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Veteran hoofer Glover salutes dance masters on Montgomery College stage. B-5
The Gazette DAMASCUS | CLARKSBURG
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Wednesday, November 20, 2013
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Down on the farm, it’s udder genius n
Damascus creamery turns to robotic milker to cut costs BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
What began a dozen years ago with a little Guernsey calf named Bubbles has morphed into a high-tech dairy operation at the new Woodbourne Creamery at the Rock Hill Orchard farm in Damascus. It’s all due to a Swedish-made robotic machine that automatically milks cows without needing people to attach tubes to the teats. The DeLaval voluntary milking system has a computerized robotic arm that uses laser beams to locate the teats and automatically milk each cow, letting employees work elsewhere. The Guernseys, which feed mostly on grass and hay, have learned they have to be regularly milked.
See FARM, Page A-10
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
A cow stands in the stall while it’s milked by a robot at Woodbourne Creamery in Damascus.
JAMES K.W. ATHERTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
In this 1978 photo, ballistics expert Larry Sturdivan holds a bullet believed to have struck President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas.
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BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
n the early-morning hours of Nov. 23, 1963, Dr. James J. Humes washed his hands after overseeing what is arguably the most controversial autopsy in modern U.S. history at Bethesda Naval Hospital, now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The director of laboratories of the National Medical School in Bethesda took his notes of the proceedings to his Bethesda home and burned them after meticulously copying the records because, Humes later testified, they were stained with John F. Kennedy’s blood
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HORNETS TAKE TOP HONORS Group of seniors helps lead Damascus to first state volleyball championship. B-1
and “inappropriate to be turned over to anyone.” “Having transcribed those notes … I destroyed those pieces of paper,” Humes, who died in 1999, testified in 1977 before a medical panel convened by the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, one of several political bodies that investigated the killing. “I felt they would fall into the hands of some sensation seeker.” That admission is one of many facets of the case that have fueled speculation of a cover-up and conspiracy over Kennedy’s death for the past 50 years. As the half-century anniversary approaches Friday, the autopsy in Bethesda continues to be one of the more controversial elements. “Dr. Humes may have had his reasons for
burning the original autopsy notes,” Philip Shenon, a former New York Times journalist and author of a new book, “A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination,” said in an interview. “But it was still jaw-dropping to discover what he did.” Jim Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center, a private organization in Silver Spring that preserves documents and other records on political assassinations, added, “It was an extraordinarily controversial autopsy that has been denounced by many authorities in the field.” Of the roughly 30 agents, military officers, medical personnel and others that the House
See KENNEDY, Page A-17
School board puts projects back on track n
Panel boosts budget to have five middle and high schools stay on schedule BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County students and staff in five middle and high schools may not face delays to construction projects after all. The Montgomery County Board of Education decided Monday not to delay revitalization and expansion projects at two high schools and three middle schools. The board voted Monday to approve a $1.74 billion Capital Improvements Program budget for fiscal years 2015 through 2020 — compared to Su-
See BOARD, Page A-10
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