Where to
celebrate
like you’re
Irish.
So, should
Gottfried
stay? D1
WE BREAK MORE NEWS AT
THURSDAY / MARCH 13 / 2008
Prosecution ‘will never give up’
A mistrial is declared in the
trial of former Marshall
County chief tax clerk Mary
Edwards Walden, accused of
defrauding the county’s tax
collection office. B1
State
Legislation to require clubs
and retailers to affix an ID
number on kegs of beer they
sell so the kegs are
registered to buyers is
unanimously approved by a
House committee. B1
Evidence not strong
enough, Moore juror
says after deadlock
By DAVID HOLDEN
Times Staff Writer
david.holden@htimes.com
DECATUR – The evidence offered by
prosecutors was not strong enough to
persuade a Morgan County jury to convict capital murder suspect Daniel
Wade Moore a second time in the death
of Decatur homemaker Karen Tipton,
a juror said Wednesday.
Valeska said the prosecution will
After nearly six days of debring the case to trial again on
liberation, the jury remained
all four counts of capital murdeadlocked at 8 to 4 in favor of
der.
acquittal, said juror Scott Burns.
“We will never give up, beCircuit Judge Steve Haddock
cause the evidence shows that
declared a mistrial before noon
Daniel Wade Moore killed
Wednesday, ironically, on the
Karen Tipton,” he said.
ninth anniversary of her murMoore, dressed in a blue
der.
blazer, white shirt and tie, and
“A conviction would have re- Daniel Wade
brown khaki slacks, looked required a better case by the pros- Moore will
ecution,” said Burns, who was remain in jail. lieved. His mother, Virginia
Byrd, collapsed to the floor. Her
among the eight jurors who
son has been in jail for nearly 10 years.
voted for acquittal.
Assistant Attorney General Don As a capital murder suspect, he must still
Huntsville hopes
to expand system’s
capacity by 2015
Nation
Two suspects, one of them a
17-year-old, are charged
with first-degree murder in
the killing of the University
of North Carolina’s student
body president. A2
By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer
john.peck@htimes.com
ÄÄÄ
Dow
Nasdaq S&P 500
- 46.57 - 11.89 - 11.88
Southwest Airlines grounds
about 8 percent of its fleet
after missing required inspections of some planes
for structural cracks. B4
Sports
Huntsville High graduate
Shawn Faust returns home
as a member of basketball’s
least successful team, the
Washington Generals –
nightly opponent of the
Harlem Globetrotters. D2
Huntsville Speedway begins
its 50th season Saturday
with a birthday party and
discounted tickets. D5
Full weather, D14
High today
74
52
Low tonight
What’s inside
Abby/C2
Bridge/C2
Business/B4
Classifieds/D8
Comics/C3
Crossword
puzzles/C2, D10
Cryptoquote/C2
Deaths/B3
Editorials/A8
Horoscope/C2
Life/C1
Lotteries/A2
Movies/GO
People/C2
Sports/D1
Sudoku/D12
Television/D14
Huntsville, Alabama
Vol. 98, No. 357, 34 pages
Contents © 2008, The Huntsville Times
Guy Darrough, top,
the owner and
founder of Lost
World Studios in Old
Mines, Mo., reaches
into the neck of a
Kritosaur to check a
bolt while
assembling his
life-sized creatures
for the “Dinosaur
Uproar” exhibit at
the Huntsville
Botanical Garden
Wednesday
afternoon. At top
right, Botanical
Garden equipment
manager Thayer
Phillips drills signpost holes next to an
model of a
Edmontosaur. At
bottom right, Lost
World Studios
employee Jason
Eyer carries the
head of a dinosaur
during assembly. For
more on “Dinosaur
Uproar” – which
opens to the public
Saturday – see page
C1.
State schools chief
tests overhaul plan
Superintendents
hear proposals,
express concerns
By CHALLEN STEPHENS
Times Staff Writer
challen.stephens@htimes.com
PRATTVILLE – Facing a
string of questions from the
men
and
women who
run Alabama’s
public schools,
State Superintendent Joe
Morton pleaded for understanding for
his plan to
State Super- overhaul Alabama’s high
intendent
school graduJoe Morton
ation requirements.
Morton, who had sum-
moned all 132 superintendents to Prattville to talk about
his proposal, assured the packed
room that Alabama had the resources to begin making
changes this spring.
Alabama could create better
and more graduates by steering
all freshmen into foreign languages and tougher math courses next fall, said Morton, while
giving diplomas this spring to
seniors who pass just three out
of five sections on the state’s
graduation exam.
Those are just two parts of the
plan that the state school board
could vote on in May. But on
Wednesday, as the microphone
passed around the crowded
hall, some superintendents
spoke of “unfunded mandates”
and the need for more time to
plan. Others praised the plan as
Please see PLAN on A6
231
53
431
Huntsville
S
South
Huntsville
Water
Treatment
Plant
72
72
565
431
231
Opened 1988
Te esse
nn
Guntersville
Dam
Southwest
ve
Business
Photos by Eric Schultz/
Huntsville Times
N
Madison
County
e Ri
Huntsville Utilities is taking
a giant leap to build a water
treatment plant in Marshall
County on the Tennessee River.
The City Council will consider
a request tonight to purchase a
site for the plant near Guntersville Dam.
The 267-acre tract, owned by
Cecil Ashburn of Huntsville, is
at U.S. 431 and Guntersville
Dam Road. Records list the purchase price at $1.2 million.
The estimated cost of the
plant would be $60 million to
$80 million. The purchase authorization follows a $14 million
contract Huntsville Utilities
awarded to expand the capacity of its South Huntsville treatment plant near the Whitesburg
Bridge.
“We believe, with present
growth, we can safely have
enough water capacity for
Huntsville for seven to eight
years,” utilities President Bill
Pippin said in a recent interview.
“If we start construction in
2012 (on the new plant), it will
be finished in 2015, about the
time we would start being unable to meet the demand.”
The Tennessee River supplies
roughly 80 percent of Huntsville
Utilities’ water. Wells supply the
rest, although groundwater levels have dropped sharply because of prolonged drought.
Two city wells were recently shut
down because of contamination
caused by low flow. The LincolnDallas well is the only one still
being used.
Huntsville Utilities’ other
Authorities consider
charges in the bizarre case
of a Kansas woman who
sat on her boyfriend’s toilet
for two years – so long that
her body was stuck to the
seat. A3
U.S. authorities in Baghdad
receive five severed fingers
belonging to four Americans and an Austrian who
were taken hostage more
than a year ago in Iraq. A3
Please see PROSECUTION on A6
Marshall site
for water plant
before council
JURASSIC GARDEN
The House Education
Appropriations Committee
votes to exempt federal tax
rebates from Alabama
income taxes. B1
World
remain in jail without bond.
Moore’s lead defense lawyer, Sherman
Powell Jr., said the length of the deliberations and the deadlock indicates problems with the state’s case.
“Obviously, some of the jurors had a
reasonable doubt, and the evidence was
not strong enough to warrant a conviction,” he said.
State prosecutors say they will try
Moore again. Haddock said he will call
the lawyers together within a few weeks
to schedule a new trial.
Jackson
County
Several hundred people are
expected to pay their respects to Marine Lance Cpl.
David Miles and his family
during a full military
funeral Friday. B1
Limestone County
Local
Forecast:
Breezy &
warmer.
Classifieds: 532-4222
Water
Morgan
Treatment
County 67
Marshall
County
Plant
Opened 1964
Huntsville Times
r
Arab
79
Future site
of Huntsville’s
third water
treatment
plant
riverside water treatment plant
is near Triana south of
Huntsville International Airport.
The Marshall County land
purchase comes as annexations in east Huntsville continue to push city boundaries closer to Marshall County.
Utilities spokesman Bill Yell
said the new plant property is
not a move to solicit customers
in Marshall County but a step
to ensure ample supplies for
Huntsville-area water customers.
Tonight’s council agenda item
is a request for authorization to
purchase the property.
“Right now we have an option on that land,” Yell said. “We
won’t make the purchase until
we have the final permits from
TVA to pull water from the
river.”
The proposed plant site
would require about three miles
of pipe to reach the river. Seven
miles of transmission lines
would be needed to deliver
Please see PLANT on A6
Spitzer out, may face
charges, lose license
N.Y. governor told
wife of allegations
first, his aides say
“I cannot allow my
private failings to
disrupt the people’s
work.”
Eliot Spitzer
New York Democratic
governor who will resign
from the job on Monday
In today’s Times
Call girl in Spitzer tryst
identified. A6
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
and VERENA DOBNIK
The Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. – On Saturday night, Gov. Eliot Spitzer was
at the annual Gridiron Club
dinner in Washington, where
President Bush serenaded reporters with a funny song about
leaving office. By then the governor knew full well he could be
leaving first.
A day earlier, federal prosecutors had told the governor he
had been snared in a prostitution operation, according to senior Spitzer aides who spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
matter.
He initially kept it to himself,
so when his aides’ cell phones
went crazy with a New York
Times reporter’s calls the night
of the dinner, they didn’t know
why. Neither Spitzer nor the reporter let on.
So began a dayslong political
drama that ended Wednesday
with Spitzer’s resignation. Still
to come are decisions on
whether the stunning indiscretions by the hard-charging, crusading ex-prosecutor will lead
to criminal charges or disbarment.
Aides said the first person
Spitzer told about the allegations was his wife, Silda. He told
her Sunday in their Manhattan
home; his state police driver had
taken him there after bad
weather canceled his flight.
After several excruciating
Please see SPITZER on A6