Mitt Romney has emerged as the clear front-runner in Iowa ahead of the state's caucuses according to interviews and polls. However, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry are climbing and gaining support from social conservatives. With a large number of undecided voters, the candidates are making their final appeals. Airplane travel is safer than ever, with only two deaths per 100 million passengers on commercial flights over the past decade according to an analysis of government data.

1. A The Daily Reflector, Sunday, January 1, 2012
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lexington, n.c. MiDlAnD, texAs los Angeles
Fake $1M bill used at Walmart Man detained for bomb at airport NASA probe prepares for orbit
Do you have change for a million-dol- A man was detained Saturday after try- One of two NASA spacecraft bound for
lar bill? ing to go through a security checkpoint at the moon is about to arrive.
Police say a North Carolina man insisted a Texas airport with explosives in mili- The probe named Grail-A fired its
his million-dollar note was real when he was tary-grade wrapping, federal and local engine Saturday, slowing its speed to
buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart. officials said. slip into lunar orbit on New Year’s Eve.
Investigators told the Winston-Salem The man was stopped at a security The maneuver was expected to last
Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller checkpoint at the Midland International about 40 minutes.
tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a micro- Airport about 9 a.m. and taken into cus- Deep space antennas in the Cali-
wave oven and other items. Store employ- tody by the FBI, they said. fornia desert and Madrid are keep-
ees called police after his insistence that FBI spokesman Mike Martinez de- ing tabs on the spacecraft and feeding
the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested. clined to say whether the man was in real-time information to ground con-
The largest bill in circulation is $100. military uniform or how many explosives trollers.
The government stopped making bills of were found in the bag. He said he did not Its twin Grail-B will execute the same
up to $10,000 in 1969. know where the man was being held, say- move today.
Fuller was charged with attempting to ing he was at either the airport or at the The $496 million mission will measure
obtain property by false pretense and ut- FBI office in Midland. the moon’s lumpy gravity field to deter-
tering a forged instrument. He is in jail on City of Midland spokeswoman Tasa the associated press mine what’s inside, straight down to the
a $17,500 bond, and it isn’t clear if he has Watts said she had no information on the this Artist renDering provided by core.
an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court suspect but the explosives were wrapped Nasa shows the twin Grail spacecraft
Tuesday. in military-grade wrapping. mapping the lunar gravity field. From Associated Press reports
Romney emerges as clear front-runner in Iowa
By thoMAs BeAUMont cuses, at this point there’s him narrowly leading. But past week during his bus
the associated press evidence that Romney is in according to later surveys tour.
strong contention to win. and to GOP activists in the Romney headed east-
DES MOINES, Iowa Interviews with opera- state, his support has ebbed ward today and planned to
— Mitt Romney is the clear tives inside and outside the in light of attacks on his campaign Monday in cities
Republican front-runner in campaign, along with pub- foreign policy positions. he won four years ago —
Iowa in the final days be- lic and internal campaign Despite these shifting Cedar Rapids, Davenport
fore the first voting in the polls, show him leading the dynamics, two things were and Dubuque. He wants
2012 presidential election. pack. He is aided by a split clear on the final weekend to maximize the edge he
But that’s where the glim- among conservative voters before the first votes of holds in critical areas rath-
mer of clarity ends in this who are dividing their sup- 2012: The yearlong effort er than risk underperform-
unpredictable nomination port among the field. to establish a consensus ing in places where more
race. Those same interviews challenger to Romney had ardent conservatives are
Five others are fighting, and polling also suggest failed and Romney’s care- leery of his Mormon faith
as they have all year, to that Paul has faded some fully laid plan to survive and shifting positions on
emerge as the alternative to after a surge this month, Iowa was succeeding. social issues.
the former Massachusetts while Santorum and Perry “This president has been Romney has looked be-
governor. are climbing. a failure,” Romney told yond his GOP rivals and
The ascendant Rick San- With polls showing a hundreds of supporters the associated press
drawn a straight-up com-
torum and Rick Perry are large contingent of unde- packed into the Old Salt parison with Obama. One
battling to be the preferred cided voters, the candidates Restaurant in Hampton, presiDentiAl cAnDiDAte Mitt romney prepares to sign new advertisement tries to
a newspaper with the headline “obama’s history!” during a
candidate of social conser- pressed their closing mes- N.H., making an overnight offer an upbeat, optimistic
campaign stop in hampton, N.h., on saturday.
vatives. Libertarian-leaning sages, went out with final trip to the leadoff primary message of hope for an im-
Ron Paul is working to pre- ads and scampered across state. The vote there is Jan. proved economy that only
serve support that’s starting the state. 10. Iowa during the 2008 GOP nation. the former private sector
to slip. Newt Gingrich is Notably absent was Paul, Romney quickly re- race. He finished second Romney has sounded executive can deliver.
struggling to end his sharp the Texas congressman turned later Saturday to in the state that year be- more confident and kept his Polls showed Romney
slide. Michele Bachmann is who returned to his home conservative Plymouth hind former Arkansas Gov. attention focused on Dem- with his biggest lead of the
hardly a factor. state and had no campaign County and more populous Mike Huckabee, although ocratic President Barack campaign, although not
While much can hap- events in Iowa. Polls ear- Woodbury County, both Arizona Sen. John McCain Obama. Large crowds with more than 25 percent
pen before Tuesday’s cau- lier in December showed winning area for him in captured the party’s nomi- turned out for Romney this of the vote.
Airplane deaths drop to new low Wishing you a
By scott MAyeroWitZ
AnD JoshUA FreeD
ple dying — 133 out of ev-
ery 100 million passengers
ing and director of the Air-
safe.com Foundation.
particularly high rates of
deadly crashes. Russia had
Happy New Year
the associated press — from 1962 to 1971. The
figures exclude acts of ter-
The improvements came
even as the industry went
several fatal crashes in the
past year, including one and prosperous 2012!
NEW YORK — Board- rorism. through a miserable finan- that killed several promi-
ing an airplane has never Sitting in a pressurized, cial period, losing $54.5 bil- nent hockey players. Africa
been safer. aluminum tube seven miles lion in the past decade. Just only accounts for 3 percent
The past 10 years have above the ground may nev- to stay afloat, airlines elimi- of world air traffic but had
been the best in the coun-
try’s aviation history with
er seem like the most-natu-
ral thing. But consider this:
nated meals and added fees
for checked luggage.
14 percent of fatal crashes.
Still, 2011 was a good year Salon French
153 fatalities. That’s two
deaths for every 100 mil-
You are more likely to die
driving to the airport than
But safety remained a pri-
ority. No advertisement of
to fly. It had the second-
fewest number of fatalities
Day Spa
lion passengers on com- flying across the country. tropical beaches can supplant worldwide, according to 3401 S. Evans St.
mercial flights, according There are more than 30,000 the image of charred metal the Flight Safety Founda-
to an analysis of govern- motor-vehicle deaths each scattered across a field. tion, with 507 people dying Ext.
ment accident data. year, a mortality rate eight There are still some cor- in crashes. Seven out of 28 355-1661
The improvement is re- times greater than that in ners of the world where planes in fatal crashes were salonfrenchdayspa.com
markable. Just a decade ear- planes. flying is risky. Russia, the on airlines already prohib-
lier, at the time the safest, “I wouldn’t say air crash- Democratic Republic of the ited from flying into EUbe-
passengers were 10 times es of passenger airliners are Congo and Somalia have cause of safety problems.
as likely to die when fly- a thing of the past. They’re
ing on an American plane. simply a whole lot more
The risk of death was even rare than they used to be,” City of Greenville Human Relations Council
greater during the start of said Todd Curtis, a former
the jet age, with 1,696 peo- safety engineer with Boe- ANNUAL AWARDS NOMINATIONS
The Greenville Human Relations Council is accepting nominations for their annual award ceremony
and reception. The nomination deadline is Tuesday, January 17, 2012. The event will take place at the
Hilton Greenville on Saturday, February 25, 2012, at 5:30 p.m.
If you know of individuals, businesses, organizations or agencies that are deserving of any of these awards,
we encourage you to nominate them. Listed are the categories and the criteria for each award:
• Best-Irons Humanitarian Award (Nominees must reside in the city limits)
Individual
Business/Organization
• Distinguished Inclusive Community Award
• Community Service Award
Community Service Youth (17 and younger)
Community Service Humanitarian (18 and older)
Community Service Business/Organization
Nominations must be post marked by deadline date, Tuesday, January 17th or they can be hand delivered
to the Human Relations Office, located on the second floor of the Municipal Building (201 West Fifth
1-15-11. Street) Monday – Friday between the hours of 8:00 – 5:00 pm. Please address all nominations to:
Cassandra Daniels
P.O. Box 7207
201 West Fifth Street
Greenville, NC 27835-7207
For more information, please visit www.coghrc.org or contact Cassandra Daniels with the City’s Human
Relations Office at 252-329-4494.
This event is sponsored by the City of Greenville and the Human Relations Council and co-sponsored
by The Daily Reflector.