Klan Ties Stun Town

MCILROY HAS HIS EYES ON GRAND SLAM, SPORTS B1 LEESBURG, FLORIDA Tuesday, July 22, 2014 www.dailycommercial.com BORDER: Perry to send 1,000 National PLEA: Family wants Villager Guard troops to aid in Texas crisis, A6 accused of public sex released, A3 FRUITLAND PARK Whistleblowers felt heat at VA About 800 employees faced retaliation after filing reports MATTHEW DALY its own investigations Associated Press and works with whis- WASHINGTON — A tleblowers, is based on pharmacy supervisor comments and com- at the VA was placed on plaints filed by nearly leave after complaining 800 current and former about errors and de- VA employees and vet- lays in delivering med- erans. Those comments ications to patients at indicate that concerns a hospital in Palo Alto, about the VA go far be- California. In Pennsyl- yond the long waiting vania, a doctor was re- times or falsified ap- moved from clinical pointment records that work after complain- have received much ing that on-call doc- recent attention, ex- tors were refusing to go tending to the quality PHOTOS BY JOHN RAOUX / AP to a VA hospital in Wil- of health care services Police Chief Terry Isaacs stands in the hallway at the Police Department in Fruitland Park. kes-Barre. veterans receive, the re- Medical profession- port said. als from coast to coast The group set up a have pointed out prob- website in mid-May for Klan ties stun town lems at the VA, only to complaints and said it suffer retaliation from has received allegations supervisors and other of wrongdoing from 35 Revelations that police officers joined KKK have residents disgusted high-ranking officials,states and the District MIKE SCHNEIDER of less than 5,000 resi- according to a report of Columbia. Associated Press dents has been infused Monday by a private “A recurring and fun- government watchdog. damental theme has nn Hunnewell and by the thousands of The report compiled become clear: VA em- her ex-Fruitland wealthier, more cosmo- by the Project on Gov- ployees across the Park police officer politan retirees in the A area. Those who live in ernment Oversight, a country fear they will husband knelt in the group that conducts living room of a fellow the bedroom commu- SEE VA | A2 officer’s home, with nity, which is less than pillow cases as make- 10 percent black, have shift hoods over their reacted not only with TAVARES heads. A few words shock, but disgust that were spoken and they, officers could be in- along with a half-doz- volved with the Klan, the mayor said. After lawsuit, district en others, were initiat- Thrift store owner Mike Blackhall stands outside his store. ed into the local chap- “Maybe I’m ignorant, newell’s ex-husband, ter of the Ku Klux Klan, her and her husband, but I didn’t realize that she says. George Hunnewell, was resigned in 2010 after they still met and orga- changes club policy Last week, that five- fired, and deputy chief his Klan ties became nized and did that kind LIVI STANFORD | Staff Writer The move comes af- year-old initiation cer- David Borst resigned public. of thing,” said Michele [email protected] ter the Liberty Counsel, emony stunned local from the 13-member The violence against Lange, a church volun- an Orlando organiza- residents, who found Fruitland Park Police blacks that permeat- teer. Months after set- tion that promotes re- out an investigative re- Department. Borst has ed the area was more Mayor Chris Bell says tling a legal lawsuit ligious freedom, filed a port linked two city of- denied being a mem- than 60 years ago, when he heard stories about filed by a faith-based ficers with the secret ber. the place was more ru- a Klan rally that took club at Mount Dora lawsuit in U.S. District hate society that once James Elkins, a third ral and the main indus- place two years before High School, the Lake Court in April on be- was violently active officer who Ann Hun- try was citrus. These he arrived in the 1970s, County School Board half of the Fellowship in the area. Ann Hun- newell says recruited days, the community SEE KKK | A2 agreed Monday to stop of Christian Athletes at providing stipends to Mount Dora High. non-curricular clubs The lawsuit claimed at high schools dis- the FCA had been re- Obama orders protection for gay federal workers trict-wide. fused access to school At the same time, the facilities granted to NEDRA PICKLER “America’s federal contracts United States, and he called on board agreed to change other student clubs, Associated Press should not subsidize discrimination Congress to extend the ban to all the High School Stu- wasn’t permitted to employers. But legislation that dent Clubs and Organi- post announcements WASHINGTON — President against the American people.” would extend the ban has be- zations Policy to grant in the hallways and on Barack Obama on Monday or- President Obama come embroiled in a dispute over non-curricular clubs the school’s marquee, dered employment protection for and couldn’t make an- should not subsidize discrimina- whether religious groups should the same access to gay and transgender employees get exemptions. nouncements over tion against the American peo- school facilities as oth- who work for the federal govern- The president had long resisted er student clubs. the school’s public ad- ple,” Obama declared at a White ment or for companies holding pressure to pursue an executive The changes won’t dress system, club web federal contracts, telling advo- House signing ceremony. anti-discrimination order cover- become effective un- page or on the district’s cates he embraced the “irrefut- Obama said it was unaccept- ing federal contractors in the hope less the board ratifies website. able rightness of your cause.” able that being gay is still a fir- that Congress would take more them at a School Board FCA students also “America’s federal contracts ing offense in many places in the SEE BAN | A2 meeting in August. SEE CLUBS | A2 Vital evidence feared withheld in Ukraine DANICA KIRKA jetliner. wreckage could yield in- known missile launch in and JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG The answer is: potential- formation on how the at- the area. Associated Press ly a lot. tack unfolded. “You can effectively Aviation and defense ex- The black boxes could LONDON — “What ex- backtrack and give a rela- perts say the victims’ bod- offer vital clues as well. tively high degree of con- actly are they trying to ies could contain missile The cockpit voice record- hide?” President Barack fidence in the location shrapnel. Chemical res- er would record the bang where that missile took off Obama asked Monday idue on the plane could of a missile. The data re- from,” said a Manchester, as he demanded that confirm the type of weap- corders, which register al- Ukrainian rebels give in- on that brought down Ma- titude and position, would England-based aviation DMITRY LOVETSKY / AP vestigators access to the laysia Airlines Flight 17. be able to tie that infor- industry consultant, Chris A pro-Russian fighter walks past a piece of the wreckage of the downed And the location of the mation to the timing of a SEE UKRAINE | A6 crashed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine. INDEX DIVERSIONS B7 OBITUARIES A4 Vol. 138 LEGALS B8 SPORTS B1 TODAY’S WEATHER CLASSIFIED B8 No. 202 50¢ BUSINESS A8 VOICES A11 Detailed forecast 90˚/76˚ COMICS B6 2 sections CROSSWORDS B8 NATION A6 WORLD A7 on page A12. Heavy showers and storms A2 DAILY COMMERCIAL Tuesday, July 22, 2014 Law Enforcement sent officers’ Klan ties har- ly had been suspended KKK the police chief a report kened back to the 1940s for misconduct for the FLORIDA FROM PAGE A1 linking the officers to the and 1950s when hate way he handled a case. Klan based on informa- crimes against blacks Last year, he received but he has never seen tion from the FBI. Both were common. That era five “letters of counsel- LOTTERY men didn’t return repeat- was chronicled in the ing” from supervisors anything firsthand. As re- JULY 21 cently as the 1960s, many ed phone messages to 2012 book “Devil in the for showing up late and in law enforcement in their homes, but Borst Grove.” Then-Lake Coun- writing reports incor- CASH 3 ...............................................3-1-8 the South were members told a reporter he has ty Sheriff Willis McCall — rectly. He was promoted Afternoon ..........................................3-9-0 but “it’s exceedingly un- never been a Klan mem- an alleged Klan member to corporal in 2012 but PLAY 4 .............................................9-7-4-0 usual these days to find a ber. — shot two of four black then demoted the next Afternoon .......................................1-5-2-8 police officer who is se- Ann Hunnewell — who men, dubbed the “Grov- year for allowing person- cretly a Klansman,” said was a police department eland Four,” who were al problems to affect his JULY 20 Mark Potok, a senior fel- secretary until 2010 — dubiously charged with job, Isaacs said. FANTASY 5 ........................... 8-10-14-28-33 low at the Southern Pov- told Florida investigators raping a white woman in “I felt he was beyond erty Law Center, which that former Police Chief 1948. the point of being saved monitors hate groups. J.M. Isom asked her and More than 20 years lat- at this point,” the chief While the Klan used to her ex-husband to join er, during the Nixon ad- said of Hunnewell’s fir- the KKK in 2008, trying ministration, it took a ing.

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