REGION/WORLD THE KEENE SENTINEL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2009 7

Homeless brace themselves for winter

(Continued from Page 6)
strooms.
““Three paper towels,”” he
says. ““One hot (water). Then
I take another piece, get one
soaped, and another piece to
dry.””
Aside from the bathrooms
at the shopping center and in
town, they have a toilet seat
they can place over a five-
gallon bucket.
Todd and Pam Maliska
saved up some of Todd’’s un-
employment and, in Septem-
ber, purchased a red 1996
Dodge Neon with 187,000
miles on it. Now people can
go on errands and get rides
to appointments.
““It runs very good right
now,”” Pam Maliska says.
And when it no longer
does?
““We know people that can
help us out,”” Todd Maliska
says.
But, as Todd Maliska is
quick to remind, life for them
isn’’t quite an extended camp-
ing trip.
““People think it’’s so easy
out here,”” he says, looking at
his grimy hands. ““This is
work.””
They cut wood to keep
warm. With so many former
construction workers, they al-
so build —— when it was
warmer, they made shelving.
Over the many months,
they have contended with
various conditions, with rain
and bugs giving way to freez-
ing temperatures.
““This is like a frozen tundra
out here,”” Todd Maliska says.
They used to talk to each
other from within their tents at
night, back before they started
spending nights in the shack.
““You get very cold,”” Ar-
chambault says. ““Even
though you’’ve got sleeping
bags, a couple of blankets.””
““Put it this way,”” Earl
says. ““You sleep with your
clothes on.””
They had built a shack as
the cold set in. During the day,
they would gather around a
fire inside it. The smoke once
went through a hole above but
also turned the tin-siding roof
from white to brown.
The fire is now outside.
The shack has been convert-
ed into a free-standing cabin.
Inside, two mattress, atop
boxsprings, sit on the left
side. A thin, long mirror runs
horizontally above, midway
up the wall. A few small
shelves on the walls hold toi-
letries and clothing. Higher
still, pink insulation lines the
intersection of wall and roof.
There are more beds in
the room: one in the north-
east corner, one on the
ground along the east wall,
one hanging from the wall
above it, supported by pieces
of wood.
On one side of the door is
their grill —— a window by the
grill opens —— and shelves
containing food such as
baked beans, peanut butter,
rolls, stuffing, mashed pota-
toes and cereal.
Another wood stove sits by Todd Maliska walks into a shelter that he and other homeless people live in. The shelter is insulated, has electricity from a
the door, the chimney pipe generator and a wood stove.
that leads from it visible
from outside.
Above that, a piece of the Their trash goes in because they had no work, Maliska said in October. isn’’t planning on leaving ——
wall has names written in garbage bags, which used to which meant they had no By November, she was in yet.
marker, identifying those end up in trash bins at the money beyond disability pay- a shelter. ““I came out March 14. I’’ve
who live there and those who shopping center. Now they ments, which meant they had Earl and Pam aren’’t the on- sworn to myself I’’m going to
have visited. leave the bags by the bench no homes. ly ones no longer living in Tent be here ’’til March 14.””
On the other side of the near the entrance and pay a They found a place that City. A younger couple, whose And after?
door is the television, and an friend to pick them up. suited their personalities, their children lived with their ““Who knows,”” he says.
opening to the bathroom area. Many bags are filled with idiosyncrasies, their habits, grandmother while their par- ““It’’s my mission. I’’m not tak-
Light comes in from several beer cans. their lifestyles. That doesn’’t ents stayed in Tent City, left ing nothing from the state.
windows, and from lights, The men speak of aggrava- mean they want to stay. the group earlier in the year. I’’m just going to be here.
hanging from the pieces of tim- tion and depression. They med- ““I want an apartment,”” ““I’’m trying to get back out ““I’’m going to stay here as
ber that serve as beams, pow- icate themselves with beer. Doyle says. there,”” Archambault says. long as I can. As long as I’’m
ered by the generator outside. ““It just mellows me out, so ““Come January, I usually ““It’’s either jobs are already allowed.””
It took weeks to build. I ain’’t thinking so much,”” bounce around friends’’ hous- taken, or we’’re just too old.
Plywood, siding and insula- Earl says. es,”” Earl says. The jobs that are out there, David Greisman can be
tion came from a couple of ““I do like it out here, but they’’d rather hire teenagers reached at 352-1234, exten-
Todd Maliska’’s former em- Where to go next it’’s getting to a point where at less money per hour.”” sion 1439, or dgreisman@kee-
ployers, he says. They came to Tent City it’’s too cold for me,”” Pam Todd Maliska, however, nesentinel.com

BRIEFS U.S. student in Italy found guilty

NATION
Boeing says fix
thrust reversers
CHICAGO —— Boeing Co.
said on Friday that it is rec-
ommending that airlines fix
a key piece of equipment on
its 777 airliner to make sure
that engine heat doesn’’t
cause damage.
Boeing said the new ser-
vice bulletin applies to 225
aircraft, including 55 regis-
tered to U.S. carriers.
The fix involves a device
on the engine called a thrust
reverser. It directs the jet’’s
power backward, and is used
as the plane lands to slow it
down on the runway.
R.I. prosecutor
pleads not guilty
WARWICK, R.I. —— A fed-
eral prosecutor from Rhode
Island has pleaded not
guilty to drunken driving af-
ter police decided to charge
him following questions
about whether he was let off
the hook because of his con-
nections.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Gerard Sullivan appeared in
District Court Friday and
was released after he
promised to appear at his
next court hearing Dec. 15.
He left without commenting.
Sullivan was pulled over
for driving erratically early
Thanksgiving morning. Po-
lice say he told them he had
had too much to drink, and
mentioned several times he
was a prosecutor and knew
their chief before refusing a
breathalyzer test. He was ini-
tially charged only with re-
fusing a chemical breath test.
Blagojevich to
testify at his trial
CHICAGO —— A defense
attorney for Rod Blagojevich
says the former Illinois gov-
ernor will take the stand at
his fraud trial but claim his
Fifth Amendment right
against self-incrimination if
called to testify in a $90 mil-
lion civil suit.
Attorney Samuel E.
Adam said Friday he won’’t
shrink from taking the stand
when he comes to trial start-
ing June 3.
The civil lawsuit involves
four casinos forced to pay $90
million to five racetracks un-
der legislation signed by
Blagojevich. The casinos con-
tend he signed the bills as
part of a deal to get campaign
money from a track owner.
Adam’’s comment comes a From news service reports.
day after Jay Edelson, an-
other attorney for Blagoje-
vich, told the AP that he
would take the Fifth in the
civil lawsuit.
N.Y. senator
put on probation
NEW YORK —— New York
state Sen. Hiram Monserrate
was sentenced Friday to pro-
bation and domestic abuse
counseling for dragging his
bleeding girlfriend through
his apartment building lobby
in a violent scene caught on
security cameras.
Monserrate told Justice
William Erlbaum he took full
responsibility for his actions.
““I am so sorry for the
harm Karla Giraldo endured
and suffered,”” he said.
Monserrate and Giraldo
have been under a court or-
der not to see each other.
She has been seeking to
have the order lifted and
said Friday that the two
planned to marry, but the
judge said he was keeping
the protection order in place.
Erlbaum said he would
be willing to lift the protec-
tion order if the couple could
prove that they could ad-
dress their problems. He al-
so suggested that Giraldo,
who attended the sentenc-
ing, seek therapy.
Brokaw unhurt
in fatal accident
NEW YORK —— Former
NBC News anchor Tom
Brokaw and his wife said
they escaped injury in a
three-car accident on a New
York City highway that
killed a 30-year-old woman
and injured a mail truck
driver Friday afternoon.
The accident happened
about 1 p.m. as Brokaw was
driving in the left lane of the
northbound Bruckner Ex-
pressway in the Bronx.
Police and the Brokaws
said a 1998 Ford Expedition
swerved to avoid a spool of ca-
ble bouncing in the far right
lane, which caused the driver
of the SUV to lose control.
The Expedition over-
turned and then collided with
the mail truck, police said.
Suejas Estrada of the Bronx
was thrown from the Expedi-
tion and killed. She was pro-
nounced dead at the scene.
The Brokaws said the out-
of-control Expedition forced
the mail truck into the cou-
ple’’s lane. The truck collided
with Brokaw’’s vehicle.
Knox convicted
of murder; will
serve 26 years
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO
Associated Press
PERUGIA, Italy —— Ameri-
can college student Amanda
Knox was found guilty of mur-
dering her British roommate
and sentenced to 26 years in
prison today after a year-long
trial that gripped Italy and
drew intense media attention.
Her Italian ex-boyfriend
Raffaele Sollecito was also
convicted and sentenced to 25 the verdict Friday.
years.
As soon as the judge read said, turning around immedi- on the night of the murder,
the verdict after some 13
hours of deliberations, Knox
began weeping and mur-
mured, ““No, no,”” then hugged of character assassination.
one of her lawyers.
Minutes later, the 22-
year-old Knox, who is from
Seattle and the 25-year-old
Sollecito, were put in police
vans with sirens blaring and were studying in Perugia in
driven back to jail.
Prosecutors had sought life at the time.
imprisonment, Italy’’s stiffest
sentence. Courts often give
less severe punishment than throat slit on Nov. 2, 2007, in men in brutally attacking
what prosecutors demand.
The American’’s father,
Curt Knox, asked if he would tors contended the 21-year-old drugs and possibly alcohol.””
fight on for his daughter,
replied, with tears in his
eyes: ““Hell, yes.””
““This is just wrong,”” her been jailed since shortly after tive she-devil whose personal-
stepmother, Cassandra Knox, the slaying.
Racial tensions lead to fights in Philly
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA —— Ten-
sions between black and
Asian students at a public
high school erupted in a se-
ries of assaults over two
days, leading to 10 suspen-
sions and several students
seeking medical treatment.
Asian students at South
Philadelphia High School say
two off-campus fights and a
lunchroom attack left them
feeling unsafe and helpless,
in part because they say
school security guards often
turn a blind eye.
More than a dozen teens
skipped school Friday to
share their concerns at a
news conference with adult
advocates.
““We are outraged,”” said
Xu Lin of the Philadelphia
Chinatown Development
Corp., who works with immi-
grant students. ““The parents
are very, very concerned.””
School officials say this
week’’s clashes were an aber-
ration that belie strenuous
efforts to improve race rela-
Relatives and friends in
Seattle clasped hands as they
mate’’s. They say Knox had
grown to hate Kercher.
watched TV and waited for
the verdict. Her uncle, Mick
During the trial, the most
intimate details of Knox’’s life
Huff, cried, ““Oh God, no”” were examined, from her lax
when it was announced. hygiene —— allegedly a point
Other friends buried their
of contention with Kercher ——
faces in their hands and to her sex life.
shook their heads.
““They didn’’t listen to the
Knox said Kercher was a
friend whose slaying shocked
facts of the case,”” said Elisa- and saddened her.
beth Huff, Knox’’ grandmoth- Defense lawyers have de-
er. ““All they did was listen to scribed the American, who
the media’’s lies.”” made the dean’’s list at the
Madison Paxton, Knox’’s University of Washington, as
ASSOCIATED PRESS friend from university, said: a smart and cheerful woman,
““They’’re convicting a made- at one point even comparing
Amanda Knox enters the up person,”” Paxton said.
her to film character Amelie,
courtroom prior to hearing ““They they’’re convicting ‘‘foxy
the innocent and dreamy girl
Knoxy.’’ That’’s not Amanda.”” in the 2001 French movie of
The prosecutors contend the same title.
That is the film Knox and
ately after hearing the ver- Knox and Sollecito met at the Sollecito say they were watch-
dict. Her family had insisted apartment where Kercher and
ing at his home on the night
she was innocent and a victim Knox lived. They say a fourth
of the murder, where they say
person was there, Rudy Her-
Knox and Sollecito were mann Guede, an Ivory Coast
they smoked marijuana and
had sex. Knox said she went
charged with murder and citizen who has been convict- home the next morning to
sexual assault in the slaying ed in the murder and sen- find the door to the house
of Meredith Kercher more tenced to 30 years in prison. open and Kercher dead.
than two years ago. All three Guede says he was in the
Knox gave contradictory
house the night of the murder versions of the night of the
Italy’’s central Umbria region but did not kill Kercher.
slaying, saying at one point
The prosecution says Knox she was home and had to cover
Kercher’’s body was found and Kercher started arguing, her ears to block out Kercher’’s
in a pool of blood with her and that Knox joined the two screams and accusing a Con-
golese man of the killing.
the bedroom of the house she and sexually assaulting the
shared with Knox. Prosecu- Briton under ““the fumes of
Leeds University student was Throughout the trial, pros-
murdered the previous night. ecutors depicted Knox as a
Knox and Sollecito had promiscuous and manipula-
ity clashed with her room-
tions and cultural awareness. nored.
““What gets lost in all of The school, with some
this is the fact that the 1,200 students, is 70 percent
school, the community and black and 18 percent Asian. It
the students have worked serves mostly low-income
hard over the past two years neighborhoods south of down-
to foster that kind of positive
learning environment,”” said
town and has been labeled
““persistently dangerous”” by
James Golden, the school dis- the state, based on the number
trict’’s chief safety executive. of safety incidents reported.
““Despite what happened this
Wei Chen, president of
week, that positive learning the school’’s Chinese-Ameri-
environment prevails.””
can Student Association, said
Lin said his efforts to fa-
the attacks stem from bully-
cilitate community meetings
ing over cultural differences
and cultural training at the and Asian students’’ poor En-
school have been largely ig- glish.

K C