America's next president?

JONESBORO, ARK. -- After two middle-school boys in camouflage gear
shot and killed four classmates and a teacher, leaving 10 others
wounded and a community shattered, it seemed inevitable that someone
would see opportunity in the tragedy for a book deal.

Unfortunately, within days, a publisher agreed to pay $25,000 to an
Arkansas writer to produce a book on youth violence.

Victims' families were outraged. They called the payment blood money
and said the author was cashing in on their pain. They demanded that
the money go to the school, victims' relatives or scholarships for the
wounded, not to the writer's personal bank account. He refused.

That the author was Mike Huckabee, Arkansas' governor at the time,
made their resentment all the stronger.

"He took advantage of us," said Pam Herring, whose daughter, Paige
Ann, had just turned 12 when she was shot to death.

"He was out for one thing and that was money," said Mitch Wright,
whose wife, Shannon, a teacher, died protecting children. "He made
money at our expense."

The slaughter at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro in March 1998
was, at the time, one of the worst school incidents in American
history. Today, with Huckabee a candidate for the Republican
presidential nomination, his book deal continues to aggravate many of
the victims' families.

Some critics of Huckabee say the incident fits his pattern as governor
of enriching himself with gifts of cash, clothes and furniture donated
by supporters.

At the time of the shootings, Huckabee was under investigation for
numerous ethics violations, many of them for not reporting outside
income and gifts. In all, he was fined or sanctioned five times by the
Arkansas Ethics Commission.

Inauguration funds reportedly were used to buy clothes for his wife,
Janet, and the couple later set up a "wedding registry" at department
stores and collected linens, toasters and other furnishings from
supporters although they had been married 25 years.

Bobby McDaniel, a Jonesboro lawyer who represented some of the
families, said Huckabee "never saw a gift he didn't take." Newspaper
editorial writers called him a "money-grubbing governor" and nicknamed
him "Mike the Huckster."

"It was all quite unseemly," Vaughn McQuary, chairman of the state
Democratic Party at the time, said in a recent interview about the
book contract. "The governor of a state should set a better example."

Huckabee's campaign did not respond to requests for an interview. But
Huckabee has publicly defended his book deal, saying the $11.99,
180-page paperback had been planned before two boys opened fire at
Westside, and that the tragedy simply would give him the springboard
to air his broader views that youth culture was destroying families.
"The book is not about Jonesboro," he insisted.

But when the book was rushed to print a month after the shootings, it
was titled "Kids Who Kill." The cover is a photo of a boy about the
age of the Jonesboro killers pointing a gun at the reader. The back
cover promo states: "The quest for quick answers has robbed us of the
truth" about Jonesboro. "Until now."

The opening pages begin: "Just after lunch on March 24, 1998, a sudden
burst of gunfire cut through the crowded schoolyard of Westside Middle
School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. . . . "

Much of the rest of the book is a compilation of quotes from
theologians and historical figures, and includes transcripts of two
radio addresses Huckabee gave after the shooting. Huckabee has written
or co-written several books, all dealing with motivational subjects
such as character and dieting, but none has been as controversial as
"Kids Who Kill."

Dennis Milligan, the current chairman of the Arkansas Republican
Party, who has endorsed Huckabee for the presidency, defended the
governor's book deal: "He's entitled to whatever the specific profits
were from that book. And as to why he didn't donate the proceeds,
obviously it was something he wasn't moved to do and didn't feel like
he had any obligation to contribute, with respect to his personal
funds."

Milligan also defended Huckabee's receiving gifts as governor, saying
many were just tokens of appreciation and that none of them helped buy
any special influence. Milligan mentioned, for instance, a pair of
cowboy boots and a canoe, and said Huckabee always was careful to
return expensive gifts that exceeded the allowable limits. "He is an
honorable guy," Milligan said.

On the afternoon of the shootings, Huckabee was flying home to Little
Rock after making a speech in Washington. An air traffic controller
radioed the pilot, who told the governor. Two boys, Mitchell Johnson,
13, and Andrew Golden, 11, dressed in Army-style camouflage and armed
with guns, pulled the school fire alarm after the lunch hour and fired
at classmates and teachers as they filed outside.

Reaching the state Capitol, Huckabee called a news conference and
immediately blasted the youth culture. "It makes me angry," he said.
"It's in the television programs they watch, the movies they see, the
language they use, the things they are exposed to and the
glorification of those things."

The next day, he and his wife, wearing white ribbons on their lapels,
met in Jonesboro for about 40 minutes with many of the victims'
families. He spent more than an hour with teachers and staff.
Huckabee, a Baptist minister, also went to the hospital and helped
families begin to work through their grief.

"I remember him and his wife coming down the hall," said David Betts,
whose niece, Ashley, was among the wounded. "They were the most
compassionate people I've ever seen. It wasn't just a walk-in visit.
He stayed with us. He supported us and prayed with us."

But Huckabee was not among the 9,000 people who attended a memorial
service a week later at the Arkansas State University Convocation
Center in Jonesboro. Aides said he was on a planned family vacation in
the Caribbean. He did send a letter, quoting the Bible that man is
saved by God and not the laws he enacts.

Herring and Wright were concerned that there was no law to prevent the
shooters from profiting financially, since they were juveniles and
would be released from prison when they turned 21. They said they told
Huckabee they wanted assurances the killers could not write books or
sell their stories to Hollywood, and that Huckabee looked them both in
the eyes and said: "That would be blood money."

At a second meeting in Jonesboro, Wright said Huckabee again vowed it
would be "blood money" for the shooters, with Huckabee adding this
time: "No one should profit."

Then, ten days after the shooting, it was announced that Huckabee had
signed his own book deal, to be written with George Grant, a prolific
author of Christian books. The publisher was an arm of the Southern
Baptist Convention, the denomination in which Huckabee was ordained.

Officials at the publishing house declined to discuss the arrangements
for the book, saying they comment only on current authors. Grant did
not respond to requests for an interview.

Huckabee has insisted the idea came to him before the shootings. Asked
by a newspaper reporter at the time if he was trying to turn a dollar
by capitalizing on the Jonesboro deaths, Huckabee angrily responded:
"No more than you're capitalizing on it when you write stories about
Jonesboro and sell ads and sell the paper."

Dogged about why he declined to donate any of the book proceeds to the
scholarship fund, Huckabee said he planned to use the money for his
own children's college education. Later Huckabee stayed in his private
office in the Capitol in an attempt to evade further questions. Then
he rushed to his state car and slammed the door on reporters.

McDaniel, the Jonesboro lawyer, said such incidents didn't seem to
hurt Huckabee. He noted that Huckabee had a knack for impressing
voters and winning elections, "even if he does have a very short fuse
and a temper."

Indeed, not only was he reelected in 1998, he carried Jonesboro, a
state college town on the northern edge of the Mississippi Delta. To
many in Arkansas, that feat speaks to his twin gifts as a natural
politician and an inspiring religious leader.

McQuary, the former state Democratic chairman, said Huckabee was very
charismatic and could uplift people in a state that has struggled with
poverty: "Surprisingly, he was quite popular, especially in such a
Democratic-majority state. Do not underestimate him on the campaign
trail."

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Tiger attack
1/8/2008 4:28 PM
SAN FRANCISCO -- Since the deadly tiger escape at the San Francisco
Zoo, its director has come under increasing criticism over his track
record and his suggestion that the victims brought the attack on
themselves by taunting the animal.

The lawyer for the two of the visitors mauled in the Christmas Day
attack is threatening a defamation lawsuit over what he claims is a
despicable blame-the-victim strategy on the part of the zoo, and
animal rights activists have long accused Zoo Director Manuel
Mollinedo of putting too much emphasis on showmanship.

"We've asked for his termination," said Elliot Katz, president of In
Defense of Animals.

So far, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, which accredits the
nation's zoos, and the San Francisco zoo's overseers are standing by
Mollinedo.

"Since Manuel joined us in 2004, the zoo is in better physical and
financial shape than it's ever been," said Nick Podell, president of
the San Francisco Zoological Society. He praised Mollinedo's handling
of the attack.

AZA spokesman Steve Feldman added that Mollinedo is "well-liked and
well regarded" within the industry.

Before coming to San Francisco, Mollinedo was widely praised for his
work at the long-neglected Los Angeles Zoo, even though a dozen
animals slipped out of their enclosures during the course of a year.

Mollinedo was the unanimous choice over more than 100 candidates for
the San Francisco job. He makes about $330,000 a year in salary and
benefits, and under his leadership the zoo has seen increased
attendance, new corporate sponsors and refurbished exhibits at the
Depression-era facility.

Then came the Christmas Day tiger attack. The 350-pound Siberian tiger
apparently jumped over a 12-foot wall around its pen and killed
17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. His friends, brothers Kulbir Dhaliwal,
23, and Paul Dhaliwal, 19, were severely mauled.

At first, the zoo's response seemed confused and disorganized. Police
radio transcripts reveal that zoo employees initially questioned
whether early reports of the attack were coming from a mentally
unstable person.

When questioned by reporters, Mollinedo gave an inaccurate figure for
the wall's height, putting it at 18 feet. Then, two days after the
attack, he acknowledged the wall was only 12 feet or 4 feet below the
recommended national standard.

Several days after the mauling, the zoo hired Sam Singer, a prominent
San Francisco Bay-area crisis-management specialist. Acknowledging
that the zoo had bungled its initial response, Singer adopted a new
strategy.

Soon, the public and the media's attention turned from the competence
of zoo officials and the substandard tiger exhibit to the victims'
behavior leading up to the escape.

At a news conference, Mollinedo suggested "something happened to
provoke that tiger to leap out of her exhibit."

A rash of false information soon emerged in the media, including
reports that the victims had slingshots and had been drinking in an
establishment near the zoo.

Singer admitted on Tuesday that he told reporters about the slingshot
rumor, but said he was passing along information he had heard
elsewhere. He denied planting the rumor about the bar.

"Police are investigating accusations of the use of a slingshot and
the possible use of stones, pine cones, or other pieces of wood or
that may have been used to taunt the tiger," Singer said Tuesday.
"That's fact."

A police spokesman told The Associated Press last week that
investigators quickly dismissed the slingshot allegation as
inaccurate.

Singer was recently hired by the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association
after a cargo ship hit a bridge and spilled oil into San Francisco Bay
in November. He also handled Jack in the Box's hamburger contamination
scare in the mid-1990s, and recently represented Mayor Gavin Newsom's
former campaign manager, who resigned after his wife had an affair
with the mayor.

Mark Geragos, the lawyer for the mauled survivors of the tiger attack,
lambasted his tactics as "an abomination" and threatened to sue for
defamation.

"To be attacked by a tiger, number one, then to be attacked viciously
by false and defamatory stuff is too much," Geragos said.

In a letter to the city attorney Monday, he also said zoo officials
knew that the wall around the tiger habitat "couldn't hold a house
cat," but they did not do anything about it because of financial
concerns.

Singer said no one at the zoo was aware of such a warning.

Animal rights activists have long accused of Mollinedo of putting
entertainment over animals' well-being.

"There just been a lack of respect for the animals to increase foot
traffic," Katz said. Mollinedo's crowd-pleasing initiatives, such as
public feedings of big cats, have made them more aggressive, he said.

Mollinedo had previously clashed with the organization over the
conditions in which its elephants were kept. Two of the animals died
in 2004.

The escapes from the Los Angeles Zoo during Mollinedo's tenure
included a gorilla that bent a steel door, a howler monkey that sprang
over a surprised keeper, and a snow leopard that got out of its
holding area when a zookeeper failed to secure the door. All the
animals were recaptured and no people were injured.

Several experts said such incidents are not unusual, although a dozen
in a year from one zoo appears to be a high number. The American Zoo
and Aquarium Association withheld the zoo's accreditation for a time,
but it was for poor management and health and safety violations prior
to Mollinedo's arrival.

City officials in Los Angeles praised Mollinedo for helping to turn
their zoo around. He raised money to revamp the disease-ridden,
cramped facility, refurbish animal quarters, and a build a new
hospital.

City officials in San Francisco have also defended Mollinedo's leadership.

"He's been a very effective leader," said David Lee, a recreation and
parks commissioner. "The zoo is an old institution, very traditional,
and some felt it hadn't changed much until Manuel came up. He brought
innovation, new ideas, and everyone benefited from that, people and
animals."

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