Breaking News

Breaking News, By Breanna Sooter

Maurice Clemmons was shot and killed on Tuesday morning.

Clemmons shot four police officers in the Tacoma area on Sunday. There was a two day manhunt around the Seattle area for him, according to ABCnews.com.

The Wall Street Journal reported that hundreds of officers and dogs searched the Seattle area for Clemmons.

A Seattle police officer shot and killed an armed Clemmons while making a routine check of a stolen car. Others have been taken into custody for possibled aiding and abetting.

This was not Clemmons first interaction with Seattle's finest. He has a long history in Arkansas and Washington for violence, assualt and second-degree rape of a child. According to the Seattle Times, Clemmons criminal history involves five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. According to the Seattle Times, he was released last week on a $15,000 bond. Mike Huckabee, who was the governor at the time of Clemmons parole in Arkansas in 2000 is the one responsible from granting Clemmons clemency for his 95 year sentence from his 1989 arrest for aggravated robbery.The Seattle Times also reported that Clemmons has been known for his unpredictable behavior. Clemmons sister told Sheriff's earlier this year that "Maurice is not in his right mind..."

His past court experiences indicate unacceptable behavior as well. Doing anything from hiding a hinge in his sock to use as a weapon to reaching for the guard's pistol, judges have had to order extra security because they feel uncomfortable or threatened by him. According to the Los Angeles Times, Huckabee's political career could also be severely impacted by Clemmons actions. "He made some questionable decisions about clemency for inmates during his term as governor, in some cases ignoring the objections of legal experts. But in Clemmons' case, he seems to have had legitimate grounds for concern about whether justice was being served." Huckabee released this statement, "Should [Clemmons] be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State. He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990, making him parole eligible and was paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time. He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him...Our thoughts and prayers are and should be with the families of those honorable, brave, and heroic police officers."

Tourism in St. Augustine

Tourism in St. Augustine, By Breanna Sooter

With events like the Light Up Night, the first night of the popular Night of Lights, there is hope for tourism in St. Augustine. The square downtown was abuzz with people and businesses were alive and hopping.

With some events beginning as early as 4 in the afternoon, downtown St. Augustine was full of people getting ready for the yearly lighting of the lights. Businesses like the Casa Monica Hotel sold hot chocolate outside the hotel to those watching the lighting ceremony. Two weddings took place downtown on the same night, adding even more people to the area.

Many businesses have been ready and waiting for this time of year for their business. The Bunnery Café has experienced a slow past few months. Julie Holmes, manager of the café said that the past few months have been what a typical September is; very slow. She has had to cut come hours, but not any people. She said, “You do what you have to do for September, cut back a little on the product, cut back on the hours…” Holmes is very optimistic sales will improve for this November and December, “By the end of the year, I hope we’re rockin’ and rollin'”

Café del Hidalgo, a café downtown, has experienced a slowing down in business as well, but is fortunate due to its location on the corner of Hypolita Street and St. George Street. “We havn’t been hit hard like some mom and pop restaurants,” said Rosa Oliveri, employee of the café. Though Oliveri did say that three years ago, sales were twice as high at this time of year. Oliveri said that the restaurant's customer base has seen a rise in European tourists, as the Euro is much stronger than the dollar. Hidalgo is a specialty place, which means you pay for higher quality food, which has changed the type of tourists that frequent the cafe. Their central location ensures that trolleys stop right outside the café, easily drawing people in with their specialty gelato and excellent food. “Usually holiday tourists come back, I know it will increase more than it does now…the holidays will pick back up.”

Nights like the night of the Light Up Ceremony are great for businesses like Café del Hidalgo as St. George St. is full of tourists and residents alike. As we near December, all of these downtown businesses are hopeful that their businesses will pick up and make up for the rest of the year.

Issue Story

Issue Story, By Breanna Sooter

Tina and Billy Gray were pregnant with their first child when disaster hit their family.

Tina was six months pregnant when she got a cold. She went to the doctor and they wrote it off as nothing to worry about, just a cold. Since she was pregnant, there are not many drugs you can take, and she was just told to wait it out. Gray also had asthma, so the doctor assumed that the asthma was a factor in her cold.

"The next thing I know, they're putting me in the hospital because it wasn't going away, so then I thought, they'll [the doctors] give me some medicine for a few days and then I'll be better...and I fell asleep, and as far as I knew I woke up the next day, but apparently it was eight weeks later."

But, Gray said, "I got antibiotics, but I was just getting tireder and tireder, the fever wasn't going away." Because she was pregnant and asthmatic, Gray believes her diagnosis was thrown off of what was truly wrong with her.

Billy Gray, Tina's husband took her to the doctor and they made the decision to put her in the hospital because she had now developed pneumonia.

Billy Gray said that after about four or five days in the hospital, they realized the situation was progressing and getting worse. His wife wasn't able to keep her oxygen levels up, so they induced a coma by intubating her and putting her on a respirator. At this point, the doctors at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla, felt that is was in both mother and child's best interest for them to deliver the baby via C-Section.

Gisele Gray was born at 27 weeks, weighing two and a half pounds. She spent two months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Baptist Medical Center , coming home the week after Labor Day.

For those eight weeks, Tina remained in a coma, not knowing that her baby had been delivered. Her husband said that the doctors were constantly giving him bad news saying Tina showed no signs of improvement. She had developed a condition called ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome. Since her body was already weak from the pneumonia, she developed ARDS easily, leaving her lungs significantly weakened. According to ards.org, the mortality rate for ARDS is more than 40 percent and can be as high as 70 percent.

“Yeah that was a pervasive thing. For several weeks it was consistent message on a daily basis. The doctor would come to her room and basically say there was no improvement, things aren't looking good. There was this one doctor who continuously told me go look at the literature, go Google this, go Google that. I guess he wanted me to go see for myself. He didn't want to say it himself but the prognosis was very very poor. It seemed like he was trying to prepare me for the worst for quite awhile.”

While she was in the coma, she was on a variety of drugs and a respirator to keep her still and keep her body from doing any work. Since Tina was on all of these drugs to keep her from moving, her dreams also reflected this. In her dream, she was in a nail salon getting a pedicure, but she had been tied to the chair. For the majority of her time “sleeping” she had this dream or one similar to it and was always trying to figure out ways to escape.

Aimee McDonald, friend and neighbor tried to get information and updates about Gray whenever possible. She said that at one point during Gray’s eight weeks of “sleep” the doctors were concerned she wouldn’t wake up because she had nothing to fight for. “They [the doctors] briefly woke her up, told her she had the baby, she cried, saw pictures and then they had to put her back under because it was so traumatic and she started losing oxygen and having issues again. “Both her and her baby were against all odds,” said McDonald, “you know, I really do think it’s a miracle, she should have died, her baby should have died.”

Mother and child are now home and improving significantly. Gisele is now 8.5 pounds. And Tina is able to walk around the house and not lose her breath. After she was released from the hospital, Gray had to learn to walk again and went to rehab for several weeks. She is still on oxygen and cannot leave her home because of the flu season. It is imperative that she remains illness free because it could kill her. Her lung capacity is approximately 50 percent now and her immune system very low. A few weeks ago, McDonald said that Gray let a few people into her home and she developed a sinus infection. Friends and family are only able to wave from across the street, and if they want to leave gifts or food, they have to leave it on the front door step, ring the doorbell and leave. The doctors have warned her that if she gets sick again, she could die. While she isn’t out of the woods yet, she has improved significantly and the situation is being called a miracle.

“I honestly believe God sent an angel to me,” said Gray. Hundreds of people all around the country have been praying for Gray throughout these five months or so. Gray's friends all started to tell their friends about Gray, and the word spread all around the country.

McDonald still has people ask her about Gray and her baby. McDonald’s bible study group was all praying for the Grays and “I still think it’s a neat thing, because I feel like God is working through it still…and the most exciting part I think, I can't wait, years from now for us to look back and be able to hear her whole story and hear how God worked through it and Gisele is fine and she’s a couple years old and Tina's fine and life is back to normal; and then to be able to look back and see the story, it'll be a neat story.”

A Profile on Charry Lee

A Profile on Charry Lee, By Breanna Sooter

If it wasn't for some good Samaritans in St. Augustine, Charry Lee wouldn't be here right now.

Lee is originally from Korea, but has lived in the Philippines for most of her life. Lee's parents are missionaries in the Philippines and are not able to support her. They have started nine churches there. Her father is a professor currently teaching Filipino pastors and her mom runs a dorm for troubled and misbehaved high school kids from Korea. Lee attends Flagler College but has had constant financial struggles to stay in school.

While Lee was in the Philippines, she lived in the dorm run by her parents; this influenced her decision to explore the world. She wanted to go outside of Korea and the Philippines. She chose America for multiple reasons. "I became interested in English, the language itself and really wanted to master it," said Lee. The climate was a factor in Lee choosing Florida as well. Lee was looking for an special needs education program at a small private college, and Flagler College was her pick.

While Flagler College has been Lee's pick all along, it has been a huge challenge for her to stay here. There have been many people in Lee's life that have facilitated her stay. Andy Hirko is a pastor at Good News Presbyterian Church and is the head of the college ministry there. He said, “Once we heard that Charry was in trouble we bounced into action. I sent out a message on Facebook to have people donate money to help her stay in school. We had about 35 people respond. Some gave as little as $10 and one couple gave $1,000. It was really cool to see the community come together. In total we raised about $2,500. We also made an announcement through our elders at the church. Charry is an amazing person and we were blessed to help.” Hirko, an alumnus of Flagler College connected Lee to Larry Weeks, the Director of Business Services. Lee was given the chance to tell Weeks her story and explain her situation. Lee was then connected to Christine Wages of Business Services and the President of Flagler College. Lee wrote a letter to President Abare and was given a grant from school, saving her a lot of money in tuition. She is currently a resident advisor, which pays for room and board. Lee has been involved in Good News Church since she arrived at Flagler in the spring of 2008. She plays the piano for the contemporary praise team there, interacting and being involved with many people’s lives.

Jaime Spicer, a Flagler College senior sings on the praise team with Lee and said, “Charry Lee has been an amazing addition to the praise team at Good News Presbyterian Church. She is thoroughly dedicated and is extremely talented. She possesses an ear for music and simply brings joy to every practice and service in which she plays. I am so thankful that she is still at Flagler College and serves as a leader on our campus. She has a gentle spirit and determined mentality which contributes to the beautiful person that she is.”

Last Christmas marked one year since Lee had seen any of her family. She had become very homesick, but knew there was no way for her to go home. She confided this to her roommates and friends. Her fellow leaders in Intervarsity, a Christian ministry at Flagler College heard about her wanting to go to the Philippines for Christmas. The leaders got together and each wrote down an amount of how much they could contribute said Kelly Westropp, Intervarsity staff. With just a handful of leaders, they had more than enough money to send Lee to the Philippines for almost a month.

Lee spent this past summer in Korea teaching English to Korean students and making books so that she could pay for school. She ended up having to stay in a dorm meant for people with social problems and emotional or behavioral disorders. She described her room there as a tiny place, “like a prison cell.” She encountered people from all walks of life, and tried to keep to herself as much as possible to ensure her safety. She worked for a company that had her make books for Korean teachers and students to use and teach English. However, while she was there, her employer told her that they couldn’t afford to keep her on, so she continue with just the one job of teaching English. This meant that she would not make enough money over the summer to pay for school for the coming year. While Lee was still in Korea, Flagler College emailed Lee telling her that they preferred that she didn't come back to school if she couldn't pay off all of her debt, which was over $4000. Lee sent a message to a few friends on Facebook to ask for prayer, “I didn't ask them for anything else more than prayer… that God will change the hearts of people, President Abare, Christine Wages, Kenneth Russom [VP of Business Services],” She later received an email from a woman who asked if the issue was financial. Lee replied that it was. The woman replied that she would pay whatever the amount was, because she wanted Lee to be here. Lee would not disclose who this woman was, just that she was a member of Good News Church and only knew Lee as an acquaintance. "So she emailed me back, saying yeah! I will pay for you! And yeah, so she paid for me. Paid for my tuition and I got to come back as a student."

Lee is currently in her junior year at Flagler College and plans to graduate in the spring of 2011.

The Story of Thomas Graber

The Story of Thomas Graber, By Breanna Sooter and Christina Arzapalo

Thomas Graber, known as “Tug” by his friends and family, was described as friendly, giving and witty. He volunteered feeding the homeless at the St. Francis House in Lincolnville, and was beginning to focus his attention on school and become more studious.

This was until Emmanuel Head ended his life.

In October of 2006, Graber was stabbed to death, and his apartment was set ablaze.

Head, 19 at the time, broke into Graber’s apartment and attempted to steal some of his belongings. During the struggle, Graber was stabbed multiple times and bled to death. Attempting to hide the evidence, Head set the apartment on fire and fled the scene. Vincent Sterling, also 19, was also arrested as an accessory to the murder, though Head tells the judge he worked alone

During the trial in 2008, Head wrote a letter to the judge. He felt that he did not get a fair trial, and wanted to day some things that he had held back on in court.

“I have no rememberence (sic) of stabbing Mr. Graber that many times and it is something that I have shed many tears over. I have been made to look like a monster. Although I am not the world’s most upstanding person, I am also not a monster. In court I held a lot back. One of the things that bothered me the most was when Thomas Graber’s brother Mark Graber said that I was way bigger than Thomas and could have easily overpowered him but the fact of the matter is that less than a week before this happened, I was in the hospital strapped to a IV because of food poisoning. The fact of the matter is I’ve gained 50 pounds since that day. I feel that the only way I could have done this was out of fear.”

In the July 2008 court proceedings when the deposition of Head was given, Mark Graber spoke about the stabbing. He made Head an example of how our society is ugly, that it is not just him, our world is turning into this.

“But what I do know is that afterwards I got to clean up the pool of blood, and all I could think of in the whole entire process was why? If you were looking for self-defense, this man is so much larger than my – I’m bigger than my brother, and he (Thomas Graber) could have easily been taken. And if for the value of a few small hand-held electronics, to take a life? That’s just how society is so ill. But now there’s a 40-year sentence, and that is supposed to somehow console me. I’m supposed to be up here saying that’s going to do it for me.”

Houston was also arrested in relation to the murder of Graber. He was charged with accessory after the fact to murder, but was dismissed of the charges in August 2008. In the court proceedings of July 2008, Head said, "I'd like to say, first, my co-defendent, Vince Houston, didn't have anything to do with this at all." In the Motion to Dismiss regarding Houston, it was reported that Head told Houston to leave after the fact, and inevitably pushed him out of the house. Though it is suspected that Houston knew the death had occurred, "Florida case law states that suspicion is not sufficient for a conviction as an accessory after the fact," as noted in the Motion to Dismiss.

During the court proceedings, Graber’s mother Julie spoke about the mass she attended in St. Augustine a few days before the murder. Graber’s parents were visiting from Ohio. A sense of foreshadowing was spoken through the Bible that day. She read a portion of the gospel to the court that was read in mass that day.

“Jesus said to his disciples, be sure of this, if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would have not let his house be broken into. You must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect the Son of man to come.”

Many people loved Graber, and a clear piece of evidence stating the fact is his memorial group on the social networking website, Facebook. This group, entitled "In Memory of the Late Mr. Thomas Hugh Graber III' , has just over 130 members, family, friends, acquaintances, and people who simply crossed paths with the young man. As the group message says, Graber touched the lives of many in different ways. His friends still write on the wall for the group, each of them missing 'Tug' in their own special way.

The Graber family was not available for comment. Phone calls were attempted but the family did not return the calls.

Days after being convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, Head wrote this in his letter to Judge Wendy Berger. "I am grateful for the forgiveness shown by his family. I would eventually like to get in contact with the family but as I can't do that, as (sic) least not now, you were the [person] I felt compelled to write." Head is currently in Walton Correctional Institute in Defuniak Springs, Fla.

Swine Flu

Swine flu isn't the only kind of flu Florida needs to be worried about.

According to Jacksonville.com, Florida has already been reported as having "widespread" flu activity for the week ending September 12. Since swine flu has had ideal conditions to spread, Health Department officials aren't sure if the situation will become worse once seasonal flu arrives.

St. Johns County Superintendent, Joseph Joyner urges residents to be vaccinated for the flu, and for swine flu, as soon as the vaccines are ready. Jacksonville.com reports that the swine flu vaccine will be available in early October.

While children over 10 will only need one of each vaccine, children under 10 possibly need two of each vaccine, reports WINKnews.com. Area health departments will offer free vaccines for children, while people who are under 25, the elderly, or pregnant are urged to get vaccinated.

News/Feature Reporting. Assignment 1