The Daily Spectrum from Saint George, Utah • 1

(vTmTT7 TUTU? MUM 11 ii 1 1 i XL XL. A GANNETT COMPANY FRIDAY 06.01.12 SOUTHERN UTAH'S INFORMATION SOURCE THESPECTRUM.COM WHERE IT'S Summer series brings variety of performers to area OUTDOORS At Arches NP great photos are a short hike away orr -r Dixie ConvwitioA Cmin TOW WOW. 1 2 and older. I yeors and younger. fridou from Som-lOMiM Soturdav from lOom-lOom.

rM Kmc ioick. rojvcJ ncuy at 7pm fndoyfln aturday at lpm ond 7pmJ Ewbs 1" 1 "7 4.1 i i 7 fix. i jr2t Keegan O'Brien leads chants as members of the LGBT community protest the Defense of Marriage Act on June 23, 2009, outside a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Boston, elise amendola ap Defense of Marriage Act heads to top court Civil Air Patrol plays key role in searching for downed planes I II Wl I III II I 1IPI it gst I A ii-' A .1 4 "is 1 By Denise Lavoie AP Legal Affairs Writer BOSTON A battle over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman appears headed for the Supreme Court after an appeals court ruled Thursday that denying benefits to married gay couples is In a unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the 1996 law deprives gay couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples. The court didn't rule on the law's more politically combustible provision that states without same-sex marriage cannot be forced to recognize gay unions performed in states where it's legal.

It also wasn't asked to address whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry. The law was passed at a time when it appeared Hawaii would legalize gay marriage. Since then, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved the practice, led by Massachusetts in 2004. The court, the first federal appeals panel to rule against the benefits section of the law, agreed with a lower court judge who in 2010 concluded the law interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including the ability to file joint tax returns. The ruling came in two lawsuits, one filed by the Boston-based legal group Gay Lesbian See MARRIAGE, Page A3 By Kevin Jenkins kevin8thejpectrum.com ST.

GEORGE Computer programmer Paul Peine, a volunteer pilot for the Civil Air Patrol in Southern Utah, was on his way home from work Tuesday when he received word that a plane's location beacon had triggered on a mountain ridge northeast of Zion National Park. "Les called and said, 'We've got a Peine said Thursday. "So I just called my wife and said, 'Hey, I've got to go out on a "Les" is Chief Master Sgt. Lester Joslin, the commander of Southern Utah's CAP branch, and the mission involved a flight from the St. George Municipal Airport to search for what ultimately turned out to be the wreckage of a Cirrus SR20 single-engine airplane with four people aboard.

All four people died in the plane crash near Strawberry Point, about 5 miles southwest of Navajo Lake in a remote region of the Dixie National Forest, at about 7,200 feet elevation. "Unfortunately, there was no one to rescue on this one," said Ron Snow, a retired physician who was a member of the CAP search team. Federal aviation investigators 1 4 I fill I TOP: Tim Leeny, with the Civil Air Patrol, shows the glass-panel system in the CAP'S plane Thursday at the St George Municipal Airport ABOVE: Ron Snow demonstrates how the system works. Leeny, Snow and another CAP volunteer sighted the wreckage of the single-engine Cirrus SR20 plane north of Zion National Park, photos bysamanthaclemensthe spectrum arrived at the scene Thursday and the victims' bodies were transported to the Medical Examiner's Office in Salt Lake City, according to information released by Kane County Sheriff's Office Spokesman Alan Alldredge. See EYES, Page A3 Group gives $80,000 to city for picklebaH complex fMfii ii i in i irr-T.

i ON THE WEB For information about picklebaH events and activities in St. George, visit www.sgcity.orgrecreationl adultsportslpickleball.php. private donation and was an added surprise to the original $60,000 the group had planned to give to the city, Sacco said. During the presentation, St. George City Councilman Jimmie Hughes told the group members he was excited to see residents come together to raise money to help complete the city project "It makes it a lot easier for us when people like you get more involved," he said.

"We take seriously here in St. George, and we are so grateful for all that you are doing." Once the picklebaH complex is completed, it wiU be the largest of its kind in the Western United States, Sacco said. "We want to host tournaments here and bring people to St. George for picklebaH," she said. "Having this complex wiU allow the entire community to join in and play picklebaH." According to the proposed St.

George 2012-13 fiscal year budget, $500,000 will also be allocated from the capital projects fund to go toward the construction and design of the complex if there are no changes to that part of the budget before it is approved by the City Council at the end of June! Bunker said most of the project should be completed by the end of the summer, in time for the Huntsman World Senior Games in October. See PICKLEBALL, Page A3 By Samantha Sadlier ssadlierethespectrum.com ST. GEORGE Members of the Southern Utah PicklebaH Group presented the city of St. George with $80,000 on Thursday to go toward the construction of a new 24-court picklebaH complex in the Little Valley area of St. George.

A number of the courts in the complex are expected to open by the end of the summer, said St. George City Councilwoman Gail Bunker. The group gathered much of the $80,000 donation through fundraising efforts, including a picklebaH tournament in April that brought in $20,000, said Sharon Sacco, one of the group's members. As part of the $80,000 that was granted to the city on Thursday, $20,000 was in the form of a Denise Boutin competes in the 2010 Huntsman World Senior Games at SunRiver. The city of St.

George and the Southern Utah PicklebaH Group are planning on building a 24-court complex. SAMANTHA CLEMENS THE SPECTRUM TODAY iifipini I 10073 1 WEATHER B5 CLASSIFIEDS D2 LEARNING C6 NATION A2 OBITUARIES A4 1 OPINIONS A6 OUTDOORS C8 SCORES B2 STOCKS D1 WORLD A7 To subscribe or to report a delivery issue: 800-748-5489 1 Volume 46, Issue 294 $1 Retail For home delivery prices, please see Page A3 2012 The Spectrum.