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LOCAL/NATION
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia I gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 31, 2023 3A
Russia launches 122
missiles at Ukraine
The Biden Administration bypasses
Congress for emergency weapons sale
BY MATTHEW LEE
AP Diplomatic Writer
Alex Brandon Associated Press
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a meeting with
human rights leaders at the State Department, Thursday, Dec.
7, in Washington.
BYILLIA NOVIKOV
AND HANNA ARHIROVA
Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia
launched 122 missiles and doz
ens of drones against Ukrainian
targets, officials said Friday, kill
ing at least 30 civilians across the
country in what an air force offi
cial called the biggest aerial bar
rage of the war.
At least 144 people were
wounded and an unknown num
ber were buried under rubble
during the roughly 18-hour
onslaught, Ukrainian officials
said. A maternity hospital, apart
ment blocks and schools were
among the buildings reported
damaged across Ukraine.
In the capital, Kyiv, broken
glass and mangled metal littered
city streets. Air raid and emer
gency service sirens wailed as
plumes of smoke drifted into a
bright blue sky.
Kateryna Ivanivna, a 72-year-
old Kyiv resident, said she threw
herself to the ground when a mis
sile struck.
“There was an explosion, then
flames,” she said. “I covered my
head and got down in the street.
Then I ran into the subway
station.”
Meanwhile, in Poland, authori
ties said that what apparently was
a Russian missile had entered the
country's airspace Friday morn
ing from the direction of Ukraine
and then vanished off radars.
In the attack on Ukraine, the air
force intercepted most of the bal
listic and cruise missiles and the
Shahed-type drones overnight,
said Ukraine's military chief,
Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Western officials and analysts
had recently warned that Russia
limited its cruise missile strikes
for months in an apparent effort
to build up stockpiles for massive
strikes during the winter, hoping
to break the Ukrainians' spirit.
The result was “the most mas
sive aerial attack” since Russia's
full-scale invasion in February
2022, Air Force commander
Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on
his official Telegram channel.
It topped the previous biggest
assault, in November 2022 when
Russia launched 96 missiles, and
this year's biggest, with 81 mis
siles on March 9, according to air
force records.
Fighting along the front line is
largely bogged down by winter
weather after Ukraine's summer
counteroffensive failed to make
a significant breakthrough along
the roughly 620-mile line of
contact.
WASHINGTON — For the
second time this month the Biden
administration is bypassing Con
gress to approve an emergency
weapons sale to Israel as Israel
continues to prosecute its war
against Hamas in Gaza under
increasing international criticism.
The State Department said Fri
day that Secretary of State Antony
Blinken had told Congress that
he had made a second emergency
determination covering a $147.5
million sale for equipment, includ
ing fuses, charges and primers,
that is needed to make the 155 mm
shells that Israel has already pur
chased function.
“Given the urgency of Israel's
defensive needs, the secretary noti
fied Congress that he had exercised
his delegated authority to deter
mine an emergency existed neces
sitating the immediate approval of
the transfer,” the department said.
“The United States is commit
ted to the security of Israel, and it
is vital to U.S. national interests to
ensure Israel is able to defend itself
against the threats it faces,” it said.
The emergency determination
means the purchase will bypass the
congressional review requirement
for foreign military sales. Such
determinations are rare, but not
unprecedented, when administra
tions see an urgent need for weap
ons to be delivered without waiting
for lawmakers' approval.
Blinken made a similar decision
on Dec. 9, to approve the sale to
Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of
tank ammunition worth more than
$106 million.
Both moves have come as Presi
dent Joe Biden's request for a
nearly $ 106 billion aid package for
Ukraine, Israel and other national
security needs remains stalled in
Congress, caught up in a debate
over U.S. immigration policy and
border security. Some Democratic
lawmakers have spoken of mak
ing the proposed $14.3 billion in
American assistance to its Mideast
ally contingent on concrete steps
by Israeli Prime Minister Benja
min Netanyahu's government to
reduce civilian casualties in Gaza
during the war with Hamas.
The State Department sought
to counter potential criticism of
the sale on human rights grounds
by saying it was in constant touch
with Israel to emphasize the
importance of minimizing civilian
casualties, which have soared since
Israel began its response to the
Hamas attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.
“We continue to strongly
emphasize to the government of
Israel that they must not only com
ply with international humanitar
ian law, but also take every feasible
step to prevent harm to civilians,”
it said.
“Hamas hides behind civilians
and has embedded itself among
the civilian population, but that
does not lessen Israel's responsi
bility and strategic imperative to
distinguish between civilians and
Hamas terrorists as it conducts its
military operations,” the depart
ment said. “This type of campaign
can only be won by protecting
civilians.”
Bypassing Congress with emer
gency determinations for arms
sales is an unusual step that has
in the past met resistance from
lawmakers, who normally have a
period of time to weigh in on pro
posed weapons transfers and, in
some cases, block them.
In May 2019, then-Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo made an emer
gency determination for an $8.1
billion sale of weapons to Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates
and Jordan after it became clear
that the Trump administration
would have trouble overcoming
lawmakers' concerns about the
Saudi and UAE-led war in Yemen.
Pompeo came under heavy
criticism for the move, which
some believed may have vio
lated the law because many of the
weapons involved had yet to be
built and could not be delivered
urgently. But he was cleared of
any wrongdoing after an internal
investigation.
Artem Perfilov Associated Press
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a damaged building after
a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 29.
FROM 1A
Smith
School System than Sammy, I
would love to meet them,” said
Smith's friend since elementary
school, Charlie Strong.
“Any time a story comes up
about something that maybe hap
pened back in the ‘50s or ‘60s or
‘70s, you can go to Sammy and
he knows who was involved and
could tell you where they live
now,” said school board member
Kris Nordholz.
And for all of his soft-spoken
southern charm, Smith does not
easily suffer fools. “I've probably
known him 25 years — and if you
get a story wrong, he will quickly
put one finger up and correct
you immediately,” said longtime
friend John Lilly.
The third of three children,
Smith grew up in a middle-
class family on Enota Avenue
in Gainesville and had what he
described as a bucolic upbring
ing. His father owned a glass
company, and his mother was a
bookkeeper.
He attended Enota Elemen
tary from first to sixth grade and
then Gainesville Junior High on
Washington Street.
At Gainesville High School,
Smith was deeply involved in
student leadership activities,
some of which underscore the
fact that he grew up in a much
different era. As the manager of
the football team, for instance, he
fulfilled a particularly important
role for legendary coach Bobby
Gruhn.
As his friend Strong recalled
with a laugh, “There was a little
convenience store ... up on Oak
Street, and he’d say, ‘Sammy, run
up and get me a pack of cigarettes
before practice.’ He said, ‘That
was my number one job as the
manager of the football team.’”
Before graduating in 1970,
as a senior Smith served as the
Student Body president and the
first class president of the post
integration era, “which I believe
helped all of us get through a
very nervous year of full (racial)
integration,” Smith said. “It was
not disruptive, it was not bad,
but most people were nervous,
including the administration and
the teachers. ... All of a sudden,
we had to prepare for maybe 150
new (Black) students (from E.E.
Butler High School) and make
room. We had to merge the fac
ulties. ... That was a challeng
ing summer, not just for Sammy
Smith. That was a challenging
summer for this city. Lots of
uncertainty in the summer of
‘69.”
In 1969, the all-Black E.E.
Butler High School — named
after Hall County's first Black
physician — shuttered its doors
following a Supreme Court rul
ing in the Alexander v. Holmes
County Board of Education
case that ordered the immediate
desegregation of public schools
in the South. The school's closure
has been described as a traumatic
experience by alumni.
Smith spent two years at
Gainesville College (now the
University of North Georgia),
and three years at the University
of Georgia, earning his master's
degree in secondary education.
After college, he took a job as a
social studies teacher at Gaines
ville Middle School, where he
taught for about a year and a half.
He then moved to Washing
ton, D.C., and spent 16 years as
a congressional aide for the late
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Jen
kins, who represented District
9 covering Northeast Georgia.
He moved back to Gainesville,
worked for a public relations firm
and later formed his own firm in
the late 1990s called Rainmaker
& Associates.
Superintendent Jeremy Wil
liams said Smith's political
experience paid dividends on the
school board. “That definitely
helped us as a school system to
have relationships with people
in the legislature and just mak
ing sure that Gainesville City
Schools was active in the discus
sions at the community and state
level,” he said.
Smith, who represents District
5 as board treasurer, was first
elected in 2007 in the midst of a
dire financial crisis.
“I recall vividly a screaming
Times headline in the spring of
2008 that our school district was
$6 million in the red — $6 mil
lion in the red — so that set my
course to be the treasurer for 16
years and make sure that that
never happened again,” he told
The Times at his final school
board meeting earlier this month.
Amid an uproar from the com
munity, the board fired the super
intendent and hired Merrianne
Dyer as his replacement.
“The state told us that we had
the largest deficit per percentage
of our total revenue of any school
district in Georgia,” Dyer said.
“We had to make really tough
decisions. ... Other school dis
tricts were cutting certain pro
grams, they would cut back on
their art program or cut back on
something else ... but we sur
veyed our teachers and staff,
and they overwhelmingly sup
ported furloughing their own
days so that every program could
continue and everyone could
keep their job. And the board
supported that, listened to the
schools, listened to what their
employees wanted to do, because
it was an unprecedented crisis.”
Smith and outgoing board
member Willie Mitchell sat
down for a joint interview in the
Gainesville High School library,
where Smith described himself
and Mitchell as the “veteran
bookends” of the school board,
with Smith sitting on the left and
Mitchell on the right.
“As you look at our board dur
ing meetings, Willie and I are the
bookends,” Smith said. “We're
the visual bookends. Well, we're
also veteran bookends that folks
look to for advice and discern
ment and history. Both of us
really have a lot vested in the
history of our schools, so I've
enjoyed being one of the book-
ends with Willie.”
During his tenure, Smith earned
a reputation for asking tough and
unpredictable questions.
“He would always have ques
tions, but he would never divulge
those questions ahead of time,”
Williams said. “He always kept
us on our toes, and to be honest
with you I'm not going to miss
that,” he said, laughing.
But Smith was also known
for the curt manner in which
he would try to hurry meet
ings along, often motioning for
approval or adjournment while
the superintendent was in the
middle of introducing an item to
the board. It became something
of a trademark during his tenure.
“As principals who had been
at work all day long and then
attending a board meeting that
evening, the ‘motion to adjourn'
was always music to all of our
ears,” said retired Centennial Arts
Academy Principal Leslie Frier
son. “It's going to be strange to
have board meetings without him
sitting on the left-hand side. He's
a staple of Gainesville City, and
he leaves a legacy of love and
support for the system.”
Smith will be replaced by
38-year-old banker Steven Pettit,
who will take his seat in January
after running unopposed in the
November election.
FROM 1A
Assistant
Councilman Tony Cornett said he's confident the city has a
strong pool of prospects to select from in the coming weeks.
“I feel good,” he said. “I think we have a good slate of candi
dates who would serve the city very well, regardless of who we
end up with. I'm hoping we make a final decision within weeks.
I'd love to be able to make an offer before the next city voting
meeting.”
Councilwoman Denise Shockley agreed and stated, “I'm hope
ful about the process. I think we've got some good candidates.”
The duties of the assistant city manager, which could be paid
up to $88,000 a year with benefits included, would be to assist
City Manager Dennis Bergin in general day-to-day operations of
government and to “support, direct and coordinate the adminis
tration of city government in accordance with policy.”
A work session will take place at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 8, at
Lula City Hall.
Lula's next voting meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan 16, at City
Hall.
FROM 1A
Crucifix
felony obstruction for swing
ing at two other officers that
day.
In the time since his initial
arrest, Marcos-Bautista was
accused of other violence to
law enforcement, including
squeezing an officer's testicles
and trying to bite multiple
officers.
Marcos-Bautista pleaded
guilty to these charges and was
sentenced to time served.
The pleas were entered
under the First Offender Act,
meaning he may have the
cases discharged from his
record without being found
guilty if he fulfills the terms of
his sentence.
Gosselin ordered for Mar
cos-Bautista's cases to remain
on the mental health caseload.
Defense attorney Jake Shap
iro did not return a request for
comment.
FROM 1A
Concrete
would connect the concrete plant to the Heidelberg Materials
Gainesville Quarry.
“Concrete mixer trucks will utilize public roads to deliver to
job sites, which may take place
at any time of day,” documents
state.
All “vertical improvements”
are proposed near the center of
the property, and the applicant
says some 125 feet of “exist
ing, mature vegetation” will
separate the operation from
adjacent property.
Neighboring properties are
within Hall's heavy industrial
zoning district, with several
developed with industrial uses,
documents state.
Gainesville lawyer Steve Gilliam is seeking approval of the
operation, set to appear before the Hall County Planning Com
mission on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
Hall planning staff recommend approval of the plant. The
planning board would recommend approval or denial to the Hall
County Board of Commissioners, which is set to take final action
at a public hearing on Feb. 8.
Hall County Planning
Commission
What: Proposed concrete
plant off Candler Road in
southeast Hall
When: 5:15 p.m.Tuesday,
Jan. 2
Where: Hall County
Government Center,
2875 Browns Bridge
Road, Gainesville
