Baxter Bulletin from Mountain Home, Arkansas • 10

THE BAXTER BULLETIN, Mountain Home, Ark. Friday, February 1, 2008 Page 10A Drifter pleads guilty to murder of hiker ii ii i ii ii ii iii ii nun in ii i urn i -r 1 1 1 1 i i i i yi. 1 Darragh said Hilton told Emerson Jie was going to let her go before striking her several times with a jack handle until she died. DAWSONVILLE, Ga. (AP) Gary Michael Hilton was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with possibility of parole in 30 years after pleading guilty to murder in the beating-death of a young woman hiker in the north Georgia mountains.

District Attorney Lee Darragh said the murder resulted from Hilton's plan to abduct 24-year-old Meredith Emerson in order to steal money using her ATM cards. "The sole purpose was to acquire (bank) cards and PIN numbers," Darragh said. "He mentioned at one point that he knew eventually he would take her But Emerson misled Hilton, giving him false identification numbers with the hope that authorities would be alerted to unsuccessful attempts to gain access to her bank account, Darragh said. Hilton attended the Dawson County Superior Court hearing in an orange jumpsuit and a bulletproof vest Judge Bonnie Oliver asked Hilton how he pleaded. He John Cagle, a special agent in charge with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Hilton decapitated Emerson in an attempt to make it harder for authorities to identify her.

The judge told Hilton that she agreed with the plea deal because the 61-year-old Hilton likely would have died in prison of natural causes before the state would be able to execute him even if he were sentenced to death. Emerson was believed to have been kidnapped in Union County and killed in Dawson County, authorities have said. Emerson's body was found nearly 50 miles from where she vanished during a New Year's Day hike. Emerson disappeared near Blood Mountain in Union County. An autopsy report says Emerson was beaten to death and then decapitated three days after her disappearance.

Hilton was the last person seen with Emerson on the hiking trail and had tried to use her credit card, according to his arrest warrant Investigators in North, Carolina and Florida also have looked at Hilton to see if he was involved in killings in those states. Bulletin File Photo by Kevin Pieper Renovation of the historic Wolf House in Norfork was completed in 2004. Wolf House bill clears senate committee replied, "Guilty." He had been indicted on a single count of murder Thursday in a specially called session of the Dawson County grand jury. The indictment charges he killed Emerson by blunt force trauma to her head on Jan. 4.

WOLFFrom Page 1A Lincoln advanced the bill in November to the committee simultaneously with U.S. Rep. Marion Berry introducing it to the House Natural Resources Committee. The Wolf House structure and grounds have been the subject of extensive archaeological research and restoration during the past 10 years at a cost of about $660,000 in grant funding. The project was awarded.

$500,000 from the Arkansas Court appropriated $43,000 for a scenic overlook and architectural services adjacent to the Wolf House. Federal funding worth $92,800 also is committed to the overlook project. fwallisbaxterbulletin.com Historic Preservation Program and $160,000 from Arkansas Transportation Enhancement Program. Restoration of the Wolf House was completed in 2004. Earlier this year, the Baxter County Quorum TSA starts security blog WASHINGTON, D.C.

(AP) Frustrated by long airport-security lines? Certain those screeners aren't paying attention? Wondering why your grandma always gets frisked? The federal government wants to hear or at least read your gripes at the "Evolution of Security" blog the Transportation Security Administration introduced 1 I I- 1 a tiplhMi, lignite CenturyTel High-Speed Internet Lowest price in town for a whole year. Explore life in High-Speed. Pay less than cable. Whatever inspires you, you'll find it crazy fast with CenturyTel High-Speed Internet. Stream videos and music, share photos, play games online, shop faster and more.

CenturyTel High-Speed Internet is the fastest private, direct line for uninterrupted streaming, making it superior to cable. Always fast. Never shared. Wednesday. And it promises those complaints and suggestions won't vanish into thin air.

The blog, at http:www.tsa.govblog, is getting a rather "blah" response from aviation analysts and passengers advocates who say it will do little to improve process or perception. "This will just make it easier for them to receive complaints for them to ignore in the name of national security," said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association. In the blog's initial post, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said the goal is to provide a forum for the agency to explain why travelers must go through certain steps at checkpoints since interaction at airports is often harried and halted, resulting in "feedback and venting circulating among passengers with no real opportunity for us to learn from you or vice versa." "We will incorporate what we learn in this forum in our checkpoint process evolution," Hawley wrote. "Our postings from the public will be reviewed to remove the destructive, but not touch the critical or cranky." Terry Trippler, a Minneapolis-based airline expert, applauded the idea but said TSA "was in the right church, just not the right pew yet." And that church could become anything but sacred. Trippler said he envisions the blog quickly degenerating into an online vacuum where a handful of habitual complainers force TSA officials to respond to them, while other self-appointed security "experts" pontificate on the best ways to improve the process.

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