Cross Country
A Parade of Exonerations
James Curtis Giles spent 10 years in a Texas prison for a rape that he didn't commit, a Dallas judge ruled. Giles will thus become the 13th man exonerated by DNA evidence since 2001 in Dallas County. His case now heads for an expected final approval before a state criminal appeals court. The evidence unearthed by the Innocence Project in New York identifies another man of a similar name, James Earl Giles, as the perpetrator; he died in prison in 2000 while serving time on unrelated charges. The victim, upon reviewing evidence, said she could no longer be sure of her identification of James Curtis Giles, 53, who also spent 14 years on the registered sex offender list after he was released from prison. Texas leads the nation with 27 DNA exonerations.
Moving Up in the Empire State
In Albany, Gov. Elliot Spitzer signed legislation adding New York to the growing list of states moving their primaries up to Feb. 5, 2008. The Empire State primary had been scheduled for March, but the legislature moved the contest forward in what it said was a bid to keep the state relevant. The move should benefit the candidacies of Democratic New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican. Unlike such big early primary states as California and Florida, which assign delegates by congressional district, New York is a winner-take-all state.
New York joins eight other states staging caucuses or primaries on February 5, and more than a dozen others may follow suit. As presidential campaigns struggle to adjust to the fast-changing calendar, New Hampshire is injecting further uncertainty by threatening to move its first-in-the-nation primary from January 2008 to December of this year. Such a move would likely force Iowa to move its kickoff caucuses up to 2007 as well.
More Trouble for the Diocese
The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego was already troubled-deluged with sexual abuse claims and seeking bankruptcy protection. But things got worse last week when two of its pastors and three affiliated attorneys were threatened with contempt by a federal bankruptcy judge who suspected a conspiracy that might have transferred funds to outside accounts without court approval. Judge Louise DeCarl Adler also ordered an external audit of the diocese's finances, a move attorneys for the alleged victims contend will turn up deliberately hidden assets. Attorney Susan Boswell, who represents the diocese, denied any malfeasance. "What [the diocese] does is give money to the parishes," she said. In February, San Diego became the fifth American diocese to have filed for bankruptcy.
Recalling Tragedy in the Plains
Before New Orleans, there was Grand Forks. Ten years ago, the Red River of the North rose up out of its banks-dikes and 3.5 million sandbags be damned- and inundated North Dakota's third-largest city and its neighbor, East Grand Forks, Minn. Then fire broke out and torched much of Grand Forks' downtown. All told, the disaster caused 11 deaths in the Dakotas and Minnesota and damage was pegged at $4.1 billion.
This week, Grand Forks residents will mark the somber anniversary with a special lunch and the ringing of church bells. They still worry about the river, but an almost-completed $400 million dike system brings some solace, and area officials have tried to share their experiences with other hard-hit areas, including the Gulf States. There's even a brochure, complete with "lessons" from those horrors a decade ago. Among them: "Practice patience. Some things just take time."
Headed West in a Gotham Cab
Right up front they agreed the meter would not be running. Instead, New York cabbie Douglas Guldeniz and retired couple Bob and Betty Matas agreed on a flat rate of $3,000 plus expenses. But that still seemed like a bargain, given that the ride last week was 2,500 miles from Forest Hills, Queens, to the Matas's new home in Sedona, Ariz. The couple decided to hail Guldeniz and his Ford Escape Hybrid SUV cab for the trip because they didn't want their cats to travel in the cargo hold of an airliner. And bargains are bargains. Rules say drivers and passengers can negotiate fares for long trips, but a drivers' group official said the metered fare would have been about $5,000 each way.
With Silla Brush, Dan Gilgoff, Will Sullivan and Associated Press
This story appears in the April 23, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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