November 30. 2005
il’r^Inrtlanò öDbseruer
No Promise on Stronger Levees
(AP> — The White House’s top numerous points when it struck
hurricane-reliet adviser said Tues­ three months ago, killing more than
day he has not decided whether the 1,000 people.
Powell said he is gathering in­
federal government should pay to
make New Orleans' levees stronger formation from local and state
officials and will eventually rec­
than they were before Katrina.
Donald Powell declined to say ommend to the Bush adm inistra­
how long it would take before a tion whether the levees should
be s tre n g th e n e d to p ro te c t
decision is made.
Katrina, a Category 3 storm, against more pow erful Category
surged through the city’s levees at 4 or Category 5 storms.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco and other
Louisiana officials, as well as busi­
nesses and homeowners, have said
the levees must be improved to
protect against Category 5 storms
if the New Orleans metropolitan
area hopes to persuade people to
return.
Such improvements would re­
quire federal funding and would
take up to 30 years to complete.
Teacher Sabina Puri (left) greets former student Michael Bankston, 6, and his mother Hazel
Bankston, as students return to Benjamin Franklin Elementary school in New Orleans Monday, the
first regular public school to reopen since Hurricane Katrina hit three months ago. (AP photo)
Chisa Taylor
PCC Graduate,
Portland State University
Master’s in Social Work
WINTER REGISTRATION STARTS DECEMBER 1
www.pcc.edu | 503-977-4519
Portland
C om m unity
C ollege
We're all about your fu tu re
(AP) — After two years of trying, Ronald Coleman
was at last delivering his children Monday to one of
New Orleans’ best public schools - thanks in large
part to a catastrophe.
“It took Hurricane Katrina to get my children in a
good public school in Orleans Parish,' Coleman said
as he and his wife escorted their son and daughter into
Benjamin Franklin Elementary.
On Monday, Franklin Elementary became the first
regular public school in New Orleans to reopen since
Katrina devastated the city on Aug. 29.
Before the storm, Franklin was a magnet school
with selective enrollment forchildren with an aptitude
for math and science. But now, Franklin is open to
anyone in the city who wants to attend.
Welcome signs hung over the door and in the
hallways as students began trickling into the three-
story brick building in the Uptown section that was
largely spared by the storm. The building has a
capacity o f550, but only 210 students were registered
and only about 120 showed up.
For the students, the day opened with a breakfast
of granola bars, canned peaches and fruit juice in the
cafeteria, where Sabina Puri, a teacher in the school s
gifted program, had a tearful reunion with first-grader
Michael Bankston. She had taught him in kindergar­
ten last year and she had not heard from since his
family evacuated.
“He started crying and 1 started crying,” Puri said,
wiping away a tear as she sat next to Michael.
Some private schools in New Orleans began re­
opening in October, but no public schools had opened,
with the exception of two charter schools that are
outside the local board’s control.
Franklin’s opening was both a hopeful sign tor the
city’s recovery and a sign of the difficult road ahead
in re-populating the city.
At least 10 public schools are expected to open in
the coming weeks. Only about4,000to5,000 students
are expected to come back during the current school
year, out of a pre-Katrina public school enrollment of
close to 60,000.
One hurdle is the housing shortage. Puri and
second-grade teacher Ava Price both were left home­
less after Katrina. Puri is staying with friends, while
her husband and children remain in Texas. Price is
staying with an aunt.
Congressman Took Bribes
I believe in
(A P )-U .S . Rep. Randy “Duke”
Cunningham resigned Monday af­
ter admitting he took $2.4 million as
part of guilty pleas in a case that
grew from an investigation into the
sale of his California home to a
wide-ranging conspiracy involving
payments in cash, vacations and
antiques.
The Republican congressman
wiped away tears as he announced
his resignation outside federal
court in San Diego.
Authorities said Cunningham
steered defense contracts worth
tens of millions of dollars to the
people who bribed him.
Cunningham, 63, entered pleas
in U.S. D istrict Court to charges
o f conspiracy to com m it bribery,
mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax
evasion for underreporting his
U.S. Rep. ‘Duke' Cunningham
income in 2004.
He will be released on his own
recognizance until a Feb. 27 sen-
tencing hearing. He could receive a
maximum sentence of 10 years in
prison.
Virginia Man’s Life Spared
Being happy and healthy is most
important to me in life.
I maintajn faith and trust in myself.
Fear is not an option.
I am committed to being responsible
and productive in my community.
Cherrell - Positive since 2003
Visit my website and write to me!
(AP) — V irginia’s governor on
Tuesday spared the life o f a con­
victed killer, an African American
inmate who would have been the
1,000th person executed in the
United States since the Supreme
Court allowed capital punishment
to resume in 1976.
R obin L o v itt’s d eath se n ­
tence was com m uted to life in
prison w ithout parole a little
more than 24 hours before he
w as to be executed by in jection
W ednesday night for stabbing
a man to death w ith a pair o f
scissors during a 1998 pool-hall
robbery.
Ingrantingclemency.Gov. Mark
R. Warner noted that evidence had
been improperly destroyed after
Lovitt’s trial.
“The comm onwealth must en ­
sure that every time this ultim ate
sanction is carried out, it is done
fairly," W arner said in a state­
ment.
Warner, a Democrat, had never
before granted clemency to a death
row inmate during his four years in
office. During that time, 11 men
have been executed.
The 1,000th execution is now
scheduled for Friday in North Caro­
lina, where Kenneth Lee Boyd is
slated to die for killing his estranged
wife and her father.
Town Scraps Plans for King Statue
Money goes to
heating
assistance
HIUSTOPSUVITHME.ORG
After two years of wrangling
about what a statue of civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr. should
look like, a North Carolina town has
decided to scrap the project.
The Rocky Mount City Council
voted 4-2 Monday, to end negotia­
tions with a sculptor. The $45,000
funds that had been previously al­
located to the statute will be spent
on winter heating assistance and
other local needs instead.
"Whatever we do is going to
continue to be vilified." said Coun­
cilman Lamont Wiggins. “Other
than trying to build a consensus
that w on't be realized, I suggest we
spend our money on more pressing
issues facing the city."
The city block-sized memorial
park with a sculpture of King was
proposed several years ago.
The city, about an hour east of
Raleigh in North Carolina, prides
itself on its association with Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. On Nov. 27,
1962, he addressed people in a high
school gym, using for the first time
words he would rephrase the fol­
low ing A ugust in his fam ous
speech at the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington. "And so, my friends
of Rocky Mount. I have a dream
tonight," he said. “That one day,
right here in Rocky Mount, North
Carolina, the sons of former slaves
and the sons of former slave-own­
ers will meet at the table ot brother-