Got batteries? Put a new one in your smoke alarm / CENTRAL IOWA, A5
THURSDAY
Feb. 25, 2010
MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA
CENTRAL IOWA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
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Miller principal
talks about future
“It came out of the blue,” Clement
said. “But our goal as always is to continue to make improvements in the
program that we offer students.”
Miller was listed as one of 35 lowperforming schools in Iowa based on
Iowa Test of Basic Skills results over
the past three years.
As a result of the listing and new
Race to the Top legislation, the Marshalltown Community School District
must set into motion one of four inter-
Legislation
puts Clement’s
job on the line
By ANDREW POTTER
TIMES-REPUBLICAN
Miller Middle School’s placement
on the low-achieving schools list came
T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW POTTER as a shock to Principal Brad Clement
Miller Middle School Principal Brad Clement talked about the school being on the last month, but he said the focus will
continue to be on student learning.
low-achieving schools list for test scores with the Times-Republican Wednesday.
CLEMENT | A3
Today
LOOKINSIDE
By MIKE STOBBE
Get ready for the
weekend with the TimesRepublican’s entertainment guide, Applause!
Inside today’s edition.
Friday
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AP PHOTO
Mark Becker glances at his public defender, Susan Flander, as the prosecution makes its closing statements in
Becker's trial on Wednesday in Allison. Attorneys presented their closing arguments to jurors Wednesday morning in the first-degree murder trial of Becker, 24, who is accused of fatally shooting Aplington-Parkersburg
coach Ed Thomas on June 24, 2009. Becker has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The 12-person jury
began deliberating the case early Wednesday afternoon.
TopStories
Race to the top: Plan to fire all its
teachers roils poor Rhode Island city.
NATION & WORLD, A9
United We Fish: Fishermen rally in
Washington against federal catch
limits. NATION & WORLD, A10
High school football coach
shooting trial goes to jury
By NIGEL DUARA
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Conspiring to
obstruct justice: Exofficer pleads guilty
in Katrina killing
probe. NATION &
WORLD, A8
Sequel to popular musical: Phantom
goes to Coney Island in ‘Love Never
Dies’ ENTERTAINMENT, A2
BizStories
DOW JONES
+91.75
10374.16
NASDAQ
+22.40
2235.90
S&P 500
+10.64
1105.24
CRUDE OIL
+1.14
80.00
Toyota head Toyoda
faces U.S. lawmakers:
‘I’m deeply sorry’ MONEY
& MARKETS, A7
LocalObituaries
Doris Rawson, 92
Wilbur C. Gould, 88
Edna Felper, 87
OBITUARIES • A6
Betty P. Savage,
77
Donald Cobb, 77
Carroll Hobson
ALLISON — An Iowa man
charged with killing a nationally
known high school football
coach could have carefully
planned the shooting and still
been insane, his defense attorneys maintained Wednesday,
while prosecutors told jurors that
argument didn’t make sense.
Attorneys presented their
closing arguments to jurors
Wednesday morning in the firstdegree murder trial of Mark
Becker, 24, who is accused of
fatally shooting Aplington-Parkersburg coach Ed Thomas on
June 24, 2009. Becker has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
The 12-person jury deliberat-
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ed for more than four hours
Wednesday. Deliberations will
continue Thursday morning.
Becker gunned down
Thomas, 58, in the school’s
makeshift weight room in front
of students, shooting him at least
six times before walking away.
Becker told police that Thomas
was Satan and that the coach had
been tormenting him.
The shooting was especially
shocking to Parkersburg residents because Thomas was
known both for producing winning teams and for leading the
community.
Though the defense doesn’t
dispute that Becker shot Thomas,
and prosecutors agree that Becker suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, the question is Becker’s
mental status on the morning he
shot Thomas. To prove Becker is
insane, the defense had to show
he didn’t understand the nature
and quality of his acts and he
wasn’t able to distinguish right
from wrong.
During closing arguments,
Assistant Iowa Attorney General
Scott Brown focused on Becker’s
actions the morning of June 24.
Brown was arrested after the
shooting as he drove up to his
house.
‘‘This entire case is about
Mark Becker’s state of mind,’’
Brown told the jury. ‘‘And whenever you look and examine Mark
Becker’s state of mind, you have
to look at what he did, not just
what some experts say about it.’’
Defense attorneys referred
ATLANTA — A government panel is now recommending that virtually all
Americans get a flu shot
each year, starting this fall.
The Advisory Committee
on Immunization Practices
had gradually been expanding its recommendation for
flu shots — 85 percent of
Americans were already
included.
On Wednesday, the panel
voted to recommend a seasonal flu vaccination for
everyone except babies
younger than 6 months and
those with egg allergies or
other unusual conditions.
FLU | A3
Senate votes
to extend USA
Patriot Act
for one year
By STEPHEN
OHLEMACHER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The
Senate voted Wednesday to
extend for a year key provisions of the nation’s counterterrorism surveillance law that
are scheduled to expire at the
end of the month.
In agreeing to pass the bill,
Senate Democrats retreated
from adding new privacy protections to the USA Patriot
Act.
The Senate approved the
bill on a voice vote with no
debate. It now goes to the
House.
Three important sections of
the Patriot Act are to expire at
BECKER | A3
PATRIOT ACT | A3
Huckabee: GOP divisions
could decide elections
By MIKE GLOVER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CUSnapshot
Miller Middle School will
host a family night from 5:30 to
6:30 p.m. March 9 at the
school’s media center. The
night will include a question
and answer session with Miller
Principal Brad Clement and
Marshalltown Superintendent
Marvin Wade about Miller’s listing on the low-performing
schools list. The community is
invited to attend.
Panel suggests
annual flu
vaccinations
for everyone
in Central Iowa’s
Daily Newspaper
Partly Cloudy
Miller to host
family night
DES MOINES — Former
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a group of social
and religious conservatives
Wednesday that divisions
within the state’s Republican
party could decide this year’s
elections.
Huckabee spoke to more
than 150 people at a meeting
of the political arm of the
Iowa Family Policy Center,
dishing out a hefty dose of
anti-abortion and anti-gay
rights rhetoric known to
energize the conservative
base of the GOP.
‘‘Whether you realize it or
not, the folks in this room
and folks like you across the
state could well decide who
the next governor will be,
will have a real impact on
representative and senate
races across this state and
help determine the future for
the state of Iowa,’’ Huckabee
said.
His mission was to underscore his support of Sioux
City businessman Bob Vander Plaats in the Republican
gubernatorial primary, and to
assure the most conservative
forces within the GOP that
they have the power to get
Vander Plaats elected.
‘‘I’m glad today, whether
you recognize me or not, to
recognize you as a force to
be reckoned with in Iowa
politics,’’ Huckabee said. ‘‘I
hope you will not grow
weary, but instead will give it
your diligent effort.’’
Huckabee, a Baptist minister before he was elected
governor, scored a stunning
win in the 2008 Iowa
precinct caucuses based
heavily on his support from
social and religious conservatives. Though he quickly
faded from the GOP presidential race after his win in
Iowa, he has maintained
close ties to that sector of the
party.
HUCKABEE | A3
AP PHOTO
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks
during an Iowa Family PAC fund-raiser, Wednesday in Des Moines. Huckabee spoke Wednesday
to more than 150 people at a meeting of the
political arm of the Iowa Family Policy Center, a
leading social and religious conservative group.
He dished out a hefty dose of anti-abortion, antigay rights rhetoric that energizes the conservative base of the Republican Party.
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2 sections, 20 pages
Vol. CXXXIV No. 56
Copyright 2010.
Marshalltown Newspaper, Inc.