NEWS
The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com
Thursday, March 24, 2011 • A3
3 1 2 NATION NEWS BRIEFS 1. Los Angeles
Damaged pipe blocked blowout preventer on BP well, report shows
CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., right, greets U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, right, after speaking at a rally by home school advocates Wednesday at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. More than 1,000 home-school advocates rallied on the steps of the Iowa Statehouse, cheered on by three potential Republican presidential candidates who joined their cause.
Possible Republican presidential candidates court parents in Iowa Government has gotten in the way of parents education many of whom are strong advocates of home-schooling. Public schools have changed since he was young, and that their children, speakers tell home-school advocates
those changes led to the home-schooling movement, Paul DES MOINES, Iowa — Three potential Republican said. Among those changes, he claimed, was an effort to keep presidential candidates courted home-school advocates discussion of religious issues out of the classroom. Wednesday in Iowa, saying the government may have “tramPaul argued that people are ahead of the government on pled” on the rights of parents to educate their children. the issue of home-schooling. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, U.S. Rep. Ron “There’s a revolution going on in the country,” Paul said. “It Paul of Texas and Georgia businessman just hasn’t gotten to Washington yet.” Herman Cain spoke before about 1,000 peoCain, a former executive at the Godfather’s It’s about freedom. ple outside the Iowa Statehouse at an annual Pizza chain, took a similar stand. rally in support of home-schooling. “Get government out of the way of our eduIt’s about liberty. It’s “The family has a level of authority that cation so we can educate ourselves and our about knowing our the government may have trampled on,” said children better than children,” Cain said. Bachmann. “We need to make sure that famiBachmann took note of the November the state knows our election, lies enjoy their untrammeled right without in which Iowa voters ousted three children.” state interference.” state Supreme Court justices who had joined Bachmann, who noted she had homein a unanimous 2009 ruling that legalized gay schooled her five children for a number of — MICHELE BACHMANN, marriage in Iowa. years, said parents have an absolute right to “What I love about Iowa is you are fightU.S. REPRESENTATIVE decide how their children are educated. ers, you don’t take no for an answer,” said “It’s about freedom. It’s about liberty. It’s about knowing our Bachmann. “If you have judges who thwart the will of the children better than the state knows our children,” she said. people you send them packing.” Bachmann said before the rally she likely would decide by After the rally, all three headed to a meeting of the Network summer whether to seek the GOP presidential nomination. of Iowa Home School Educators to tout what is a growing She has drawn heavy attention in Iowa, where precinct movement of home-school advocates. caucuses launch the presidential nominating process. The Republican caucuses are dominated by social conservatives, — AP
Film legend dies Wednesday Taylor, who became a film star at age 12, died of congestive heart failure LOS ANGELES — Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose screen life was often upstaged by her personal life, died Wednesday at age 79. She died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, publicist Sally Morrison said. “All her children were with her,” Morrison said. Taylor had grace, fame and wealth, and won three Oscars, including a special one for her humanitarian work. But she was tortured by ill health, failed romances and personal tragedy. “I think I’m becoming fatalistic,” she said in 1989. “Too much has happened in my life for me not to be fatalistic.” Her eight marriages — including two to actor Richard Burton — and a lifelong battle with substance abuse, physical ailments and overeating made Taylor as popular in supermarket tabloids as in classic film festivals. In November 2004, Taylor disclosed she had congestive heart failure. But she still periodically dismissed reports that she was at death’s door, saying she used a wheelchair only because of chronic back problems that began at age 12 when she fell from a horse. “Oh, come on, do I look like I’m dying?” she said
Elizabeth Taylor
to write about anybody else,” she said. The London-born actress was a star at 12, a bride and a divorcee at 18, a screen goddess at 19 and a widow at 26. She appeared in more than 50 films, and won Oscars for her performances in “Butterfield 8” (1960) and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966), in which she starred opposite Burton. She accepted her many health problems with a stoic attitude. “My body’s a real mess,” Taylor told W magazine in 2004. “If you look at it in the mirror, it’s just completely convex and concave.”
in May 2006 in a rare television interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” ‘’Do I look like or sound like I have Alzheimer’s?” Tabloids report such things “because they have nothing else dirty — AP
NOTICE OF PUBLIC ACCESS During the Regular Meeting Of The University of Oklahoma PUBLICATIONS BOARD 9:30 a.m. Friday Copeland Hall, Room 146
Students, staff, faculty and others in the community are invited to express their views concerning The Oklahoma Daily or Sooner yearbook to the Publications Board.
The blowout preventer designed to shut down the BP well in an emergency couldn’t stop the gush of deep sea oil into the Gulf of Mexico because a damaged piece of drill pipe got in the way, according to a federal report released Wednesday. When the Deepwater Horizon rig crew lost control of the well, the force of rushing oil buckled a section of drill pipe, which became stuck in the blowout preventer. The device had been activated, but the mangled pipe made it impossible for shearing rams to close and plug the flow of oil. The report was compiled by Det Norske Veritas for the Department of Interior after the contracting firm examined the blowout preventer as part of a series of investigations. ___
2. Honolulu
Face of statehood dies at 65 The man who became inextricably linked to Hawaii’s 1959 statehood as a grinning newsboy in an iconic photo has died. A son of Chester Frank Kahapea said the former newsboy died March 4 at a Honolulu hospital from complications caused by Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 65. In 1959, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin ran a picture of Kahapea smiling and holding a newspaper with the headline, “Statehood.” The picture went on to be used in numerous publications, including The New York Times. ___
3. Boston
Lawyer charged conspiracy plot A prominent Boston defense attorney was charged Wednesday with conspiracy and money laundering in what federal prosecutors say was a plot to conceal the source of more than $225,000 in drug money. Robert George, 56, was arrested at his home by federal drug agents. He made a brief initial appearance in U.S. District Court and was later released on $50,000 unsecured bond. — AP