A6 Wednesday, February 5, 2014
NATION/OBITUARIES
Gay marriage fight comes to Southern courtroom NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The gay marriage fight arrived in a Souther n courtroom Tuesday, as opponents of a Virginia law banning same-sex unions told a federal judge it was just like the Jim Crow-era prohibition against interracial marriage. Supporters maintained there was no fundamental right to gay marriage and the ban exists as part of the state’s interest in responsible procreation. “We have marriage laws in society because we have
children, not because we have adults,” said attorney David Nimocks, of the religious group Alliance Defending Freedom. The case is being closely watched because it could give the gay marriage movement its first foothold in the South, and because legal experts think it’s on the fast track to the U.S. Supreme Court. Recently elected Virginia Attor ney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, announced Jan. 23 that he would not defend the ban
because he thinks it violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Federal judges have cited the 14th Amendment in overturning gay marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma. Those rulings are on hold while they are appealed. Herring, as a state senator, supported Virginia’s 2006 voter-approved constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and woman. His change illus-
trates how rapidly the political and legal landscape on gay marriage in the U.S. is shifting. Herring’s chief litigator, Solicitor General Stuart Raphael, told U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen that Virginia had frequently been on the wrong side of history, citing its interracial marriage ban and its defense of segregation. The 14th Amendment was also used in those cases. Raphael said supporters have failed to prove how
AP Photo
Road salt is loaded into a snowplow truck equipped with a salt spreader at the public works facility in Glen Ellyn, Ill., on Tuesday.
Winter brings salt shortage, steeper prices
CHICAGO (AP) — As piles of snow grow taller during this seemingly endless winter, the mounds of salt for spreading on the nation’s icy, slushy roads are shrinking, forcing communities to ration supplies or try exotic new ice-melting substances. Cities have already gone through most of their salt well ahead of the time they traditionally really need it — when the coldest part of winter gives way to tem-
peratures just war m enough to turn snow into freezing rain and sleet and roads into ribbons of ice. “If we don’t get the salt, at some point people are going to be sliding all over the place like what you saw in Atlanta,” said Julius Hansen, public works director in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, citing last week’s television images of thousands of motorists getting stranded on ice-covered
HIGHWAY SHOOTER GETS MORE THAN
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A man who opened fire on other motorists in a series of October 2012 attacks that terrified southeastern Michigan was sentenced Tuesday to more than six years in prison in the first of two related cases. Judge Denise Langford Morris sentenced Raulie Casteel to serve from six years and eight months to 10 years in prison on multiple assault charges, as well as two years for weapons charges. The sentences will run concurrently.
OBITUARIES
Tom Marshall Thornton Jr.
Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014, at LaGrone Funeral Chapel for Tom Marshall Thornton Jr., who passed away
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6 1/2 YEARS
Casteel, a 44-year -old geologist from Wixom, faced up to 12 years in prison after pleading no contest but mentally ill last year to those charges. He faces up to life in prison in a related Livingston County case in which he was convicted last week of terrorism. That sentencing hearing is scheduled for next month. Langford Morris, who is an Oakland County Circuit Court judge, admonished Casteel during the hearing in Pontiac, telling him, “Thank goodness you were a lousy shot.”
peacefully Jan. 29, 2014, at Sunset Villa Nursing Home. Dr. Bob Phillips will officiate. Tom was born in Roswell, June 14, 1928, to Tom Marshall Thornton Sr. and Alva Virginia Butler Thornton. He was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Raymond Thornton; cousin, Buddy Butler; and nephew, Ted Williams. Tom is survived by his sister, Ruby M. McShan; lifelong friends: Randy Jenkins and Bob Conley; special friends: Susan Randolph and Jacque McFarland; his nieces and nephews: Nancy Phillips (Bob), Fowler McShan, Marshall McShan, Bonnie Reardon (Wayne), Raynetta Woodhull (Woody), Bobbie
roads in the South. So far this year, Glen Ellyn’s snow-removal crews have responded to 31 storms. “In an average winter, we have 20,” Hansen said. A community the size of Glen Ellyn, population 27,000, might use 50 to 100 tons per storm. A bigger community such as Waukesha, Wis., which has about 70,000 residents, could use 300 tons or more. The same storm
in Chicago would call for more than 13,000 tons.
Demand is so high that salt gets more expensive every day. Communities are trying to decide what do to. They could buy a little more salt now, when it costs twice or three times more than earlier in the season, and hope it doesn’t snow too much more. Or they could wait until it does snow more and risk paying even higher prices.
Roswell Daily Record
allowing gay marriage would make heterosexual couples less likely to marry. “That’s the Achilles’ heel in the argument,” he said. Before the hearing, dozens of demonstrators at the courthouse shouted phrases decrying Herring’s position. Some of them carried signs saying: “Herring’s herring. AG’s must uphold the law.” Across the street, a much smaller group yelled their support for gay marriage and carried signs saying: “Marry who you love,”
which drew honks of support from drivers passing by. The judge said she would rule soon. Wright Allen is a former public defender and assistant U.S. attorney who was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama. After Herring’s of fice decided not to defend the law, Wright Allen considered not even hearing verbal arguments because of the “compelling” filing by the attor ney general’s office.
ATLANTA (AP) — Children are dying less often in traffic accidents: Over a decade, the number who died in crashes dropped by 43 percent, according to a new government report. Health officials say the increased use of car seats and booster seats drove the decline. Still, one-third of the children 12 and under who died in 2011 were not buckled up. “The first step is buckling up. Every child, of every age, on every trip,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC report focused on crash deaths of children 12 and under and covered 2002 through 2011, when traf fic fatalities overall declined to levels not seen since the 1940s. Young children traditionally have been only a small fraction of total traf fic deaths. In the last year of the study, children accounted for 650 of the 21,000 deaths of drivers and passengers. Preliminary CDC figures for 2012 show child deaths continued to fall, to 637. “Children aren’t going drinking, and they’re not typically out at night,” said Jonathan Adkins, deputy director of the Governors Highway Safety Associa-
tion. Teens and young adults account for the largest share of deaths, he added. The CDC study was not designed to answer why the deaths of younger children declined. But experts credited a large growth in state laws requiring car seats and booster seats, and in programs that promote buckling kids up. But there’s been a racial disparity in how well that’s worked. Almost half of the black and Hispanic children who died in crashes in 2009 and 2010 were not in safety seats or wearing seat belts, compared to a quarter of white deaths, according to the CDC. That may be related to income, experts said. Car seats can run well over $100 and be challenging to install. Larger proportions of minority families may have trouble getting the money or help to put them in. Frieden noted there are community programs that provide help and subsidies for car seats. Health officials urge parents to keep all children 12 and under in the back seat, and use car seats and booster seats until seat belts fit properly. They recommend that car seats should face the rear up to age 2.
Child traffic deaths drop by nearly half
Senator: US coal sales might have cost taxpayers
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Congressional investigators have found problems with federal coal sales that might have cost taxpayers $200 million or more in lost revenue, a senator said Tuesday. Citing a new report by investigators at the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., called for the sales to be suspended until the problems are rectified. Further details on losses — including when they occurred and how much coal was involved — were not provided, drawing skepticism from the coal industry. More than 40 percent of U.S. coal
Jo Williams, Roger Thornton, Charley Heald and Evan Heald. He is also survived by many cousins, great-nieces, greatnephews, extended family, numerous friends and former clients. Tom graduated from Roswell High School in 1946, and worked for Gessut-Sanders Abstract Co., of Roswell, before leaving for military service in the Korean War and Japan. He returned to Roswell after being honorably discharged in 1952, and resumed working for GessutSanders (which became Lawyers Title, then Land America) Abstract Company, for which he served for more than 45 years. Tom was a founding
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production, or about 450 million tons a year, comes from public lands leased by the government to mining companies under the century-old Mineral Leasing Act. Those leases bring in more than $1 billion in annual revenue. While exports of the fuel to lucrative Asian markets have surged in recent years, the rules for leasing government-owned coal have remained largely unchanged since 1990. That’s stirred concerns that companies could be shortchanging taxpayers by buying coal cheaply from the government based on U.S. market prices and then selling it at a premium overseas. A sweeping, 19-month examination
member of the La Hondo Kiwanis Club; serving as its secretary-treasurer for decades and was elected as the Kiwanis Regional lieutenant governor. He started and ran The Collection for over 50 years, a business specializing in Depression glass, and antiques (and a number of cats). Honorary pallbearers are all of his family and friends. The family would like to extend their special thanks to Dr. Karen Vaillant, the providers at Easter n New Mexico Medical Center, and the caring staff at Sunset Villa. Memorial contributions may be made in Tom’s name to the Roswell Humane Society at 703 East McGaffey, Roswell,
of the Interior Department’s coal-leasing program by the GAO revealed widespread inconsistencies in how the government values public coal reserves that are leased to private mining companies. The GAO also found a near-total lack of competitiveness in the leasing program. Almost 90 percent of the 107 coal tracts leased since 1990 received just a single bid. Without those problems, the government’s coal sales could have brought in $200 million in additional revenue — and possibly hundreds of millions more, said Markey, who requested the GAO study in April 2012.
NM 88203.
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Services are under the direction and personal care of LaGrone Funeral Chapel.
Ruth B. Eimer
Services are pending at Ballard Funeral Home and Crematory for Ruth B. Eimer, 95, who passed at Casa Maria Health Care Center on Monday, Feb. 3, 2014. A further announcement will be made once arrangements have been finalized.
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