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LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD ● LJWorld.com/local ● Friday, April 29, 2011 ● 3A
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‘I do’ date: Couple royally excited for wedding today
1 | ALABAMA
Tornadoes kill at least 297 Firefighters searched one splintered pile after another for survivors Thursday, combing the remains of houses and neighborhoods pulverized by the nation’s deadliest tornado outbreak in almost four decades. At least 297 people were killed across six states — more than two-thirds of them in Alabama, where large cities bore the half-mile-wide scars the twisters left behind. The death toll from Wednesday’s storms seems out of a bygone era, before Doppler radar and pinpoint satellite forecasts were around to warn communities of severe weather. Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said his state had confirmed 210 deaths. There were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured — nearly 800 in Tuscaloosa alone. President Barack Obama said he would travel to Alabama today to view storm damage and meet Gov. Robert Bentley and affected families. Late Thursday he signed a disaster declaration for the state to provide federal aid to those who seek it. 2 | WASHINGTON, D.C.
Obama names national security team The reshuffled national security team President Barack Obama introduced on Thursday will be charged with fighting not only the overseas war in Afghanistan but also budget battles on the home front over Pentagon spending that has ballooned into a fat target for deficit hawks. In the biggest change, CIA Director Leon Panetta will replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates when Gates makes his long-planned exit this summer. In remarks introducing the Cabinet and Afghan war leaders, Obama also bade farewell to Gates after a tenure begun more than four years ago under President George W. Bush. Gen. David Petraeus, the high-profile commander of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will replace Panetta at the CIA in the fall, after helping to manage the first steps of a drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan over the summer. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Allen will succeed Petraeus as the top commander in Afghanistan, and seasoned diplomat Ryan Crocker will take over as ambassador there. 3 | NEW YORK CITY
Giffords out of view at shuttle launch
By Sarah Henning sarah@lawrence.com
ONLINE: Watch the video at LJWorld.com
The bride’s got slick brown hair, big blue eyes and a wide smile that only grows brighter when looking up at her blond-haired hubby-tobe. And today’s the day she’s becoming a wife. But, no, she’s not who you’re thinking of, even if she does have the name “Catherine” on her marriage license. Ashley Catherine Goodin is getting married today, walking down the aisle with a man who slipped her honker of a ring into a pint glass one night three years ago at the bar where they first met. It’s a far cry from the other wedding story happening today half a world away in London, where Prince William made a princess out of Kate (Catherine) Middleton at Westminster Abbey. But it’s Goodin’s wedding story, and she doesn’t give a darn who else might have gotten married today. And before you ask: She had the date first. In fact, Goodin and fiance Glenn Skulborstad settled on April 29 more than a year ago. They picked the date solely because it was after March Madness (they’re huge fans), before summer and it allowed them to score not only the church of their choice — Danforth Chapel on Kansas University’s campus — but also their reception venue of choice, The Oread, just down the street at 1200 Oread Ave. Goodin, 27, and Skulborstad, 44, met on a night out five years ago at The Sandbar, 17 E. Eighth St. Skulborstad, a landlord, spotted Goodin and ended up scoring the KU senior’s phone number. “She thought I was a lot younger,” he jokes, and admits that as a 16-year-old in 1981, he watched the broad-
Just Food raises enough to stay open By Karrey Britt kbritt@ljworld.com
When asked why, he starts, “We think a lot ...” “Alike,” Goodin answers before laughing. In 2008, Skulborstad proposed in the same place they met, dropping a white gold sparkler into a pint glass of Miller Light. Goodin smiles and teases him about that night: “You’re just sitting
In February, Douglas County food pantry leaders appealed to the community for financial help. They needed $100,000 in donations to continue operations or the Just Food pantry faced closure. Thanks to $80,600 in donations and $30,000 in unexpected federal grant funding, the pantry will remain open. It is financially secure for its current fiscal year, which started April 1, and even into the next one. “The outpouring of community support has been overwhelming,” said Aaron Heckman, chief operating officer of ECKAN, which oversees the pantry. “We are incredibly grateful.” The East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corp., commonly called ECKAN, is a community action agency that provides a variety of services for low-income residents in nine counties, including Douglas. The food pantry, formally called Just Food, is a program of ECKAN. In March, it served 1,738 individuals, of whom 37 percent were children. Heckman said all of the community donations will be used to cover operational costs, which are $139,000 annually. ECKAN also will be able to hire a fulltime coordinator — a position
Please see WEDDING, page 4A
Please see PANTRY, page 4A
Kevin Anderson/Journal-World Photo
ASHLEY CATHERINE GOODIN AND HER FIANCE, GLENN SKULBORSTAD, will be married in the Danforth Chapel on the Kansas University campus today. When they planned their wedding over a year ago, they had no idea that they would be married the same date as the British royal couple, Prince William and Kate Middleton. cast of Prince William’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana. “Her long, long train. That’s what I remember, how young she looked and how old he was.” His bride, of course, wasn’t born yet and has only seen that wedding on replay. Despite their age difference, they quickly figured out they were made for each other.
It’s a sight many Americans would surely love to see: a recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords watching as her astronaut husband blasts off into space. But it’s unlikely they will see it. Giffords will attend today’s space shuttle launch in Florida but watch in private, and her staff says there are no plans to release photos of her, though that could change. Why is the congresswoman, whose recovery from catastrophic wounds has inspired so many, being kept out of public view? First of all, it’s long-standing NASA policy for all relatives at a shuttle launch. “It’s just for privacy,” said spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. “They are here in a private capacity.” Of course, Giffords is a special case. There’s extraor- By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com dinary public interest in her progress since that horrific Jan. 8 assassination attempt in Tucson, Ariz. Kansas University Medical Center’s leader has asked Curtis Klaassen, who had 4 | KANSAS serving as chairman of the departWikiLeaks suspect housed with inmates been ment of pharmacology, toxicology and The Army private accused of passing classified therapeutics, to step down from that role. documents to WikiLeaks was cleared Thursday to Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chanlive alongside other inmates at a Kansas military cellor of KUMC and executive dean of prison, a dramatic change from his previous quarters the KU School of Medicine, wrote in an in a Virginia Marine Corps brig where he spent 23 email to faculty and staff that the action hours a day alone in his cell. was taken in consideration of the overall Army Pfc. Bradley Manning passed the lengthy future of the best interests of the departphysical and psychiatric evaluation given to new ment. inmates at the Fort Leavenworth prison and “Because at its essence this is a personreceived final clearance just before a mid-day media nel matter, it would be inappropriate to tour of the facility, its commander Lt. Col. Dawn discuss this decision further here except Hilton said. to say that the chairs of all KUMC departManning was transferred there last week from ments serve at the pleasure of the Dean the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., where he and /or Executive Vice Chancellor,” had been held for the eight months since his arrest. Atkinson wrote earlier this month. Col. Tom Collins, an Army spokesman who travShe named Gerald Carlson, professor eled to answer questions on the tour, acknowledged and chairman of the department of biothe media coverage and international criticism chemistry and molecular biology, as the played a role in allowing reporters to tour the prison interim chairman of the pharmacology, to see firsthand the conditions under which Manning toxicology and therapeutics department. is being held. No cameras were allowed. Carlson will serve in both roles during
KUMC dean asks department Ladies of Fiesta leader to step down from post win Larry Award the search for a new department chair and is not a candidate for the permanent chairmanship. Klaassen is a university distinguished professor who has earned a Kemper Award for Klaassen teaching excellence in 2009 and has a long history of research success, having been recognized as the Chancellors Club research award recipient in 1993, in addition to numerous other awards and recognitions in his field of study. He has been teaching at KUMC since he earned his doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1968, and he will remain on the KUMC faculty. Klaassen, reached this week, said he had no comment on Atkinson’s decision, and KUMC officials declined to elaborate on the decision beyond what was contained in Atkinson’s message. — Higher education reporter Andy Hyland can be reached at 832-6388. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/LJW_KU.
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Kevin Anderson/Journal-World Photo
FROM LEFT, DIONNE CHAVEZ, STEPHEN CHAVEZ, Loretta Chavez and John Chavez look over one of the pages of the Lawrence Journal-World’s Only in Lawrence special section Thursday during an award ceremony at the Journal-World News Center, 645 N.H. Loretta Chavez and the Fiesta Ladies from St. John Catholic School received a Larry Award for their hard work behind the scenes during the St. John’s Mexican Fiesta weekend. For more on the Fiesta Ladies, see page 8A.