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Product: ENQUIRER PubDate: 01-09-2007 Zone: Kentucky Edition: 1 Page Name: A1.0
Time: 01-09-2007 00:49 User: tvonderbrink
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FLORIDA 41, OHIO STATE 14
Gators chomp on Buckeyes
NO. 1 OSU GETS TOPPLED
The Associated Press/Charles Krupa
Dismayed Ohio State fans can hardly bear to watch during the
second half of the BCS National Championship game.
NKY.COM
Florida and QB
Chris Leak (right)
dominated the national title game.
IN SPORTS, SECTION C
Reading High graduate
DeShawn Wynn scored
a first-half rushing
touchdown for Florida.
GALLERIES
Photos and John
Erardi’s game blog
at NKY.com.
Keyword: Buckeyes
THE KENTUCKY ENQUIRER
AN EDITION OF THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER
TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2007
Up Front
‘This is our region’s No. 1 priority. The bridge is unsafe. …
It needs to be replaced.’
Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame decides
to add some Flash
Money speed-up asked
Must reads inside
today’s Enquirer
Grandmaster Flash and
the Furious Funk became
the first rap act inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame on Monday. Joining them were R.E.M., the
Ronettes, Patti Smith and
Van Halen.
LIFE D6
State Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington
Student
pulls guns
in school,
fires shot
DirecTV’s “satellite to go”
and a vacuuming robot are
among the must-have
gadgets unveiled at the
International Consumer
Electronics Show.
BUSINESS A9
Campbell schools
OK redistricting
By Cindy Kranz and Denise Smith Amos
[email protected] and [email protected]
The county’s plan, subject
of much criticism from
parents before it was adjusted, will move about 600
students to new schools.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY B1
Enquirer file
The Brent Spence Bridge carries Interstate 71 and 75 traffic across the Ohio River. It has no breakdown lanes, and the
traffic count is much higher than it was built to carry.
Hundreds of opponents
to the proposed site for a
new Kenton County jail
are expected at today’s
Fiscal Court meeting.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY B3
N.Ky. chamber presses lawmakers to make sure
highway bridge can be replaced with federal funds
Taco Casa relies
on local flavor
By Patrick Crowley
Owner Gene Kennedy
says unique menu helps
his four-restaurant chain
survive and thrive.
LIFE D1
Share your news and photos.
Go to NKY.com and click GetPublished!
An edition of
The Cincinnati Enquirer
[email protected]
Two Kentucky legislators,
encouraged by the Northern
Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, are pushing the federal
government to fast-track
spending on the Brent Spence
Bridge replacement project.
State Sen. Jack Westwood,
R-Crescent Springs, and Rep.
Arnold Simpson, D-Covington,
have filed companion resolutions in the Kentucky General
Assembly that “urges Congress to accelerate the funding
schedule of the Brent Spence
Bridge,” according to a statement from the chamber.
The federal government is
not bound by the resolution,
which simply expresses the
lawmakers’ desire to see the
money for the project allocated
more quickly.
Work on the $2.5 billion
project to replace the heavily
WEATHER
High 39°
Low 23°
Light snow
early, more
this afternoon. Dusting to 1 inch.
COMPLETE FORECAST: B8
Go to NKY.com for updated
forecasts, traffic and closings.
INDEX
5 sections, 166th year, No. 275
Abby ...............D2 Movies ............D5
Business .........A6 Obituaries ....B2,4
Comics ...........D4 Region ............B3
Editorial ..........B6 Sports .............C1
Lotteries ..........B8 TV ...................D2
Classified ....................................C5-10
First Run Classified ...........................B5
Copyright, 2007, The Cincinnati Enquirer
Portions of
today’s Enquirer
were printed on
recycled paper
The Enquirer/Cara Owsley
Students leave Taft High School on Monday after a student was arrested for firing a shot in
the school. No one was injured.
Miss your satellite
TV? Bring it along
Jail-site foes plan
to protest today
50 CENTS
300-400 jobs
Walton getting
super Kroger
A new Kroger Marketplace will be the anchor of
the planned Walton Towne
Center shopping complex,
city officials confirmed
Monday.
The long-rumored store
will offer furniture, linens
and other home decor as
well as groceries.
Kroger said the store
would bring 300 to 400 jobs
to the city.
“This is a long time coming, but this is what Walton
needs,” said Mayor Phil
Trzop.
Walton hasn’t had a
large grocery store since
an IGA closed six years
ago.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY B1
traveled Ohio River bridge between Cincinnati and Covington is tentatively scheduled to
start in 2015.
The chamber contends that
allocating the funding now
could save millions of dollars in
the future because of the rising
cost of construction materials.
“This is our region’s No. 1
priority,” Simpson said Monday. “The bridge is unsafe.
There are no lanes to get over
if a motorist’s vehicle is disabled in the middle lanes. The
traffic count exceeds, by a
large margin, what it should be
carrying.
“It needs to be replaced,” he
said.
Are the chamber and the
lawmakers premature with
their lobbying?
Members of Congress – including Sen. Jim Bunning of
Southgate and Rep. Geoff Davis of Hebron – already have
secured $46 million for the ini-
Simpson
Westwood
tial environmental and engineering studies. The money
was included in the 2005 federal highway construction bill,
which Congress takes up every five years.
Additional funding is not
necessary right now because
the next stages of the project,
right of way acquisition and
construction, can’t begin until
the first round of studies are
completed.
“The Northern Kentucky
Chamber has not identified
what has changed since that
determination was made that
would necessitate additional or
accelerated funding in the next
five years,” said Davis chief of
staff Justin Brasell. “We all understand that the costs of construction are increasing, and
that if we could do more now, it
would save money.
“However, the environmental-impact studies and other
engineering and planning
must be completed before construction can begin or additional funding is required,” he
said. “It has not been shown
that accelerating funding for
that work can get the work
completed any faster.”
Brasell said requests for the
next round will be made when
Congress begins drafting the
next federal highway bill, to be
passed in 2010.
“Congressman Davis has
made funding the Brent
Spence Bridge replacement a
top priority,” he said. “And he
will continue to advocate for
federal funding to complete
the project.”
1978 slaying goes to trial
Victim’s daughter sees suspect, 79, for first time since
By Sharon Coolidge
[email protected]
Frank Sofer got caught for
one reason: He got sentimental.
After living on the run for 27
years, assuming two identities
and calling five states home to
elude a murder charge, the 79year-old man was arrested last
year when he came home to
Walnut Hills to say goodbye to
his family.
Sofer is dying of prostate cancer.
“He wanted to make sure he
saw his family before he died,”
Assistant Hamilton County
Prosecutor Jennifer Deering
told a jury Monday. “Keep in
mind that’s a luxury (victim) Jessie Marie Clark was never af-
Frank Sofer,
79, in court
Monday, accused of murdering his former girlfriend,
Jessie Marie
Clark, 28
years ago.
forded.”
Sofer’s trial started Monday
in Hamilton County Common
Pleas Court on charges he killed
Clark, his girlfriend, in May 1978
and shot and paralyzed her
friend, Jimenez Mitchell. Prosecutors told jurors that Sofer’s
flight is proof of his guilt.
They also have five witnesses
to the shooting, Deering said.
“The most damning evidence
comes from Frank Sofer himself,”
she said.
Sofer admitted to Detective
Brian Trotta that he was romantically involved with Clark, he
was there the night she died, he
was drunk and the car seen leaving the scene was his, Deering
said. “Most importantly he never denies the shooting,” she
said.
Asked why he left, Sofer told
police, “I had no desire to spend
the rest of my life in prison or
have a needle stuck in my arm.”
Sofer’s lawyer, Steve Goodin,
painted a different picture, calling
the police investigation sloppy
and the witnesses biased.
See TRIAL, Page A4
Students at Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School in the West End will pass through
metal detectors on their way to class today, after a
student pulled guns in the cafeteria Monday and
fired at an assistant principal in a hallway.
The 16-year-old ninth-grader was charged with
felonious assault, aggravated menacing and having weapons on school property.
About 10:45 a.m. Monday, the student entered
the cafeteria at the school, at 420 Ezzard Charles
Drive, threatening and taunting other students.
The student then pulled out two handguns and
started waving them at other students and staff,
Cincinnati police said.
Lt. Tom Lanter, spokesman for the Cincinnati
Police Department, said it is unclear what caused
an altercation that prompted the boy to pull out the
guns.
“There was an argument with other students.
He pulled two guns,” Lanter said. “Assistant Principal Dixon Edwards grabbed one of his arms, but
the student slipped out of his jacket and ran down
the hall. That’s when he turned and fired a shot.”
See SCHOOL, Page A4
Democrats set
for showdown
on Iraq war
By David Espo and Jennifer Loven
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON – In a blunt challenge to President Bush, the leader of the Senate’s new Democratic majority said Monday that he will “look at everything” within his power to wind down the war in
Iraq, short of cutting off funding for troops already
deployed.
“I think we’ve got to tell the president what he’s
doing is wrong. We’ve got to start bringing our
folks home,” Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada said in remarks that portend a
struggle if, as expected,
Bush announces plans
this week for an increase
in troop strength of White House gears up
20,000.
to sell plan for troop inSen. Edward M. Ken- crease in Iraq. A2
nedy, D-Mass., said one
option under consideration would be for Congress
to vote on denying the use of funds for such an increase in the U.S. deployment.
More than 3,000 U.S. troops have lost their lives
in Iraq in a war nearing the end of its fourth year,
and many Democrats attribute their success in last
fall’s elections to public opposition to the conflict.
Bush is expected to make a nationwide televised
address on the issue at 9 p.m. Wednesday. Several
officials have said one leading option for Bush is a
so-called “surge” in troop strength, in which about
20,000 troops would be added to the force already
in place, in hopes that sectarian violence can be
quelled.
He will call for sending more American troops to
Iraq to calm two troubled areas – Baghdad, where
sectarian violence flares daily, and the western Anbar Province, a base of the Sunni insurgency, Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said.
President in
sales mode