The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current, November 21, 2018, Image 9

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The times., November 21, 2018, Image 9

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Newspaper Page TextLOCA^SOUTHEAST The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Wednesday, November 21,2018 9A Steyer makes move toward 2020 race with SC trip ‘These rights are fundamental to our shared belief in the promise of America, a promise of the freedom and power to pursue our dreams and earn a fair share of this country’s vast wealth.’ BY MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. - California billionaire Tom Steyer made another move Tuesday toward launching a potential 2020 presi dential bid with an announcement that he’s planning to return to early-vot ing South Carolina next month for an event in Charleston. In a news release, the wealthy inves tor said that he plans to talk about the importance of equal vot ing. That’s one of what he calls the five fundamental rights for which Democrats should advocate ahead of the next presidential elec tion and that “should be at the core” of the party’s platform. On Tuesday, Steyer said he would place a full- page ad in USA Today and Gan nett newspapers across the country to outline his pro posed five rights, which also include clean air and water, health, the right to learn and a living wage. “These rights are fun damental to our shared belief in the promise of America, a promise of the freedom and power to pur sue our dreams and earn a fair share of this country’s vast wealth,” Steyer said. “A hostile takeover of our democracy by large corpo rations and their enablers in politics has eroded that promise, and we must act to reclaim that power and put it back in the hands of the American people.” Steyer has already made several trips to South Caro lina, home to the first-in-the- South primary, and has said he’s considering jumping into the 2020 race, adding Tom Steyer California billionaire Democrats need someone who can explain to voters “not just how stupid and misguided what’s going on right now is,” but who can also find a way to put the nation on better footing. The Charleston event is the first of a planned series of discussions on the five issues Steyer has set forth. Steyer is the founder of NextGen America, a liberal advocacy group, and the main source of cash for a super PAC called the Next- Gen Climate Action Com mittee, which spent more than $90 million in the 2016 election cycle. In 2018, Steyer spent roughly $120 million more on mobilizing young voters to help Democrats, regis tering more than 257,000 young voters on over 400 campuses across the coun try in 11 states. He has also advocated for President Donald Trump’s impeach ment, producing a nation wide advertising campaign to that effect. Steyer Ex-utility executives emotional over South Carolina nuclear project failure CHUCK BURTON I Associated Press A cap for a containment building for the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station is shown near Jenkinsville, S.C., Sept. 16, 2016, during a media tour of the facility. South Carolina’s utilities are abandoning two partly-built nuclear reactors. AROUND THE SOUTHEAST ATLANTA Authorities: Boy tries to board plane without pass Authorities say an 11-year- old boy got through airport security without a boarding pass and tried to make it on a plane. The Transportation Secu rity Administration tells news outlets in a statement the boy tried to board a plane Friday at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport before authorities found him. The TSA says it wasn’t a secu rity breach because officers screened him. TSA representative Sari Koshetz says the child didn’t have to show identification at the security checkpoint because he’s a minor. She says the boy was checked but ran away when asked where his parents were. Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos says a Delta Air Lines employee called about an unaccompanied child trying to board one of their planes without a ticket. Police: 14-year-old fatally shot through apartment floor Police say a 14-year-old girl has been fatally shot at an apartment complex. News outlets quote Atlanta police Officer Stephanie Brown as saying that officers responded to the apartment Monday night and found the teen dead from a gunshot wound to the head. She says investigators believe the shot came from an upstairs apartment, went through the floor and struck the girl. She says the girl was visiting a friend. Police say it’s too early in the investigation to deter mine if the shooting was accidental. WSB-TV reports authorities later responded to another fatal shooting at the complex in which a 21-year- old woman was found shot in the head. SMYRNA Veteran gets life for slaying girlfriend An Army veteran has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of his girlfriend. WXIA-TV reports 25-year- old Brian Marsh Semrinec pleaded guilty Monday to killing 28-year-old Shuyi Li, a Chinese national and Geor gia Tech graduate. A Cobb County District Attorney’s Office statement says police were called to Li’s home in Smyrna last September when she didn’t show up for work. It says her body was found wrapped in a blanket and buried under a mound of items. She died of multiple sharp and blunt-force wounds to her head and neck. Li’s car and credit cards were miss ing, and police tracked them to Semrinec. The statement says he had fled to Dallas, Texas, and confessed to a vet eran’s hospital guard. NEWNAN Woman’s car stolen with child, dog inside A woman says her car was stolen at a gas station while her child and dog were inside. Sydni Anglin tells news outlets her 3-year-old daugh ter and pet weren’t hurt and they’ve all been reunited. Anglin says she left them in her car Sunday night while she went inside the Coweta County gas station to pay. Investigator Anthony Grant says video shows it took a man roughly 30 seconds to drive away in Anglin’s car. He says her daughter and dog were found at a gas station and investigators believe the man had dropped them off. Associated Press BY JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA - After weeks of dry presentations, two former top officials at a South Carolina utility who cost ratepayers billions in a failed nuclear project emotionally told regulators their warning signs to their bosses were ignored and they were asked to lie. “Their ego, greed and lack of integrity have cost ratepayers, stockholders and employees billions of dollars,” top accountant Carlette Walker said of executives with her former employer South Carolina Electric & Gas. Walker testified Tuesday before the South Carolina Public Service Commis sion. The board is hold ing hearings into where SCE&G rates should be set after the utility charging customers for a decade for two nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer plant that were never finished. Con sumer advocates want the money spent on the project returned to ratepayers. Walker, who had to pause a few times while reading from a summary of her deposition, said five executives started trying to run her out long before she finally resigned in June 2016 with a negotiated settlement from SCE&G’s parent company SCANA. She said they were upset she refused to lie about possible financial trouble for the project to keep the stock price up and protect bonuses. Former SCE&G engi neer Kenneth Brown said he started telling his bosses at the private utility the project was in trouble in 2012, about four years after it started. SCE&G pulled ‘Their ego, greed and lack of integrity have cost ratepayers, stockholders and employees billions of dollars.’ Carlette Walker Top accountant the plug on the reactors in the summer of 2017 after state-owned utility Santee Cooper, which had a 45 per cent share, abandoned the project. “Countless admonitions to the consortium from me and others at SCE&G, with higher positions up to and including top level man agement, only resulted in a corresponding number of empty promises to improve performance and to ‘do bet ter next time,”’ Brown said. Brown also read his tes timony and had to pause several seconds at the end as he recalled hearing Westinghouse, the contrac tor building the reactor, had declared bankruptcy in March 2017 and he realized the project was doomed. “I could not escape the guilt knowing I had partici pated in what was sure to become the largest finan cial catastrophe ever to occur in the state,” Brown said. “I had comfort know ing that I had done my best but it was not sufficient to overcome this guilt. ” Both Walker and Browne have lawyers as criminal investigations into the fail ure also continue. Walker and Browne have said in depositions that SCANA and SCE&G execu tives misled regulators in 2015 by not giving them the higher internal cost estimates for the reactors, instead using a lower esti mate provided by Westing- house that they knew was impossibly low. SCE&G is blaming regu lators for not paying close enough attention and warn ing the Public Service Commission if they lower rates too much the utility will have to declare bank ruptcy. Environmental and consumer groups and many lawmakers want all or most of the $2B paid to the utility for the plants to be returned. In cross-examination, SCE&G lawyers pointed out Walker blamed the Office of Regulatory Staff, which acts as a consumer advocate, for accepting testimony about the reactors over grave con cerns it was wrong. SCE&G lawyers pointed out Browne’s resignation mentioned nothing nega tive about the company and thanked the company for the opportunity. Browne and Walker are testifying on behalf of Office of Regulatory Staff, which wants rates cut permanently because the utility lied to them about the project. OBITUARIES Jimmy Lee Jones Dec. 5, 1937-Nov. 19, 2018 Jimmy Lee Jones, 80, of New Holland passed away at his residence Monday, Nov. 19,2018. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018, at 2:30 p.m. in the chapel of Memorial Park Funeral Home with the Rev. Dwayne Wellborn and the Rev. Joel Trigg offi- ciating. Interment will be in Memo- rial Park Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018, from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. Born on Dec. 5, 1937, in Gainesville, he was the son of the late Robert and Edith Tarpley Jones. Mr. Jones was retired from Chicopee Mill and of the Baptist faith. In addition to his parents, Mr. Jones is preceded in death by his brother, Billy Jones, and his sister, Betty Robertson. Mr. Jones was a great dad, granddad and great-granddad. Mr. Jones is survived by his wife of 63 years, Patsy Ruth Jones; children, Scott Jones, David and Ellen Ziemer, David and Marie Jones, Mike and Sandra Ellis; sister, Brenda Winkler; eight grandchildren; numer ous great-grandchildren; other relatives; and special care taker Carol. Memorial Park Funeral Home, Gainesville Sign the online guest book at gainesvilletimes.com. The Times, Gainesville, Ga. Nov. 21,2018 DEATH NOTICES Roger Junior Barner July 2, 1945-Nov. 19, 2018 Roger “Roy” Junior Barner, 73, of Pendergrass died Monday. Funeral ser vice, 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23, funeral home chapel. Ivie Funeral Home, Commerce. Margaret Beckley Died Nov. 17, 2018 Margaret “Fitz” Beckley, 83, of Cumming died Satur day. Memorial service, 4:30 p.m. Nov. 25, funeral home chapel. McDonald and Son Funeral Home, Cumming. Peggy Butler Died Nov. 15, 2018 Peggy Butler, 86, of Cumming died Thursday. McDonald and Son Funeral Home, Cumming. Adam Dunagan Died Nov. 15, 2018 Adam Dunagan, 38, of Gainesville died Thursday. Memorial service, 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23, Ward’s Funeral Home, Gainesville. Regina Ann Howard Died Nov. 20, 2018 Regina Ann Howard, 82, of Cleveland died Tuesday. Barrett Funeral Home, Cleveland. Maudell Huey Died Nov. 20, 2018 Maudell “Dell” Huey, 89, of Gainesville died Tuesday. Little & Davenport Funeral Home and Crematory, Gainesville. Elizabeth Brooks Langston Sept. 27, 1938 -Nov. 7,2018 Frank Thomas Langston July 23, 1934 -Nov. 17, 2018 Elizabeth Brooks Langs ton, 80, of Buford died Nov. 7. Frank Thomas Langston, 84, of Buford died Saturday. Joint memorial service, 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 26, Buford First United Method ist Church. Flanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Buford. John Gordon Leggett Sept. 26, 1952 -Nov. 20, 2018 John Gordon Leggett, 66, of Cleveland died Tuesday. Barrett Funeral Home, Cleveland. George McDonald Died Nov. 18,2018 George McDonald died Sunday. Service, 1 p.m. Fri day, Nov. 23, Good Shepherd Catholic Church. Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory, Cumming. Thomas Hanie Paris Jr. Died Nov. 19, 2018 Thomas Hanie Paris Jr., 79, of Gainesville died Mon day. Little & Davenport Funeral Home and Crema tory, Gainesville. Skye Arielle Patterson Died Nov. 18,2018 Skye Arielle Patterson, 24, of Demorest died Sun day. Funeral service, 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 21, funeral home chapel. Little & Dav enport Funeral Home and Crematory, Gainesville. Jason V. Waters Died Nov. 18,2018 Jason V. Waters, 42, of Dahlonega died Sunday. Funeral service, 5 p.m. Fri day, Nov. 23, funeral home chapel. Bearden Funeral Home, Dawsonville. Debbie Sue Weaver Died Nov. 18,2018 Debbie Sue Weaver, 58, of Lula died Sunday. Funeral service, 4 p.m. Wednes day, Nov. 21, funeral home chapel. Little & Davenport Funeral Home and Crema tory, Gainesville. Obituary information Death notices are printed free as a public service by The Times. More information can be provided in paid obituaries. The rate is $50 per 100 words (or any part thereof). There is an additional mandatory $40 fee for online services, which includes a guest book that allows family and friends to post condolences. Deadline for publication is 6:30 p.m. seven days a week. Death notices and obituaries are accepted only from funeral homes. They should be emailed to obits@gainesvilletimes. com. All submissions will appear in The Times and online at gainesvilletimes. com. For additional information, please call 770-718-3435 or 800-395- 5005, ext. 3435, between 3-6 p.m. weekdays. INTRODUCING Little & Davenport Funeral Home To inquire about pricing packages available to memorialize a pet in print, please contact Megan Lewis at 770-535-6371 or mlewis@gainesvilletimes.com Pets at Peace will appear in The Times the last Sunday of each month.