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Huntsville, AlabamaVol. 99, No. 169, 92 pagesContents © 2008, Huntsville Times

IN PARADE: Warren Buffett’s10 secrets to make YOU rich.

Tide, Tigers win. B1

We break more news at $1.50 Classifieds: 532-4222SEPTEMBER 7 / 2008

Full forecast, D6 Inside

IN NEWS: Storm takes a southwesterly shift. PAGE A3

IN LOCAL: Wayne Parker pointsto Obama stance. PAGE A11

www.al.com/enjoy

The Huntsville Times, September 7, 2008Party with a purpose!A GUIDE TO HUNTSVILLE’S CHARITY BALLS AND SOIREESThe dish on whiteCharity begins at homeFake a rested face

IN LOCAL: Ran for Senate inSouth Dakota. PAGE A11

INSIDE: $178IN COUPONS!

$33.50(31.31%)CorrectionsFund (jail)

$21(19.63%)State GeneralFund

$17(15.89%)City CourtCosts

$16(14.95%)Fair TrialCosts

$8.50(7.94%)Driver’sEd

$3 (2.8%)Peace Officer’s Annuity & Benefit Fund

$3 (2.8%)Advanced Tech Data Fund

$5 (4.67%) Misc.Crime Victims Compensation Fund: $2DNA: $2Law Library: $1

WHERE DOES YOURTRAFFIC FINE GO?

Your actual fine is...Speeding $20Speeding 25 mph over $40Driving without a license $75Improper/expired tag $25Not wearing a seatbelt* $10*According to state law, nocourt costs are paid for thischarge

A TIMES SPECIAL REPORT:

33goes to theNEW JAIL

The largest portion,

SUNDAY

$

TWOINTWO

In city traffic court, the court costs total $107. Here’s the breakdown:

Court costsassessed inMadisonCounty Dis-trict Courtare higher,but no partof it goes tothe jail be-cause it’sbeing builtby the city.

By NIKI DOYLETimes Staff Writerniki.doyle@htimes.com

The officer who nabbed you forspeedingon theParkwaywon’t seeacentofthat$127ticket,butagoodchunkof itwill go straight intooneof the city’s peskiest projects – thejail.Exactly$33.50of each traffic ci-

tation, or nearly $975,000 a year,goestopayingoff the$86.4milliondebt from the construction of thePublic Safety Complex and the in-complete and over-budget jail ex-pansion.Does thecity’smassivedebt lead

to pressure on police leaders to settraffic ticket quotas?“There is no such thing as a

quota,” Police Chief Henry Reyessaid.But there is a budget line.Thecity’s2008budgetshowsof-

ficialsexpectrevenueofabout$1.65million frommunicipal court fees,whichincludetrafficticketswrittenby Huntsville police officers andotherfinesleviedbythecity’sjudges,said City Finance Director RandyTaylor.The“CorrectionsFund”allocation

was approved more than 10 yearsagotopayoffthedebtfromthecon-structionof thePublicSafetyCom-plex,Taylor said.Thatwas longbe-fore the jail expansion’s problemscaused the city to more than dou-ble the budget for the project.The city planned to spend $30

millionon the jail,whichwas tobecompleteayearandahalfago.Now,the budget is up to$70million, anamountthat, ifneeded,wouldn’tbepaidoff until at least20years from

Where will Hurricane Ike go? Coastal residents waryHurricane Ike grew to fierce Category 4 strength Saturday as it roared on an uncertain paththat forcedmillions from the Caribbean to Florida, and Louisiana toMexico, to nervously

wonder where it would eventually strike.

McCain POW cellmatelives in MadisonCongressional Medalof Honor winner LeoThorsness went to theconvention to watch

Sen. John McCain acceptthe Republican

nomination for president.The Air Force retiree spentsix years in captivity in

Vietnam. “If a door’s got ahandle on the inside,” hesays, “that’s a good day.”

RepublicanWayne ParkerandDemocrat ParkerGriffith square off in thebattle to replace Bud

Cramer as therepresentative for the 5thCongressional District.

Defense spending is a hottopic along the campaign

trail.

Parkervs.

Parker

IN ENJOY!: A guide to charity balls.

Please see TRAFFIC on A8

Eric Schultz/Huntsville Times

Folks stand in line for traffic court at municipal court in Huntsville on Thursday.

Philly’s Boys’ Latinproves popular,but some not soldBy KATHY MATHESONThe Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – Call-ingallninth-gradeboys!Raiseyourhandif thisschoolsoundslike fun: wearing jackets andties every day, staying until 5p.m.,learningLatinand–totopit all off – no girls.Who’s in?Turns out, about 270 boys.

And 100 more are on a wait-ing list.Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia,

one of the city’s newer charterschools, began its second yearonWednesday,aimingtobeaneducational beacon in the fi-nancially and academicallytroubled district.Becauseit’sasingle-sexpub-

lic school – one of four in thecity–Boys’Latinfacedhugeop-positionandalmostdidn’texist.Criticscontendit’sunfair for

taxpayerstofundaprepschoolcurriculumforboysonly. Sup-porters say Boys’ Latin is des-peratelyneededinacitywhere45percentofstudentsdropoutand male academic achieve-mentbadlylagsthatoffemales.“Obviouslysomethinghadto

be done differently to engagethese youngmen and preparethem for graduation, and forsuccess beyond high schoolgraduation,”saidDavidHardy,Boys’ Latin co-founder and

acting principal.The Women’s Law Project

and the American Civil Liber-tiesUnionofPennsylvaniahadopposed Hardy’s charter ap-plicationbasedonitsexclusionof girls.It was initially rejected by

Philadelphia schoolofficials inJanuary 2006, but was ap-proved five months later afterthen-district CEO Paul Vallascalledthegenderachievementgap “a crisis.” Boys’ Latinopened in fall 2007.New rules implemented by

the U.S. Education Depart-ment in 2006 allow same-sexeducation whenever schoolsthink it will expand the diver-sity of courses, improve stu-dents’ achievement or meettheir individual needs.But ACLU attorney Mary

Catherine Roper said thoseregulations conflict with theConstitutionandTitleIX,afed-eral law banning sex discrimi-nation in education.There arenonexclusionary ways to im-prove education, such as de-creasing class sizes, she noted.“There is no justification for

offering kids different oppor-tunitiesbasedontheirgender,”said Roper.The 167,000-student

Philadelphia district, which isunder state supervision forpoorperformance,has triedtoimprove by establishing char-terschools,hiringprivatecom-paniesanduniversitiestoman-ageschools,andofferingsingle-

sex education.Results have been mixed.

Threemonths ago, thedistricttooksixschoolsawayfrompri-vate and university managersfor failure to improve suffi-ciently, including an all-boyshigh school.There are at least 442 pub-

lic schools in theUnitedStateswithsingle-sexeducationalop-portunities, according to theExton-based National Associ-ation forSingleSexPublicEd-ucation.Mostofthosearecoedschoolsofferingsingle-sexclass-rooms.Asking if single-sex educa-

tionisgoodislikeaskingifcoededucationisgood,saidLeonardSax, theassociation’sexecutivedirector.“It’s a very diffuse and not

verymeaningfulquestion,”Saxsaid. “There are different ra-tionalesforsingle-sexeducationand different track records.”Juniors at the city’s public

High School for Girls, whichhas been single-sex since itsfounding in 1848, scored 79.3percent proficient or higher inmath and 85.3 percent profi-cient or better in reading.Hardy noted that no one hassuggested making that schoolcoed.Peter Kuriloff, research di-

rector at the Center for theStudy of Boys’ andGirls’ Livesat theUniversityofPennsylva-nia, thinks single-sex class-rooms are worth trying insome cases if paired with astrong curriculum.“It is not a panacea,” said

Kuriloff. “Just putting boys inaboysschoolandgirls inagirlsschool is not going to do any-thing.”Boys’Latin,whichopenedin

trailerswithonlyninth-graders,now teaches freshmen andsophomores in a renovatedformerRomanCatholicschool.It will add a grade each yearuntil ithasgradesninethrough12.Richard Cherry Sr. said he

sent his son, Richard Jr., toBoys’ Latin because of thesmaller class sizesandperson-al attention.He feared his sonwould get “lost in the system”at district high schools that hedescribedaschaoticandsome-times violent.OmarOrtiz, 14, a freshman

at Boys’ Latin, said he wasn’tsure about the no-girls part atfirst. But then he realized he’dbetooshytoreadareportaloudin his old coed public school.“I don’t have to be shy here

becauseit’sallguys,”Ortizsaid.Hismother, LydiaHernan-

dez Velez, 57, said she has noqualms sendingher son to theschool–eventhoughitwasnotan option for her daughter.“They’renotthesame,”Velez

said. “Theirneedsaredifferentatdifferenttimesof their lives.”

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now, Taylor said.Although the city’s more

than 31,000 traffic citationsbrought in nearly $3 millionlastyear,alargeportionofthatgoes to thestate, andwhat thecitykeepsis lessthan1percentof its total revenues.The number of tickets

jumpedwhenthedepartmentlaunched several traffic en-forcementcampaignsandputfederal grant money into itstrafficandDUItask forces.Sofarthisyear,23,120ticketshavebeenwritten,puttingpoliceontrack for a significant increaseover last year’s numbers.Thosetrafficcampaignsand

theresultingticketincreasearenot inspired by budget needs,Reyessaid,butareeffortstore-duce thehighnumberof acci-dents, injuries and deaths.Thecityhadarecord46traf-

fic fatalities in 2005. Only 15people have died inwrecks sofar this year, a statistic the de-partment attributes to in-creased police presence andcheckpoints.“It’s just likeanyotherdeath

–alifeislost,”Reyessaid.“Thatis just another part of our en-forcement efforts that we feelthepublicwantsustodo,eventhoughwehavepeoplecallandcomplain: ‘Ohit’sallaboutthemoney’or ‘You’re just tryingtomeet your quota.’ ”

Correlation foundA 2007 study by two uni-

versityprofessorsshowedthatofficers in Massachusettstowns in a “fiscal crunch”wrote more speeding ticketsthan officers in other towns.The researchers from

George Mason Universitynoted that police officers areemployedbycitygovernmentsand, to a degree, must be in-fluencedby those cities’ finan-cial needs.Thestudyacknowledgesthe

officers’ personal sense of ob-ligationtotheirdutiesandtheircommunities, which Reyessaid should be – and is – thedrivingforceforHuntsvillepo-lice topullovermotoristswhoviolate the law.“Weexpectourofficerstodo

that,” he said. “We don’t tellthemyouhave towrite a tick-et when you stop somebody,butifyouseeatrafficviolation,you should pull themover.”Huntsville,however,doesn’t

havethesamerestrictionsthatmay have influenced thoseMassachusetts officers. Manyof the towns in financial trou-ble had limits on the propertytaxtheycouldlevy,andthecashbrought in by tickets played amore significant role in mu-nicipal budgets.

‘We’ll find a way’Huntsville isn’t going tode-

clarebankruptcybecausedriv-ers start obeying the law.“We depend on all the rev-

enue, but we would find an-otherway”ifticketrevenuesde-

creased,Taylorsaid. “It’sclear-lybettertobringinmoneyan-otherwaythantohavethehaz-ards that come with thosetrafficcitations.We’llfigureouthow to pay our bills.”A municipality can always

raise taxes. Court fees andfines, however, are paid bythosewhobreakthelaw,notallhomeowners and consumers.The Legislature has used

court revenue for decades topay for the poor to have legalrepresentation in court, tocompensate victims of violentcrimefortheirmedicalbillsandlost wages, and to give policenew technology includingDNA testing.Tickets from state troopers

anddeputiespumpevenmorecash into the state generalfund–upto$54acitation.Thestategeneralfundreceives$21fromeachHuntsvillepoliceci-tation.Noneof themoneygoesdi-

rectly to the issuing policeagency,but$3goesinthePeaceOfficers’ Annuity and BenefitFund, which many officersdon’tevenchoosetojoin,Reyessaid.The state-imposed fine for

speeding is $20. The rest iscourtfees–$107inHuntsvilleand $135 in the county.“The vast majority of the

(city’s)budgetissalestaxesandthat type of revenue,” Reyessaid.“Wedon’tevenlookatthemoney coming in.“Wedowant our officers to

be proactive, looking for vio-lations and enforcing the law.That’s our expectation.”

TrafficContinued frompage A1

75-year-oldmanwas robbed,stabbed in TexasThe Associated Press

PASADENA, Texas – Twoteenage girls are accused ofstabbinga75-year-oldmantodeath in a robbery thatnettedthem just $15, and police saythemother of oneof the teenshelped put themup to it.Dannette R. Gillespie, 38,

gave knives to her 15-year-olddaughter and Vanessa AnneOcampo, 19, then waited intheircarwhiletheteensrobbed

and killed Eugene Palma, ac-cording to a probable causewarrant.All threewerechargedwith

capital murder Friday andwere being held without bail.Policedidnot immediatelyre-spond to a call Saturday ask-ingifthesuspectshadattorneysto speak for them.Palma, a bar owner, was

foundstabbedseveraltimesinthedrivewayofhishomeinthisHouston suburb Wednesday.He did not know thewomen,Pasadena police said.According to the warrant,

Ocampo told police the three

hadbeenlookingforsomeoneto rob thatmorning.“He would’ve given them

money–that’sthecrazything,”Kim Nawrot, a bartender atPalma’s bar, told theHoustonChronicle. “Hewasthekindofguythatwould’vegivenanyonethe shirt off of his back.”ApalmprintonPalma’scar

led police to the women, au-thoritiessaid.Gillespieandherdaughter,whowasnot identi-fied because she is a juvenile,were arrested in Pasadena.Ocampo was arrested in SanAntonio.

Mom, 2 teen girls accused in slaying

School rekindles debateon single-sex education

The Associated Press

Richard Cherry Jr., right, departs Boys' Latin of Philadelphia with his father, Richard Cherry Sr., inPhiladelphia on July 15.

A8 The Huntsville Times, Sunday, September 7, 2008