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South Georgia’s Greatest Newspaper W AYCROSS JOURNAL-HERALD Waycross, Georgia Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 wjhnews.com WKUB 105.1 F.M. The Kub The Kub What’s Inside What’s Inside Vol. 91, No. 183 Vol. 91, No. 183 Billy Graham Billy Graham ____________ ____________4 Classified Ads Classified Ads ________ ________ 12 12 Comics Comics ________________ ________________ 14 14 Dear Abby Dear Abby ______________ ______________4 Editorials Editorials ______________ ______________5 Extended Forecast Extended Forecast ______ ______2 Family News Family News __________ __________ 11 11 Obituaries Obituaries ______________ ______________3 Sports Sports ________________ ________________ 6-8 6-8 Partly Cloudy Heat Index to 107 Hi 96/75 Lo —page 2— Count The Bones There are 206 bones in the human body. How many bones are there in an alliga- tor? You can look it up online — or you can go to the Oke- fenokee Swamp Park and count the bones in the skele- ton of long-time main attrac- tion Oscar (in today’s top of page 1 photo). Ruling Appeal Could Delay California Gay Weddings SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge struck down California’s same-sex mar- riage ban as an unconstitutional violation of gay couples’ civil rights, but a pending appeal of the landmark ruling could pre- vent gay weddings from resuming in the state any time soon. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker overturned the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8 Wednesday, de- claring that limiting marriage to a man and a woman serves no legitimate purpose and is an “artifact” rooted in “unfounded stereotypes and prejudices.” “Rather than being different, same-sex and opposite-sex unions are, for all pur- poses relevant to California law, exactly the same,” Walker wrote in an unequivo- cal and strongly worded 136-page ruling. “The evidence shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for a belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite-sex couples.” While the ruling affects only California, the appeal will go to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over nine Western states. The outcome there eventually could force the U.S. Supreme Court to confront the question of whether gays have a constitutional right to wed. “This ruling, if allowed to stand, threat- ens not only Prop 8 in California but the laws in 45 other states that define marriage as one man and one woman,” said Brian Brown, president of the National Organi- zation for Marriage, which helped fund the 2008 campaign that led to the ban’s passage. Currently, same-sex couples can legally wed only in Massachusetts, Iowa, Con- necticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. Protect Marriage, the coalition of reli- gious and conservative groups that spon- sored Proposition 8 — and wound up de- fending it in court after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to — said it would immediately appeal the decision. Walker, meanwhile, said he would con- sider waiting for the 9th Circuit to render its decision before he makes his opinion final and requires the state to stop enforc- ing the ban. The judge ordered both sides to submit written arguments by Friday on the issue. Hundreds of same-sex marriage sup- porters celebrated the verdict at public gatherings in San Francisco, West Holly- wood and New York City, while acknowl- edging they have watched court victories evaporate before. California voters passed Proposition 8 five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions and an estimated 18,000 same-sex couples already had tied the knot. Joe Briggs, 32, an actor who attended the West Hollywood gathering Wednesday night, said he was thrilled to hear about the ruling but was curbing his enthusiasm because of the legal fight still ahead. “It’s a long process. Last time we were allowed to marry for like a day and then (see GAY, page 3) Man Is Killed In Wreck Pickup Truck Clips Railroad Warning Signal And Overturns Early Today A 19-year-old man was killed in a single-vehicle traffic accident early this morning, said Ware County Sheriff Randy Royal, and authorities are searching for a an- other person whom they believe was in the pickup truck and ap- parently left the scene of the wreck on foot. The body of the victim (iden- tity is being withheld for now) and the 2004 Dodge Ram pickup truck in which he was traveling were found near the intersection of South Augusta Avenue and Bell Street at 2:30 a.m. today by deputies, Royal said. A motorist who came upon the wreck’s aftermath had reported that a railroad signal and crossing arms in the southbound lane at a nearby crossing had been sheared off and the pickup truck was lying on the side of the road. The deputies found the pickup truck 200 feet from the crossing lying on its roof and determined it had been traveling south on South Augusta Avenue when it hit the railroad signal and broke it off, then spun and rolled for some distance before coming to rest up- side down. It was determined the victim (see WRECK, page 9) FORCED OUT BY FLOOD AP PHOTO Pakistani army volunteers carry an elderly villager during an evacuation operation in Sanawan near Multan in Pakistan on Thursday. Flood-Hit Pakistan To Evacuate 500,000 Residents In The South KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pak- istani authorities began evacuating half a million people living along the swollen Indus River in the country’s south today, as floods caused by the worst monsoon rains in decades threat- ened new destruction. The floods have already killed an es- timated 1,500 people over the past week, most of them in the northwest, the center of Pakistan’s fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. An estimated 4.2 million Pakistanis have been af- fected, including many in eastern Pun- jab province, which has seen numerous villages swallowed by rising water in recent days. The flooding is one of several crises that has hit Pakistan since mid-July, in- cluding a suicide bombing in the north- west city of Peshawar, a plane crash that killed 152 people in the capital, and a spurt of politically motivated killings that have left dozens dead in the southern city of Karachi. This afternoon, a bus plunged into a swollen river in Pakistan’s section of the disputed Kashmir region, killing 20 people and leaving around 20 missing. Eight injured passengers were rescued, government official Chaudhry Imtiaz said. The government’s overall response has been faulted, especially because Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari (see PAKISTAN, page 9) BP To Pump Cement, Plug Blown-Out Gulf Oil Well NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP planned to start pumping cement into its blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico today, following up on a key de- velopment in the effort to kill the well when mud that was shoved in successfully held back the flow of crude. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to stem the flow of oil a mile underwater, the tide appeared to be turning in the months-long battle to stop the massive oil spill. BP PLC said Wednesday it was finally able to force the oil back down to its underground reser- voir with a slow torrent of heavy mud in an early step toward plugging the well up for good. The news came as a federal report indicated only about a quarter of the spilled oil remains in the Gulf and is degrading quickly, with the rest contained, cleaned up or otherwise gone. But for the people who lost their livelihoods or still see oil washing up on their shores, the news is little consolation. “There are still boats out there every day work- ing, finding turtles with oil on them and seeing grass lines with oil in it,” said charter boat captain Randy Boggs, of Orange Beach, Ala. “Certainly all the oil isn’t accounted for. There are millions of pounds of tar balls and oil on the bottom.” Harry “Cho-cho” Cheramie, a 59-year-old shrimper who grew up on the deck of his father’s shrimp boat, said he’s also got good reason to be skeptical. “I don’t think we’ve finished with this,” he said in Grand Isle, La. “We haven’t really started to deal with it yet. We don’t know what effect it’s going to have on our seafood in the long run.” Despite the progress in the mud-pumping effort known as the “static kill,” BP executives and fed- eral officials won’t declare the threat dashed until they use the relief well — though they haven’t publicly agreed on how to do it. (see SEAL, page 13) South Korea Launches Drills Despite Threats By North Korea ABOARD THE ROK DOKDO (AP) — South Korean troops fired artillery and dropped sonar buoys into the Yellow Sea as naval drills kicked off today near the spot where a warship sank four months ago. Some 4,500 South Korean troops aboard more than 20 ships and submarines as well as about 50 aircraft were mobilized to take part in the five days of naval exercises off the west coast, including spots near the two Ko- reas’ maritime border, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. North Korea called the drills a military provocation that threatened to re-ignite war on the Korean peninsula. “If the puppet warmongers dare ignite a war, (North Korea) will mercilessly destroy the provokers and their stronghold by mobi- lizing most powerful war tactics and offen- sive means beyond imagination,” the ruling Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. KCNA reiterated the committee’s message in a separate report later Thursday, warning North Korea will retaliate at “even the slight- est sign of attack.” Soldiers aboard the 14,000-ton ROK Dokdo, an amphibious landing ship, patrolled the deck as Lynx helicopters dropped sonar devices into the sea in search of enemy sub- marines. A 1,200-ton frigate remained on standby, ready to bomb the target. The fleet dispatched for the exercises also include three 1,800-ton submarines, a 4,500- ton destroyer, and some 50 fighter jets, Cmdr. Won Hyung-sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in Seoul. The drills come just weeks after South Korea’s joint military exercises with the U.S. off the east coast — maneuvers held in re- sponse to the deadly March sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 South Ko- rean sailors. A five-nation team of investigators con- cluded in May that a North Korean torpedo fired from a submarine sank the 1,200-ton Cheonan as the warship carried out routine surveillance. North Korea denied sinking the ship. The waters off the west coast have been the site of several naval clashes between the two Koreas. The three-year Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953, but North Korea disputes the western maritime border unilaterally drawn by the United Nations. North and South have engaged in three bloody battles near the line, most recently in November 2009, and the Cheonan went down in March not too far from the border. Pyongyang warned earlier in the week it would “counter the reckless naval firing pro- jected by the group of traitors with strong physical retaliation” and advised civilian ships to stay away from the maritime border. The North also threatened to respond to last month’s South Korea-U.S. military exer- cises with “nuclear deterrence” but South Korean military officials said there was no sign of unusual North Korean military activ- ity. AP PHOTO A South Korean navy officer is on watch during military drills in the Yellow Sea of South Korea Thursday.
Transcript of ArchievePages
South Georgia’s Greatest Newspaper
WAYCROSS JOURNAL-HERALDWaycross, Georgia Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 wjhnews.com
WKUB
105.1 F.M. TThhee KKuubbThe Kub
WWhhaatt ’’ss IInnssiiddeeWWhhaatt ’’ss IInnssiiddeeVol. 91, No. 183Vol. 91, No. 183
Billy GrahamBilly Graham ________________________44Classified AdsClassified Ads ________________1212ComicsComics________________________________1414Dear AbbyDear Abby ____________________________44EditorialsEditorials ____________________________55Extended ForecastExtended Forecast ____________22Family NewsFamily News ____________________1111ObituariesObituaries ____________________________33SportsSports ________________________________6-86-8
PartlyCloudy
Heat Index to 107
Hi96/75Lo—page 2—
Count The BonesThere are 206 bones in thehuman body. How manybones are there in an alliga-tor? You can look it up online— or you can go to the Oke-fenokee Swamp Park andcount the bones in the skele-ton of long-time main attrac-tion Oscar (in today’s top ofpage 1 photo).
Ruling Appeal Could Delay California Gay WeddingsSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge
struck down California’s same-sex mar-riage ban as an unconstitutional violationof gay couples’ civil rights, but a pendingappeal of the landmark ruling could pre-vent gay weddings from resuming in thestate any time soon.Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn
Walker overturned the voter-approved banknown as Proposition 8 Wednesday, de-claring that limiting marriage to a man anda woman serves no legitimate purpose andis an “artifact” rooted in “unfoundedstereotypes and prejudices.”“Rather than being different, same-sex
and opposite-sex unions are, for all pur-poses relevant to California law, exactlythe same,” Walker wrote in an unequivo-cal and strongly worded 136-page ruling.“The evidence shows conclusively thatmoral and religious views form the onlybasis for a belief that same-sex couples aredifferent from opposite-sex couples.”While the ruling affects only California,
the appeal will go to the 9th U.S. CircuitCourt of Appeals, which has jurisdictionover nine Western states. The outcomethere eventually could force the U.S.Supreme Court to confront the question ofwhether gays have a constitutional right to
wed.“This ruling, if allowed to stand, threat-
ens not only Prop 8 in California but thelaws in 45 other states that define marriageas one man and one woman,” said BrianBrown, president of the National Organi-zation for Marriage, which helped fundthe 2008 campaign that led to the ban’spassage.Currently, same-sex couples can legally
wed only in Massachusetts, Iowa, Con-necticut, Vermont, New Hampshire andWashington, D.C.Protect Marriage, the coalition of reli-
gious and conservative groups that spon-
sored Proposition 8 — and wound up de-fending it in court after Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Attorney GeneralJerry Brown refused to — said it wouldimmediately appeal the decision.Walker, meanwhile, said he would con-
sider waiting for the 9th Circuit to renderits decision before he makes his opinionfinal and requires the state to stop enforc-ing the ban. The judge ordered both sidesto submit written arguments by Friday onthe issue.Hundreds of same-sex marriage sup-
porters celebrated the verdict at publicgatherings in San Francisco, West Holly-
wood and New York City, while acknowl-edging they have watched court victoriesevaporate before. California voters passedProposition 8 five months after the stateSupreme Court legalized same-sex unionsand an estimated 18,000 same-sex couplesalready had tied the knot.Joe Briggs, 32, an actor who attended
the West Hollywood gathering Wednesdaynight, said he was thrilled to hear aboutthe ruling but was curbing his enthusiasmbecause of the legal fight still ahead.“It’s a long process. Last time we were
allowed to marry for like a day and then(see GAY, page 3)
Man IsKilledIn WreckPickup TruckClips RailroadWarning SignalAnd OverturnsEarly TodayA 19-year-old man was killed
in a single-vehicle traffic accidentearly this morning, said WareCounty Sheriff Randy Royal, andauthorities are searching for a an-other person whom they believewas in the pickup truck and ap-parently left the scene of thewreck on foot.The body of the victim (iden-
tity is being withheld for now)and the 2004 Dodge Ram pickuptruck in which he was travelingwere found near the intersectionof South Augusta Avenue andBell Street at 2:30 a.m. today bydeputies, Royal said. A motorist who came upon the
wreck’s aftermath had reportedthat a railroad signal and crossingarms in the southbound lane at anearby crossing had been shearedoff and the pickup truck waslying on the side of the road.The deputies found the pickup
truck 200 feet from the crossinglying on its roof and determinedit had been traveling south onSouth Augusta Avenue when it hitthe railroad signal and broke itoff, then spun and rolled for somedistance before coming to rest up-side down.It was determined the victim
(see WRECK, page 9)
FORCED OUT BY FLOOD
APPHOTO
Pakistani army volunteers carry an elderly villager during an evacuation operation in Sanawan nearMultan in Pakistan on Thursday.
Flood-Hit Pakistan To Evacuate500,000 Residents In The SouthKARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pak-
istani authorities began evacuating halfa million people living along theswollen Indus River in the country’ssouth today, as floods caused by theworst monsoon rains in decades threat-ened new destruction.The floods have already killed an es-
timated 1,500 people over the pastweek, most of them in the northwest,the center of Pakistan’s fight againstal-Qaida and the Taliban. An estimated
4.2 million Pakistanis have been af-fected, including many in eastern Pun-jab province, which has seen numerousvillages swallowed by rising water inrecent days.The flooding is one of several crises
that has hit Pakistan since mid-July, in-cluding a suicide bombing in the north-west city of Peshawar, a plane crashthat killed 152 people in the capital,and a spurt of politically motivatedkillings that have left dozens dead in
the southern city of Karachi.This afternoon, a bus plunged into a
swollen river in Pakistan’s section ofthe disputed Kashmir region, killing 20people and leaving around 20 missing.Eight injured passengers were rescued,government official Chaudhry Imtiazsaid.The government’s overall response
has been faulted, especially becausePakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
(see PAKISTAN, page 9)
BP To PumpCement, PlugBlown-OutGulf Oil WellNEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP planned to start
pumping cement into its blown-out oil well in theGulf of Mexico today, following up on a key de-velopment in the effort to kill the well when mudthat was shoved in successfully held back the flowof crude.After a series of unsuccessful attempts to stem
the flow of oil a mile underwater, the tide appearedto be turning in the months-long battle to stop themassive oil spill.BP PLC said Wednesday it was finally able to
force the oil back down to its underground reser-voir with a slow torrent of heavy mud in an earlystep toward plugging the well up for good.The news came as a federal report indicated
only about a quarter of the spilled oil remains inthe Gulf and is degrading quickly, with the restcontained, cleaned up or otherwise gone.But for the people who lost their livelihoods or
still see oil washing up on their shores, the news islittle consolation.“There are still boats out there every day work-
ing, finding turtles with oil on them and seeinggrass lines with oil in it,” said charter boat captainRandy Boggs, of Orange Beach, Ala. “Certainlyall the oil isn’t accounted for. There are millions ofpounds of tar balls and oil on the bottom.”Harry “Cho-cho” Cheramie, a 59-year-old
shrimper who grew up on the deck of his father’sshrimp boat, said he’s also got good reason to beskeptical.“I don’t think we’ve finished with this,” he said
in Grand Isle, La. “We haven’t really started todeal with it yet. We don’t know what effect it’sgoing to have on our seafood in the long run.”Despite the progress in the mud-pumping effort
known as the “static kill,” BP executives and fed-eral officials won’t declare the threat dashed untilthey use the relief well — though they haven’tpublicly agreed on how to do it.
(see SEAL, page 13)
South Korea Launches Drills Despite Threats By North KoreaABOARD THE ROK DOKDO (AP) —
South Korean troops fired artillery anddropped sonar buoys into the Yellow Sea asnaval drills kicked off today near the spotwhere a warship sank four months ago.Some 4,500 South Korean troops aboard
more than 20 ships and submarines as well asabout 50 aircraft were mobilized to take partin the five days of naval exercises off thewest coast, including spots near the two Ko-reas’ maritime border, the Joint Chiefs ofStaff said.North Korea called the drills a military
provocation that threatened to re-ignite waron the Korean peninsula.“If the puppet warmongers dare ignite a
war, (North Korea) will mercilessly destroythe provokers and their stronghold by mobi-lizing most powerful war tactics and offen-sive means beyond imagination,” the rulingCommittee for the Peaceful Reunification ofthe Fatherland said in a statement carried byNorth Korea’s official Korean Central NewsAgency.
KCNA reiterated the committee’s messagein a separate report later Thursday, warningNorth Korea will retaliate at “even the slight-est sign of attack.”Soldiers aboard the 14,000-ton ROK
Dokdo, an amphibious landing ship, patrolledthe deck as Lynx helicopters dropped sonardevices into the sea in search of enemy sub-marines. A 1,200-ton frigate remained onstandby, ready to bomb the target.The fleet dispatched for the exercises also
include three 1,800-ton submarines, a 4,500-ton destroyer, and some 50 fighter jets, Cmdr.Won Hyung-sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staffsaid in Seoul.The drills come just weeks after South
Korea’s joint military exercises with the U.S.off the east coast — maneuvers held in re-sponse to the deadly March sinking of theCheonan warship, which killed 46 South Ko-rean sailors.A five-nation team of investigators con-
cluded in May that a North Korean torpedofired from a submarine sank the 1,200-ton
Cheonan as the warship carried out routinesurveillance. North Korea denied sinking theship.The waters off the west coast have been
the site of several naval clashes between thetwo Koreas. The three-year Korean Warended in an armistice in 1953, but NorthKorea disputes the western maritime borderunilaterally drawn by the United Nations.North and South have engaged in three
bloody battles near the line, most recently inNovember 2009, and the Cheonan went downin March not too far from the border.Pyongyang warned earlier in the week it
would “counter the reckless naval firing pro-jected by the group of traitors with strongphysical retaliation” and advised civilianships to stay away from the maritime border.The North also threatened to respond to
last month’s South Korea-U.S. military exer-cises with “nuclear deterrence” but SouthKorean military officials said there was nosign of unusual North Korean military activ-ity.
AP PHOTO
A South Korean navy officer is on watch during militarydrills in the Yellow Sea of South Korea Thursday.
