About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2018)
TODAYS TOP HEADLINES The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com ★ Saturday, December 1,2018 3A Former president Bush dies at 94 Associated Press HOUSTON - George H.W. Bush, a patrician New Englander whose presidency soared with the coalition victory over Iraq in Kuwait, but then plummeted in the throes of a weak economy that led voters to turn him out of office after a single term, has died. He was 94. The, who also presided during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the final months of the Cold War, died late Friday night, said family spokesman Jim McGrath. His wife of more than 70 years, Barbara Bush, died in April 2018. The son of a senator and father of a president, Bush was the man with the golden resume who rose through the political ranks: from congressman to U.N. ambassador, Republican Party chairman to envoy to China, CIA director to two-term vice president under the hugely popular Ronald Reagan. The 1991 Gulf War stoked his popularity. But Bush would acknowledge that he had trouble articulat ing “the vision thing,” and he was haunted by his decision to break a stern, solemn vow he made to voters: “Read my lips. No new taxes.” He lost his bid for re- election to Bill Clinton in a campaign in which busi nessman H. Ross Perot took almost 19 percent of the vote as an independent candidate. Still, he lived to see his son, George W., twice elected to the presidency — only the second father-and-son chief executives, following John Adams and John Quincy Adams. After his 1992 defeat, Bush complained that media-created “myths” gave voters a mistaken impression that he did not identify with the lives of ordinary Ameri cans. He decided he lost because he “just wasn’t a good enough communicator.” Once out of office, Bush was content to remain on the sidelines, except for an occasional speech or paid appearance and visits abroad. He backed Clinton on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which had its genesis during his own presidency. He visited the Middle East, where he was revered for his defense of Kuwait. And he returned to China, where he was welcomed as “an old friend” from his days as the U.S. ambassador there. He later teamed with Clinton to raise tens of millions of dollars for victims of a 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005. During their wide-ranging travels, the political odd couple grew close. Bush Back-to-back earthquakes shatter roads and windows in Alaska MIKE DINNEEN I Associated Press A tow truck holds a car that was pulled from on an off-ramp that collapsed during a morning earthquake on Friday, Nov. 30, in Anchorage, Alaska. DAN JOLING I Associated Press Items from two shelves that came unbolted from a wall are strewn across the floor of the stockroom of Anchorage True Value Hardware following an earthquake Friday morning, Nov. 30, in Anchorage, Alaska. BY RACHEL D’ORO AND DAN JOLING Associated Press ANCHORAGE - Back-to- back earthquakes measuring 7.0 and 5.7 shattered highways and rocked buildings Friday morning in Anchorage, send ing people running into the streets and briefly triggering a warning to residents in Kodiak to flee to higher ground for fear of a tsunami. The warning was lifted with out incident a short time later. There were no immediate reports of any deaths or seri ous injuries. The U.S. Geological Survey said the first and more power ful quake was centered about 7 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, with a population of about 300,000. People ran from their offices or took cover under desks. “It had my heart racing and I felt a bit of motion sickness afterwards. I was scared!” April Pearce wrote on Insta- gram after being shaken at her desk in the town of Soldotna. A large section of an off ramp near the Anchorage airport collapsed, marooning a car on a narrow island of pavement surrounded by deep chasms in the concrete. Sev eral cars crashed at a major intersection in Wasilla, north of Anchorage, during the shaking. Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll said he had been told that parts of the Glenn Highway, a scenic route that runs northeast out of the city past farms, mountains and glaciers, had “completely disappeared.” The quake broke store windows, opened cracks in a two-story building downtown, disrupted electrical service and disabled traffic lights, snarling traffic. It also threw a full-grown man out of his bathtub. All flights in and out of the airport were suspended for hours after the quake knocked out telephones and forced the evacuation of the con trol tower. And the 800-mile Alaska oil pipeline was shut down while crews were sent to inspect it for damage. Anchorage’s school system canceled classes and asked parents to pick up their chil dren while it examined build ings for gas leaks or other damage. Fifteen-year-old Sadie Blake and other members of the Homer High School wrestling team were at an Anchorage school gymnasium waiting for a tournament to start when the bleachers started rocking “like crazy” and the lights went out. People started running down the bleachers in the dark, try ing to get out. “It was a gym full of screams,” said team chaper one Ginny Grimes. When it over, Sadie said, there was only one thing she could do: “I started crying.” Jonathan Lettow was wait ing with his 5-year-old daugh ter and other children for the school bus near their home in Wasilla when the quake struck. The children got on the ground while Lettow tried to keep them calm. “It’s one of those things where in your head, you think, ‘OK, it’s going to stop,’ and you say that to yourself so many times in your head that finally you think, ‘OK, maybe this isn’t going to stop,”’ he said. Soon after the shaking stopped, the school bus pulled up and the children boarded, but the driver stopped at a bridge and refused to go across because of deep cracks in the road, Lettow said. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tweeted that her home was damaged: “Our family is intact — house is not. I imagine that’s the case for many, many others.” Officials opened an Anchor age convention center as an emergency shelter. Gov. Bill Walker issued a disaster declaration. Cereal boxes and packages of batteries littered the floor of a grocery store, and pic ture frames and mirrors were knocked from living room walls. People went back inside after the first earthquake struck, but the 5.7 aftershock about five minutes later sent them running back into the streets. A series of smaller aftershocks followed. A tsunami warning was issued along Alaska’s southern coast. Police in Kodiak, a city of 6,100 people on Kodiak Island, 250 miles south of Anchorage, warned residents to evacuate to higher ground immediately because a wave could hit within about 10 minutes. Michael Burgy, a senior technician with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, said the warn ing was automatically gener ated based on the quake’s size and proximity to shore. Scien tists monitored gauges to see if the quake generated big waves. Because there were none, they canceled the warning within about an hour and a half. G20 SUMMIT Tariff tensions shadow US, Canada, Mexico trade pact signing BY ZEKE MILLER AND CATHERINE LUCEY Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — President Donald Trump signed a revised North American trade pact with the leaders of Canada and Mex ico on Friday, declaring the deal a major victory for workers. But tensions over tariffs, looming GM layoffs and questions about the pact’s pros pects in Congress clouded the moment. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is meant to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has long deni grated as a “disaster.” The leaders signed the new deal on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires after two years of fre quently blistering negotiations. Each country’s legislature still must approve. “This has been a battle, and battles some times make great friendships, so it’s really terrific,” Trump said, before lining up next to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to sign three copies of the deal — Trump using a black marker for his signature scrawl. The signing came at the beginning of a packed two days of diplomacy for the Ameri can president that will conclude with high- stakes talks Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping on ways to ease an escalating trade war between the two countries. “There’s some good signs,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens.” For the new North American trade deal, leg islative approval is the next step. That could prove a difficult task in the United States, espe cially now that Democrats — instead of Trump’s Republicans — will control the House come January. Democrats and their allies in the labor movement are already demanding changes. Within hours of the signing, Senate Demo cratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the deal must have stronger labor and environmental protections in order to get majority support in Congress and “must prove to be a net benefit to middle-class families and working people.” Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — who is seeking to become House speaker — quipped, “The trade agreement for merly known as Prince — no, I mean, formerly known as NAFTA, is a work in progress.” Still, Trump projected confidence, saying: “It’s been so well reviewed I don’t expect to have very much of a problem.” MARTIN MEJIA I Associated Press President Donald Trump, center, shakes hands with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto watches Friday, Nov. 30, after they signed a new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that is replacing the NAFTA trade deal, during a ceremony before the start of the G20 summit. Join us for fun holiday festivities! December 2, 2018 345 (jreen Street 4:i5-7:i5J>m
