use of a motor vehicle. Treu made his first court appearance Monday and has another hearing sched uled for Tuesday, when prosecutors are expected to formally charge him. Schneider said her daugh ter, granddaughter and grandson moved in with her a couple of years ago and they expected the house in the Town of Lafayette to be their “forever home.” “It was a little piece of heaven,” she said. Now, she said, “It’s going to be hollow.” She said her 6-year-old grandson, Jasper, doesn’t grasp what happened. “He doesn’t understand,” Schneider said. “He said, ‘If the doctors work real hard, sometimes God lets them come back.’” She said Haylee “loved her little brother” and “found him to be quite a pest at the same time.” The Girl Scouts out on the highway that day were all fourth-graders at Halmstad and Southview elementary schools in the Chippewa Falls School District. Chip pewa Falls, near Lake Hallie, is about 90 miles east of Minneapolis. The children and their adult chaperones wore bright green safety vests as they walked along both sides of County Highway P, which they had adopted as a com munity service project. Hundreds of community members huddled under umbrellas in the rain Sun day evening for a candle light vigil outside Halmstad Elementary. Girl Scouts sang songs in memory of the victims, who were members of Troop 3055. A makeshift memorial of teddy bears, balloons and candles was set up on two wooden benches. Schneider said her daugh ter’s “favorite time with her kids was all in their jammies, curled up to watch a movie.” She said Haylee and her mom “were both excep tional artists” and Haylee dreamed of being an anima tor. She hated bugs, loved reading “Warrior Cats” books, and could sketch “a wonderful picture in 15 minutes or less,” Schneider recalled. Haylee also enjoyed paint ing and working on clay pottery with her mother. Haylee’s father died when she was 3, Schneider said. “Haylee would’ve never made it if she lost her mother,” the grandmother said. “And Sara would’ve never been able to come back from losing Haylee.” ‘Haylee would Ve never made it if she lost her mother. And Sara would’ve never been able to come back from losing Haylee.’ Judy Schneider, grandmother, mother of victims Auto Insurance Specialist • Easy Payments • Any Driver • Any Age NEW LOCATION! 2415 OLD CORNELIA HWY., GAINESVILLE Next to Rabbittown Cafe 770-450-4500 United Nations report: Earth’s ozone layer healing Associated Press This combination of images made available by NASA shows areas of low ozone above Antarctica on September 2000, left, and September 2018. BY SETH B0RENSTEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON - Earth’s protective ozone layer is finally healing from damage caused by aerosol sprays and coolants, a new United Nations report said. The ozone layer had been thinning since the 1970s. Sci entists raised the alarm and ozone-depleting chemicals were phased out worldwide. As a result, the upper ozone layer above the Northern Hemisphere should be completely repaired in the 2030s and the gaping Antarctic ozone hole should disappear in the 2060s, according to a scien tific assessment released Monday at a conference in Quito, Ecuador. The South ern Hemisphere lags a bit and its ozone layer should be healed by mid-century. “It’s really good news,” said report co-chairman Paul Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “If ozone-depleting substances had continued to increase, we would have seen huge effects. We stopped that.” High in the atmosphere, ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet rays that cause skin cancer, crop damage and other problems. Use of man-made chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) began eating away the ozone. In 1987, countries around the world agreed in the Montreal Protocol to phase out CFCs and busi nesses came up with substi tutes for spray cans. At its worst in the late 1990s, about 10 percent of the upper ozone layer was depleted, said Newman. Since 2000, it has increased by about 1 to 3 percent per decade, the report said. This year, the ozone hole over the South Pole peaked at nearly 9.6 million square miles, about 16 percent smaller than the biggest hole recorded — 11.4 mil lion square miles in 2006. The hole reaches its peak in September and October and disappears by late December until the next Southern Hemisphere spring, Newman said. The ozone layer starts at about 6 miles above Earth and stretches for nearly 25 miles; ozone is a colorless mix of oxygen atoms. If nothing had been done to stop the thinning, the world would have destroyed two-thirds of its ozone layer by 2065, New man said. ■^ERICA’S ORIGINAL BUTCHfd TENDERNESS and SAVE 75%‘ on Omaha Steaks 30 GOURMET ITEMS! The Family Gourmet Feast 2 (5 oz.) Filet Mignons 2 (5 oz.) Top Sirloins 2 (4 oz.) 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