State park problems in Texas turn political
AUSTIN - With crumbling facilities, staffing shortages and reduced hours of operations at some sites, the 600,000-acre Texas state park system has become one of the hot political issues in the November election.
Candidates for governor are chiming in and state lawmakers are gearing up for what is sure to be a push for a major budget boost to get the state's canyons, rivers and trail parks cleaned, opened and restored to levels the public demands.
On Thursday, the State Parks Advisory Committee will recommend spending an extra $85.4 million each year to help with operations, repairs, buying more land and other items, according to figures presented last week to the Legislature by the state Parks and Wildlife Department.
"I like what I hear," said Beth McDonald, president of the Texans for State Parks advocacy group that launched a grassroots campaign early this year to push for more money. "The parks system helps people connect to the state, connect with nature, rejuvenate and relax."
Like other state agencies, park operations have been snared in the budget constraints that had lawmakers juggling how to pay for schools, nursing homes and medical insurance and care for children and the poor, among other priority items.
At some parks, officials eliminated overnight camping, closed swimming pools and limited use of recreational facilities and boat ramps.
Cuts included staff layoffs and at some parks, crews stripped parts off old cars and lawnmowers for repairs.
But park enthusiasts pushed back, demanding that the state be a better steward of public land. In January, McDonald predicted a "statewide uprising" on the issue.Verdicts for Saddam and seven co-defendants are expected in that case Oct. 16. He faces a possible execution by hanging if convicted, although he has the right to appeal, a process that could take months.
The 1987-88 Operation Anfal was aimed at crushing independence-minded Kurdish militias and clearing all Kurds from the northern region along the border with Iran. Saddam accused the Kurds of helping Iran in its war with Iraq.
Survivors say many villages were razed and countless young men disappeared.
"It's time for humanity to know ... the magnitude and scale of the crimes committed against the people of Kurdistan," the lead prosecutor, Munqith al-Faroon, said in his opening statement.
"Entire villages were razed to the ground, as if killing the people wasn't enough," he said, displaying photos of dead mothers and children. "Wives waited for their husbands, families waited for their children to return, but to no avail."
The prosecution also accuses the army of using prohibited mustard gas and nerve agents in the campaign, and a map of northern Iraq in the courtroom had red stickers on locations where the weapons were allegedly used. The trial does not deal with the most notorious gassing, the March 1988 attack on Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds. That incident will be part of a separate investigation by the Iraqi High Tribunal.
Saddam became furious Monday when prosecutors spoke of Kurdish women being raped in prison during the campaign.
"I can never accept the claim that an Iraqi woman was raped while Saddam is president," he shouted, banging on a podium in front of him and pointing a finger at the prosecutors. "How could I walk with my head up?"
"An Iraqi woman raped while Saddam is the leader?" he bellowed over and over in a rage. He said that during the 1990 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, he heard a soldier raped an Arab woman, so he ordered him tried and then hanged "for three days at the site of the crime."
It was one of the few outbursts in a session that was generally calm and businesslike, unlike the many arguments and disturbances of the Dujail trial. After a nearly five-hour session, the trial adjourned until Tuesday.
If a death sentence in the Dujail trial is upheld on appeal while the Anfal case is still being tried, Iraqi law allows for the sentence to be carried out against Saddam, while the case would continue against the other defendants. Tribunal officials, however, have been unclear whether the second trial would be completed.
Searchers comb site after Russian jet crash
SUKHA BALKA, Ukraine - Investigators focused Wednesday on weather conditions, including lightning and turbulence, as the possible cause of the crash of a Russian jetliner in a swampy field in eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people aboard.
Stunned relatives mourned the victims of the third airline catastrophe this year in the former Soviet Union, raising new concerns about the state of the Russian aviation industry.
Searchers found the two flight recorders amid the blackened debris of the Pulkovo Airlines Tu-154 jetliner, Transport Minister Mykola Rudkovsky said. The discovery raised hopes that authorities would also soon determine what sent the aircraft into its doomed dive Tuesday.
Experts ruled out terrorism and officials have focused on weather conditions.
Rudkovsky said that weather had been severe at the time. The storm brought heavy wind and rain to the Donetsk region, 400 miles southeast of Kiev, temporarily knocking out power to some residents and turning the sky so dark that street lights automatically switched on.
Other officials suggested the plane might have been struck by lightning, or hit strong turbulence, causing the 39-year-old pilot to lose control.
Mykola Kulbida, head of Ukraine's meteorology center, was quoted by the Kommersant newspaper as saying that strong cumulonimbus clouds reached as high as 42,000 to 47,000 feet, which meant planes would have no alternative but to pass through them.The accident came just over a month after 43 people were killed when a subway train derailed in downtown Valencia in eastern Spain. That accident, the worst for a subway system in Spain, was blamed on excessive speed.Faheem Williams' decomposed body was found stuffed in a basement storage bin three years ago, and his twin and half brother were discovered living in squalor and filth. The case generated national outrage and led to an overhaul of New Jersey's child welfare agency.
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