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Waco Tribune-Herald
119 years serving the Heart of Texas

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011

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HEART O TEXAS FAIR & RODEO

Taking 100 shots at winning

Skeen to seek another 4 years

By Michael W. Shapiro
Tribune-Herald staff writer

Staff photos Duane A. Laverty

City of Waco police officer Clayton Williams plays a game known as Shoot Out The Star or Machine Gun Fun at the

Heart O Texas Fair & Rodeo. Williams and two other sharpshooters tested the difficulty of shooting games at the fair.

Area marksmen find rifle skills mean little when it comes to HOT Fair competitions
By Cindy V. Culp
Tribune-Herald staff writer

THE SHARPSHOOTERS

Ignoring pleas from the leaders of both of McLennan Countys political parties, County Tax Assessor-Collector Buddy Skeen announced Wednesday he will seek four more years in office in 2012. Skeen said his family encouraged him to run again, despite an ongoing Texas Rangers investigation, as well as news articles about his hiring practices, the work environment in his office and incidents where he sold government-owned trucks at Skeen marked down prices to associates. In a statement sent to the TribuneHerald, Skeen said another term will allow him to fulfill all of my obligations and to erase all allegations toward me so that I will be able to vindicate myself. Skeen, who took office in 1989, wrote the statement like a direct appeal to voters. You have to understand that in 23 years billions of dollars have been in my control and been distributed to each entity in an efficient and timely manner, he said. See SKEEN, Page 3A

he Heart O Texas Fair & Rodeo might call to your inner cowboy. But be warned. If you try the gun games on the midway, you are likely to feel more like a city slicker than a sharpshooter. To gauge whether the typical fairgoer has half a shot at winning such games, the Tribune-Herald recruited three local marksmen to give them a try. From a high school student who shoots competitively to a police officer who has won awards for his sniper skills, the participants brought serious game. But in the end, only one of the recruits took home a fuzzy prize. Shooting skill, it seems, has little to do with winning carnival games. See SHOOT, Page 6A

Nigerian man pleads guilty in bomb plot

By Ed White

THE WACO POLICE OFFICER

Clayton Williams Even this trophy-winning sniper couldnt conquer the Shoot Out the Star game.

THE JUNIOR ROTC SHOOTER

James Chesley It didnt take long for this quick study to figure out the gun sights are way off.

THE COLLEGE MARKSMAN

Brad Drango He walked away with a stuffed animal but only for a water gun game.

Associated Press

Texans park welcome StateLost Pines faces long recovery Official says rain as dry may never fully bounce back from inferno spell eases
BASTROP WILDFIRE
By Michael Graczyk
Associated Press

DETROIT A Nigerian man pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to bring down a jetliner with a bomb in his underwear, defiantly telling a federal judge that he acted in retaliation for the killing of Muslims worldwide and referring to the failed explosive as a blessed weapon. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who acknowledged working for al-Qaida and never denied the allegations, entered the plea against his attorneys advice on the second day of his trial. He faces a mandatory life sentence See AIRLINE, Page 6A

INSIDE, 3A
Tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran always has been high as the rival nations struggle to dominate the Middle East.

By Betsy Blaney
Associated Press

LUBBOCK Rainfall across a large swath of parched Texas during the past week snapped a seven-month streak of precipitation levels that were among each months 10 driest on record, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Wednesday. Thankfully, it did rain. Was it expected? No. Aberration? Yes. Will we take it? Absolutely, said Victor Murphy, who estimated that Texas got an average of about 2 inches of rain in the past week or so. The rain was unusual for this time of year, Murphy said. An upper level system moved far enough east to pick up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico before it turned north, he said. See RAIN, Page 6A

BASTROP Todd McClanahan surveys the fire-blackened tree trunks poking out of a thick carpet of ash, a normally green world turned black and gray. You should have seen it in color, said McClanahan, superintendent of Bastrop State Park, mentioning a phrase repeated in Jamey Johnsons award-winning country song In Color. The park, one of the most popular in Texas, was ravaged when wind-whipped wildfires scorched 50 square miles east of Austin last month. The blazes destroyed more than 1,500 homes and torched swaths of the parks signature Lost Pines forest that may never fully recover. Rather than a lush green brush under a canopy of towering pines, McClanahan said much of the park has become moonscape in some spots,

INDEX
Associated Press Paul Sullivan

Dead trees in the Bastrop State Park are marked with orange paint for removal. The park lost about 70 percent of its trees during this summers wildfires. for as far as the eye can see. Its really kind of depressing, McClanahan said as he evaluates the parks remains from his pickup truck. More than a month after the inferno, the extent of the damage still is being determined, but McClanahan said about 70 percent of the trees in the park were lost. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department crews are clearing burned tree trunks away from roads and campsites and hiking trails so when the park reopens tentatively set for December See BASTROP, Page 6A

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Gulf rivalries a backdrop for Iran plot claims

By Brian Murphy
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates During Friday prayers in Tehran last summer, one of the ruling systems most firebrand clerics, Ahmad Jannati, had worshippers pumping their fists to denounce Saudi Arabia and other Arab foes across the Gulf. In response, the Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, blamed Iran for fomenting street protests and targeting the kingdom with unrest. Mudslinging between the

Middle Easts two most powerful rivals is a longtime political fact of life. But it has grown much thicker amid the Arab Spring uprisings and now threatens to veer into crisis mode after U.S. allegations arose of an Iranian-aided plot to assassinate Saudi Arabias ambassador in Washington. Deeper suspicions and sharper recriminations dont necessarily increase the risk of a new Mideast conflict, which would invariably draw in U.S. forces in the Gulf. But the higher tensions are likely to raise tempera-

tures in current flashpoints such as Syria and Bahrain where Saudi and Iranian views collide. The Saudi-Iran rivalry is the pivot point for so much in the region, said David Schenker, a Mideast affairs analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. What is happening now could set the tone for years or decades. Saudi policy makers could double down on efforts to further isolate Iran by boosting assistance to Syrian opposition forces seeking to topple Tehrans main ally,

Bashar Assad. In the past week, Iran felt further squeezed as neighboring Turkey agreed to host a NATO missile defense radar and the European Union added 29 more Iranian officials to its sanctions list. In London, a former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Prince Turki al-Faisal, said somebody in Iran will have to pay a price. The princes aides said his remarks were personal views and did not reflect official policy. The official Saudi news agency said the kingdom strongly condemned what

it called the evil, heinous plot, describing it as a violation of international law. Iran has dismissed the assassination plot claims as American propaganda. But that didnt slow the potshots at Saudi Arabia, which many Iranian officials view as rubber-stamp envoys for U.S. interests in the region. This is in line with policy of divide and rule, said Iranian lawmaker Farhad Bashiri, addressing an open session of parliament Wednesday. Saudi Arabia should be careful not to fall in the U.S. trap.

Suicide bombers, explosions kill 25 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD Attacks aimed at Iraqi police, including two in which assailants slammed explosives-packed cars into police stations, killed 25 people Wednesday and maimed dozens in the worst violence in the capital since August. Less than three months before American troops are to leave Iraq, the blasts were a brutal example of the challenges Iraqi security forces will face as they assume sole responsibility for containing terror groups such as al-Qaida. The blasts were aimed at the police. In the southern Karradah neighborhood, a suicide car bomb attack on a police station killed 13 people and wounded 25, Baghdad police officials said. Smoke rose from the blast site as ambulances rushed to the scene, their sirens wailing. Iraqi army helicopters circled overhead. Associated Press

Stars align for Mideast prisoner swap

Associated Press

JERUSALEM The contours of the prisoner swap deal between Israel and the Hamas militant group have long been known: Israel would free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip.
Associated Press Apichart Weerawong

ANALYSIS
But it required a unique set of circumstances, ranging from domestic problems on both sides to a revolution in Egypt, for the agreement to materialize. The bitter enemies announced the deal nearly simultaneously Tuesday, ending a five-year saga surrounding Israeli Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured in a crossborder raid and dragged into Gaza in June 2006. For his return Israel will free more than 1,000 prisoners. The deal gives each side enough to claim victory. Israels embattled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, can say he brought home a soldier whose plight had become a national obAssociated Press Hatem Moussa

Residents walk on sandbag barriers set up on a street Wednesday to prevent from flooding in Pathumthani province, central Thailand.

Roads turn to rivers in hard-hit Thailand

Associated Press

Palestinians pray as they gather around the body of Ahmed Azazmeh, killed in an explosion, during his funeral in a mosque Monday in Beit Hanoun.

AYUTTHAYA, Thailand With large sections of Ayutthaya buried under a sea of one-story high water, rescue workers and volunteers are still crisscrossing town to pluck stranded residents from waterlogged ruins. Others are staying to protect whats left. Epic monsoon rains and typhoons have battered a vast swath of Asia relentlessly this year, killing hundreds of people from the Philippines to India and inflicting billions of dollars in damage in the last four months. Thailand is among the hardest hit. The floods here are the worst in half a century, claiming more than 280 lives since late July. Flood waters have swamped more than two-thirds of the

country, submerging rice fields and shutting down hundreds of factories. American computer hard drive manufacturer Western Digital Corp. and Japans Toyota Motor Corp. became the latest to suspend production in Thailand on Wednesday. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said many provinces could remain submerged for the next two months, according to state broadcaster MCOT. For weeks, water has coursed down key rivers from northern Thailand in a slowmotion catastrophe, overwhelming a national system of dams and dikes. Several days ago, floods transformed Ayutthaya into one of the countrys worst disaster zones, navigable in some districts only by boat. he said. Skeens longtime campaign treasurer, Jim Hawkins, still carries that title, though he has recently criticized Skeen publicly. Hawkins said Wednesday he didnt realize he was still affiliated with the campaign. He said he plans to resign. He hasnt called me to defend himself, Hawkins said of Skeen, but Ive pretty well made up my mind and there isnt any way Im going to be able to stay with him. Skeen who was elected as a Democrat in 1988, announced during the summer that he had filed paperwork to become a Republican. As the Rangers investigation progressed and other county officials scrutinized Skeens conduct, both the Democratic and Republican party chairs have called for Skeen to step down. In what appears to be a response to his critics, Skeen claimed Wednesday that the public supports him overwhelmingly. Do not let the 10 percent of unhappy people control the 90 percent of good happy people that believe in me, he said, adding, See you at the polls.
mshapiro@wacotrib.com 757-5707

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SKEEN
From Page 1A
In 23 years I have touched your grandparents lives, I have touched your families lives and now I am dealing with your children. On the same day of Skeens announcement, an opponent also stated his intention to seek the Republican nomination. Jeff Nickell, a real estate agent and former Waco Police Department detective, said in a news release that Skeen has lost touch with the county and is constantly putting his interests before those of the people he was elected to serve. He is under investigation by the Texas Rangers after he avoided paying sales tax on a personal truck purchase; he has had several questionable real estate dealings; and his office sells discounted government vehicles to his friends, Nickell said. Nickell questioned Skeens decision to stay on in county government. We need to remove the cloud thats hanging over the (tax) office, and it seems as though everyone realizes that except for Buddy Skeen,

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