Billings Daily Gazette (Newspaper) - June 5, 2007, Billings, Montana indicted Lawmaker accused of taking TUESDAY JUNE FIGHTING BACK MIKE KRAMER FORMER MSU FOOTBALL COACH SEEKING SETTLEMENT OVER FIRING Sports ID HOAX Send this email to 50 people and Steve jobs will cure cancer Technology 1C The Source Todays briefing Rep Denny Rehberg has requested federal funding of million for the new baseball stadium and to raze the Naval Reserve Center efforts to stamp out meth seem to be working but the job is far from complete speakers at a conference said Monday TO GOING HOME Seven opossums and three turtles that have been far from home in Billings will head back to their native states 2B BROMGARD LAWSUIT The Gazette on Monday sought to enter a federal lawsuit filed by Jim Bromgard who is seeking damages from the state and Yellowstone County after spending IS years in prison for a rape that DMA evidence later showed he did not commit 28 DUI CONVICTION A 28yearold woman who tried to beg and bribe her way out of a arrest was convicted Monday in a District Court trial 2B GRIZZLY LAWSUIT Environmental groups on Monday sued the federal government in a bid to restore endan protections for grizzly bears IB SNOWPACK ALL BUT GONE Snowpack in ai but the highest moun tain peaks has disappeared about a month ahead of schedule IB BISON STAYING PUT Federal and state livestock officials spent Monday bleeding more Montana cattle to test for brucellosis and flying over the western border of Yellowstone National Park to search for bison 38 H ROMNEY TO VISIT MT Presidential candidate Mitt Romney will speak to Montana Republicans at their state convention in Helena on June PECK HIRED Ralph Peck former director of the state Agriculture Department under two governors began work Monday as interim chief deputy to Secretary of State Brad Johnsoa 4B HIDDEN TARGETS Until terrorist plot was revealed few even knew there was a pipeline of highly combustible jet fuel snaking beneath the nations largest city Ks one of several targets from waterway retaining walls under ground subway tunnels to docks and rai yards that authorities in places like New York try to monitor 2A SATELLITE CUTBACK US scien will lose much of their ability to monitor global warming from space a confidential report to the White House warns 3A G8 SUMMIT All hopes for the Group of Eight summit could be over shadowed by rising tensions with Russia 8A LOCAL EDITION Leukemia claims Wyoming senator Craig Thomas 74 praised Wyoming had no greater advocate Associated Press and Casper WASHINGTON Wyoming Sen Craig Thomas a conservative Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights died Monday He was 74 The senators family issued a statement saying he died Monday evening at National Naval Medical Center hi Bethesda Md He had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia The family had issued a state ment earlier in the day saying Thomas cancer had been resistant to his second round of py and that the senator was listed hi serious condition Thomas was also suffering from an infection his fam ily said Just before the 2006 election Thomas was hospitalized with pneumonia and had to cancel his last campaign stops He nonetheless won with 70 percent of the vote monitoring the election from his hospital bed Two days after the election Thomas announced his leukemia diagnosis Gov Dave Freudenthal a Democrat will appoint a successor from one of three finalists chosen by the state Republican Party Wyoming had no greater advo cate taxpayers had no greater watchdog and rural America had no greater defender than Craig Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday Please see Thomas 5A Now beyond Crossroads hones its approach working at a parttime job at Sweet Ginger District hopes new programs lead to more success stories with students By LAURA TODE Of The Gazette Staff Brittney Boone planned to drop out of school on her 16th birthday When she started at Senior High last fall after attending Crossroads Alternative High School she was overwhelmed and 16 is the age at which state law allows a child to quit school She planned to drop out go to Job Corps and get her general lency diploma but a teachers offhand com Coming ment that she Wednesday Calculating to change her dropout rates She won t even make it to second semes she heard the teacher say Boones birthday Nov 17 came and went and her paperwork for Job Corps complete except for her signature was tossed out Trn one of those people that if you tell me I cannot do something Pil prove you Boone said She finished her sophomore year at Senior this spring earned a average and ered the credits she had lost her freshman year in the first semester For the past two months she has also worked parttime at Sweet Ginger a downtown restaurant Shes thinking of a career in culi nary arts but her flair for writing especially poetry could serve her well in journalism she said Boone is one of 32 former 0 Staff School District 2 closed the Crossroads Alternative Learning Center last year because of budget cuts By the numbers Total Crossroads students dis placed at the end of last year 72 Number of Crossroads stu dents enrolled in Billings high schools at the beginning of the year Senior High 44 West High 6 Skyview High 11 Number of Crossroads stu dents enrolled at the end of the first semester Senior West 6 Skyview 10 Number of Crossroads stu dents who finished the year Senior 21 West 3 Skyview 8 Number of Crossroads stu dents who started the year as seniors and number who graduat ed Senior West Skyview Crossroads students who finished the year with passing grades Crossroads was closed in spring of last year part of more than million in budget cuts after a failed levy Crossroads served about To read a poem written by former Crossroads student Brittney Boone see the link in this story 90 students who were at risk of dropping out putting them in an individualized setting that included small class sizes and drug and alcohol counseling After it closed 72 students were displaced Of those 61 started classes back in their regular high schools Seven graduated this spring More than 20 former Crossroads students enrolled in the districts adult edu cation program and at least three have earned a GED When the board voted to close Crossroads trustees allocated to each high school to launch programs for stu dents More than half the funding went to staffing and in every school an coordinator was hired as well as additional coun selors and teachers Please see Crossroads 5A Sen Craig Thomas speaks to members of the Wyoming state Senate during a visit to Cheyenne February Thomas who Joined the Senate in 1889 died Monday He was 74 Associated Press Bozeman soldier killed in bombing BOZEMAN soldier from Bozeman was killed in Iraq on Friday after a suicide bomber detonated an sive near a mosque in Al military officials said Monday US Army Staff Sgt Travis Atkins is the first soldier from Bozeman and the second from Gallatin County to die in Iraq since the war began in 2003 He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq and oversaw a squad of 15 soi diers said his parents Jack and Elaine Atkins of Bozeman He loved the Army He did an excellent Elaine Atkins said He was well thought of by his subordinates and his superior Atkins and several other US soldiers were on patrol at about 11 am Friday when they observed four suspicious Iraqi citizens a VS Army incident report stated The Iraqis tried to run away but Atkins caught one of them and tackled him The man detonated a suicide bomb attached to his vest killing himself and Atkins the report stated One other Iraqi blew himself up and the others fled No other soldiers were killed in the inci dent said Maj Garth Scott the Montana National Guards public information officer Atkins attended Bozeman High School and Kemper Military School in Missouri eventually earning his general equivalency diploma his parents said After high school he worked as a painter poured concrete and worked in a snowmobile shop He enlisted in the Army in November 2000 his parents said When he joined the Army thats when he found his Elaine Atkins said He was initially sent to Iraq for 10 months in March 2003 at the start of the war After that stint Atkins left the Army attended the University of Montana and worked in the building trades his parents said He reenlisted in December 2005 and was sent back to Iraq last summer Atkins had already survived two roadside bombs said his father a Vietnam War veter an Atkinss son Trevor iives in Minnesota his parents said He is also survived by a sister Jennifer 28 who lives in Washington Soldiers dead militants claim Video offers no definitive troops were seized in May 12 ambush BAGHDAD AP Insurgents linked to issued a video Monday which claims they killed all three US soldiers captured in an ambush fast month They were alive and then a voice said dur ing a sequence of images that included the military IDs of two Americans still missing The nearly 11minute video by an al Qaida front group the Islamic State of Iraq offered no proof that the soldiers were killed and buried The US military insisted that the massive manhunt south of Baghdad will go on We condemn the tactics used by these terrorists and are using all means available to pursue those said Brig Gen Kevin Bergner the chief military see Militants 5A The Gazette a Lee Newspaper 122nd year No 34 INDEX Classified 4C Opinion 4A Comics 3D Sports ID Deaths 5B TV Local IB Get news updates online at Nice and warm GB COMING WEDNESDAY Flipflopping Summer sandals liule scrappy shoes pose potential problems for your feet Health
