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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
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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.
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