The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine • 1

SPIRIT OF THE STATE It's what you need To know STATE EDITION bangordailynewscom MONDAY SEPTEMBER 1 2008 75 cents McLain's body reinterred Storm worries Maine GOP BY LINDA KILLIAN SPECIAL TO THE NEWS ST PAUL Minn Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention here say they are disappointed but understand why their convention schedule had to be altered as a result of Hurricane Gustav which was predicted to hit the Gulf Coast sometime this morning The convention will begin on schedule this afternoon in St Paul at the Xcel Center but appearances by President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been canceled The opening session this afternoon and early evening will be limited to a few hours set aside for party business including officially convening the convention and accepting reports from the rules credentials and platform committees The evening floor session and speeches which would have included the prime-time television network coverage of the convention have been canceled Maine GOP Chairman Mark Ellis said the delegates were of as they arrived here on Sunday are very much concerned about what is going on in the Ellis said he experienced a hurricane evacuation in 1999 when he was visiting his parents in Florida and there was a massive evacuation for Hurricane Floyd See GOP Page A2 BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY KEVIN BENNETT Family and friends of Joyce McLain gather at her grave site at Grindstone Road Cemetery in Medway on Saturday as the Rev Ralph Jacobs (left foreground) presides over the 45-minute committal ceremony Pastor sees God's fingerprints on homicide victim's case Grief still raw despite new inquiry BY NICK SAMBIDES JR OF THE NEWS STAFF MEDWAY Wendy McLain loved her older sister dearly but she Just couldn't come to Joyce McLain's committal service Saturday her mother said Even after 28 years Wendy McLain's grief over the homicide that took away her sister remains so profound that the 43-year-old Farmington resident a registered nurse could not bear to make the trip "She was really affected by this She's had a hard Pamela McLain said Saturday "The killer or killers did not just take Joyce She took half of Wendy and what See Grief Page A4 BY NICK SAMBIDES JR OF THE NEWS STAFF MEDWAY To the Rev Ralph Jacobs God has been leaving his fingerprints all over the Joyce McLain case lately East Pentecostal Lighthouse Church pastor who presided over the reinterment of the body of Joyce McLain at a graveside service Saturday believes the intuition that compelled Pamela McLain to start pressing nine months ago for new DNA testing of her remains was a nudge from God The Justice for Joyce raising $20000 for the homicide exhumation and the donations had God all through them Jacobs said So was the highly improbable pristine condition of the body which was exhumed Thursday after 28 years of interment and the equally unlikely discovery of forensic evidence Friday See McLain Page A4 BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY KEVIN BENNETT Terry Johnson sports a hat on Saturday with a button in support of Joyce McLain as he stands in the front yard of his Pine Street home in East Millinocket which sits just four-tenths of a mile from the location where McLain's body was found in 1980 Johnson helped police search for her on the weekend she vanished and has been a member of the Justice for Joyce Committee since its beginning Gulf Coast readies for worst as Gustav closes in A Mississippi Highway Patrol vehlcla attempts to make its way through northbound traffic on US 55 on Sunday as evacuees line the interstate on their way out of the path of Hurricane Gustav Both the north and southbound lanes of US 55 and US 59 were con-traflowed at 4 am Sunday BY STACEY PLAISANCE AND BECKY BOHRER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS With a historic evacuation complete and gun-toting police and National Guardsmen standing watch over this empty streets even presidential politics stood still Sunday while the nation waited to see whether Hurricane Gustav would be another Katrina The storm was set to crash ashore midday today with frightful force testing the three years of planning and rebuilding that came after devastating blow to the Gulf Coast Painfully aware of the failings that led to that horrific suffering and more than 1600 deaths this time officials moved beyond merely insisting tourists and residents leave south Louisiana They threatened arrest loaded thousands onto buses and warned that anyone who remained behind would not be rescued will go directly to jail You will not get a pass this Mayor Ray Nagin said will not have a temporary stay in the city You will go directly to the Big Col Mike Edmondson state police commander said he believed that 90 percent of the population had fled the Louisiana coast The exodus of 19 million people is the largest evacuation in state history and thousands more had left from Mississippi Alabama and flood-prone southeast Texas Louisiana and Mississippi changed traffic flow so all highway lanes led away from the coast and cars were packed bumper-to-bumper Stores and restaurants shut down hotels closed and windows were boarded up Some who planned to stay changed their mind at the last second not willing to risk the worst was trying to get situated at home I was trying to get things so it would be halfway said 46-year-old painter Jerry Williams who showed up at the Union Station to catch one of the last buses out of town torn Do you leave it and worry about it or do you stay and worry about See Gustav Page A4 Gustav curtails first day McCain scraps convention plans BY DAVID ESPO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ST PAUL Minn John McCain tore up the script for his Republican National Convention on Sunday canceling most opening-day activities and positioning himself as above mere politics as Hurricane Gustav churned toward New Orleans On the eve of his convention McCain took on the role of a concerned potential president determined to avoid the errors made by President Bush three years ago have every expectation that we will not see the mistakes of Katrina he said McCain said in an interview with NBC that it was possible he would make his acceptance speech not from the convention podium but via satellite from the Gulf Coast region The formal business of the convention includes nominating McCain for president and Alaska Gov Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate on Wednesday acceptance speech set for prime time on Thursday evening is among the most critical events of the campaign for his chances of winning the White House The hasty reordering of an event months in the planning was unprecedented affecting not only the program on the podium but the accompanying fundraising partying and other political activity that unfolds around the edges of a nationEd political convention See Plans Page A2 AP PHOTO BY THERESE APEL Index smoking-in-vehicles law starts today Amusements C7 Business A5 Classifieds C8 D1 -5 D8 Comics D6-7 Crossword D6 Cryptoquip C8 Dear Abby D7 Dr Donohue D6 Editorial A6-7 Horoscope D7 Vol 120 joni Averill B4 Legal notices D3 Lifestyle C6-8 Lottery A2 Obituaries B6 Sports Cl -5 State Bl-8 Sudoku C7 TV listings B5 Weather B8 No 65 are severely affected by exposure to secondhand smoke the EPA says Children receiving high doses of secondhand smoke such as those with smoking mothers run the greatest risk of damaging health effects The US Surgeon General also warns of links between secondhand smoke exposure and cancer and heart disease While opponents of the Maine law raised concerns it would infringe on private liberties its chief sponsor said he has seen firsthand the positive effect of such a law See Smoking Page A4 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUGUSTA Maine today joins other states and Canadian provinces that have made it illegal to smoke in a car while children are present But for the first year the law is in effect violators will only get warnings A law passed by the Legislature earlier this year outlaws smoking in cars while youths under 16 are present modeled after a tougher Bangor ordinance California Arkansas and Louisiana have passed similar laws as have Puerto Rico and some Canadian provinces Other states have also looked at the proposal When he signed bill into law in April Gov John Baldacci hailed the legislation as a strike against secondhand smoke saying that tobacco use costs too many lives and too much money The federal Environmental Protection Agency which urges smoke-free homes and cars says secondhand smoke increases the number of asthma attacks and severity of asthma symptoms as well as lower respiratory tract infections for children under 18 months of age Developing lungs of young children 2000 Bangor Publishing Co Periodicals postage paid at Bangor Maine 04401 Publication number USPS 041000 I I.