EAST ALTON ILLINOIS ROTARY CLUB

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

ROTARY CLUBS HAVE WATER PROJECTS ON TAP

Villages in four regions of Ghana are being equipped with ventilated pit latrines, showers, and boreholes featuring hand pumps and mechanized pipes through the efforts of dozens of Rotary clubs in Latin America, North America, and Ghana. (click below to read more)

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

LaDondrell Montgomery, 36, had been sentenced in November in Houston to life in prison for armed robbery despite his vigorous protestations of innocence, and about a week later, in December, he was exonerated in fact. Although he had testified at his trial, he had not mentioned that he had an ironclad alibi -- that he had been in jail during the time the robbery was committed. Once jail records were reviewed, Montgomery was freed. The prosecutor hadn't checked the records before trial, and neither had Montgomery's attorney, but then neither had Montgomery ever mentioned it (because, he had told his lawyers, he had been in and out of jail so many times in his life that he just could not remember if he had been locked up at the time of the armed robbery). [Houston Chronicle, 12-9-2011]

WELCOME BACK DICK

TODAY IN HISTORY

MARCH 27

1513:Juan Ponce de Leon sights Florida. He eventually will lead the first exploration of Florida.

1912:First lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, plant two Yoshina cherry trees along the banks of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., in celebration of Japan's gift of 3,020 cherry trees to the United States. Since 1935, the nation's capital has celebrated the blooming of the cherry trees with the popular National Cherry Blossom Festival. The original two trees are still standing.

1836: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leaders Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon lead the dedication ceremony for Kirtland Temple, the first-ever Mormon temple, in Kirtland, Ohio.

1973:Marlon Brando wins the Best Actor Oscar for his work in The Godfather, but he declines the award

1997: Dexter Scott King, son of slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., meets with James Earl Ray, the man convicted of his father's 1968 murder, in a Nashville prison hospital. Ray denies his involvement in the assassination, to which King replies, "I believe you."