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Wednesday, April 6, 2011 Issue 54
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Deadly storms wreak havoc across South Thunderstorms, tornadoes leave seven dead, hundreds of thousands without power Associated Press JACKSON, Ga. — Fast-moving spring storms packing high winds, hail and lightning blew through the South, uprooting trees, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands and killing at least seven people. The storms were part of a system that cut a wide swath from the Mississippi River across the Southeast to Georgia and the Carolinas on Monday and early Tuesday. Skies were clearing in many areas that were hit, but tornado watches remained in effect in eastern North and South Carolina as the storms appeared to head out to sea. A father and his young son were killed when a tree fell onto a home in Butts County in central Georgia, Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Lisa Janak said. The sheriff ’s office there said the 28year-old man, Alix Bonhomme Jr., and the 4-year-old boy, Alix III, were killed early Tuesday when a tree limb crashed onto a bed where they were sleeping. The child’s mother, Marcie Moorer, and the couple’s younger son, Isaac, 3, were able to escape. Moorer’s stepfather, Bennie Battle, said he was down the street from the couple’s home as the storm tore through. “It was just a lot of wind and lightning,” he said. “It was like being in the middle of a laser show.” He heard a knock on the door at the height of the storm. It was a neighbor coming to tell him that a tree had crashed onto his stepdaughter’s home. Bonhomme “was holding his son in his arms when it happened,” Battle said. “He was trying to protect his son.” Bonhomme worked two jobs to support the family, Battle said. The son “was as sweet as he could be. He was just so lovable,” said Battle.
Jackson Mayor Charlie Brown said the storm’s devastation was the worst the community had seen in 30 or 40 years. “I would say weeks, a minimum of weeks for us to be able to clean up our community,” Brown said. Farther south, a 45-year-old man was found dead under debris after a mobile home in Dodge County was ripped from its foundation, according to a news release from the Dodge County Sheriff ’s Office. Janak said there had been a possible tornado in that county.
Tuesday, knocking down trees and causing power outages. Power outages were also reported Tuesday in states farther north, including Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia. In western Kentucky, seven people working at a plant suffered minor injuries Monday when a possible tornado hit. Christian County Emergency Management Director Randy Graham said about three dozen people who usually work in the area of the Toyoda Gosei Automotive Sealing Kentucky that was struck by the storm were at the other end of the building for their lunch break when it hit. “We’re fortunate not to have any serious injuries or death,” he said. The county is seeking a disaster declaration based on the damage at the plant. He said about 120 to 130 people were there when a front wall partially collapsed and a side wall and roof torn out. Strong winds ripped away part of the roof of an elementary school gymnasium in Ashland City, Tenn., but officials said no children were injured. Most of the storm damage in eastern Tennessee was caused by high winds, according to the National Weather Service. Winds gusting to about 50 mph blew down trees and power lines across north Alabama before heading to Georgia on Monday. The National Weather Service recorded wind gusts up to 49 mph at the Huntsville, Ala., airport. In DeKalb County east of Atlanta, meteorologists said 1-inch hail and storms packed high winds of 30 to 50 mph in some places Monday. Hundreds of lightning strikes were reported. The storms came on the heels of the 37th anniversary of the worst recorded outbreak of tornadoes in U.S. history, in which 148 twisters hit 13 states across the South and Midwest on April 3-4 in 1974.
“ ” I would say weeks, a minimum
of weeks for us to be able to clean up our community.
– Jackson Mayor Charlie Brown, on the storm’s devastation
In northwest Atlanta, police said a man was killed when a tree fell on his car. In south Georgia’s Colquitt County, officials said a county worker was driving his pickup truck to work early Tuesday when he struck a tree that had fallen on the road, killing him. About 20 possible tornadoes were reported around the region, according to the National Weather Service. In Memphis, fire officials said an 87-year-old man found dead in his home Monday was electrocuted by a downed power line. In southern Mississippi, a 21-year-old man was killed when his car struck a tree that had fallen across a road, Copiah County coroner Ellis Stuart said. The storms were moving across the Carolinas early
Trial set for Italian prime minister Associated Press MILAN — Aspiring Italian starlets and Oscar-winning actor George Clooney are being called to make appearances in Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s trial on charges he paid for sex with an underage prostitute, then tried to use his influence to cover it up. Unlike Berlusconi’s other trials, the one that opens Wednesday puts the premier’s personal life under scrutiny, and a conviction could end his political career. TV crews from around the world will be on hand for the opening session — even though Berlusconi himself is not attending. “This time it is not about offshore, secret accounts and tax havens but about sex, money and power,” the Turin-daily La Stampa wrote this week. Berlusconi is skipping Wednesday’s session, citing earlier commitments to attend ceremonies marking the two-year anniversary of an earthquake in central Italy that killed more than 300 people. Even without his presence, media interest is feverish, and the Milan court overseeing the trial is holding the opening session — reserved mainly for formalities like setting future trial dates — in an auditorium usually used for ceremonial occasions in order to accommodate media. Outside, Berlusconi supporters have pledged to maintain a vigil on a traffic island opposite the courthouse where dozens have gathered for recent court hearings in three other pending Berlusconi cases, all involving corruption and fraud allegations. Berlusconi’s critics held a protest in Rome Tuesday, planning an all-night vigil in the Italian capital against what they say is the premier’s attack on democracy. Prosecutors allege Berlusconi paid a 17year-old Moroccan girl known by her nickname Ruby for sex at his villa, then personally called police to have her released from custody when she was picked up for theft out of concern that she would reveal their relationship. Both the 74-year-old premier and Ruby, whose real name is Karima el-Mahroug, have each separately denied having sex. The underage prostitution charge carries a possible prison term of six months to three years. The abuse of power charge is even more dangerous: it carries a sentence of four Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon to 12 years, and if Berlusconi is sentenced to Daniel Nelson, sophomore in nursing, participates in a bowling class in the UC more than five, he would be barred from ever Down Under on March 8. The Down Under hosts Friday Frenzy, an event where stu- again holding public office. Legal experts and oddsmakers alike agree dents can get unlimited bowling and shoe rental for $4 starting at 5:30 p.m. or $5 that the case will be hard to prove. starting at 9:00 p.m. every Friday.
Bologna law professor Carlo Guarnieri says that convictions will require stronger evidence than what he has seen so far reported in newspapers, consisting mostly of wiretaps that allegedly place Ruby at Berlusconi’s villa outside of Milan, as well as testimony from a bevy of would-be starlets who participated in the raucous parties. In the abuse of power case, prosecutors must prove that there was an implication of a threat of retaliation, he said. “This is a case which is difficult to sustain in court. It is very likely that all these people involved will tell very different versions,” Guarnieri said. Ironclad evidence would be something like a videotape, Guarnieri said. So far, no reports of such has surfaced. Prosecutors allege that Berlusconi paid for sex 13 times with Ruby, who has since turned 18, during parties that started with dinner, then generated into seminude dancing after which Berlusconi would choose a sex partner. A new poll out Tuesday, shows Berlusconi’s popularity in steady decline. The premier enjoys just 33 percent approval, compared with 50 percent last May and down from nearly 36 percent in January and 41 percent in September, after the scandal broke. The poll by the ISPO agency for Corriere della Sera of 1,868 Italians from March 30-31 has a margin of error of 3.5 percent. Pollster Renato Mannheimer wrote that the erosion of public opinion can’t be pinned on any one event, but on various factors. Berlusconi’s leadership is under challenge from his unruly coalition partners, the Northern League. Italy has also failed to garner concrete support from its European partners to combat the influx of migrants fleeing political instability in northern Africa. In the face of sliding popularity, Berlusconi has said he intends to attend this and the other court cases against him in Milan. The premier showed up last week at a closed-door preliminary hearing in a tax fraud case, his first court appearance in more than eight years. The only images broadcast from the event showed a smiling premier greeting a hundred supporters who have set up camp outside of the courthouse. Ruby herself is being called as a witness for both the defense and the prosecution. Clooney was named on the list of defense witnesses because Ruby once said she had seen the Hollywood star at one of Berlusconi’s parties; the actor says he met with Berlusconi only once to get aid for Darfur. It will be up to the panel of three judges, all women, to decide if the testimony would be pertinent.