By GRETCHEN LOSI Staff Writer P revious Hesperia High School students simply didn’t get enough of the school during their high school years. At least 25 have returned to the campus and now call their teachers “colleagues.” “It’s just home,” student- turned-teacher Justin Bartle said. “But learning to call my old teachers by their first names was hard.” Bartle graduated from the school and went on to get his teaching degree from California State University, San Bernardino. Now the student has become the teacher. And he’s not alone. Principal Larry Porras said that one of the criteria of a good high school is a high level of alumni that return to the school to teach and work. With 25 alum- ni now on the payroll, the school must be doing something right. And it’s a win-win situation, so Porras said he hopes they con- tinue to return. “Students in this day and age are very aware if they are being sand-bagged. When they look at a kid, they can tell them from their heart what it’s like to go through what they’re going through,” he said. “The beauty of that is it establishes a connection of trust and understanding. Those are all positives that have a ripple effect across the campus.” When Jennifer Campbell at- tended the school, she was Por- ras’ teacher-assistant. Now she’s a third-year art teacher in the same classroom where she took the class as a student. TeacherS/B2 Three years and counting The family of a Batavia, Ohio soldier still holds onto hope their captured son will return 8 High Desert OBITUARIES 2 NEIGHBORS 3 OPINION 4-5 NEwS 6-9 SuNDAY, ApRIL 8, 2007 B1 Page edited by Justin D. Beckett Jessica Lascano reads along with her class at hesperia high School. hesperia high School art teacher Jennifer campbell teaches at her alma mater. Familiar faces in familiar places Hesperia High School alumni come home to teach in classrooms of their own 1993 hesperia high School graduate Mike heywood keeps an eye on his class. hesperia high School teacher Stephanie Barden talks about her days as a student. On the threshold of a boom 25 graduates now see former teachers as colleagues 14-year-old Victorville girl wins contest to sing anthem at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday By RYAN ORR Staff Writer VICTORVILLE — Alyssa Henderson of Victorville doesn’t get nervous, she gets excited. Her nerves may be tested on Tuesday night, however, when she will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in front of thou- sands of baseball fans at Dodger Stadium. Alyssa won a radio contest, “Oh Say, Can You Sing” against hundreds of statewide entries and was the only minor to be chosen among the top 10 finalists. She sang an a cappella version of Whit- ney Houston’s “I Will Al- ways Love You,” which got her into the top three spots. Then she sang the national anthem and won the contest. Henderson is no stranger to the local spotlight. She won “High Desert Idol” in 2005, sang the national anthem at Mavericks Stadium and even performed at her sixth-grade teacher’s retirement party. “This one really surprised me, but I’ll never be surprised again,” said Alyssa’s mother, Karen Henderson. Alyssa even surprised herself. “I was the only minor there and ev- ery single one of them did really good,” she said. Karen and Alyssa were interviewed live on the radio by Rick Dees on Tues- day morning and Alyssa belted out her rendition of the national anthem. “How many kids her age can say that they’ve done all of this?” said Karen. The Dodgers are playing the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday and the game will be nationally televised. Dees will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. “I really don’t get nervous, I’m just super, super, super excited,” said Alyssa. Oh say, she can sing ... in L.A. Community Clean-Up Day coming to A.V. APPLE VALLEY — The Town of Apple Valley is calling for volunteers for Community Clean-Up Day from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 14. Community service organi- zations, schools, clubs and indi- vidual volunteers are invited to help clean up areas of town. Volunteers get event T-shirts and plenty of water, lunch and the thousands of trash bags needed for the cleanup. Volunteers must sign up in advance and then check in for assignments at Town Hall, 14955 Dale Evans Parkway. To volunteer, call 240-7000, ext. 7071 or write events@ applevalley.org no later than Thursday. Grand jury applications now available online SAN BERNARDINO — The deadline to apply and be consid- ered for the 2007-08 grand jury is drawing near. Successful applicants will serve as grand jurors for the pe- riod beginning July 1 and end- ing June 30, 2008. To be eligible for selection a person must be at least 18 years of age, a citizen of the United States and a resident of San Bernardino County. Service as a grand juror involves an average of three to four full working days a week. Compensation is $25 a day plus meals and mileage associated with service. Applications are available by calling (909) 387-4230 or may be downloaded at www.sbcounty. gov/grandjury. Log on to send greetings to troops serving overseas Citizens can send thank-you messages to troops abroad via the military Web site www. americasupportsyou.mil. The site also has military news, video and musical tributes and upcoming military events. Additionally, the United Ser- vices Organization is sponsor- ing a care-package program. The package costs $25 and the sender is able to write a per- sonal message or support state- ment to the service member receiving the package. Packages include requested items such as phone cards, sunscreen, disposable cameras and toiletries. Visit the USO Web site — www.operationusocarepackage. org — for more information. In BrIef “They all have something in common: They wanted to work with kids and work in education.” LArry POrrAs Hesperia High School Principal — compiled from staff reports Logistics development inches forward at SCLA as final details for future facilities await resolution By MITCH DEACON Staff Writer VICTORVILLE — In anticipation of an historic agreement between Victorville and BNSF railway, the Victor Valley stands on the thresh- old of an economic transformation from a bedroom community to a ma- jor logistics center. But those looking for work in the future warehousing and distribution centers of Southern California Lo- gistics Airport will have to wait some time before the jobs materialize. Victorville is still in negotiations with BNSF to finalize the agreement while construction permits for the new facility are not expected to be issued until the end of the year, city officials said. “The actual construction would require between one year and 18 months to build a facility of that size, so it will likely be at least two or two-and-a-half years before the project will be completed,” said John Roberts, Victorville city manager. Victorville Mayor Terry Caldwell predicts final negotiations will be wrapped up sometime between the middle of May and the end of June, blaming the slow progress on the attorneys working on the deal. “It’s in the hands of the lawyers, and being one myself, I can say that always adds a significant de- lay to the process,” Caldwell said during the groundbreaking cer- emony for Newell Rubbermaid’s 407,000-square-foot facility at SCLA. “The business people want to move rail cars and they want to do it as quickly as possible,” Caldwell said. “We could go out there and start shoveling dirt today, but we pay the attorneys a lot of money to keep us out of trouble and protect the taxpayers’ interest.” Assuming the deal is inked, it will be one of the main attractions for new investment in the region “The big generator of new jobs will be the businesses that will lo- cate in our valley as a result of the new intermodal facility,” Roberts said, noting that efforts by the city and SCLA to attract industrial de- velopment over the past five years have been hindered by the absence of a rail facility. There are already signs that in- vestment is gaining momentum. Last month Stirling Capital In- vestment announced plans to build more than half a million square feet of industrial space at SCLA without waiting for a tenant to sign a lease, which could signify the beginning of a new trend in speculative indus- trial development. “Over the next 36 months you will see a great change in the land- scape as institutional investors be- gin planting stakes in the Victor Valley,” said Chuck Belden, senior director of the Ontario office of Cushman & Wakefield. “Development capital is like a herd of lemmings: When success- ful, others will quickly follow,” he added. The future of speculative indus- trial development in the High Desert will ultimately depend on the suc- cess of large speculative industrial BooM/B2 HENDERSON James Quigg / Staff Photographer Juan regalado, right and oscar Lopez mark chalk lines where walls will go on the new Newell rubbermaid distribution center under construction at ScLa. children gather eggs as parents look on at the easter egg hunt at Lions Park in apple Valley on Saturday. Staff photo by Claus Enevoldsen Easter excitement in A.V.
Transcript
By GRETCHEN LOSIStaff Writer
Previous Hesperia High School students simply didn’t get enough of the school during their high school years. At least
25 have returned to the campus and now call their teachers “colleagues.”
“I t ’s just home,” s tudent -tur ned-teacher Justin Bartle said. “But learning to call my old teachers by their first names was hard.”
Bartle g raduated from the
school and went on to get his teaching degree from California State University, San Bernardino. Now the student has become the teacher.
And he’s not alone.Principal Larry Porras said
that one of the criteria of a good high school is a high level of alumni that return to the school
to teach and work. With 25 alum-ni now on the payroll, the school must be doing something right.
And it’s a win-win situation, so Porras said he hopes they con-tinue to return.
“Students in this day and age are very aware if they are being sand-bagged. When they look at a kid, they can tell them from their
heart what it’s like to go through what they’re going through,” he said.
“T he beauty of that is i t establishes a connection of trust and understanding. Those are all positives that have a ripple effect across the campus.”
When Jennifer Campbell at-tended the school, she was Por-ras’ teacher-assistant. Now she’s a third-year art teacher in the same classroom where she took the class as a student.
TeacherS/B2
Three years and countingThe family of a Batavia, Ohio
soldier still holds onto hope their captured son will return 8High Desert
OBITUARIES 2 NEIGHBORS 3 OPINION 4-5 NEwS 6-9
SuNDAY, ApRIL 8,
2007
B1
Page edited by Justin D. Beckett
Jessica Lascano reads along with her class at hesperia high School.
hesperia high School art teacher Jennifer campbell teaches at her alma mater.
Familiar faces in familiar places
H e s p e r i a H i g h S c h o o l a l u m n i c o m e h o m e t o t e a c h i n c l a s s r o o m s o f t h e i r o w n
1993 hesperia high School graduate Mike heywood keeps an eye on his class.
hesperia high School teacher Stephanie Barden talks about her days as a student.
On the threshold of a boom
25 graduates now see former teachers as colleagues
14-year-old Victorville girl wins contest to sing anthem at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday
By RYAN ORRStaff Writer
VICTORVILLE — Alyssa Henderson of Victorville doesn’t get nervous, she gets excited.
Her nerves may be tested on Tuesday night, however, when she will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in front of thou-sands of baseball fans at Dodger Stadium.
Alyssa won a radio contest, “Oh Say, Can You Sing” against hundreds of statewide entries and was the only minor to be chosen
among the top 10 finalists.She sang an a cappella version of Whit-
ney Houston’s “I Will Al-ways Love You,” which got her into the top three spots. Then she sang the national anthem and won the contest.
Henderson is no stranger to the local spotlight. She won “High Desert Idol” in 2005, sang the national anthem at Mavericks Stadium and even performed at her sixth-grade teacher’s retirement party.
“This one really surprised me, but I’ll never be surprised again,” said
Alyssa’s mother, Karen Henderson.Alyssa even surprised herself. “I was the only minor there and ev-
ery single one of them did really good,” she said.
Karen and Alyssa were interviewed live on the radio by Rick Dees on Tues-day morning and Alyssa belted out her rendition of the national anthem.
“How many kids her age can say that they’ve done all of this?” said Karen.
The Dodgers are playing the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday and the game will be nationally televised. Dees will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
“I really don’t get nervous, I’m just super, super, super excited,” said Alyssa.
Oh say, she can sing ... in L.A.
Community Clean-Up Day coming to A.V.
APPLE VALLEY — The Town of Apple Valley is calling for volunteers for Community Clean-Up Day from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 14.
Community service organi-zations, schools, clubs and indi-vidual volunteers are invited to help clean up areas of town.
Volunteers get event T-shirts and plenty of water, lunch and the thousands of trash bags needed for the cleanup.
Volunteers must sign up in advance and then check in for assignments at Town Hall, 14955 Dale Evans Parkway.
To volunteer, call 240-7000, ext. 7071 or write [email protected] no later than Thursday.
Grand jury applications now available online
SAN BERNARDINO — The deadline to apply and be consid-ered for the 2007-08 grand jury is drawing near.
Successful applicants will serve as grand jurors for the pe-riod beginning July 1 and end-ing June 30, 2008. To be eligible for selection a person must be at least 18 years of age, a citizen of the United States and a resident of San Bernardino County.
Service as a grand juror involves an average of three to four full working days a week. Compensation is $25 a day plus meals and mileage associated with service.
Applications are available by calling (909) 387-4230 or may be downloaded at www.sbcounty.gov/grandjury.
Log on to send greetings to troops serving overseas
Citizens can send thank-you messages to troops abroad via the military Web site www.americasupportsyou.mil.
The site also has military news, video and musical tributes and upcoming military events.
Additionally, the United Ser-vices Organization is sponsor-ing a care-package program. The package costs $25 and the sender is able to write a per-sonal message or support state-ment to the service member receiving the package.
Packages include requested items such as phone cards, sunscreen, disposable cameras and toiletries.
Visit the USO Web site — www.operationusocarepackage.org — for more information.
I n B r I e f
“They all have something in common: They wanted to work with kids and work in education.”
LArry POrrAsHesperia High School Principal
— compiled from staff reports
Logistics development inches forward at SCLA as final details for future facilities await resolution
By MITCH DEACONStaff Writer
VICTORVILLE — In anticipation of an historic agreement between Victorville and BNSF railway, the Victor Valley stands on the thresh-old of an economic transformation from a bedroom community to a ma-jor logistics center.
But those looking for work in the future warehousing and distribution centers of Southern California Lo-gistics Airport will have to wait some time before the jobs materialize.
Victorville is still in negotiations
with BNSF to finalize the agreement while construction permits for the new facility are not expected to be issued until the end of the year, city officials said.
“The actual construction would require between one year and 18 months to build a facility of that size, so it will likely be at least two or two-and-a-half years before the project will be completed,” said John Roberts, Victorville city manager.
Victorville Mayor Terry Caldwell predicts final negotiations will be wrapped up sometime between the middle of May and the end of June, blaming the slow progress on the attorneys working on the deal.
“It’s in the hands of the lawyers, and being one myself, I can say that always adds a significant de-lay to the process,” Caldwell said during the groundbreaking cer-emony for Newell Rubbermaid’s
407,000-square-foot facility at SCLA.“The business people want to
move rail cars and they want to do it as quickly as possible,” Caldwell said. “We could go out there and start shoveling dirt today, but we pay the attorneys a lot of money to keep us out of trouble and protect the taxpayers’ interest.”
Assuming the deal is inked, it will be one of the main attractions for new investment in the region
“The big generator of new jobs will be the businesses that will lo-cate in our valley as a result of the new intermodal facility,” Roberts said, noting that efforts by the city and SCLA to attract industrial de-velopment over the past five years have been hindered by the absence of a rail facility.
There are already signs that in-vestment is gaining momentum.
Last month Stirling Capital In-
vestment announced plans to build more than half a million square feet of industrial space at SCLA without waiting for a tenant to sign a lease, which could signify the beginning of a new trend in speculative indus-trial development.
“Over the next 36 months you will see a great change in the land-scape as institutional investors be-gin planting stakes in the Victor Valley,” said Chuck Belden, senior director of the Ontario office of Cushman & Wakefield.
“Development capital is like a herd of lemmings: When success-ful, others will quickly follow,” he added.
The future of speculative indus-trial development in the High Desert will ultimately depend on the suc-cess of large speculative industrial
BooM/B2
HENDERSON
James Quigg / Staff Photographer Juan regalado, right and oscar Lopez mark chalk lines where walls will go on the new Newell rubbermaid distribution center under construction at ScLa.
children gather eggs as parents look on at the easter egg hunt at Lions Park in apple Valley on Saturday.
Staff photo by Claus Enevoldsen
Easter excitement in A.V.
buildings being erected along the Interstate 215 corridor in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
“There are several specula-tive facilities between 600,000 square feet and 1.7 million square feet under construction in the Inland Empire, and we are watching to see how quickly those facilities are absorbed and received by the market,” said
Jay Dick, senior vice president of CB Richard Ellis.
“The quicker they go, and the higher rents they get, the soon-er it will make sense to build speculative facilities like that up here,” Dick said.
Stirling Capital Investment plans to break ground in the com-ing weeks on the first of the specu-lative facilities planned for SCLA.
“To be successful in this mar-
ket we need to capture more than just the build-to-suit de-velopment. We need to be bold enough to put up speculative product,” said James Cochran, president and chief investment officer with DCT Industrial, a partner in the joint venture of Stirling Capital Investment.
She credits Porras and her art teacher Cheri Little for her return.
“She was an amazing teach-er. I asked her when I was a senior if I could teach the class a lesson, and she did,” Campbell said. “It wasn’t the greatest lesson but she told me to go to school and come back so that when she retired, I could have her job.”
And she did. Teacher Jacob Van Velzen
gets credit for Jessica Las-cano returning to the school where she now teaches special education.
“He’s a great teacher. He made me realize if he could change people I could do the same,” Lascano said.
While the majority of alum-ni are teachers, there’s also in-structional aids, secretaries and
campus assistants that returned to work at their alma mater.
“They all have something in common: They wanted to work with kids and work in educa-tion,” Porras said. “What better place than the place that fostered those feelings. We’re excited about them returning.”
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Navajo Rd./Bear Valley240-1144
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For More Information Please Call:(760) 240-8480 or (760) 956-9897
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Hesperia, beloved grandfather, husband, father, son, brother and uncle, died March 27, 2007. Cal died peacefully at home after can-cer and was surrounded by family and close friends.
Cal was born Feb. 25, 1940, in Mesilla Park, N.M., to Gladys May Morris and Hiram Gundy Morris. Cal grew up in Mesilla Park, N.M., and graduated from Las Cruces High in 1957.
He had a distinguished and enjoyable career with the Jeep Chrysler of Ontario where he worked as an assistant service manager from 1989 to 2007. Cal cherished many long-lasting friendships throughout his career with Jeep Chrysler of Ontario. Cal also enjoyed spending time fishing, watching movies and working on cars.
Cal is survived by his loving wife of 40 years, Judie Morris, daughter Rhonda Rettig, daughter Rachel Eiswert, son Calvin Bryan Morris and father Hiram Gundy Morris. The family would like to give special thanks to the hospice community for the extraordinary care given to Calvin.
Memorial services will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Victor Valley Mortuary, 15609 11th St. in Victorville.
O B I t u a r I e S
N A S S UA , B a h a m a s (AP) — Calvin Lockhart, a Bahamian-born actor who won acclaim for his capti-vating roles as underworld figures in the 1970s “blax-ploitation” film genre, has died, his wife Jennifer Miles-Lockhart said. He was 72.
Lockhart, who was laid to rest in Nassau on Satur-day, died of complications from a stroke on March 29, Miles-Lockhart said.
Born the youngest of eight children in 1934, Lockhart moved to New York City when he was a teenager to study en-gineering but quickly found his calling in the theater.
His first big screen role was in the 1967 film “Joanna,” about an interracial romance in London. Lockhart was then featured in the 1970 Ossie Da-vis-directed “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” in which he was celebrated for his portrayal of an unscrupulous preacher.
Lockhart wowed audiences with his role as a disc jockey-turned-sleuth in the 1972 blax-ploitation film “Melinda.” He also played the gangster char-acter Biggie Smalls in 1975’s “Let’s Do It Again.”
Lockhar t , an actor- in-residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-Upon-Avon in 1974, also appeared on the TV series “Dynasty” and had roles in Hollywood hits such as 1988’s “Coming to America,” starring comedian-actor Eddie Murphy.
Actor Calvin Lockhart dies at 72
Teachers: Many credit new colleagues for desire to teachFroM B1
Boom: Monitoring other facilities in Inland EmpireFroM B1
James Quigg / Staff Photographerhesperia high School art teacher Jennifer campbell paints at her former high school.
By JOHN FLESHERassociated Press Writer
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The governors of the eight Great Lakes states worked for four years to write a plan that would protect their abundant water from being piped south to regions where booming populations face dwindling water supplies.
But the sharpest attacks on the proposed regional compact are com-ing not from the distant Sun Belt but from within the Great Lakes states themselves as the plan is submitted to legislators for ratification.
Some communities in the eight states say the compact’s strict lim-its on water diversion could leave them high and dry. Critics fear a torrent of lawsuits.
And supporters say the whole deal could unravel over an Ohio lawmaker’s concerns about private property rights and insistence on rewriting provisions.
Backers are confident the plan adopted by the governors in 2005 will win needed approval by all eight states and Congress, but ac-knowledge it probably will take a few more years.
The longer the delay, they say, the greater the risk of losing con-trol over the lakes — which, with their connecting channels and the St. Lawrence River, hold near-ly 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water.
“It’s OK to take a year or two to sort this out, but then they’d better buckle down and get on the same page,” said Noah Hall, an environmental law professor at Wayne State University. “The real attacks are going to come in Congress, from states outside the region who don’t want to see the Great Lakes locked up.”
Skeptics doubt the supposed threat from the thirsty Sun Belt, saying shipping or piping water over such distances would have staggering costs and engineering challenges.
Still, “the time to put in place good water management is when you don’t have a problem,” said George Kuper, president of the Council of Great Lakes Industries, which represents companies such as Dow Chemical Co. and U.S. Steel Corp.
Despite the difficulties, gran-diose diversion schemes have surfaced, including one entrepre-neur’s 1998 proposal to send tank-ers of Lake Superior water to Asia.
That idea quickly evaporated. But it inspired the governors to devise the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, which treats the lakes and associated groundwater as one shared system.
It outlaws new or increased diversions, with limited excep-tions, and also requires each state to adopt a conservation plan and regulate its own water use in keeping with common standards.
The Canadian provinces of On-tario and Quebec weren’t includ-ed because U.S. states can’t make treaties with foreign nations, but they signed a similar, nonbinding agreement.
In February, Minnesota became first to ratify the compact, which also has cleared the Illinois House and is pending in the state Senate. Bills have been introduced in Mich-igan and Indiana but aren’t close to enactment. The matter is draw-ing little attention in Pennsylvania, where only the state’s northwest corner is inside the Great Lakes drainage basin.
Among the issues facing lawmak-ers is the status of communities in-
side a Great Lakes state but outside the lakes’ natural watershed.
Waukesha, Wis., a Milwaukee suburb, wants to draw water from Lake Michigan, only 15 miles away, but is just outside the lake’s drain-age area. The compact might allow the city to get its water because it’s within a county that straddles the basin boundary, but that would re-quire unanimous consent of the eight states’ governors.
The Waukesha County Cham-ber of Commerce wants the deal amended so one state can’t veto diversions to straddling counties. “Our argument is not to elimi-nate the compact. Our argument is to make sure it’s fair,” chamber spokesman Brian Nemoir said.
The pact appeared headed for ap-proval in Ohio last year. But state Sen. Tim Grendell raised enough concerns to stall it. The Cleveland Republican particularly distrusts
a declaration that Great Lakes wa-ter is held in public trust, saying that provision would void private ownership of farm ponds and even well water.
“The government is being en-couraged to take people’s property without paying for it. That is flat-out un-American,” Grendell said.
Compact supporters say it hon-ors existing rights. The public trust doctrine has been settled law since the late 1800s and balances needs of individuals and society, said Hall, the Wayne State professor.
The New York Senate balked last year at a provision allowing law-suits against government agencies over failure to enforce the pact’s standards. Backers say the compact grants no more access to the courts than other environmental laws, and allows states to handle local concerns under their own water-use rules.
Debate over water compact tests unity of Great Lakes region
By IBRAHIM BARZAKassociated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An Israeli helicopter launched an airstrike along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel early Satur-day, officials said, killing a Pal-estinian militant and wounding two others and further strain-ing a fragile cease-fire.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli troops clashed with Pal-estinian gunmen, wounding one of the area’s most want-ed and best-known militants. Zakariye Zubeydi, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, was moderately wounded in the shoulder, the group said.
The army said it carried out Saturday’s airstrike, near the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, after spotting the militants trying to plant a bomb. It said militants had planted explosives in the same area two days earlier.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small militant group, said the militants were “on a holy mis-sion” when they were hit by the Israeli force.
In a joint statement with the Islamic Jihad militant group, the DFLP said the dead militant blew himself up in an attempt to cause casualties among Israeli ground troops.
However, Palestinian medical officials said the nature of the man’s wounds indicated the air-strike was the cause of death.
The incident was the latest blow to the truce, reached last November between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Israel says militants have been exploiting the lull to smuggle explosives, missiles and other weapons into Gaza through tunnels from neigh-boring Egypt. During the truce, militants also have continued to fire rockets into Israel.
Airstrike kills militant in Gaza
AP Photo / Carlos OsorioPeople stroll on the beach at Marquette Beach State Park in Marquette, Mich. as governors of the Great Lakes states debated how to prevent outsiders from staking a claim to their precious water, advocates warned that without a deal, the region would be at the mercy of an increasingly powerful and thirsty Sun Belt.
