TODAYS TOP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Wednesday, December 12, 2018 3A
Trump threatens government shutdown
EVAN VUCCII Associated Press
Vice President Mike Pence, center, listens as President
Donald Trump argues with House Minority Leader Rep.
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during a meeting in the Oval Office of
the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 11, in Washington.
BY MATTHEW DALY
AND CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bick
ering in public with Demo
cratic leaders, President
Donald Trump threatened
repeatedly on Tuesday to
shut down the government
if Congress doesn’t provide
the money he says is needed
to build a wall at the Mexi
can border.
Trump’s comments came
as he opened a contentious
meeting with Democratic
Senate and House leaders
Chuck Schumer and Nancy
Pelosi, with a partial shut
down looming on Dec. 21
when funding for some
agencies will expire. The
president and Pelosi tangled
over whether the House or
the Senate was holding up
his proposal. Trump and
Schumer jabbed at each
other over the import of the
midterm elections — and
who will be blamed if a shut
down occurs.
“If we don’t get what we
want, one way or the other,
whether it’s through you,
through military, through
anything you want to call, I
will shut down the govern
ment,” Trump ultimately
declared. “I will take the
mantle. I will be the one to
shut it down.”
The televised discussion
was Trump’s first encounter
with the newly empowered
Democrats since their mid
term victories in the House.
It offered a remarkable pub
lic preview of how divided
government might work —
or break down — over the
next two years as the 2020
presidential election nears.
Pelosi later called the
confrontation with Trump
“wild” and boasted that she
and Schumer goaded the
president to “fully own that
the shutdown was his.”
“It’s like a manhood thing
for him,” Pelosi told Demo
cratic lawmakers back at
the Capitol. “As if manhood
could ever be associated
with him. This wall thing.”
Pelosi’s comments were
described by an aide who
was in the room but was not
authorized to speak publicly.
Schumer, meanwhile, told
reporters that “this Trump
shutdown, this temper tan
trum that he seems to throw,
will not get him his wall and
will hurt a lot of people.”
Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell said he
hasn’t given up hope that a
shutdown can be averted.
The Kentucky Republican
said “magic” sometimes
happens in Congress ahead
of Christmas, when law
makers are eager to leave
Washington.
“I’d like to see a smooth
ending here,” McConnell
said at the Capitol.
Republican House
Speaker Paul Ryan
acknowledged Tuesday that
the GOP-led House has yet to
pass legislation that includes
the $5 billion in border wall
funds that Trump has been
requesting. Ryan likely
lacks sufficient votes from
Republicans who will lose
their majority at the end of
the month.
Trump is seeking far
more for his long-stalled
border wall than the $1.6 bil
lion the Senate has agreed to
for border security, includ
ing physical barriers and
technology along the U.S.
southern border.
The Oval Office meeting
between Trump, Vice Presi
dent Mike Pence and the
Democrats began civilly,
with Trump noting progress
for bipartisan criminal jus
tice legislation in the Sen
ate. But the session quickly
unraveled as he mentioned
his promised wall along the
U.S.-Mexico border.
Said Trump with a smile:
“And then we have the easy
one, the wall. That will be
the easiest of all, what do
you think Chuck?” Schumer
shot back sternly: “It’s called
funding the government.”
When Pelosi said Trump
did not have sufficient
support for the wall in the
House, Trump interjected:
“Nancy, I do.”
Pelosi later said: “This
has spiraled downwards.”
After Pelosi and Schumer
noted Democratic success
in the midterm elections,
the president asked whether
Republicans had won the
Senate in the November
election.
“When the president
brags he has won North
Dakota and Indiana, he’s
in real trouble,” retorted
Schumer with a smile.
Pence, a former House
member, sat silently as
Trump and the two Demo
crats bickered.
Pence later called the
meeting a “good discus
sion.” Asked to describe the
atmosphere in the private
meeting that followed the
public quarrel, Pence said,
“candid.”
Life in prison for man who rammed crowd with car
BY DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A
jury Tuesday called for a sentence
of life in prison plus 419 years for
the Hitler admirer who killed a
woman when he rammed his car
into counterprotesters at a white
nationalist rally in Charlottesville
two summers ago.
The decision capped a trial laced
with survivors’ anguished testimony
and details of the driver’s long his
tory of mental illness.
James Alex Fields Jr., 21, stood
stoically with his hands folded in
front of him as he heard the jury’s
recommendation.
It will be up to Judge Richard
Moore to decide on the punishment
at Fields’ sentencing, set for March
29. Judges in Virginia often go along
with the jury’s recommendation.
Under state law, they can
impose a shorter sentence
but not a longer one.
The jury called for a life
sentence for first-degree
murder in the killing of
Heather Heyer, a 32-year-
old paralegal and activist,
and also asked for hun
dreds more years on nine
counts involving injuries
Fields caused to others and for leav
ing the scene of the crash.
Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, said
she was satisfied with the decision.
“The bottom line is justice has
him where he needs to be,” Bro
said. “My daughter is still not here
and the other survivors still have
their wounds to deal with, so we’ve
all been damaged permanently,
but we do survive. We do move
forward. We don’t stay in that dark
place.”
The jury deliberated for
about four hours over two
days before agreeing on a
punishment.
Fields drove to Virginia
from his home in Maumee,
Ohio, to support the white
nationalists at the “Unite
the Right” rally on Aug. 12,
2017.
After police forced
the crowds to disband because
of violent clashes between white
nationalists and anti-racism dem
onstrators, Fields spotted a large
group of protesters marching and
singing. He stopped his car, backed
up, then sped forward into the
crowd, according to testimony from
witnesses and video surveillance
shown to jurors.
Fields’ lawyer Denise Lunsford
called him a “mentally compro
mised individual” and urged the
jury to consider his long history of
mental problems.
University of Virginia professor
and psychologist Daniel Murrie
told the jury that while Fields was
not legally insane at the time of the
attack, he had inexplicable out
bursts as a child and was diagnosed
with bipolar disorder at 6. He was
later found to have schizoid person
ality disorder.
Murrie said Fields went off his
psychiatric medication at 18 and
built an isolated “lifestyle centered
around being alone.”
A video of Fields shown to the
jury during the first phase of the
trial showed him sobbing and
hyperventilating after he was told
a woman had died and others were
seriously injured.
The Unite the Right rally had
been organized in part to protest the
planned removal of a statue of Con
federate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Hun
dreds of Ku Klux Klan members,
neo-Nazis and other white nation
alists — emboldened by the elec
tion of President Donald Trump
— streamed into the college town
for one of the largest gatherings of
white supremacists in a decade.
Some dressed in battle gear.
Afterward, Trump inflamed ten
sions even further when he said
“both sides” were to blame for the
violence.
According to one of his former
teachers, Fields was known in high
school for being fascinated with
Nazism and idolizing Adolf Hitler.
Jurors were shown a text mes
sage he sent to his mother days
before the rally that included an
image of the Nazi dictator. When
his mother pleaded with him to be
careful, he replied: “we’re not the
one who need to be careful.”
Fields
France market shooting: 2 dead, 11 wounded in Strasbourg
BY SYLVIE CORBET,
LORI HINNANT
AND ELAINE GANLEY
Associated Press
PARIS — A shooting in
the French city of Stras
bourg killed two people and
wounded 11 others, officials
said, sparking a broad lock-
down and major security
operation around a world-
famous Christmas market
Tuesday. Authorities said
the shooter remains at
large.
French prosecutors said a
terrorism investigation was
opened into the shooting,
though authorities haven’t
announced a motive. It’s
unclear if the market —
which was the nucleus of an
al-Qaida plot in 2000 — was
targeted. The city is also
home to the European Par
liament, which was locked
down after the shooting.
The gunman has been
identified and has a crimi
nal record, according to
Interior Minister Chris-
tophe Castaner. The prefect
of the Strasbourg region
says the gunman had been
flagged as a suspected
extremist.
The attack came as
France has been wracked
by four weeks of protests
against President Emman
uel Macron, and police
forces have been stretched
by fighting rioting and other
protest-related unrest.
Macron himself adjourned
a meeting at the presiden
tial palace on Tuesday
night to be able to monitor
the events, his office said,
indicating the gravity of the
attack.
The interior minister and
the Paris prosecutor, who
is in charge of anti-terror
probes in France, headed
Tuesday night to Stras
bourg. The prosecutor’s
office says the investigation
is for murder and attempted
murder in relation with a
terrorist enterprise.
Several of the wounded
are in critical condition,
Castaner said.
In multiple neighbor
hoods of Strasbourg, the
French Interior Ministry
called on the public to
remain indoors. French sol
diers were on patrol after
the shooting.
“Our security and rescue
services are mobilized,”
Castaner said.
Local authorities tweeted
for the public to “avoid the
area of the police station,”
which is close to the city’s
Christmas market. Stras
bourg’s well-known market
is set up around the city’s
cathedral during the Christ
mas period and becomes a
major gathering place.
Images from the scene
show police officers, police
vehicles and barricades
surrounding the sparkling
lights of the market.
European Parliament
spokesman Jaume Duch
said that “the European
Parliament has been closed
and no one can leave until
further notice.” It wasn’t
immediately clear how
many people were inside.
European Commission
President Jean-Claude
Juncker said that “my
thoughts are with the vic
tims of the shooting.... Stras
bourg is like no other a city
which is a symbol of peace
and European democracy.”
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France has been hit by
several extremist attacks,
including the 2015 Paris
shootings, which killed 130
people and wounded hun
dreds, and a truck attack in
Nice that killed dozens in
2016.
Some Strasbourg resi
dents have reported on
social media that they
heard gunfire in some parts
of the city center.
Prime Minister Edouard
Philippe tweeted that “the
situation is still underway,
priority is given to security
forces and rescuers.”
Strasbourg, about 310
miles east of Paris, is on the
border with Germany.
The drama recalled a
millennial terror plot on
Strasbourg’s Christmas
market that still marks the
collective memory.
Ten suspected Islamic
militants were convicted
and sentenced to prison in
December 2004 for their
role in a plot to blow up the
market on New Year’s Eve
2000.
The Algerian and French-
Algerian suspects — includ
ing an alleged associate of
al-Qaida leader Osama bin
Laden — went on trial in
October on charges they
were involved in the foiled
plot for the attack.
They were sentenced to
prison terms ranging from
one to nine years.
Town ofBraselton
2018 Schedule of Receipts and Expenditures of Special Purpose
Local Option Sales Tax
Original
Current
Expenditures
Project
Estimated
Cost
Estimated
Cost
Prior to
FY 2018
FY 2018
Total
Jackson County (2009)
Roads, streets and bridges
Parks & Recreation
563,345
563,345
658,724
658,724
574,243
627,691
84,481
658,724
627,691
1,126,690
1,317,448
1,201,934
84,481
1,286,415
Jackson County (2017)
Multipurpose Civic Center
1,365,300
1,365,300
81
81
with Parking Deck
Gwinnett County (2009)
Roads, streets and bridges
230,899
1,318,457
793,893
375,129
1,169,022
Gwinnett County (2014)
Water & Sewer
Transportation
1,168,163
389,388
1,168,163
389,388
59,274
66
10,000
59,274
10,066
1,557,551
1,557,551
59,340
10,000
69,340
Gwinnett County (2017)
Roads, streets and bridges
3,500,000
3,500,000
81
81
Hall County (2009)
Streetscapes
32,000
32,000
16,994
15,006
32,000
Hall County (2015)
Streets, Sidewalks, Stormwater
1,270,589
1,270,589
607,280
607,280
Barrow County (2006)
Roads, streets and bridges
263,766
248,529
24,431
221,009
245,440
Barrow County (2012)
Roads, streets and bridges
Parks & Recreation
233,688
233,688
233,688
233,688
68
68
59,387
59,455
68
467,376
467,376
136
59,387
59,523
$ 9,814,171
$ 11,077,250 $
2,096,728
$ 1,372,454
$ 3,469,182
