8/8/2019 Together in life ... and death
1/1
Complaints focuson landlord; mayinclude CinramBy CHALLEN
STEPHENSTimes Staff [email protected]
The Fair Housing Center ofNorthern Alabama and theNAACP have
begun investi-gating the living conditions of
more than 1,000 foreign work-ers who pack DVDs into boxesat
Cinrams plant in northeastHuntsville.
Its still an ongoing investi-gation to see what fair housinglaws
have been violated, saidJerry Burnet, chair of the statehousing
committee for theNAACP, who visited apart-ments of several
Jamaicanworkers last week.
Landlords were chargingsome of the people $300 perbed, in what
he called roach-infested apartments, he said.Theyve got a little
small bed,like you have in a barracks, andthey were putting three
in eachroom.
The apartments in questionare owned by about 20 indi-viduals
here, and conditions varygreatly. Burnet said complaints
so far seemed to focus on a sin-gle landlord.
Truitt Evans, enforcement co-ordinator for the Fair
HousingCenter of Northern Alabama,accompanied Burnet last week.A
nonprofit located in Birm-ingham, the Fair Housing Cen-ter examines
complaints of dis-criminatory housing practices
Localttorney General Troy King
touts an underage drinkingrevention program Thurs-ay to children
in the age
group where the problemften starts. B1
fter a dozen years in stor-age, the Geode sculpturence displayed
downtown
as found a new home atAH. B1
StateLawyers are scheduled toselect an 18-member jurypanel today
to hear the evi-dence in the capital murdertrial of Daniel Wade
oore. B2
he Alabama Senate hasone little through the first
two weeks of the 2008 leg-slative session due to parti-an
tension carried overrom last years fractious
eeting. B2
Nationman dressed in black
opens firewith a shotgunand two handguns from astage of a
lecture hall at
orthern Illinois Universi-ty, killing five people. A3
FEMA says it will rush tomove Gulf Coast hurricanevictims out of
roughly35,000 government-issuedtrailers because tests found
angerous levels oformaldehyde fumes. A4
World
Thechief of Hezbollah tellssupporters at a funeral forslain
commander Imad
ughniyeh his group willretaliate against Israeli tar-gets.
A5
InVladimir Putins valedicto-ry presidential news con-erence, he
claimed creditor Russias rise from the
ashes. A5
Huntsville, AlabamaVol. 98, No. 330, 44 pagesContents 2008, The
Huntsville Times
bby/C6
ridge/C6
usiness/B6
Classifieds/D1Comics/C7
Crosswordpuzzles/C6, D6
Cryptoquote/C6
Deaths/B3
Editorials/A6
Horoscope/C6
Life/C1
Lotteries/A2Movies/C8
People/C6
Sports/E1
Sudoku/D10
Television/E8
Whats inside
Forecast:Cloudy.
Full weather, E8
Dow
- 175.26Nasdaq- 41.35
S&P 500- 18.35
High today
55Low tonight
38
Classifieds: 532-4222WE BREAK MORE NEWS AT FRIDAY / FEBRUARY 15
/ 2008
Sparkmanwins overHuntsville.
E1A pastor, a puppy and
the Appalachian Trail. C1
Business
SportsSpots for Sundays 50th Day-tona 500 are scarce. A num-ber
of famous names are
esperately trying to makethe field, some against greatdds.
E1
hen it comes to turningaround the troubled econo-my, many people
have con-idence Ben Bernanke andis Federal Reserve col-
eagues can get the jobdone. B6
Huntsville Times
Huntsville annexationsin Limestone County
BalchRd.
Mill Rd.
565
S
N
S
N
72
Hardim
an
Rd.
Old Highway 20
BurgreenRd.
HendersonRd.
Madison
Huntsville
Madis
onBlvd.
Browns Ferry Rd.
Powell Rd.
CountyLineRd.
173 acres
110 acres
LIMESTON
ECOUNTY
MADISONCOUNTY
Council acts aheadof proposed hurdle
to annexationsBy JOHN PECKTimes Staff
[email protected]
Huntsvilles city limits took amajor leap west Thursday withtwo
large annexations in Lime-stone County.
The City Council rushed theannexation approvals throughThursday
night, adding nearly300 acres along two major
highways.
The city of Madison did a sim-ilar rush vote Monday to
annex1,400 acres in Limestone Coun-ty.
City Council President GlennWatson said quick approval
wasnecessary to keep ahead of a billin Montgomery that wouldmake it
harder for cities toannex property in LimestoneCounty. City
Planning DirectorDallas Fanning said the legisla-tion prompted
Huntsville-seek-
Grant police chiefkiller guilty; given
two life sentencesBy DAVID BREWERTimes Staff
[email protected]
GUNTERSVILLE - BrianButler is expected to be trans-ferred soon
from the MarshallCounty Jail in Guntersville toKilby state prison
in Mont-gomery to serve two life sen-tences for the 2003
shootingdeath of Grant Police Chief Ver-lon Lemaster and for trying
tokill former Madison CountySheriff s Investigator MarkAdams.
Circuit Judge Tim Jolley or-dered the sentences to be
served consecutively withoutthe possibility of parole after
ajury Thursday afternoon foundButler guilty of capital murderand
attempted murder. In an-nouncing the sentence, Jolleysuggested that
Butler, 22, de-
served the ultimate punish-ment.Its unfortunate, because of
your age, that the death penal-ty was not an option, he
toldButler as he stood next to hislawyer, Bruce Gardner
ofHuntsville. Butlers face had thesame blank look hed main-tained
throughout the two-week trial.
A U.S. Supreme Court rul-ing prevented Butler from re-
Antwan, Fredrick,victims of violence,are now at peaceBy NIKI
DOYLETimes Staff [email protected]
Beneath the grief manifest-ed in the wails of family mem-bers as
they collapsed into eachothers arms there was anger.
And confusion.Why did God take these two
little boys so soon? What is hisplan for the families of
10-year-old Antwan Green and 13-year-old Fredrick Thomas Jr.,
stabbedto death in their mothers GalaxyWay apartment a week
ago?
The Rev. John B. Townsendsaid he believes its a sign thatGod
wants the community totake action and not allow this tohappen
again.
We will be-come ourbrothers keep-er, he said dur-ing the
boysfuneral Thurs-day. That isthe first lessonthat Fredrickand
Antwan learned.
Some acts are not acceptable.... We have to say that were
not
going to abide by this anymore.We are not going to return
vio-lence with violence.
Townsends appeal went tothree peoples families to thatof Tiffany
Courtney, the motherof the two boys who was nearlystabbed to death
herself; to thatof Fredrick Thomas Sr., the fa-ther of the oldest
boy; and to thatof Kishon Green, the youngestboys father, who now
sits in a jailcell facing attempted murder andtwo capital murder
charges.
This tragedy marred threefamilies, Townsend said, andnow is a
time to come togetherand put faith in the Lord.
We will not return hate for
hate, said Townsend, the boysgreat uncle. I prayed and
toiledover this. God has a greater pur-pose here.
Family members cried out theboys names and clung to
theircoffins. Murmurs of too soonblended with pleas and praise to
God in a two-hour servicededicated to both God and two
Icy hot Valentines Day
In todaysTimes
DavidPerson col-umn, A6.
Risk to humansfrom toxic fuelcited as reasonBy LOLITA C.
BALDORThe Associated Press
WASHINGTON Presi-dent Bush has ordered the Pen-tagon to use a
Navy missile toattempt to destroy a broken
U.S. spy satellite and there-by minimize the risk to humansfrom
its toxic fuel by inter-cepting it just before it re-en-ters the
atmosphere, officialssaid Thursday.
The effort the first of itskind will be undertaken be-cause of
the potential that peo-ple in the area where the satel-lite would
otherwise crashcould be harmed, the officials
said.Deputy National Security
Adviser James Jeffrey, briefingreporters at the Pentagon, didnot
say when the attempted in-tercept would be conducted,but the
satellite is expected tohit Earth during the first weekof
March.
Gen. James Cartwright, vicechairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff,
said at the same briefingthat the window of opportu-nity for such a
shootdown, pre-sumably to be launched froma Navy ship, will open in
thenext three or four days and lastfor seven or eight days. He
didnot say whether the Pentagonhas decided on an exact
launchdate.
Cartwright said this will bean unprecedented effort; hewould not
say exactly what are
the odds of success. After extensive study and
analysis, U.S. officials came tothe conclusion that, were
bet-ter off taking the attempt thannot, Cartwright said.
He said a Navy missileknown as Standard Missile 3would be fired
in an attempt tointercept the satellite just beforeit re-enters
Earths atmosphere.It would be next to impossi-
ble to hit the satellite after that because of atmospheric
dis-turbances, Cartwright said.
A second goal, he said, is todirectly hit the fuel tank in
orderto minimize the amount of fuelthat returns to Earth.
Cartwright also said that if aninitial shootdown attempt fails,a
decision will be made whetherto take a second shot.
Antwan Green
The Associated Press
Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Gen. James Cartwright, center,flanked
by Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey,left, and NASA
Administrator Michael Griffin at a news confer-ence Thursday.
FredrickThomas Jr.
Glenn Baeske/Huntsville Times
Mathew Wright, left, and Jennifer Harris of Huntsville look at
icicles while on a Valentines Day hike at Monte Sano State
Park.Temperatures are forecast in the 50s today, but clouds are
expected to cover the area.
Please seeHOUSING onA8
Workers housing probed
Please seeTOGETHER onA8
Pentagon hopes missilewill down spy satellite
Togetherin life ...and death
Please seeTRIAL onA7
Its unfortunate deathpenalty not an option,Butler trial judge
says
Please seeLEAP onA7
Huntsvillemakes leap
westward
