LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This is the manana
Congress. There’s always going to be a tomorrow.”
Rep. Jim Cooper,
D-Tenn., on Congress’ will to address fiscal problems Article, 1A
Wildfire warning didn’t reach 12%
CONIFER, Colo. - Some residents in the path of a Colorado wildfire weren’t warned to flee because of a problem in an automated call system that relayed a mandatory evacuation order, authorities said Thursday.
Officials said about 12 percent of the nearly 900 people that received evacuation notices in the path of the wildfire, apparently sparked by a prescribed burn that flared up, never got a call warning them to evacuate.
A software glitch with Jefferson County’s new automated call system was probably to blame, but officials were still reviewing what went wrong, sheriff’s spokesman Jacki Kelley said.
A couple found dead in the burn area - Sam Lamar Lucas, 77, and Linda M.
Lucas, 76, who was known by some of her friends as Moaneti Lucas - received an evacuation call, but it was not clear when, Kelley said. It was not yet known whether a woman from the fire area who’s still missing received an evacuation notice.
The fire has damaged or destroyed about 25 homes and blackened about 6 square miles in the mostly rural area southwest of Denver’s populous suburbs.
Walker recall vote
a go, talliers say
CHICAGO - Opponents of Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker have turned in enough signatures to force a recall election June 5, the staff of the board that reviewed the ouster petitions said.
If the recommendation is accepted today by the Government Accountability Board, a nonpartisan panel of former judges that will meet in Madison, Wis., then Walker, a 44-year-old Republican, will become only the third governor in U.S. history to face an ouster vote. The staff also said there were enough signatures to authorize a recall election of Lt.
Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, also a Republican.
The board’s staff said in an e-mailed statement that recall supporters turned in 900,938 valid signatures against Walker, and 808,990 against Kleefisch. A minimum of 540,208 is required.
A primary will be held May 8 to determine who will run against Walker, Kleefisch and state senators whose recall votes were previously authorized.
The recall campaign began in February 2011 after Republicans pushed through the Legislature restrictions on collective bargaining that cover most public employees.
Militia head, son admit having gun
DETROIT - A Michigan militia leader and his son pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing a machine gun.
Hutaree leader David Stone rocked in a chair at the defense table after pleading guilty and told reporters he was a “stand-up true American patriot” whose anti-government comments and bravado about wanting to kill police were not a call to attack the United States.
He and six militia members were cleared Tuesday of conspiracy charges.
Gun charges were all that remained for him and Joshua Stone, 23, both from Lenawee County, Mich., after U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said prosecutors in six weeks had failed to present evidence of a specific plan to go to war against law enforcement and federal authorities.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 03/30/2012