7/29/2019 Skeen Reelection

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119 years serving

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Waco Tribune-HeraldThursday, Oct. 13, 2011Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011the Heart of Texas

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Tension betweenSaudi Arabia

and Iran alwayshas been high

as the rivalnations struggleto dominate the

Middle East.

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THE COLLEGEMARKSMAN

Brad Drango

He walked away with astuffed animal but only fora water gun game.

Staff photos Duane A. Laverty

City of Waco police officer Clayton Williams plays a gameknown as Shoot Out The Star or Machine Gun Fun at the

Heart O Texas Fair & Rodeo. Williams and two other sharp-shooters tested the difficulty of shooting games at the fair.

Taking 100 shots at winning

The Heart O Texas Fair & Rodeomight call to your inner cowboy. Butbe warned. If you try the gun games

on the midway, you are likely to feel more

like a city slicker than a sharpshooter.To gauge whether the typical fairgoer

has half a shot at winning such games,the Tribune-Herald recruited three localmarksmen to give them a try. From a highschool student who shoots competitivelyto a police officer who has won awards forhis sniper skills, the participants broughtserious game.

But in the end, only one of the recruitstook home a fuzzy prize. Shooting skill, itseems, has little to do with winningcarnival games.

By Cindy V. CulpTribune-Herald staff writer

Area marksmen find rifle skillsmean little when it comesto HOT Fair competitions

HEART O TEXAS FAIR & RODEO

See SHOOT, Page 6A

Skeento seekanother4 years

Ignoring pleas from the leaders ofboth of McLennan Countys politicalparties, County Tax Assessor-CollectorBuddy Skeen announced Wednesdayhe will seek four more years in officein 2012.

Skeen said his family encouragedhim to run again, de-spite an ongoing TexasRangers investigation,as well as news ar-ticles about his hiringpractices, the workenvironment in hisoffice and incidentswhere he sold govern-

ment-owned trucks atmarked down prices toassociates.

In a statement sent to the Tribune-Herald, Skeen said another term willallow him to fulfill all of my obliga-tions and to erase all allegations to-ward me so that I will be able to vindi-cate myself.

Skeen, who took office in 1989, wrotethe statement like a direct appeal tovoters.

You have to understand that in23 years billions of dollars have beenin my control and been distributed toeach entity in an efficient and timelymanner, he said.

By Michael W. ShapiroTribune-Herald staff writer

See SKEEN, Page 3A

Skeen

Nigerian man

pleads guiltyin bomb plot

DETROIT A Nigerian man pleadedguilty Wednesday to trying to bringdown a jetliner with a bomb in hisunderwear, defiantly telling a federal

judge that he acted in retaliation forthe killing of Muslims worldwide andreferring to the failed explosive as ablessed weapon.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, whoacknowledged working for al-Qaidaand never denied the allegations, en-tered the plea against his attorneys ad-vice on the second day of his trial.

He faces a mandatory life sentence

By Ed WhiteAssociated Press

See AIRLINE, Page 6A

Texanswelcome

rain as dryspell eases

LUBBOCK Rainfall acrossa large swath of parched Texasduring the past week snapped aseven-month streak of precipita-tion levels that were among eachmonths 10 driest on record, aNational Weather Service mete-orologist said Wednesday.

Thankfully, it did rain. Was itexpected? No. Aberration? Yes.Will we take it? Absolutely,said Victor Murphy, who esti-mated that Texas got an averageof about 2 inches of rain in the

past week or so.The rain was unusual for this

time of year, Murphy said. Anupper level system moved farenough east to pick up moisturefrom the Gulf of Mexico before itturned north, he said.

By Betsy BlaneyAssociated Press

See RAIN, Page 6A

State park faces long recovery

BASTROP Todd McClana-han surveys the fire-blackenedtree trunks poking out of a thickcarpet of ash, a normally greenworld turned black and gray.

You should have seen it incolor, said McClanahan, super-intendent of Bastrop State Park,mentioning a phrase repeatedin Jamey Johnsons award-win-ning country song In Color.

The park, one of the mostpopular in Texas, was ravagedwhen wind-whipped wildfiresscorched 50 square miles east ofAustin last month.

The blazes destroyed more

than 1,500 homes and torchedswaths of the parks signatureLost Pines forest that maynever fully recover.

Rather than a lush greenbrush under a canopy of tow-ering pines, McClanahan saidmuch of the park has becomemoonscape in some spots,

for as far as the eye can see.Its really kind of depress-

ing, McClanahan said as heevaluates the parks remainsfrom his pickup truck.

More than a month after theinferno, the extent of the dam-age still is being determined, butMcClanahan said about 70 per-

cent of the trees in the park werelost. Texas Parks and WildlifeDepartment crews are clearingburned tree trunks away fromroads and campsites and hikingtrails so when the park reopens

tentatively set for December

By Michael GraczykAssociated Press

Official says Lost Pinesmay never fully bounce

back from inferno

See BASTROP, Page 6A

Associated Press Paul Sullivan

Dead trees in the Bastrop State Park are marked withorange paint for removal. The park lost about 70 percent ofits trees during this summers wildfires.

BASTROP WILDFIRE

THE WACOPOLICE OFFICER

Clayton Williams

Even this trophy-winningsniper couldnt conquer theShoot Out the Star game.

THE JUNIOR ROTCSHOOTER

James Chesley

It didnt take long for thisquick study to figure outthe gun sights are way off.

THE SHARPSHOOTERS

7/29/2019 Skeen Reelection

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011 WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD 3A

In 23 years I have touchedyour grandparents lives, Ihave touched your familieslives and now I am dealingwith your children.

On the same day of Skeensannouncement, an opponentalso stated his intention to seekthe Republican nomination.

Jeff Nickell, a real estateagent and former Waco PoliceDepartment detective, said ina news release that Skeen haslost touch with the county andis constantly putting his inter-ests before those of the peoplehe was elected to serve.

He is under investigationby the Texas Rangers after heavoided paying sales tax on apersonal truck purchase; he

has had several questionablereal estate dealings; and hisoffice sells discounted govern-ment vehicles to his friends,Nickell said.

Nickell questioned Skeensdecision to stay on in countygovernment.

We need to remove thecloud thats hanging overthe (tax) office, and it seemsas though everyone realizesthat except for Buddy Skeen,

he said.Skeens longtime campaign

treasurer, Jim Hawkins, still

carries that title, though hehas recently criticized Skeenpublicly.

Hawkins said Wednesdayhe didnt realize he was stillaffiliated with the campaign.He said he plans to resign.

He hasnt called me to de-fend himself, Hawkins saidof Skeen, but Ive pretty wellmade up my mind and thereisnt any way Im going to beable to stay with him.

Skeen who was elected as aDemocrat in 1988, announcedduring the summer that hehad filed paperwork to be-come a Republican.

As the Rangers investiga-tion progressed and othercounty officials scrutinizedSkeens conduct, both theDemocratic and Republicanparty chairs have called for

Skeen to step down.In what appears to be a re-

sponse to his critics, Skeenclaimed Wednesday that thepublic supports him over-whelmingly.

Do not let the 10 percent ofunhappy people control the90 percent of good happy peo-ple that believe in me, he said,adding, See you at the polls.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com757-5707

SKEENFrom Page 1A

Suicidebombers,

explosions kill25 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD Attacksaimed at Iraqi police,including two in whichassailants slammedexplosives-packed carsinto police stations, killed

25 people Wednesdayand maimed dozens inthe worst violence in thecapital since August.

Less than three monthsbefore American troopsare to leave Iraq, theblasts were a brutalexample of the challengesIraqi security forces willface as they assumesole responsibility forcontaining terror groupssuch as al-Qaida.

The blasts were aimedat the police.

In the southernKarradah neighborhood,a suicide car bomb attackon a police station killed13 people and wounded25, Baghdad policeofficials said.

Smoke rose from the

blast site as ambulancesrushed to the scene,their sirens wailing. Iraqiarmy helicopters circledoverhead.

Associated Press

WORLD

Gulf rivalries a backdrop for Iran plot claims

DUBAI, United Arab Emir-ates During Friday prayersin Tehran last summer, one ofthe ruling systems most fire-brand clerics, Ahmad Janna-

ti, had worshippers pumpingtheir fists to denounce SaudiArabia and other Arab foesacross the Gulf.

In response, the Saudi in-terior minister, Prince Nayefbin Abdul-Aziz, blamed Iranfor fomenting street protestsand targeting the kingdomwith unrest.

Mudslinging between the

Middle Easts two most pow-erful rivals is a longtime po-litical fact of life.

But it has grown muchthicker amid the Arab Springuprisings and now threatensto veer into crisis mode afterU.S. allegations arose of an

Iranian-aided plot to assassi-nate Saudi Arabias ambassa-dor in Washington.

Deeper suspicions andsharper recriminations dontnecessarily increase the riskof a new Mideast conflict,which would invariably drawin U.S. forces in the Gulf.

But the higher tensionsare likely to raise tempera-

tures in current flashpoints such as Syria and Bahrain where Saudi and Iranianviews collide.

The Saudi-Iran rivalry isthe pivot point for so muchin the region, said DavidSchenker, a Mideast affairs

analyst at the WashingtonInstitute for Near East Poli-cy. What is happening nowcould set the tone for years ordecades.

Saudi policy makers coulddouble down on efforts tofurther isolate Iran by boost-ing assistance to Syrianopposition forces seeking totopple Tehrans main ally,

Bashar Assad.In the past week, Iran felt

further squeezed as neighbor-ing Turkey agreed to host aNATO missile defense radarand the European Union add-ed 29 more Iranian officials toits sanctions list.

In London, a former Sau-di ambassador to the U.S.,Prince Turki al-Faisal, saidsomebody in Iran will haveto pay a price. The princesaides said his remarks werepersonal views and did notreflect official policy.

The official Saudi newsagency said the kingdomstrongly condemned what

it called the evil, heinousplot, describing it as a viola-tion of international law.

Iran has dismissed the as-sassination plot claims asAmerican propaganda. Butthat didnt slow the potshotsat Saudi Arabia, which many

Iranian officials view as rub-ber-stamp envoys for U.S. in-terests in the region.

This is in line with poli-cy of divide and rule, saidIranian lawmaker Far-had Bashiri, addressing anopen session of parliamentWednesday. Saudi Arabiashould be careful not to fallin the U.S. trap.

By Brian MurphyAssociated Press

Roads turn to riversin hard-hit Thailand

AYUTTHAYA, Thailand With large sections of Ayut-thaya buried under a sea ofone-story high water, rescueworkers and volunteers arestill crisscrossing town topluck stranded residents fromwaterlogged ruins. Others arestaying to protect whats left.

Epic monsoon rains and ty-phoons have battered a vastswath of Asia relentlesslythis year, killing hundreds ofpeople from the Philippines toIndia and inflicting billions ofdollars in damage in the lastfour months.

Thailand is among the hard-est hit. The floods here are theworst in half a century, claim-ing more than 280 lives sincelate July.

Flood waters have swampedmore than two-thirds of the

country, submerging ricefields and shutting down hun-dreds of factories. Americancomputer hard drive manu-facturer Western DigitalCorp. and Japans Toyota Mo-tor Corp. became the latest tosuspend production in Thai-land on Wednesday.

Prime Minister YingluckShinawatra said many prov-inces could remain sub-merged for the next twomonths, according to statebroadcaster MCOT.

For weeks, water hascoursed down key rivers fromnorthern Thailand in a slow-motion catastrophe, over-whelming a national systemof dams and dikes.

Several days ago, floodstransformed Ayutthaya intoone of the countrys worstdisaster zones, navigable insome districts only by boat.

Associated Press

Associated Press Apichart Weerawong

Residents walk on sandbag barriers set up on a streetWednesday to prevent from flooding in Pathumthani

province, central Thailand.

Stars align for Mideast prisoner swap

JERUSALEM The con-

tours of the prisoner swap

deal between Israel and

the Hamas militant group

have long been known: Is-

rael would free hundreds of

Palestinian prisoners in ex-change for an Israeli soldier

held in the Gaza Strip.

But it required a uniqueset of circumstances, rang-ing from domestic problemson both sides to a revolutionin Egypt, for the agreementto materialize.

The bitter enemies an-

nounced the deal nearly

simultaneously Tuesday,

ending a five-year saga sur-

rounding Israeli Sgt. Gilad

Schalit, captured in a cross-

border raid and dragged

into Gaza in June 2006. For

his return Israel will free

more than 1,000 prisoners.

The deal gives each side

enough to claim victory.Israels embattled prime

minister, Benjamin Netan-

yahu, can say he brought

home a soldier whose plight

had become a national ob-

Associated Press

session. Hamas, locked in arivalry with Palestinian Pres-ident Mahmoud Abbas, canboast of the most lopsided ex-change ever in the region.

Yet each made painful con-cessions that until recentlymight not have been possible.

Among the Palestinian pris-oners are some 300 servinglife sentences for involvementin deadly attacks on Israelis.

But the best-known prison-ers, including an uprisingleader and a bombing master-mind, will remain in jail.

For Netanyahu, who hasbuilt his career as a hard-lin-

er on terrorism, any deal atall was bound to be a bitterpill.

Associated Press Hatem Moussa

Palestinians pray as they gather around the body ofAhmed Azazmeh, killed in an explosion, during his fu-

neral in a mosque Monday in Beit Hanoun.

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