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Suicides another blow to camp's image
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Three captives hanged themselves with nooses fashioned from clothing and bedsheets Saturday -- the first detainees to die at this 4-year-old offshore detention center in America's war against terrorism.The reported suicides of two Saudi Arabian captives and another from Yemen are likely to increase international pressure on the Bush administration to close the controversial prison camps, which were set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
President Bush expressed ''serious concern'' over the deaths and moved quickly on the diplomatic front while his administration investigates, White House press secretary Tony Snow said.
The deaths come three weeks after a brawl and two attempted suicides at the center, where some detainees have been held without charges for up to 4 ½ years.
'Long'-term farmers
Brooks Long, 23, and his wife, Katie, have a 4 1/2-month-old son, Kaleb - the family's hope, so far, that the farm will be kept alive and running by a Long.
Saturday, to celebrate 175 years, Long DeLite Farm is hosting a large lunch for invited guests, including political dignitaries, followed by an open house for whomever wants to take a tour and pet the animals.
Brooks works with his father, Galen, 54, and his grandfather, Lawrence, who will turn 83 Saturday.
They have about 60 milking cows and 50 to 60 heifers, who won't be milked until they have their first calves, at about 2 years old.
The Longs also grow corn, barley and hay.
"You've got to want to farm," said Lawrence Long, who the family knows as Pap-pa, the clan's Mr.
Hobo family makes new commitment to Britt, museum
But when the new homeowners are longtime hobo friends of the community who are putting away their bindles and walking sticks to make a new commitment to the hobo museum, some people get pretty excited.Connecticut Shorty and N.Y. Maggie, sisters who travel the country working and sharing tales of hobos, are settling into their new home in Britt, where they will be able to devote more time to the museum fund-raiser."We're just thrilled," said Mary Jo Hughes. "We're moving ahead." Hughes is a board member of the Hobo Foundation and serves as treasurer. She and her sister Linda Hughes have been instrumental in the fund-raising efforts for the museum. But their efforts can only go so far and they gladly welcomed the offer of help from the hobo community. The current hobo museum is deteriorating rapidly, despite the best efforts of the foundation members who oversee a century of hobo collections displayed in the building.Taureano Johnson cut from CABA team
In a suprise decision the adminstration of the Amateur Boxing Federation of The Bahamas (ABFB) has cut one of its elite fighters from the team that will compete in the Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association (CABA) Championships in Trinidad & Tobago. The fighter was also cut from the CAC team that's expected to travel to Cartegena, Colombia this July. President of the ABFB Wellington Miller told the Nasasu Guardian on Thursday that the decision to exclude welterweight boxing sensation Tureano Johnson from the team came as a result of what they considered to be "disrecpetful behaviour" displayed by the 22-year-old fighter. "This decision made wasn't because of something that just happened recently," Miller explained. "We've had problems with Taureano in the past. He's been disrespectful to the coaches and members of the ABFB administrators," he said.
Privatization of eligibility services might be delayed for months
Federal reviews of documents and other factors will delay - possibly for months - the state's plan to outsource the application process for food stamps, Medicaid and other government safety-net programs.The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration originally hoped to turn over the application process to private vendors with the start of the new state fiscal year this month. Instead, it will wait for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve the estimated $1 billion contract, or else it would risk the loss of USDA funding for some of the costs.
That's good news for some critics who have argued FSSA was rushing into the outsourcing plan with little deliberation over how it could affect approximately one in six Indiana residents.
The USDA administers food stamps, which are among the benefits received by those 1 million people.
A daughter's pledge
Kristie Gronkoski tempers extreme frustration over the unsolved murders of her mother and uncle with three constant thoughts: Someone knows about it. Sooner or later, they'll talk. And, the sooner, the better.Her message to that person is, "Clear your conscience. Help us and help yourself."
Gronkoski has pledged a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the fatal shootings of Geneva Gordon and David Garriga on Nov. 9, 2004, in Gulfport.
Nearly 20 months have passed since their bodies were found in Garriga's vehicle in a grassy area between Cowan-Lorraine Road and Creel Circle.
"In broad daylight!" Gronkoski exclaimed in an interview in her Biloxi home. "How could no one have not seen or heard anything?"
Gordon, one of 13 siblings, was 64.