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Toyota says it will pay record fine
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By The Associated Press
big gAmES St. Al faces Sumrall; PCA heads to Heidelberg b1
WEATHEr Tonight: Cloudy; low near 48 Tuesday: Mostly sunny; high near 72 Mississippi River:
36.3 feet Fell: 0.8 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
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DEATHS • Frank Excel Marley Sr. • Don Alan Smith Sr.
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ToDAY in HiSTorY 1775: The American Revolutionary War begins with the battles of Lexington and Concord. 1897: The first Boston Marathon is held; winner John J. McDermott ran the course in two hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds. 1910: After weeks of being viewed through telescopes, Halley’s Comet is reported visible to the naked eye in Curacao. 1933: The United States goes off the gold standard. 1951: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his Far East command by President Harry S. Truman, bids farewell in an address to Congress in which he quoted a line from a ballad: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” 1982: Astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. become the first woman and first African-American to be tapped for U.S. space missions. 1993: The 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends as fire destroys the structure after federal agents begin smashing their way in; dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, were killed.
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onlinE www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 128 NUMBER 109 2 SECTIONS
merediTh spencer•The Vicksburg PosT
Australian Yvonne Mitchell shows off some of the souvenirs from her trip to Vicksburg and the area.
Aussie comes north to enjoy the South By Everett Bexley ebexley@vicksburgpost.com From Down Under to the Deep South, Australian Yvonne Mitchell has come to Vicksburg for what she calls “the trip of a lifetime.” Mitchell’s three-week trip began March 29 and will come to a close Tuesday, as she returns home to Kingsley, Western Australia. However, the first steps leading to her visit began much earlier. Where becoming “pen pals” was once popular, social networking on the Internet allows instant communication anywhere in the world. “Two and half years ago, I met Tammy Davenport on Facebook through some mutual friends. We
started talking often and soon realized our similar interests and similar careers,” Mitchell said. Mitchell manages a physical rehab center in Australia, and Davenport operates Good Samaritan in Vicksburg. Facebook is less than four years old and has millions of users around the world. Last October, Mitchell made the decision to come to Mississippi to stay with and meet her Facebook friend face-to-face. Also within Mississippi was another interest of hers — music. “I used to be a singer, and my 18-year-old daughter, Zoe, is in a band,” Mitchell said. “I had heard of the South’s great music, but now I’ve found out how awesome
the talent really is.” To experience that talent first hand, Davenport and Mitchell went on a couple of mini-trips together. First to New Orleans, where Mitchell said she accomplished “loads of shopping” and got to experience the Saints mania head on. She said, “We watched some of the games and everyone was hollering about something, but I didn’t know why, so I just hollered, too.” Then, from March 10 to March 13, they went to Memphis. While there, Mitchell said she did even more shopping and visited Graceland, Sun Studios, Gibson Guitar
WASHINGTON — Toyota Motor Corp. agreed today to pay a record $16.4 million fine for failing to properly notify federal authorities about a dangerous accelerator pedal defect. The auto company said it had agreed to settle the civil penalty but denied the government’s allegation that it violated the law. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, announcing the largest-ever penalty paid by an automaker to the U.S. government, said that “by failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, Toyota put consumers at risk.” “I am pleased that Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly,” LaHood said, noting that the U.S. government was continuing to investigate “whether the company has lived up to all its disclosure obligations.” Toyota said it agreed to the penalty “to avoid a protracted dispute and possible litigation” but denied the government’s allegation that it violated the law. “We believe we made a good faith effort to investigate this condition and develop an appropriate countermeasure. We have acknowledged that we could have done a better job of sharing relevant information within our global operations and outside the company, but we did not try to hide a defect to avoid dealing with a safety problem,” Toyota said. The penalty is connected to a January recall of 2.3 million vehicles with sticking accelerator pedals. The government says Toyota knew about the problem in late September and failed
See Mitchell, Page A7. See Toyota, Page A7.
UK sends ships to get Britons held by ash
WHAT A WAY TO ROLL Caleb Watts, 12, finds an audience as he flies down First East Street on a skateboard Sunday afternoon. The weather was perfect for the kids, including Caleb’s 6-year-old brother, Steven, and 11-year-old sister, Corretta, pointing at him as he gets his thrills. All three are the children of Andre and Katrina Watts.
By The Associated Press LONDON — Britain today sent Royal Navy warships to rescue those stranded across the Channel by the volcanic ash cloud and the aviation industry blasted European officials, claiming there was “no coordination and no leadership” in the crisis that shut down most European airports for a fifth day. As airline losses spiraled over $1 billion, Eurocontrol, the air traffic agency in Brussels, said less than one-third of flights in Europe were taking off today — between 8,000 and 9,000 of the continent’s 28,000 scheduled flights. Airports in southern Europe were open, however, and Spain offered to become an emergency hub for the whole continent. In Iceland, meteorologists said eruptions from the volcano were weakening and the ash was no longer rising to a height where it would endanger large commercial aircraft. British Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis confirmed there has been a “dramatic reduction in volcanic activity.” Video still showed smoke billowing into the air from See Ash, Page A7.
merediTh spencer•The Vicksburg PosT
Four of five Americans don’t trust Washington By The Associated Press WASHINGTON — America’s “Great Compromiser” Henry Clay called government “the great trust,” but most Americans today have little faith in Washington’s ability to deal with the nation’s problems. Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10
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Americans say they don’t trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America’s ills, the survey found. The survey illustrates the ominous situation President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party face as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities in this fall’s elections. Midterm prospects are typically See Distrust, Page A7.
Frank J.
FISHER FUNERAL HOME
The associaTed Press
A man and a woman participate in the Tax Day tea protest in New York.
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