University of Utah Student Newspapers | 2008-08-29 | Page 4

4 Friday, August 29,2008 BULLETIN www.dailyutahchronicle.com All stories and photos from The Associated Press 84,000 attend Obama speech DENVER—Surrounded by an enormous, adoring crowd, Barack Obama promised a clean break from the "broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush" Thursday night as he embarked on the final lap of his audacious bid to become the nation's first black president. "America, now is not the time for small plans," the 47-year-old Illinois senator told an estimated 84,000 people packed into Invesco Field, a huge football stadium at the base of the Rocky Mountains. He vowed to cut taxes for nearly all workingclass families, end the war in Iraq and break America's dependence on Mideast oil within a decade. By contrast, he said, "John McCain has voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time," a scathing indictment of his Republican rival—on health care, education, the economy and more. Polls indicate a close race between Obama and McCain, the Arizona senator who stands between him and a place in history. On a night 45 years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a Dream Speech," Obama made no overt mention of his own race. "I realize that I am not 90/63 Sunny • Utah Volleyball vs. Utah Valley: 7 p.m. @ Utah Crimson Court (HPER East) •Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids: 7 p.m. @Rice-Eccles Stadium , %t ; •Utah Women's Soccer vs. Arizona: 7:30 p.m. @ Ute Field ** • Monet to Picasso from the Cleveland Museum of Art: all day @ UMFA 3 0 Saturday Partly Cloudy/Wind 93/70 • Monet to Picasso from the Cleveland Museum of Art: all day @ UMFA • Children's Art Workshop: Monet to Picasso to Youl: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. @ UMFA : • Earthquake Benefit Concert by the faculty of U's School of Music and • musicians of the Utah Symphony: 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. @ Libby Gardner Hall Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, D-lll., gives his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver,Thursday. the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree" of a presidential candidate was as close as he came to the long-smoldering issue that may well determine the outcome of the election. Campaigning as an advocate of a new kind of politics, he suggested at least some common ground was possible on abortion, gun control, immigration and gay marriage. Obama delivered his 44-minute nominating acceptance speech in an unrivaled convention setting, before a crowd of unrivaled size—the filled stadium, the camera flash- nesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty canceled all scheduled appearances for the next two days, stoking speculation that he was the one. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia spoke first of the anniversary of King's memorable speech. "Tonight we are gathered here in this magnificent stadium in Denver because we still have a dream," said the Georgia lawmaker, who marched with King, supported Obama's primary rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then switched under pressure from younger black leaders in his home state and elsewhere. es in the night, the madefor-television backdrop that suggested the White House, and the thousands of convention delegates seated around the podium in an enormous semicircle. Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden. of Delaware, leave their convention city on Friday for Pennsylvania, first stop on an eight-week sprint to Election Day. McCain countered with a bold move of his own, hoping to steal some of the political spotlight by spreading word that he had settled on a vice presidential running mate. Min- Gulf Coast prepares for massive storm NEW ORLEANS-^ith Gustav approaching hurricane strength and showing no signs of veering off a track to slam into the Gulf Coast, authorities across the region began laying the groundwork Thursday to get the sick, elderly and poor away from the shoreline. The first batch of 700 buses that could ferry residents inland were being sent to a staging area near New Orleans, and officials in Mississippi were trying to decide when to move Katrina-battered residents along the coast who were still living in temporary homes, including trailers vulnerable to high wind. The planning for a potential evacuation is part of a massive outline drafted after Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore three years ago, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and stranding thousands who couldn't get out in time. As the region prepared to mark the storm's anniversary Friday, officials expressed confidence those blueprints made them ready for Gustav. "There are a lot of things that are different between now and what we faced in 2005 when Katrina came ashore," said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was flying to Louisiana to meet with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Bobby Jindal. "We've had three years to put together a plan that never existed before." With Gustav still several days away, authorities cautioned that no plans were set in stone, and had not yet called for residents to leave. Projections showed the storm arriving early next week as a Category 3 storm, with winds of in mph or greater, anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to eastern Texas. But forecasts are extremely tentative several days out, and the storm could change course and strength. Jury acquits former Marine in killing of Iraqis RIVERSIDE, Calif.—A former Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi detainees was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter Thursday in a first-ofits-kind federal trial that ended with some of the jurors shaking hands and hugging the defendant and his sobbing mother. The jury took less than six hours to find Jose Luis Nazario Jr. not guilty of charges that he killed or caused others to kill four unarmed detainees on Nov. 9, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq, during some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The verdict left the 28-year-old defendant— and some of the jurors— in tears. His mother, family and friends cried so loud the judge smacked his gavel in a call for order. "It's been a long, hard year for my family," Nazario said outside the courtroom. "I need a moment to catch my breath and try to get my life back together." Thursday's verdict marks the first time a civilian jury has determined whether the alleged actions of a former military service member in combat violated the law of war. The jury forewoman, Ingrid Wicken, hugged Nazario's sobbing mother, Sandra Montanez, without speaking after the verdict was read. "I watched her all week. She 2 9 Fm was being tortured every day," Wicken said later. "I thanked her, God blessed her," Montanez said. "I told her she gave me my son back. It was something I needed to say." Wicken said the panel acquitted Nazario because there was not enough evidence against him. "I think you don't know what goes on in combat until you are in combat," she said. Nazario's attorney, Kevin McDermott, said he believes the verdict will curb faulty filings. "I don't think they are going to put on a case in the future with a lack of evidence," McDermott said. Prosecutors alleged that Nazario either killed or caused others to kill four unarmed Iraqi detainees in Fallujah during "Operation Phantom Fury," which resulted in house-to-house fighting. Other former Marines testified during the fiveday trial that they did not see Nazario kill detainees but heard the gunshots. The case came to light in 2006 when Sgt. Ryan Weexner, Nazario's former squadmate, volunteered details to a U.S. Secret Service job interviewer during a lie-detector screening that included a question about the most serious crime he ever committed. That screening was not admitted at Nazario's trial. Weemer and another Marine, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, face military charges of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty. Both maintain their innocence, and both were found in contempt of court for refusing to testify against Nazario. Had Nazario been convicted of voluntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, he could have faced more than 10 years in prison. On Wednesday, federal prosecutor Jerry Behnke urged the jury to convict Nazario, saying he violated his duty as a Marine and must be held accountable for his actions in Fallujah. He said the evidence showed the de- tainees had surrendered before the shooting. McDermott told jurors they could not convict the former Marine sergeant of an alleged crime in which there were no bodies, no identities and no forensics. The case against Nazario rested primarily on the accounts of his former comrades, including two who have been found in contempt of court for refusing to testify. Other former Marines testified during the five-day trial that they did not see Nazario kill the detainees but heard the gunshots. Outside court, Nazario told The Associated Press that he had no ill will against the Marines who testified against him. ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE T R 1 M W R 1 C E A A D 1 N T A R 1 0 * N E E D T 0 C 0 S E L L S N 1 P E T 1 ME D 1M 10 E t c A C A R A L L HA S 1N C 1 0 L S 1 HE E N T R E •1 1 1 J U M P 1 1 A P 0 L L M P A C R T Y| L S 1 i •s I k * N 0 0 J 0 \ D 0 L 1 Z E A R A L I C K S E E K L L Y ES E B 0 S 11 E N E R S NA N T L E 0 C E K U B S E NF 0 N E S L A S H l1 G G E S 1 1 1T p L 1 N T R\ 0 WE 6 R A R0 B 0 0 L HY ME CROSSWORD OhJ CLASSIFIEDS PAGF R N E S S 3 1 Sunday Scattered T-Storms 75/57 • Utah Women's Soccer vs. Georgia: 1 p.m. @ Ute Field • UMFA's Monet to Picasso Mini Lecture: 9 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. @ UMFA • Utah Volleyball vs. Santa Clara: 4 p.m. @ Utah Crimson Court WORLD Putin: US orchestrated conflict in Georgia MOSCOW—Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Thursday of instigating the fighting in Georgia and said he suspects a connection to the U.S. presidential campaign—a contention the White House dismissed as "patently false." In a decision he said was unrelated to unraveling Russia-U.S. ties, Putin ordered that 19 American poultry producers be barred from selling their products to Russia. He said the unnamed companies ignored demands that £hey correct alleged deficiencies. Putin, the former president and architect of an assertive foreign policy that has stoked East-West tension, suggested in an interview with CNN that there was an American presence amid the combat with a potential domestic U.S. political motive. "We have serious grounds to think that there were U.S. citizens right in the combat zone" during Russia's war with the U.S.-allied ex-Soviet republic, he said the interview broadcast on state-run Russian television. "And if that's so, if that is confirmed, it's very bad. It's very dangerous." Putin's acid attack on the United States came as Moscow's bid to redraw Georgia's borders hit an obstacle among its Asian allies wbp.re/use&l tP,rj?,C: ognize the two Russian-backed breakaway regions of Georgia. France, meanwhile, said the European Union is considering sanctions against Russia for its conduct in the Caucasus. UTAH Utah orders blanket gas station pump inspections With Utah gas prices 28 cents higher than the national average, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is redeploying his inspectors to keep gas stations honest "This gas deal's gotten everybody pretty excited, and the governor wants people to know we're out testing so consumers get what they pay for," Dale Kunze, a weights and measures inspector, said at a Top Stop gas station where the pumps tested, well, pretty accurate. Kunze and other inspectors represent Huntsman's vow to keep a "laser-like" focus on gas prices. The Department of Agriculture and Food normally has three inspectors dedicated to keeping tabs on Utah's nearly 28,000 gas pumps. Yet, at Huntsman's prompting, the agency reassigned five other inspectors to the task— they'd normally be at grocery store delis or bakeries to verify weight scales. Corrections J , ^ . and Clarifications The policy of The Daily Utah Chronicle is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at 801-581-8317. JHE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Advertising 801-581-7041 News801-581-NEWS Fax801-581-FAXX EDITOR IN CHIEF: Dustin Gardiner [e-mail] ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR: Lucas Isley [e-mail] MANAGING EDITOR: Rachel Hanson ONLINE PRESENTATIONS EDITOR: Daniel Mace [e-mail] [e-mail] PRODUCTION MANAGER: Alyssa Bailey PAGE DESIGNER: Sara Copeland [e-mail] PAGE DESIGNER: Maggie Poulton ASST. 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