A4 The Huntsville Times, Saturday, May 31, 2008
Pursuit
Continued from page A1
where the suspect’s car side-
swiped a Buick LaSabre in
front of the old Ramada Inn,
Johnson said. The Buick’s driv-
er was taken to Crestwood
Hospital with minor injuries.
Markedpatrolcarsjoinedthe
chase and followed the vehicle
westonMartinRoad.Redstone
Arsenal employee David
Williamssaidhesawthetancar
swerve, almost on two wheels,
betweentheconcretebarriersat
the gate.
“They were going at least 30,
40 miles per hour,” he said. “It’s
all I can do to thread (the bar-
riers)ataslowspeed.Thenthey
hit that concrete curb and left
the car’s bumper behind.”
Williamssaidsecurityguards
wavedHuntsvillepoliceofficers
through the gate, where they
continued pursuit.
Authorities would not say
whether officers were still chas-
ing the women when they hit
Spurlock’s vehicle.
The driver of the fleeing car,
35-year-old Valorie Cox, was
taken to Huntsville Hospital
with a broken neck, Johnson
said.
Thecar’s passenger,36-year-
oldPauletteWoodall,wastreat-
ed for minor injuries and re-
leased. Johnson said she was
booked in the Madison Coun-
tymetrojailondrugpossession
charges.
Leon and Kathleen Lundy,
ages62and64,sustainedminor
injuries when the fleeing vehi-
cle glanced off Spurlock’s truck
and hit their vehicle, said
HEMSI Chief Operations Of-
ficer Don Webster.
They were treated and re-
leased at Huntsville Hospital.
Marshall Center Director
David King sent an e-mail just
before7p.m.tonotifySpurlock’s
co-workers of his death.
According to the e-mail,
Spurlockwasanengineerinthe
Marshall Engineering Direc-
torate’s Spacecraft and Vehicle
Systems Department.
“He was a fairly new mem-
bertotheMarshallteambutin-
valuable to his department and
an asset to the Marshall Center
and to NASA,” King said in the
e-mail to Marshall employees.
“I know we all are heartbroken
N
565
S
Drake Ave.
REDSTONE
ARSENAL
Rideout Road
Chase ends
with a fatality
Martin Rd.
over such a tragic loss in our
work force. ... Darren will be 911 center notified arsenal se-
greatly missed.”
Policies in place
Johnson said drug agents in
unmarked cars are allowed to woman Lira Frye said the in-
pursue suspects for felony drug stallation has a “strong mutual
charges. Once the women aidagreement”withlocalagen-
struck the Buick LaSabre, they cies.
werewantedforafelonyhitand
run, Johnson said.
Huntsville police pursue a women, but it’s too early in the
suspect only if conditions are investigation to say what kind
safe for both the public and the of charges they would face.
officers, he said. According to
department guidelines, public investigate the crash.
safety is the top consideration,
and pursuits depend on road, ilarpursuitin2004.Amanfled
weather and traffic conditions. from drug agents and plowed
A supervisor with the Strate- through Gate 9 on Rideout
gic Counterdrug team moni- Road. Officers caught the man
tored the entire pursuit Friday, atthedeadendofSaturnRoad.
Johnson said, and did not see a
reason to call off the officers. chase.
Police and ambulance crews work the scene where a woman
was sideswiped during a police chase on South Memorial Park-
way near Airport Road.
Chase heads south
on Memorial Parkway
Governors Dr.
Democratic Party officials
to decide delegate dispute
Drake Ave.
Whitesburg Dr.
HUNTSVILLE
231
Suspect’s car
swipes another
vehicle
Panel will meet
today; Clinton
Me m
Triana Blvd.
backers plan rally
orial
d.
rtinR
Ma By DAVID LIGHTMAN
Park
Patton Rd.
and LESLEY CLARK
Gate 1 McClatchy Newspapers
way
Byrd
WASHINGTON – Hillary
Spring
Clinton supporters are gather-
Wetlands
ing for what could be her last
Bumper falls from big stand today, as the Demo-
suspect’s car cratic Party’s rules committee
meets to decide how to resolve
Huntsville Times
a dispute over Florida’s and
DispatcherswithHuntsville’s Michigan’s 368delegatestothe
Democratic National Conven-
curity before the fleeing vehicle tion.
crashed through the gates, he With only three primaries
said. remaining, in Puerto Rico on
Redstone Arsenal spokes- Sunday and Montana and
South Dakota next Tuesday,
today’s meeting could be Clin-
ton’s final major effort to over-
take Obama. She needs a big
Frye said federal charges victory from the 30-member
could be brought against the panel, which is expected to
meet all day, and her support-
ersplanarallytohelppressher
case.
The U.S. attorney’s office will The math and the process
confronting the rules commit-
Huntsville police had a sim- tee are complex, but it boils
down to this:
Priest has rebellious past
No one was injured in that
Pfleger’s tirade
against Clinton
draws church ire
McClatchy Newspapers
CHICAGO – The Rev.
MichaelPfleger,thelatestcler-
gymantoofferaraciallytinged
commentary on the Democ-
raticpresidentialrace,haslong
rattled nerves in Chicago with
hisoutspokenactivismandhis
firebrand message of social
justice.
His rebellious style has set
him apart from Chicago’s
Roman Catholic clergy as far
Eric Schultz/Huntsville Times backasPfleger’s seminarydays,
whenheprotestedtheVietnam
War and befriended Black
Panthersonthecity’s WestSide.
‘Lying’
Continued from page A1
campaign said Noel’s political
support of Parker calls into
question his impartiality.
“Quite frankly, there is a dif-
ference in John Noel and the
Republican Party at large,” said
Guthrie consultant Tyler Har-
ber.
Harber said Parker fibbed
about how long he worked as a
lobbyistinWashington,“andall
ofouradvertisingkeysinonthis
thing.”
“The bottom line is, we are
educating the electorate. Lob-
bying is a key aspect to (Park-
er’s) life, and he has to come
clean.”
Noel said even if his family
weren’t supporting Parker (he
put a “Parker for Congress”
bumper sticker on his wife’s car
Thursday when he initially be-
came upset by Guthrie’s adver-
tising), he’d be just as involved
in trying to stop “the lies” if they
werebeingtoldaboutanyofthe
other four Republican con-
gressional candidates.
Noel asked the four other
candidates to attend the press
conference, but only classical
musician Mark Huff and busi-
Energy
Continued from page A1
AsSessionstravelsacrossthe
state, he said, more and more
people speak about economic
problems and the slumping
buying power of their own
pocketbooks.
“A lot of people are worried”
about money, Sessions said.
“They are having to take $50,
even $100, more out of their
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Obama now has 1,984 del-
egates, and Clinton has 1,782.
Currently, a total of 2,026 is
needed to win, but that num-
ber will change depending on
how many Florida and Michi-
gan delegates are seated.
The committee will grapple
with two issues today. One is
whether to seat the two dele-
gations at all. Michigan and
Florida held their primaries in
January, defying party rules,
and were stripped of all their
368 convention delegates.
Amemofrompartylegalad-
visers this week said the com-
mittee could seat no more
than half the delegations –
keeping out the rest would be
the states’ punishment.
The committee also is ex-
pected to deal with the ques-
tion of who gets whatever del-
egatesareseated.InMichigan,
Obama and virtually every
othermajorcontender–except
Clinton – took their names off
the ballot. Obama and Clinton
pledged not to campaign in
Florida.
Clinton won Michigan with
55 percent of the vote. “Un-
committed” got 40 percent, a
vote widely seen as a vote for
But it also helped the priest,
who is white, turn the once-
dwindling congregation at St.
Sabina into a thriving, pre-
dominantlyblackparish.More
than2,100parishionerscallSt.
Sabina, at the corner of South
Racine Avenue and West 78th
Place, their spiritual home.
The priest’s latest contro-
versialremarksunderscorethe
long-standingtensionbetween
Pfleger and Chicago’s power
brokers, including its arch-
bishops.
Speaking last weekend at
Sen. Barack Obama’s long-
time church, Trinity United
ChurchofChrist,Pflegerjoked
about Hillary Clinton being
upset over Obama’s strong
showing, saying in a mock ver-
nessman George Barry were
present. Huff said it’s fine to do
negative campaigning, “if that’s
what you want,” but he asked
that Guthrie “be honest” and
properlydocumenthersources.
Barrysaidasamemberofthe
county Republican executive
committee,hewantstheparty’s
values “to be clarified” and that
all candidates be responsible in
the messages they send to vot-
ers.
Friday evening, dermatolog-
ical surgeon Angelo Mancuso
saidhewasbusyseeingpatients
at the time of the press confer-
ence, but he wouldn’t have
been there anyway.
“They don’t have permission
to use my name,” Mancuso
said.“Thisisnotourfight.Idon’t
know if her ads are lies or not.
Ididn’twanttogetinvolvedbe-
cause it has nothing to do with
me.”
Attempts to reach the other
Republicancandidate,attorney
Ray McKee, were not success-
ful late Friday afternoon.
Noelsaidhedidn’thave time
to get the entire Republican ex-
ecutive committee together to
get a consensus on the press
conference, but a phone call
from an outraged 5th District
Republican Chairman Elbert
Peters “triggered my desire” to
weekly budgets for gas. We are
in an economic slowdown.”
A long-term solution would
be to reduce energy consump-
tion, he said.
Diesel fuels and hybrid vehi-
cleswouldgoalongwaytoward
cutting gasoline use because of
increased efficiency, said Ses-
sions, who has spent the past
week touring Alabama in a
gasoline-electricpoweredcarto
promote conservation.
A diesel engine is up to 40
percent more efficient than
most cars, Sessions said.
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Obama.
In Florida, Clinton took 50
percent,Obamatrailedwith33
percent and 2004 vice presi-
dential nominee John Ed-
wards, who’s since endorsed
Obama, got 14 percent.
FloridaDemocratsarepush-
ing a plan to split the delega-
tion’s votes 50-50 between
Clinton and Obama.
Michigan’s case is more
complicated. Clinton argues
that the full delegation should
be seated, and she should get
73delegates,“uncommitted”55
and Obama none.
Signals, however, suggest
that she’s unlikely to prevail.
A four-member group of
state Democratic bigwigs, in-
cluding Sen. Carl Levin of
Michigan, is pushing a plan to
give Clinton 69 delegates and
Obama 59, and people who
serve on the Rules and Bylaws
Committee generally aren’t
rabid partisans. They tend to
beinsiderswhowanttheparty
to prosper – hardly the kind of
politicians who are likely to tie
the institution in procedural
knots that could jeopardize its
chances of winning in No-
vember.
sionofhervoice:“I’m white.I’m
entitled. There’s a black man
stealing my show.”
OnFriday,ChicagoCardinal
FrancisGeorgerespondedwith
disappointment.
“Racial issues are both po-
litical and moral and are also
highlycharged,” Georgesaidin
a written statement. “Words
can be differently interpreted,
but Father Pfleger’s remarks
aboutSenatorClintonareboth
partisan and amount to a per-
sonal attack. I regret that
deeply.”
In a 2007 interview, Pfleger
told the Chicago Tribune he
wasinspiredtobecomeapriest
by the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr., who make the church
“relevant to me again.”
go to the media about the ad-
vertising.
Noel said he isn’t asking
Guthrie to end her campaign,
just to stop the “false advertis-
ing.” He also suggested she
apologize to voters.
He said he hadn’t directly
spokentoGuthrieand“shewas-
n’t invited to the meeting.”
Parkersaidhe’s nevertriedto
hide or deny his lobbyist histo-
ry, which includes working to
eliminate the inheritance tax.
When asked on a televised de-
bate last week by Guthrie what
he’d been doing since he un-
successfully ran for Congress in
1994 and 1996, he acknowl-
edgedthat,amongotherthings,
he’d been a lobbyist.
He said Guthrie’s assertions
that he diverted jobs from
North Alabama to other com-
munities are “bogus.”
Even though he said he’s dis-
appointed that Guthrie took
campaigningto“anunfortunate
level,” it actually is an endorse-
ment of how well his own cam-
paign must be doing.
“She’s trying to knock us
down, which must mean we’re
doingreallywellinthepolls,” he
said. “Typically, candidates do
this last-minute kind of thing
when they’re feeling desperate
about their chances.”
“If we use diesel, then that’s
35 to 40 percent less fuel that
is used. A diesel is also better
than a hybrid in many ways be-
cause it burns cleaner with less
emissions.”
The use of nuclear power
plantsshouldalsobeincreased,
he said, praising the Tennessee
Valley Authority for putting
several nuclear reactors back in
service over the past five years.
He said the nation should
build more nuclear plants. “We
haven’t built a nuclear plant in
30 years.”
Eventhoughthenationfaces
economic problems, Sessions
said, business is good in North
Alabama.
“If we are in a recession, as
some of the talking heads say
we are, then I don’t think we’ve
got it in Huntsville.”
Unemployment is about 2.5
percentinMadisonCounty,but
is twice that across the nation,
Sessions said. “You’re doing
something right here.”