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A teenager who killed a mother and her son in their Dale City home during a botched burglary -- a chilling crime that the teen called a "mishap" Friday -- will spend the rest of his life in prison. Xavier Pinckney, 18, was sentenced Friday to life without the possibility of parole for the December 2008 shootings of James M. Smith, 19, a college student who had just returned home for a holiday break, and Smith's mother, Jean, 39. Pinckney, then a junior at C.D. Hylton Senior High School, climbed through a window in the Smiths' home on the afternoon...

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91) returned to San Diego Feb. 24, after a five-month deployment to the Western Pacific in support of the global war on terrorism (GWOT). Pinckney made port visits to Guam, Singapore, Australia, Fiji and Hawaii. While in Guam, Pinckney became the first guided-missile destroyer to refuel and replenish the Mark Five (MK V), a high-performance combatant craft used by Navy SEALs. Pinckney was also the first DDG to embark two HH-60H Seahawk helicopters with their detachment, 20 Marine Corps personnel of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) detachment...

Vote No: Schools must live within means Friday, April 29, 2005 BY KEN MOILANEN Special to The News Those proclaiming the "critical" need for additional school funding tell only part of the story. Here is a different perspective. Here is ... the rest of the story. Thomas Watkins, recent state superintendent of public instruction, had it right when he stated in his Dec. 6, 2004, Michigan School Funding report that "calls to raise taxes to fund education without a systematic overhaul will only serve to maintain the status quo. For our children's sake, this is unacceptable." He further said that...

Opposition group says 'this is a huge tax increase' By Christopher Nagy DAILY PRESS & ARGUS (snip) The upcoming countywide enhancement millage has been a different sort of animal, though, with dozens of opposition letters submitted to the Daily Press & Argus and a fully formed opposition group taking to the streets to counter the messages of pro-millage groups. Cohoctah Township resident Bill Johnston, who formed the Concerned Taxpayers Group in hopes of defeating the May 3 proposal, said a variety of factors play into the groundswell against this particular millage. "First of all, for the taxpayers, this is going...

Millage for survival? Districts' officials say they are trying to buy time for revamping of school funding Friday, March 25, 2005 BY LISA CAROLIN News Staff Reporter Officially, the 3-mill school tax levy that Livingston County voters will decide May 3 is called an enhancement millage. If approved, an additional $19.767 million will be spread among the county's five public school districts to help pay for operations. But school officials call it a survival millage. They argue that the three-year levy will allow the current educational program to survive another three years. They hope that will be long enough for...

4 districts support millage Countywide measure would shore up school operating budgets Friday, January 28, 2005 BY LEANNE SMITH, STEPHENIE KOEHN AND LISA CAROLIN News Staff Reporters Four county school districts where officials have openly supported a countywide enhancement millage have given their blessing to placing the measure to a vote on May 3. School boards in Pinckney, Howell, Brighton and Hartland voted Monday to support the measure, which would bring a three-year, 3-mill tax to all county districts to help shore up operating budgets in light of state budget cuts. Local school officials say the millage would be a...

4 districts unify for bond vote All but Fowlerville to give support Jan. 24 Friday, January 14, 2005 BY LEANNE SMITH News Staff Reporters A resolution supporting a countywide enhancement millage is expected to be adopted Jan. 24 by four Livingston County school districts. Officials and board members in Brighton, Hartland, Howell and Pinckney hope this show of solidarity for the 3-mill levy demonstrates just how important the millage is to their schools' survival, said Pinckney Superintendent Mike Couchman. "We agreed we all need to do this together," Couchman said. "This spirit of solidarity is very encouraging." The resolution supports...

Millage election proposed for May Howell, others eye countywide plan to beef up local school funding Wednesday, January 7, 2005 BY STEPHENIE KOEHN News Staff Reporter The particulars of a long-discussed regional school enhancement millage were spelled out Monday when the Howell Board of Education got a look at the draft of a resolution calling for a countywide May election to bolster school funding locally. The proposal asks voters for a 3-mill increase in property taxes for three years, from 2005-2007. School districts countywide have been considering the wisdom of requesting a millage seeking a temporary increase in property taxes...

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At least three sailors were killed and dozens more were injured after a bus carrying Navy people to a wreath-laying ceremony collided with a tractor-trailer today about 20 miles north of Beaufort, S.C. The sailors – part of the precommissioning unit of the guided missile cruiser Pinckney -- were traveling from Charleston, S.C., to attend a wreath-laying ceremony at Beaufort National Cemetery, according to a news release from the Navy's U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Two dozen sailors were treated at area hospitals, and 47 others suffered minor injuries, the release said. Names of the sailors killed in the accident are...