Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 108, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 20, 2011 Page: 3 of 16
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Sweetwater Reporter
Sunday, March 20, 2011 ■ Page A3
Obituaries
THERELL GLENN
BURWICK
THERELL GLENN BURWICK
Therell Glenn Burwick died Wednesday, March 16,
2011, at the age of 85. Services will be held at 2
p.m. on Monday, March 21, 2011, at the Blackwell
Methodist Church with Rev. Charles Casey officiat-
ing. Interment will follow in the
Blackwell Cemetery under the
direction of McCoy Funeral Home
of Sweetwater.
He was born to Robert Frances
and Willie Mae Burwick on Sept.
17, 1925, in Hylton, Texas. He was
married to ie Cook Burwick on
March 20, 1947 in San Angelo,
Texas for 64 years. She preceded
him in death on November 28,,
2010.
Therell served in WWII in the
Army AirCorp. He flew 35 missions
over European Theatre in a B17 as
a Tailgunner with the 390th Bomb
Group of the 8th Air Force. Upon
Honorable discharge he came back
t® the Blackwell area and started
farming, ranching and working in
the oilfield. He retired from Texaco in 1975 after 23
years, and started his own company, Burwick Oilfield
Services, Inc. He is a 55 year member of Hylton Masonic
Lodge 884, Dallas Scottish Rite and Suez Shriner.
Also preceding him in death are Brother Bill Burwick;
sister-in-law Edna Burwick; his parents; brother-in-law,
Ted Smith; and great-granddaughter, Lillian Burwick
Survivors in ude son and daughter-in-law, Glenn
and Tanya Burwick of Blackwell; grandchildren, Shay
Burwick and Doug Mitchell of San Angelo, Sean and
Lindsey Brown of Greenbrier, Ark., Da 11 and Rachael
Burwick of Blackwell and Zac Burwick of Blackwell;
great-grandchildren, Radin Burwick, Addie and Mac
Mitchell, Kaycie and Austin Brown; brother, J.R.
Burwick from Granbury; sisters-in-law, Billie Burwick
of Sweetwater and Nell Smith of Merkel; brother-in-laW,
Robert Cook and wife Connie of San Antonio; nieces and
nephews, Greg Burwick, Suzanne Jacobs and husband
Charlie, Bob Burwick and wife Debora, Linda Willis,
Sherv Drehobb, Jeri Kay Eaton. Cindy Ranson and hus-
band Ron, Penny Pich and husband David, Craig Cook
and wife Sandra, Robbie Kay Rodriguez and husband
Jason.
The family would like to thank Bronte Health and
Rehab Center for their exceptional and loving care.
RHONDA J. "STORMI" TATRO
Services for Rhonda J. "Stormi" Tatro, 59, of Abilene,
have been scheduled for Saturday, March 19 at 2 p.m.,
First Baptist Church of Abilene, North 3rd & Orange.
Rhonda was the daughter of the late Eugene and Ina
Bailey of Kermit.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the family.
Bit Worth offers settlement
in gay bar raid suit
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Fort Worth is expected
to pay nearly half a million dollars to settle a lawsuit
filed by a man who suffered a severe head injury in a
gay bar raid.
The City Council is to vote next week on the $400,000
settlement with Chad Gibson. He claims excessive force
was used during the Rainbow Lounge raid in 2009.
The agenda item says the settlement's approval should
not be considered as admission of the city's liability. It
says it will avoid time-consuming and costly litigation.
Three Fort Worth police officers were suspended, and
two Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents and a
supervisor were later fired. But both agencies' investiga-
tions determined no excessive forced was used.
The city later dropped all charges against Gibson and
three others who'd been arrested that night.
Texas beauty queen
denies ballooning to size 6
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The bikini fit, and she never
swelled to a size 6.
That's what a Texas beauty queen suing to regain
her title told jurors Friday, rejecting claims by Miss
San Antonio officials that the teenager slipped out of
shape and arrived at a bikini shoot with 40-inch hips.
Dominique Ramirez testified she was never that big
before the pageant stripped her title in January.
Ramirez is asking a jury to restore her crown and her
shot at Miss America. The 17-year-old took the witness
stand a day after the pageant's president testified that
bikini photos of Ramirez were so "unusable" that not
even photo-editing software could slim down the public-
ity pictures.
Ramirez's response?
"I won the swimsuit (competition)," Ramirez said of
her Miss San Antonio victory in April. "So obviously I
was good enough."
But pageant officials say Ramirez didn't lose her sash
over measurements. Instead, they said the teenager was
too unreliable, chronically showing up late for events
such as grocery store openings, and violated her con-
tract in ways ranging from not writing thank-you notes
to blowing off her physical fitness program.
Ramirez, taking the witness stand in a conservative
pink sweater and her hair pulled back in a simple pony
tail, denied those claims. She told jurors about gradu-
ating high school early and her job bussing tables at a
cafeteria chain. At one point during her testimony, she
stood up to demonstrate how measurements are taken.
She said she never embarrassed the pageant by thumb-
ing her nose at a prominent vocal coach, and during one
strange line of questioning, she denied secretly being a
17-year-old bride.
Lorena Briseno, Ramirez's mother, testified earlier
that her daughter was fired two days after choosing
to model wedding dresses at a bridal show instead of
appearing in her crown and sash. That angered pageant
leaders, Briseno said, because they felt a minor wearing
a wedding gown sent an inappropri ate message.
Briseno also said her daughter wasn't married — a
topic that came up when pageant attorney Ben Wallis
asked her about pictures on her daughter's Facebook
page. Wallis also told Briseno he may call a witness to
testify they saw Ramirez once change her relationship
status to "married."
Ramirez later denied being married, shaking her head
and smiling. The 5-foot-8,129-pound teen then empha-
sized that she had always been a size 2.
"I think I've actually gotten a little bit taller," she
said.
When measured and weighed by the pageant director
weeks before being fired, Ramirez said, no comments
were made about her size.
"She just measured me and said, 'OK," Ramirez said.
Ramirez has said that other pageant officials told her
to "get off the tacos." Her testimony is expected to con-
tinue Monday.
Japan cites radiation in milk, spinach near plant
ERIC TALMADGE
Associated Press
SHINO YUASA
Associated Press
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Japan said radiation levels
in spinach and milk from farms near its tsunami-crippled
nuclear complex exceeded government safety limits, as
emergency teams scrambled Saturday to restore power to
the plant so it could cool dangerously overheated fuel.
The food was taken from farms as far as 65 miles (100
kilometers) from the stricken plants, suggesting a wide
area of nuclear contamination.
While the radiation levels exceeded the limits allowed
by the government, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano
insisted the products "pose no immediate health risk."
Firefighters also pumped tons of water directly from
the ocean into one of the most troubled areas of the
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex — the cooling pool
for used fuel rods at the plant's Unit 3. The rods are at
risk of burning up and sending radioactive material into
the environment.
The first Word on contaminated food in the crisis
came as Japan continued to grapple with overwhelm-
ing consequences of the cascade of disasters unleashed
by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11. The quake
spawned a tsunami that ravaged Japan's northeastern
coast, killing mom than 7,200 people and knocking out
backup cooling systems at the nuclear plant, which has
been leaking radiation.
The tainted milk was found 20 miles (30 kilometers)
from the plant, while the spinach was collected between
50 miles (80 kilometers) and 65 miles (100 kilometers) to
the south, Edano told reporters in Tokyo.
More testing was being done on other foods, he said,
and if tests show further contamination then food ship-
ments would be halted from the area.
"It's not like if you ate it right away you would be
harmed," Edano said. "It would not be good to continue
to eat it for some time,"
Edano said someone drinking the tainted milk for one
year would consume as much radiation as in a CT scan;
for the Spinach, it would be one-fifth of a CT scan. A CT
scan is a compressed series of X-rays used for medical
tests.
Just outside the bustling disaster response center in the
city of Fukushima, 40 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of
the plant, government nuclear specialist Kazuya Konno
was able to take only a three-minute break for his first
meeting since the quake with his wife, Junko, and their
children.
"It's very nerve-racking. We really don't know what is
going to become of our city," said Junko Konno, 35. "Like
most other people, we have been staying indoors unless
we have to go out."
She brought her husband a small backpack with a
change of clothes and snacks. The girls — aged 4 and 6
and wearing pink surgical masks decorated with Mickey
Mouse — gave their father hugs.
Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond
Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the
plant, but hazardous levels haVe been limited to the plant
itself.
Nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant began over-
heating and leaking radiation into the atmosphere in the
days after the March 11 quake and the subsequent tsu-
nami overwhelmed its cooling systems. The government
admitted it was slow to respond to the nuclear troubles,
which added another crisis on top of natural disasters,
which officials estimate killed more than 10,000 people
and displaced more than 400,000 others.
The complex is deeply troubled, Edano said Saturday,
but it's not getting worse.
"The situation at the nuclear complex still remains
unpredictable. But at least we are preventing things from
deteriorating," he said.
A fire truck with a high-pressure cannon was parked
outside the plant's Unit 3, about 300 meters (yards) from
the Pacific coast, and began shooting a stream of water
nonstop into the pool for seven straight hours, said Kenji
Kawasaki, a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency.
A separate pumping vehicle will keep the fire truck's
water tank refilled. Because of high radiation levels, fire-
fighters will only go to the truck every three hours when
it needs to be refueled. They expect to pump about 1,400
tons of water, nearly the capacity of the pool.
Emergency workers are also funneling water into the
complex's; most troubled reactors — Units 1, 2 and 3,
officials said.
A power company official said holes had to punched
in the roofs of the buildings housing Units 5 and 6, as
workers tried to prevent dangerous buildups of hydrogen
gas — a sign that temperatures continued to rise in those
units' fuel storage pools. Firefighters had started pump-
ing water into Unit 5's pool, and the temperature had
gone down, but a pump broke, delaying the refilling, the
official said.
FunFair
Continued from page!
on Wednesday, April 6, and the concession stand and
games are from 4-6 p.m. with a prayer vigil from 6:05-
:30 p.m. Those attending are encouraged to stay for
the prayer vigil, as it is an important part of the day's
activities.
This event has been effective and families are given a
chance to participate in a fun time free of charge. Each
year the agencies have relied on donations from local
businesses to make this a successful event. This year
the agencies would like to involve you in this program.
HSCR and WTCAC are asking for the community's par-
ticipation once again for this great time of family fun.
For more information, please feel free to contact Javier
Franco with High Sky Children's Ranch at 325-235-
8487 or Teresa Zarate with the West Texas Children's
Advocacy Center at 325-235-1818.
Sweetwater
Tax Service
1206 Lamar St.
Sweetwater, Tx
E-Filing Begins Jan, 14th
325-235-5565 Brett 0. Gamble
www.sweetwatertaxservice.com
Meanwhile, Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear
and Industrial Safety Agency said backup power systems
at the plant had been improperly protected, leaving them
vulnerable to the tsunami that savaged the northeastern
coast.
The failure of Fukushima'g backup power systems,
which were supposed to keep cooling systems going in
the aftermath of the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake,
let uranium fuel Overheat and were a "main cause" of the
crisis, Nishiyama said.
"I cannot say whether it was a human error, but we
should examine the case closely," he told reporters.
A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns
and runs the plants, said that while the generators them-
selves were not directly exposed to the waves, some elec-
trical support equipment was outside. The complex was
protected against tsunamis of up to 5 meters (16 feet), he
said. Media reports say the tsunami was at least 6 meters
(20 feet) high when it struck Fukushima.
Spokesman Motoya.su Tamaki also acknowledged that
the complex was old, and might not have been as well-
equipped as newer facilities.
Plant operators also said they would reconnect four
of the plant's six reactor units to a power grid Saturday.
Although a replacement power line reached the complex
Friday, workers had to methodically work through badly
damaged and deeply complex electrical systems to make
the final linkups without setting off a spark and poten-
tially an explosion.
"Most of the motors and switchboards were submerged
by the tsunami and they cannot be used," Nishiyama
said.
Even once the power is reconnected, it is not clear if the
cooling systems will still Work.
The storage pools need a constant source of cooling
water. When removed from reactors, uranium rods are
still veiy hot and must be cooled for months, possibly
longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emit-
ting radioactivity.
People evacuated from around the plant, along with
some emergency workers, have also tested positive for
radiation exposure. Three firefighters needed to be decon-
taminated with showers;, while among the 18 plant work-
ers who tested positive, one absorbed about one-tenth
tenth of the amount that might induce radiation poison-
ing.
As Japan crossed the one-week mark since the cascade
of disasters began, the government conceded Friday it was
slow to respond and welcomed ever-growing help from
the U.S. in hopes of preventing a complete meltdown.
The United States has loaned military firefighting
trucks to the Japanese, and has conducted overflights of
the reactor site, strapping sophisticated pods onto aircraft
to measure radiation aloft. Two tests conducted Thursday
gave readings that U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel
B. Poneman said reinforced the U.S. recommendation
that people Stay 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from
the Fukushima plant. Japan has ordered only a 12-mile
(20-kilometer) evacuation zone around the plant.
Emergency crews at the plant faced two continuing
challenges: cooling the nuclear fuel in reactors where
energy is generated, and cooling the adjacent pools where
thousands of used nuclear fuel rods are Stored in water
The tsunami knocked out power to cooling systems at
the nuclear plant and its six reactors. Since then, four
have been hit by fires, explosions or partial meltdowns.
The government on Friday raised the accident classifi-
cation for the nuclear crisis, putting it on a par with the
Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979, and
.signifying that its consequences went beyond the local
area.
This crisis has led to power shortages and factory clo-
sures, hurt global manufacturing am triggered a p lunge
in Japanese stock prices.
Police said more than 452,000 people made homeless
by the quake and tsunami were staying in schools and
other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other
necessities ran short.
On Saturday evening, Japan was rattled by 6.1-mag-
nitude aftershock, with an epicenter just south of the
troubled nuclear plants. The temblor, centered 150 kilo-
meters (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo, caused buildings in
the capital to shaken
Yuasa reported from Tokyo, as did Associated Press
writers Mari Yamaguchi, Elaine Kurtenbach, Tim
Sullivan, and JeffDonn.
Dunn
Continued from page 1
seeing each other on and off for the past few weeks. No
one answered the door at her home early Friday.
Toombs said he did not expect other arrests Friday.
"We're hoping there'll be arrests down the road," said
Toombs, adding that tips continue to come in. "We are
still searching on the leads that we get."
He also saic Dunn has not been named as a person of
interest.
But, "her arrest yesterday does not help her cause,"
he said.
Toombs said as many as 15 officers continue to work
the case, the puzzle pieces c which have come together
"slower than we would have hoped." Officers also exe-
cuted a separate search warrant on Thursday at Adkin's
grandmother's house, but not known what they found.
Investigators hang onto hope and "hate" to think
Hailey may be found lead, Toombs said.
"We try not to think about that but that is a possibil-
ity."
105 acres at 7027 CR105 in the Champion
Area. It also fronts CR 134.
Call Kay at Morgan Real Estate or my cell at 325-721-9986
MORGAN RESL ESTATE-325-235-1762
www.morganre.com
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 108, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 20, 2011, newspaper, March 20, 2011; Sweetwater, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth229424/m1/3/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sweetwater/Nolan County City-County Library.