WAYCROSS JOURNAL-HERALD
South Georgia’s Greatest Newspaper
Gators Romp, Stomp
Waycross, Ga.
‘MY HOPE!’
FILE PHOTO
‘Heaven’ Movie By Dr.
Billy Graham Showing
Sunday At Jamestown
Partly
Cloudy
70/50Lo
Rain Chance 50 Percent
Hi
—page 2—
W h a t’s I n s i d e
Vol. 96, No. 265
Billy Graham ____________ 4
Classified Ads ________ 13
Comics ________________ 12
Dear Abby ______________ 4
Editorials ______________ 5
Extended Forecast ______2
______2
Family News ____________ 8
Legal Ads __________ 10-11
Obituaries ______________ 2
Sports ________________ 6-7
Playoffs Await!
The 10-0 Ware County High
Gators return home to Memorial Stadium (today’s
masthead photo) Friday
night against Starr’s Mill, the
fourth seed from Region 4AAAAA. Playoff ticket information appears on page 2.
Go Gators!
wjhnews.com
75¢
Ware Tunes Up For Playoffs With 48-19 Rout Of Pirates
In Brunswick! 10-0 Season Is First In Program’s History!
Billy Graham, who turned 96 Friday, still has hope for
America.
The new Billy Graham video
release message, “Heaven,” a 32minute movie, is to be shown
Sunday at 7 p.m. at Jamestown
United Methodist Church.
Admission is free. The church
congregation invites the public.
Refreshments will be served following the worship hour.
The movie was released
worldwide Friday to coincide
with Graham’s 96th birthday.
“Heaven” is the annual film by
Graham through his My Hope
with Billy Graham ministry. It
follows the popular “The Cross”
released by Graham in 2013.
It is now playing in local
churches among other venues.
“Evangelism is clearly the hardest activity of the church, but it’s
also the one most closely tied to
the health of the local church,”
said Steve Rhoads, vice president
for My Hope. “We want to come
alongside pastors and help them as
they motivate their congregations
to reach out in love. The local
church holds a unique position of
influence in our communities.”
In 2013, more than 110,000
made commitments to Jesus
Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014
Christ through My Hope with
Billy Graham. This past Easter,
churches nationwide hosted
events and showings of “The
Cross,” an acclaimed video message in its own right. My Hope
staff heard reports of churches
and individuals using the videos
in church services, small groups,
local movie theaters, prisons, rescue missions and more.
“No matter how an individual
or church uses these My Hope resources, it begins with prayer,”
added Rhoads, who oversees the
efforts for My Hope 2014 and
My Hope UK with Billy Graham,
a similar evangelistic effort taking place in the United Kingdom
this year.
“It starts as individuals begin
to pray specifically for people
they know who need the hope
found in a relationship with Jesus
Christ,” Rhoads said.
As he approaches the end of
his life’s ministry, Billy Graham
is hopeful that America can be
restored to its rightful place as a
God-fearing sanctuary and the
leader of the free world, but not
By ZACK LEE
Sports Editor
BRUNSWICK — For the first
time in school history, the Ware
County Gator football team finished their season with a record
of 10-0 after punishing the Pirates of Brunswick 48-19 Friday
night.
Now the real season begins.
“(Being 10-0) is good, but after
the weekend that will be done,”
said Gator head coach Franklin
Stephens. “I don’t live on the regular season — we’re working towards the playoffs.”
Those state playoffs begin Friday night as the No. 1 Gators host
Starr’s Mill.
For a team that has been
known for starting off their
games with a touchdown, particularly of late, Ware got off to a bit
of a slow start against the Pirates.
After receiving the opening
kickoff, Ware went three-and-out
and was forced to punt the ball to
Brunswick. The punt would be
one of just two the Gators would
have in the game.
Getting the ball with good field
position on their own 35 yard
line, the Pirates began a solid
drive that saw them move the
football down to Ware’s 28. After
being stopped on two straight
plays, the Pirates faced a thirdand-9 and dropped back to pass,
only to be intercepted by Laban
Faulk.
It would be the first of three interceptions thrown by Brunswick
in the game.
With the ball back in their
hands, the Gators went to work.
Positive runs by a multitude of
Gator running backs and a big
pass play from Xavier Hollmon
to Jarvis Belcher saw Ware move
into the red zone where they
would eventually be held on third
down — Tom Etheridge nailed a
25-yard field goal on fourth down
and Ware led 3-0.
After getting the football back,
the Pirates were held to a threeand-out and punted back to Ware.
A Hollmon-to-Josh Johnson
passing connection saw the
Gators with a first down opportunity on Brunswick’s side of
the 50 — a 43-yard touchdown
run by Faulk immediately followed.
After Etheridge added the extra
point, Ware was up 10-0.
What followed in the next 13
minutes would silence the Pirates
fans for the remainder of the half.
Down 10-0, Brunswick was in
need of a response; however, it
was the Gators who would respond.
Brunswick would move the
ball effectively until a big hit on
third-and-12 saw the Pirate quarterback exit the game with an
ankle injury. He would not return.
More Than 1,000 VA
Workers Face Action
(see BILLY, page 3)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Veterans
Affairs Department is considering disciplinary action against more than 1,000
employees as it struggles to correct systemic problems that led to long wait times
for veterans seeking health care and falsification of records to cover up delays, VA
Secretary Robert McDonald said.
In an interview with the CBS News
program “60 Minutes,” McDonald said
the VA is taking “aggressive, expeditious
disciplinary action, consistent with the
law” against more than 1,000 of its
315,000 employees.
McDonald said the disciplinary report
given to the Veterans Affairs committees
in the House and the Senate “has about 35
names on it. I’ve got another report that
has over 1,000” names, McDonald said.
The interview with “60 Minutes” will
be broadcast on Sunday. An excerpt aired
Friday on the “CBS Evening News.”
McDonald’s comments represent a departure from his previous public remarks.
At a news conference Thursday, he said
the VA has proposed disciplinary action
— up to an including firing — against
more than 40 employees nationwide since
June. Those cases are all related to a
scandal over long patient wait times and
manipulation of records to hide the delays.
At an appearance Friday at the National Press Club, McDonald said the VA
has taken or is considering disciplinary
action against 5,600 employees over the
past year, although aides later clarified
that most of those actions were not related to the health-care scandal.
“We are very serious about making
sure that we hold people accountable,”
McDonald said.
The VA has been under intense scrutiny
since a whistleblower reported that
dozens of veterans may have died while
awaiting treatment at the Phoenix VA
hospital, and that appointment records
were falsified. Since then problems have
been revealed at VA health care sites
across the country.
The scandal led to the ouster of former
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and to a new
law making it easier for veterans to get
VA-paid care from local doctors. The
agency has been overwhelmed by the influx of veterans from wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the aging of Vietnam War
veterans and expanded eligibility for benefits as a result of exposure to Agent Orange and other problems.
METHADONE MAINTENANCE THERAPY
Call for a free confidential assessment today!
1766 Memorial Dr., Suite 3
Waycross, GA 31501
Phone 912-285-2658
www.tcaclinics.com
We Can
Help!
Photo By BO CARTER http://warecounty.shutterfly.com/
Josh Johnson makes the touchdown grab in heavy traffic for the Ware Gators.
With the Pirates punting the
football back to Ware, the Gators
did what they have done all season long: score non-offensive
touchdowns.
As the ball was snapped and
the punter raised his leg to the
football, Dedrick Mills broke
through the line and blocked the
punt — Terrence Dukes then
scooped it up and ran it 11 yards
into the end zone. Etheridge
would add the extra point.
Stephens explained that Ware
was well prepared to block the
punt.
“We worked on the blocked
punt all week in practice because
we felt like we could get it,”
Stephens said. “It was good to
see Mills block it and Terrence
scoop and score it.”
Following the ensuing kickoff,
Brunswick moved the ball
quickly and successfully down to
Ware’s 10 and faced a third-andseven.
Sammy Burley then did what
Sammy Burley does.
Back-up Brunswick quarterback Shawn Smith cocked back
his arm, slung the ball forward
and found two waiting hands on
the two yard line — Burley’s.
Weaving his way through the
Pirate offensive players and following a host of Gator blockers,
Burley zigged and zagged 98
yards to the end zone, scoring his
sixth non-offensive touchdown of
the season (four pick-sixes, two
scoop-and-scores.)
Etheridge added the extra point
and Ware increased their lead to
24-0.
Obama Sending 1,500
More Troops To Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Barack Obama authorized on Friday a
broad expansion of the U.S. military mission in Iraq that could boost the total
number of American troops there to 3,100
and spread advisory teams and trainers
across the country, including into Anbar
province where fighting with Islamic
State militants has been fierce.
The president’s decision to escalate the
U.S. effort in Iraq comes just three days
after midterm elections that were bruising
for Democrats and amid persistent arguments that more U.S. troops are needed to
bolster the struggling Iraqi forces. In particular, the Iraqi government, members of
Congress and others have called for
troops in Anbar in western Iraq, where
extremists have been slaughtering men,
women and children.
Obama authorized the Pentagon to
send up to 1,500 more troops to Iraq,
adding to the 1,600 previously allowed.
There are currently about 1,400 there.
The plans are all contingent on Congress approving his nearly $5.6 billion request to fund the expanded mission. The
troops will not be able to deploy until legislation passes and the president signs it.
Congress hopes to complete the de-
(see GATORS, page 7)
fense policy bill in the postelection, preholiday session and will consider the Iraq
funding along with the administration’s
request for billions more for military operations overseas. Lawmakers are still
pressing the White House for additional
details on how the money would be spent.
Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon
press secretary, said the military will set
up several sites across Iraq to train nine
Iraqi Army brigades and three peshmerga
brigades, which are made up of Iraqi Kurdish forces. The military will also establish two operations centers where small
advisory teams can work with Iraqi forces
at the headquarters and brigade levels.
Kirby said one of those centers will be
in Anbar province, where U.S. troops
fought al-Qaida extremists in brutal fighting in 2004 to 2007, costing more than
1,000 American lives and 9,000 Iraqi
lives, mainly in the cities of Fallujah and
Ramadi.
He added that the U.S. also is considering
training of some of the Sunni tribes. In 2007,
Sunni Arab tribes in Anbar joined forces with
Americans — in what was called the Anbar
Awakening — and dealt a blow against the insurgents that many credit with turning the tide
in that conflict.
Veteran’s Day Special
November 9th, 10th, & 11th
All Veterans and Active Duty Military
personnel FREE with their paid family
(General Admission)
Annual Light Show
Every Friday & Satday
from Thanksgiving to Christmas
See website for more details and dates
www.okeswamp.com