8A Wednesday, December 26, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com ★
POLITICS
President offers holiday greetings to US troops
JACQUELYN MARTIN I Associated Press
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump
each speak on the phone sharing updates to track Santa’s
movements from the North American Aerospace Defense
Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker, Monday, Dec. 24.
‘I know it’s a great sacrifice for
you to be away from your families,
but I want you to know that every
American family is eternally grateful
to you, and we’re holding you close
in our hearts, thoughts and prayers.’
BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Presi
dent Donald Trump on
Tuesday wished U.S. troops
stationed around the coun
try and the globe a merry
Christmas.
“I know it’s a great sacri
fice for you to be away from
your families, but I want you
to know that every American
family is eternally grateful to
you, and we’re holding you
close in our hearts, thoughts
and prayers,” Trump said.
“We love what you do and
love your work. Amazing
people.”
Trump spoke by video
conference to members of
all five branches of the U.S.
military.
The president was spend
ing a rare Christmas in
Washington because of a
stalemate with Congress
over government funding
that left several departments
and agencies shuttered since
the weekend, affecting the
livelihoods of some 800,000
federal employees.
Trump usually spends
Christmas at his Florida
estate. He scrapped plans
to travel to Palm Beach
because of the shutdown.
“I thought it would be
wrong for me to be with my
family,” he told reporters in
the Oval Office after the give
and take with members of
the Army, Navy, Air Force,
Marines and Coast Guard
from their stations in Guam,
Bahrain, Qatar and Alaska.
“My family is in Florida,
Palm Beach, and I just didn’t
want to go down and be there
when other people are hurt
ing,” Trump said.
Trump and his wife, first
lady Melania Trump, had an
active Christmas Eve.
They answered telephone
calls from children who
were wanted to know where
Santa was on his gift-giving
President Donald Trump
journey, with the president
at one point asking a 7-year-
old named Coleman, “Are
you still a believer in Santa?”
Trump listened for a moment
before adding, “Because at 7,
it’s marginal, right?”
Reporters in the room
could only hear Trump’s
end of the conversation
during the NORAD Tracks
Santa program. The pro
gram became a Christmas
Eve tradition after a child
called the forerunner to the
North American Aerospace
Defense Command in 1955
and asked to speak to Santa.
It was not affected by
the shutdown because it’s
staffed by volunteers at
Peterson Air Force Base
in Colorado using pre
approved funding.
CALIFORNIA
Governor grants Camp fire
survivors Christmas pardons
BY ADAM ASHTON
Tribune News Service
Almost 20 years ago, Heather Steels Bur
nett tried to restart her life with “nothing but
a criminal record.”
Today, she’s starting over again. She and
her husband lost their home a month ago
when the Camp fire tore through Paradise.
But that criminal record? That’s a thing of
the past.
California Gov. Jerry Brown on Christmas
Eve granted her a pardon for her 1999 drug
conviction, a mercy that made her feel as if
the state recognized how far she’s come in
earning an education and working for the
past 13 years as an addiction counselor.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time. We
lost everything,” Burnett said.
It also let her join her husband, Jason
James Burnett, in celebrating a clean record.
Brown granted him a pardon for a past
drug conviction over Thanksgiving.
Similar to her husband’s, Heather Burnett’s
pardon reads: “Since her release from cus
tody, she has lived an honest and upright life. ”
The Burnetts are grateful for the pardons.
“We don’t have any possessions left,”
Heather Burnett said. “But we have so much
more. Our recovery. Our family... Our jobs.”
She had a close call on Nov. 8 when the
Camp fire consumed much of Paradise. She
went back to her house to get her dog and
RICH PEDRONCELLII Associated Press
Jason James Burnett, his daughter Faith and
wife, Heather, pose at his mother-in-law’s
home, Nov. 26, in Chico, Calif.
knew she’d never see the home again.
“The last stretch was the most harrow
ing through the tunnel of flames and melted
windshield wipers, but I made it,” she said.
The Burnetts stayed with family in Chico
for a few weeks after the fire. They’ve since
bought a house. They’re unsure what to do
with their property in Paradise.
“It’s been a relief to have another place to
call home and lay our head,” she said.
The pardon gave her another kind of relief.
She can “let that part of my life go all the way
and not to reflect on that, and not have that
dark cloud,” she said.
Brown announced the pardon as part of
his Christmas Eve clemency actions, which
included 143 pardons and 131 commutations.
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