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MONDAY November 19, 2012
Basketball Preview Page B2 DeKalb has makings of big year
NCAA Football Page B1 Notre Dame ranked No. 1
Weather Partly sunny today, high 55. Mostly cloudy tonight through Tuesday night. Page A6
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GOOD MORNING Meeting to address suicide pact rumor GARRETT — A meeting is planned tonight at 6 in the Garrett High School Performing Arts Center to brief parents about what school officals call an “unfounded rumor” about a suicide pact in Garrett Middle school, said Superintendent Dennis Stockdale. Last week, NewsChannel 15 reported that several parents had expressed concern about a suicide pact in messages to the station. Their children told the parents that in the rumored pact, a different child each week would pledge to attempt suicide, continuing until Christmas break. Stockdale confirmed that two students recently attempted suicide, but they survived and are receiving appropriate help, NewsChannel 15 reported.
Jindal: GOP must go back to basics WASHINGTON (AP) — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says the Republican Party needs to go back to basics to attract the broad coalition of voters credited with putting President Barack Obama back in the White House. Kindergarten basics. “If we want people to like us, we have to like them first,” Jindal said on Fox News Sunday. Former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez has a more nuts-and-bolts approach to bringing in some of the largest and fastest growing groups of Americans: He’s forming a super PAC to support Republican candidates who back comprehensive immigration reform, including legalizing the status of an estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. without authorization. The 2012 elections drove home trends that have been embedded for years in the fine print of birth and death rates, immigration statistics and census charts. Nonwhites made up 28 percent of the electorate this year, compared with 20 percent in 2000, with Hispanics comprising much of that growth. Obama captured a commanding 80 percent of the growing ranks of nonwhite voters in 2012, just as he did in 2008.
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Index
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Classifieds...............................B7-B8 Life...................................................A5 Obituaries.......................................A4 Opinion ...........................................B5 Sports.......................................B1-B4 Weather..........................................A6 TV/Comics.....................................B6 Vol. 100 No. 320
Children among dead in Gaza
DAVE KURTZ
Leaders of the National Auto & Truck Museum in Auburn watch a ceremonial burning of its mortgage Sunday afternoon. In front, from left,
are Larry Dent, former executive director; Don Grogg, current executive director; and John Pontius, president of the museum’s board.
Museum burns mortgage BY DAVE KURTZ dkurtz@kpcnews.net
AUBURN — “I’ve been wanting to do this for 15 years,” Larry Dent said with delight in his voice Sunday afternoon. Dent was watching the mortgage for the National Auto & Truck Museum go up in flames in a ceremony outside the museum on Auburn’s south side. Dent called it a great day for the museum — and the occasion owed a lot to him. The museum recently paid more than $300,000 to retire its mortgage. About $200,000 of it came from the sale of a Ford GT prototype donated by Dent, a former executive director of the museum. “Of all the museums” in Auburn, Dent said, “we’re the least likely to be debt-free, and yet we were able to do it because of the people who volunteered and donated things.” The museum earned most of the $300,000 last Labor Day weekend by selling Dent’s car, an antique fire engine and one other vehicle in the Worldwide Auctioneers sale, housed inside the museum for the first time. John Kruse of Worldwide Auctioneers donated a meal for several dozen people attending Sunday’s mortgage celebration. Kruse thanked the museum’s board for seeing the potential of playing host to his company’s collector car auction. “Everybody thus far has been very pleased” by the auction, Kruse said. “We’re very excited about the future and being able to partner with you.” Kruse added, “Our goal is that the museum is here long after all of us are not.” The museum occupies the last two remaining factory buildings of the Auburn Automobile Co. Its founders, the late John Martin
DAVE KURTZ
This 1952 Chevrolet on display at the National Auto & Truck Museum was used in the movie ”Hoosiers.” Volunteers will take it to southern Indiana today for a ceremony opening a new segment of I-69.
Smith, Dean Kruse and the late Delmar Johnson, purchased the buildings in 1988 and formed a nonprofit corporation to save them. The museum opened in 1994. Today, the museum displays 176 vehicles, almost evenly divided between cars and trucks, in 105,000 square feet of exhibit space on two floors. “We’ve come a long way. A long way to go, too,” said executive director Don Grogg. “We still have a long road and exciting road ahead of us,” said museum president John Pontius of Auburn. Pontius listed recent improvements at the museum, including the recent opening of 7,200 square feet of exhibit space on the lower level, protected by flood-prevention measures funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Pontius and his family members wore shirts bearing the museum’s new logo with its shorter name —
replacing the original name of National Automotive and Truck Museum of the United States. Pontius and Grogg both expressed appreciation for the museum’s volunteers, who supplement its five part-time paid employees. “There’s no way you could run this with five part-time people — without the volunteers,” Grogg said. Approximately 150 volunteers for the museum worked approximately 3,000 hours last year, said board member Belva Meyer. Two volunteers will take one of the museum’s most special cars on a road trip today. A 1952 Chevrolet driven by actor Gene Hackman in the movie “Hoosiers” will be at the opening of a new segment of I-69 in southern Indiana, near the setting for the film. Several cast members are expected to attend, along with Indiana basketball legend Bobby Plump, the real-life hero of the story on which the movie is based.
Obama visits Thailand temple BANGKOK (AP) — Leaving behind chants of “Obama, Obama” by adoring crowds on the streets, the president of the United States stepped into the serenity of Thailand’s most famous temple compound to marvel at its centerpiece — a gigantic, golden statue of a reclining Buddha propped up on one elbow before passing into nirvana. The Temple of Reclining Buddha, formally known as Wat Pho, was the first stop on President Barack Obama’s Asian tour that will also take him to Myanmar and Cambodia. Obama arrived at the temple, one of Bangkok’s most famous tourist sites, straight from the airport after landing in Bangkok on Sunday. Visits to see the king and the Thai prime minister were saved for later. Observing traditional custom, Obama took off his shoes as a SEE THAILAND, PAGE A6
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli missile ripped through a two-story home in a residential area of Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 11 civilians, including four young children and an 81-year-old woman, in the single deadliest attack of Israel’s offensive against Islamic militants. The bloodshed was likely to raise pressure on Israel to end the fighting, even as it pledged to intensify the offensive by striking the homes of wanted militants. High numbers of civilian casualties in an offensive four years ago led to fierce criticism and condemnation of Israel. In all, 73 Palestinians, including 37 civilians, have been killed in the five-day onslaught. Three Israeli civilians have also died from Palestinian rocket fire. President Barack Obama said he was in touch with players across the region in hopes of halting the fighting, while also warning of the risks of Israel expanding its air assault into a ground war. “We’re going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours,” Obama said during a visit in Thailand. On the ground, there were no signs of any letup in the fighting as Israel announced it was widening the offensive to target the military commanders of the ruling Hamas group. The Israeli military carried out dozens of airstrikes throughout the day, and naval forces bombarded SEE STRIKES, PAGE A6
‘Fiscal cliff’ fix still a challenge WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s entirely possible that lawmakers and the White House will reach a deal that staves off an avalanche of tax increases and deep cuts in government programs before a Jan. 1 deadline. To do so, however, they’ll have to resolve deep political and fiscal disagreements that have stymied them time after time despite repeated promises to overcome them. For many economists, corporate leaders and politicians, it’s unconscionable to let the government veer over the “fiscal cliff,” which could drain $500 billion from the still-struggling economy next year. But even President Barack Obama says it could happen. “Obviously we can all imagine a scenario where we go off the fiscal cliff,” the president said last week. The likeliest cause, he suggested, would be “too much stubbornness in Congress,” especially on the issue of taxes. Many Republicans in Congress counter that it’s Obama who is too unyielding. The knottiest issues facing the White House and congressional negotiators include:
Tax rates
AP
In this photo released by Thailand’s Royal Household Bureau, U.S. President Barack Obama, left, talks with Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, right, at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday.
Obama campaigned on a pledge to end the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for households making more than $250,000 a year. Republican leaders say the lower rates from 2001 and 2003 SEE CLIFF, PAGE A6