Punahou School graduate Barack Obama may have no trouble adjusting to the January cold at his Washington inaugural to be president of the United States. He’s been living in Chicago.
But some of the kids from his alma mater in Honolulu have found a way to prepare for the inaugural parade on Jan. 20.
Seventeen members of the school’s ROTC marching unit and six cheerleaders are going to practice at Hawaii’s only ice-skating rink. They’ll be appearing in the parade with the Punahou marching band.
Temperatures in Washington were in the 30s Thursday, compared to the mid-70s in Honolulu.
The Ice Palace in Honolulu’s Salt Lake neighborhood is donating one hour of ice time on Tuesday so the marchers can get used to the cold.
Retired Lt. Col. Bob Takao, Punahou’s ROTC senior Army instructor, originally considered training his students in some sort of cold storage facility “like right out of Rocky.” And then he remembered the Ice Palace.
“Prepare for the worst conditions you can face, and you’ll be ready,” Takao said. “That’s what I’ve nurtured through my entire military career. We want them to be poised and proud and professional when they get to Washington. With cold feet and cold hands and cold noses, you won’t be too prideful and too professional.”
Obama graduated from Punahou in 1979.
Today’s oops #1:
A changing calendar can mean trouble when you’re running for political office.
Take Lowell Holtz, who’s seeking the job of Wisconsin superintendent of public instruction.
Holtz said he fell short on his nomination petitions because some signers wrote the date as 2008, even though they signed on Jan. 4, 2009.
Those signatures got bounced by the Government Accountability Board, which oversees state elections. The board said three candidates turned in the required 2,000 valid signatures by Tuesday’s deadline, but Holtz and another candidate didn’t. Holtz was credited with just 1,930.
The two were given until 5 p.m. Friday to make corrections.
Holtz, who heads the Beloit school system as superintendent, said he got those who used the wrong year to correct the mistake, and he fully expects to be on the ballot.
Oops #2:
A bank’s mistake caused a Tennessee congresswoman’s home to enter foreclosure.
Bank officials say Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s home was placed into foreclosure proceedings because of a processing error.
GreenBank spokesman Bill Adams said in a letter dated Thursday that Blackburn’s husband had authorized several electronic mortgage payments for the suburban Nashville home, but that the bank failed to send the money to Countrywide Financial. Adams says the Greeneville-based bank is working with Countrywide to resolve the issue.
Blackburn was sworn into her fourth term in Congress this week. Her district spans from suburban Memphis to Clarksville.
Oops #3:
James Carroll Franklin, who would have been on probation for his drug conviction will now have to spend six months in jail — all because he fled before hearing a jury’s sentencing verdict.
To make matters worse, he was captured after a high-speed chase through three counties in Texas, for which he faces more charges that could bring additional jail time.
Franklin, 47, of Azle, apparently panicked Wednesday after hearing prosecutors in the Wise County courtroom urge jurors to sentence him to life in prison, said his attorney, Jim Shaw.
Franklin, who was allowed to remain free after being convicted of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, asked Shaw if he would be able to see his daughter and take care of personal business. Shaw said he told Franklin probably not.
But the attorney said he also explained to Franklin that he likely would get probation and that a sentence of less than 10 years would allow him to go free on an appeal bond within 24 hours.
Franklin then went to the restroom, and less than five minutes later jurors returned with their verdict: a $1,000 fine and six years in prison, which they recommended be probated, Shaw said.
When Franklin couldn’t be located, despite text messages from family members, Wise County deputies broadcast a radio message to stop him, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Thursday.
Franklin then led authorities on a high-speed chase through Wise and Parker counties before he was captured in Tarrant County by officers who rammed his car and used a stun gun on him when he resisted arrest, Shaw said.
Shaw said his client realized his mistake Thursday morning when the judge sentenced him to 180 days in jail for violating terms of his 10-year probation. Franklin also faces a felony charge of evading arrest in a motor vehicle, his attorney said. The charge is punishable by 180 days to 2 years in jail.
“He told me, ‘I fouled up, didn’t I?” Shaw said. “I said, ‘Yea, legally you probably did.”
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