App saves heart attack victim; lost painting sold for $1.1M; dinos in gov. race
- Updated
Odd and interesting news from out of the West.
- Updated
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Weeks before Halloween, Scottsdale police are trying to track down a man who wore a zombie-clown type mask and carried a real hatchet while robbing a convenience store.
Police say the robber entered a Superpumper store in north Scottsdale around 3:30 a.m. Friday and demanded cash from the register.
The cashier complied and the suspect left the store.
But police say he re-entered the store seconds later, forced the cashier into the back office and stole cigarettes and merchandise before fleeing on foot.
They say store surveillance footage shows the robber wearing a rubber Halloween mask with gray hair and yellow teeth.
A police spokesman says there was nothing to indicate that the hatchet was not real.
Police describe the suspect as being about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds.
- By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press
- Updated
SEATTLE (AP) — If you're going to have a heart attack, right outside a hospital is not a bad place to do it.
And if 41 people within a 330-yard radius have a cellphone app alerting them to your distress, so much the better.
That's what happened in Seattle last week when Stephen DeMont collapsed at a bus stop in front of University of Washington Medical Center.
While a medical student rushed over and began chest compressions, a cardiac nurse just getting off her shift at the hospital was alerted by her phone, sprinted outside and assisted until paramedics arrived.
Five days later, DeMont, 60, is walking, smiling and talking about how the PulsePoint app helped save his life.
Seattle officials say the rescue shows the potential the free download has for connecting CPR-trained citizens with patients who urgently need their help. It's being used in 2,000 U.S. cities in 28 states.
"I put it on my phone yesterday," said DeMont's wife, Debi Quirk, a former registered nurse. "He would not be here as we see him today."
Seattle officials hope DeMont's story will help persuade thousands more people to sign up for notifications; so far, about 4,000 people in Seattle have downloaded PulsePoint since the city adopted it earlier this year with financial support from an employee charitable fund at Boeing. The goal is to have 15,000 using it.
Developed by a former fire chief in Northern California, Richard Price, the app works through a city's 911 system. When a call comes in, operators alert people within a certain radius that CPR assistance is needed, along with the location of the nearest portable defibrillator.
Some 34,000 off-duty professional and citizen responders around the country have downloaded it, Price said Wednesday, and they've been alerted to more than 13,000 cardiac events.
He came up with the idea in 2009, he said. He was in a restaurant when he heard sirens from his crews at the San Ramon Valley fire department. As he wondered where they were going, they arrived at the restaurant.
"The patient was unconscious, unresponsive. I was 20 feet away on the other side of the wall," Price said. "The whole time I was listening to that siren, I could have been making a difference."
It occurred to him that at any given time, two-thirds of his staff was off duty — in restaurants, out in the community. If there was a way to alert them to such emergencies by phone, it could save lives, Price said.
It's not clear how many lives have been saved thanks to the app. Patient confidentiality laws often prevent hospitals from disclosing a patient's outcome.
Madeline Dahl, a 23-year-old cardiac nurse at the University of Washington, said she downloaded the app about a month ago after reading a news story that mentioned it. Last Friday morning was the first time she'd ever received an alert. She bolted down a couple flights of stairs and ran outside into the rain, where she found 27-year-old medical student Zach Forcade performing chest compressions.
Forcade had been on his way into the hospital for a lecture when he saw DeMont, who was just getting off his bicycle, slump over.
"I hadn't responded to a cardiac arrest before," Forcade said. "I thought, 'Did he just fall?' ... Even being in the medical field, I thought, 'Oh, man, who's going to step up?'"
He told another passerby to call 911, which triggered an alert sent out to 41 responders nearby. It was reassuring when Dahl arrived to provide any needed backup, help check for a pulse and otherwise make sure Forcade was responding correctly, he said.
For DeMont, it was about more than just being lucky. A contract technical writer at Expedia, he said he has a love-hate relationship with technology — "You see all these things about people falling off cliffs texting, people are so disconnected" — but the response from Forcade, Dahl and the use of PulsePoint reaffirmed his belief in its power to make a positive difference.
"There's hope," DeMont said.
He's due to have a defibrillator implanted on Thursday. Now he just has to figure out how to pay the $100,000 tab without insurance.
For that, his family has turned to a program with a different app: GoFundMe.
___
Follow Johnson at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle
- Updated
SEATAC, Wash. (AP) — Airport officials say a Southwest Airlines flight headed to Phoenix returned to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport shortly after takeoff because of a cracked windshield.
The Seattle Times reports (https://goo.gl/zb65lj ) the Boeing 737-700 left the Sea-Tac airport at 1:37 p.m. and landed at 2:23 p.m.
Airport spokesman Perry Cooper says the plane landed safety and passengers exited.
Port of Seattle fire crews reported that the windshield had cracked, Cooper said.
Cooper says the cause has not been determined but a bird strike has been ruled out.
A Southwest spokesman told the newspaper in an email that the plane returned as a safety precaution.
___
Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com
- By DAN ELLIOTT Associated Press
- Updated
DENVER (AP) — Government investigators say they're looking into an allegation that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employees in Colorado used unofficial wait lists that could conceal how long veterans wait for health care.
The VA's internal watchdog announced an audit Wednesday in a letter to Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cory Gardner of Colorado. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.
Johnson and Gardner asked for the inquiry after a whistleblower told them about the alleged lists.
The inquiry could broaden a nationwide scandal over the use of unofficial or secret lists to hide lengthy delays in care for veterans. Forty veterans died while waiting for care at a Phoenix VA hospital.
The scandal led Congress to allow veterans to seek private care at government expense if they've waited 30 days.
- By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press
- Updated
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The state Commission on Sentencing is recommending lawmakers close a loophole in child sex abuse sentencing laws that allowed an eastern Montana man to be put on probation after pleading guilty to raping his 12-year-old daughter.
State prosecutor Dan Guzynski proposed Wednesday eliminating an exception to a mandatory minimum 25-year prison sentence for offenders convicted of rape, incest or sexual abuse if the victim is age 12 or younger.
Under the current exception, an offender can receive a lesser sentence if a psychosexual evaluation determines the offender can be treated in their community, and the sentence protects the victim and society. Guzynski argued it does not make sense that a community could be safer with a child rapist present.
"This legislation is not a knee-jerk reaction to what happened in Glasgow," Guzynski told committee members, but the recent case did serve as an example of a lack of consistency in sentencing.
He noted a man he prosecuted in Great Falls last year received the mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years without parole after being convicted of raping his 10-year-old daughter.
"Both evaluators said they were treatable in their community, both were sentenced under the very same law, both raped their children," he said. "One is going to spend the next 25 years in prison and one is out on probation."
The Glasgow case led to a social media backlash against sentencing Judge John McKeon.
An online petition calling for his impeachment had gathered nearly 31,000 signatures in less than a week. McKeon issued a statement last week defending his Oct. 4 sentencing under the exception and noted that the girl's mother and grandmother supported keeping the man in the community.
Guzynski's recommendation was included in a bill being forwarded to the Legislature that proposes revisions to several sentencing laws.
The state Commission on Sentencing — which included legislators, judges and others — considered several recommendations made by the Council of State Government's Justice Center after it reviewed Montana's criminal justice system with an eye toward reducing costs and recidivism.
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah prosecutors have filed charges against a juvenile in the deaths of two 13-year-old Park City boys that may be connected to a new synthetic opioid drug available online.
Park City Police Chief Wade Carpenter announced the charges in a statement Wednesday. Search warrants show police have been investigating reports that other teens in Park City had ordered online the drug U-47700, sometimes known as "pink."
Carpenter did not say what charges have been filed.
Authorities are still waiting on toxicology results to determine exactly how the teens died. Carpenter has said that messages on the teens' social media accounts pointed to the drug.
Police say U-47700 is one of several new drugs being manufactured overseas and too new to immediately be listed as illegal substances in the U.S.
- By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press
- Updated
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A northern Idaho prosecutor has asked the state Attorney General to look into complaints of voter intimidation and interference.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane said Wednesday that the office is currently reviewing the case submitted by the Bonner County prosecutor's office and could not yet comment.
The Idaho Democratic Party announced earlier this month that it had pulled a volunteer from campaign work in District 1. The district includes Bonner and Boundary counties, where many residents support far-right Republican candidates.
"Most of us in Idaho will go to the polls in November without any fear lurking about this basic act of participating and growing our democracy. But not all," Idaho Democratic Chairman Bert Marley said in a statement this week.
According to police reports, the volunteer was approached by a man wearing a GOP Rep. Heather Scott hat who told his that he "better watch his back." Later, the volunteer found a group of people taking pictures of his vehicle while wearing GOP Rep. Heather Scott campaign hats and buttons in a grocery store parking lot in late September.
Scott did not return requests for comment.
Several days later, that same volunteer called the Bonner County sheriff's office to alert them that a truck had pulled into his driveway at his rural residence in the middle of the night to take photos of his vehicle.
Sgt. Aaron Flynn, who responded to the volunteer's call, wrote that he told the volunteer's feeling of being targeted were being taken seriously and requested extra patrols for the area. In a statement, the volunteer said that he doubted his report would do any good because Flynn told him that "Democrat is not a protected class."
Scott running for her second term against Democratic challenger Kate McAlister.
- Updated
SEATTLE (AP) — Teachers, students and parents across Seattle public schools wore "Black Lives Matter" T-shirts Wednesday to promote racial equity in schools.
Event organizers say many educators in Washington's largest school district are voluntarily using the day to lead discussions about institutional racism, teach about black history and hold rallies.
Organizer Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Garfield High School, said the day of action also offers opportunities to address racial inequities in Seattle schools.
About 53 percent of the district's 53,000 students are non-white, with blacks making up the largest minority group at 16 percent.
"It's also important to understand that for black lives to matter, black education has to matter," Hagopian told KUOW-FM (https://goo.gl/X8gK1H). "This movement is also broader than police accountability. In a school system as dramatically unequal as ours, it's incumbent upon educators and families to stand up and say something about this."
About 2,000 "Black Lives Matter" T-shirts quickly sold out, and hundreds more were printed, he said. Some people posted photos on social media Wednesday showing them wearing those shirts or wearing their own spray-painted ones.
Teachers and students stood in front of Garfield High School in Seattle's Central District, a historically black neighborhood, chanting "black lives matter," holding signs and speeches.
"Just to see our peers and teachers out here saying, 'We support you in the movement you're part of,' it's amazing," said Felicia Bazie, a senior and student-body president at Garfield.
Blue Lives Matter, a group of active and retired law enforcement officers, has criticized the action as inappropriate, saying public employees shouldn't be pushing the "political message."
The 5,000-member union representing Seattle educators, however, is backing it. "Eliminating the opportunity gap and providing an equitable quality public education is at the forefront of our mission," the Seattle Education Association said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the school district is in the middle of a weeklong campaign to close racial disparities in achievement, discipline and other areas.
"Eliminating the opportunity gaps really is the issue of our time," Superintendent Larry Nyland said in a statement last week. "We have not as a district or as a nation done well at serving all of our students of color or serving all of our students that quality for free and reduced and lunch."
African-American students were suspended or expelled at a rate four times higher than white students in the 2013-2014 school year, according to the district. Students of color received a high school diploma at a significantly lower rate than their white counterparts.
Victoria Nunes and her 6-year-old daughter joined several dozen others in wearing Black Lives Matter shirts to Queen Anne Elementary School on Wednesday.
"I feel like it's my duty as a parent of a student in public schools, and someone who lives life with empathy, to get involved," she said in an interview. "It's a conscious-raising event. Schools are part of society. This is what's happening in society, and it deserves and demands our attention."
- Updated
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — The police department in a polygamous community along the Utah-Arizona border is facing new claims of discrimination in a lawsuit filed by two men arrested on allegations of trespassing at a former city zoo.
The men said in court documents that they were trying to take court-ordered possession of the property in Colorado City, Arizona, but the town marshals sided with a man who the plaintiffs say was squatting there, the Spectrum newspaper in St. George, Utah, reported (http://bit.ly/2enTRur).
Andrew Chatwin and Patrick Pipkin said they were arrested again a few days later in October 2015 after calling to report that people who had set up an herb growing operation were removing things from the property. Chatwin, Pipkin, and lease holder Claude Seth Cooke, the operator of business enterprise Prairie Farms, claim they were granted authorization to work on the property by the owner, a once-communal trust known as the United Effort Plan, the Spectrum reported.
The arrests came because they aren't members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the men argued in the lawsuit filed last week. "The arrests of Chatwin and Pipkin and the charges made against them were illegal, in clear violation of Arizona law and were clearly discriminatory," the lawsuit states.
Though the charges were later dismissed, Chatwin and Pipkin said the October 2015 arrests violated their constitutional rights, harmed their reputations and cost them money.
A lawyer for the marshals disputed their account, saying legal ownership of the property was unclear amid a long-running court case over property once held communally by the sect and later taken over by the state of Utah.
Attorney Blake Hamilton told the Associated Press and the men were arrested because they refused to leave, not over religion. "There was no arrest because they weren't FLDS, they were arrested because they weren't obeying the lawful commands of the officers," he said.
The lawsuit comes as federal prosecutors in Arizona argue the marshals should be disbanded after a jury found the sister towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic government services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups.
A hearing on in that case is set for Monday.
Justice officials contend the slate needs to be wiped clean because of the deep-rooted control of the town marshals by leaders of a polygamous sect run by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs.
The towns fiercely oppose the idea of disbanding the department, saying problems at the agency don't require such a drastic step.
They say other departments targeted in federal civil rights investigations haven't faced disbandment. The towns say they can resolve their problems through policy changes and employee training and should be able to demonstrate their compliance through reports and documents.
- Updated
ELKHART, Ind. (AP) — A painting by French artist William Adolphe Bouguereau that had been missing for decades has sold at auction for $1.1 million.
Cincinnati, Ohio-based Cowan's Auctions announced the painting entitled "Sunbeam" was bought Saturday by a bidder who requested anonymity.
Auction house owner Wes Cowan said the whereabouts of the painting had been unknown until, acting on a tip, he found it hanging in the parlor of a modest clapboard home. The portrait of a young girl standing in a garden, completed in 1899, had been sold in 1909 to Charles Gerald Conn of Elkhart, founder of the C.G. Conn musical instrument company.
Cowan estimated last month the painting could sell for between $300,000 and $500,000. Bidding opened Saturday at $250,000.
He said the seller of the painting also requested anonymity.
- Updated
PLAIN CITY, Utah (AP) — An 18-year-old man has been cited after he dressed up as a clown with a sword to play a prank on his friends.
The Standard-Examiner reports (http://bit.ly/2e17gsM ) that Weber County authorities were called Tuesday after multiple people saw a clown holding what appeared to be a machete near Plain City Elementary School.
Weber County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Matt Jensen says when deputies responded they found the 18-year-old dressed as a clown and carrying a plastic sword. He told police he was trying to prank his friends. At one point he approached a vehicle he incorrectly thought contained his friends, which Jensen says caused alarm for those inside the truck.
Jensen says when deputies responded to the incident, the man told them he realized the prank wasn't a smart idea.
___
Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Weeks before Halloween, Scottsdale police are trying to track down a man who wore a zombie-clown type mask and carried a real hatchet while robbing a convenience store.
Police say the robber entered a Superpumper store in north Scottsdale around 3:30 a.m. Friday and demanded cash from the register.
The cashier complied and the suspect left the store.
But police say he re-entered the store seconds later, forced the cashier into the back office and stole cigarettes and merchandise before fleeing on foot.
They say store surveillance footage shows the robber wearing a rubber Halloween mask with gray hair and yellow teeth.
A police spokesman says there was nothing to indicate that the hatchet was not real.
Police describe the suspect as being about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds.
- By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — If you're going to have a heart attack, right outside a hospital is not a bad place to do it.
And if 41 people within a 330-yard radius have a cellphone app alerting them to your distress, so much the better.
That's what happened in Seattle last week when Stephen DeMont collapsed at a bus stop in front of University of Washington Medical Center.
While a medical student rushed over and began chest compressions, a cardiac nurse just getting off her shift at the hospital was alerted by her phone, sprinted outside and assisted until paramedics arrived.
Five days later, DeMont, 60, is walking, smiling and talking about how the PulsePoint app helped save his life.
Seattle officials say the rescue shows the potential the free download has for connecting CPR-trained citizens with patients who urgently need their help. It's being used in 2,000 U.S. cities in 28 states.
"I put it on my phone yesterday," said DeMont's wife, Debi Quirk, a former registered nurse. "He would not be here as we see him today."
Seattle officials hope DeMont's story will help persuade thousands more people to sign up for notifications; so far, about 4,000 people in Seattle have downloaded PulsePoint since the city adopted it earlier this year with financial support from an employee charitable fund at Boeing. The goal is to have 15,000 using it.
Developed by a former fire chief in Northern California, Richard Price, the app works through a city's 911 system. When a call comes in, operators alert people within a certain radius that CPR assistance is needed, along with the location of the nearest portable defibrillator.
Some 34,000 off-duty professional and citizen responders around the country have downloaded it, Price said Wednesday, and they've been alerted to more than 13,000 cardiac events.
He came up with the idea in 2009, he said. He was in a restaurant when he heard sirens from his crews at the San Ramon Valley fire department. As he wondered where they were going, they arrived at the restaurant.
"The patient was unconscious, unresponsive. I was 20 feet away on the other side of the wall," Price said. "The whole time I was listening to that siren, I could have been making a difference."
It occurred to him that at any given time, two-thirds of his staff was off duty — in restaurants, out in the community. If there was a way to alert them to such emergencies by phone, it could save lives, Price said.
It's not clear how many lives have been saved thanks to the app. Patient confidentiality laws often prevent hospitals from disclosing a patient's outcome.
Madeline Dahl, a 23-year-old cardiac nurse at the University of Washington, said she downloaded the app about a month ago after reading a news story that mentioned it. Last Friday morning was the first time she'd ever received an alert. She bolted down a couple flights of stairs and ran outside into the rain, where she found 27-year-old medical student Zach Forcade performing chest compressions.
Forcade had been on his way into the hospital for a lecture when he saw DeMont, who was just getting off his bicycle, slump over.
"I hadn't responded to a cardiac arrest before," Forcade said. "I thought, 'Did he just fall?' ... Even being in the medical field, I thought, 'Oh, man, who's going to step up?'"
He told another passerby to call 911, which triggered an alert sent out to 41 responders nearby. It was reassuring when Dahl arrived to provide any needed backup, help check for a pulse and otherwise make sure Forcade was responding correctly, he said.
For DeMont, it was about more than just being lucky. A contract technical writer at Expedia, he said he has a love-hate relationship with technology — "You see all these things about people falling off cliffs texting, people are so disconnected" — but the response from Forcade, Dahl and the use of PulsePoint reaffirmed his belief in its power to make a positive difference.
"There's hope," DeMont said.
He's due to have a defibrillator implanted on Thursday. Now he just has to figure out how to pay the $100,000 tab without insurance.
For that, his family has turned to a program with a different app: GoFundMe.
___
Follow Johnson at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle
SEATAC, Wash. (AP) — Airport officials say a Southwest Airlines flight headed to Phoenix returned to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport shortly after takeoff because of a cracked windshield.
The Seattle Times reports (https://goo.gl/zb65lj ) the Boeing 737-700 left the Sea-Tac airport at 1:37 p.m. and landed at 2:23 p.m.
Airport spokesman Perry Cooper says the plane landed safety and passengers exited.
Port of Seattle fire crews reported that the windshield had cracked, Cooper said.
Cooper says the cause has not been determined but a bird strike has been ruled out.
A Southwest spokesman told the newspaper in an email that the plane returned as a safety precaution.
___
Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com
- By DAN ELLIOTT Associated Press
DENVER (AP) — Government investigators say they're looking into an allegation that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employees in Colorado used unofficial wait lists that could conceal how long veterans wait for health care.
The VA's internal watchdog announced an audit Wednesday in a letter to Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cory Gardner of Colorado. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.
Johnson and Gardner asked for the inquiry after a whistleblower told them about the alleged lists.
The inquiry could broaden a nationwide scandal over the use of unofficial or secret lists to hide lengthy delays in care for veterans. Forty veterans died while waiting for care at a Phoenix VA hospital.
The scandal led Congress to allow veterans to seek private care at government expense if they've waited 30 days.
- By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The state Commission on Sentencing is recommending lawmakers close a loophole in child sex abuse sentencing laws that allowed an eastern Montana man to be put on probation after pleading guilty to raping his 12-year-old daughter.
State prosecutor Dan Guzynski proposed Wednesday eliminating an exception to a mandatory minimum 25-year prison sentence for offenders convicted of rape, incest or sexual abuse if the victim is age 12 or younger.
Under the current exception, an offender can receive a lesser sentence if a psychosexual evaluation determines the offender can be treated in their community, and the sentence protects the victim and society. Guzynski argued it does not make sense that a community could be safer with a child rapist present.
"This legislation is not a knee-jerk reaction to what happened in Glasgow," Guzynski told committee members, but the recent case did serve as an example of a lack of consistency in sentencing.
He noted a man he prosecuted in Great Falls last year received the mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years without parole after being convicted of raping his 10-year-old daughter.
"Both evaluators said they were treatable in their community, both were sentenced under the very same law, both raped their children," he said. "One is going to spend the next 25 years in prison and one is out on probation."
The Glasgow case led to a social media backlash against sentencing Judge John McKeon.
An online petition calling for his impeachment had gathered nearly 31,000 signatures in less than a week. McKeon issued a statement last week defending his Oct. 4 sentencing under the exception and noted that the girl's mother and grandmother supported keeping the man in the community.
Guzynski's recommendation was included in a bill being forwarded to the Legislature that proposes revisions to several sentencing laws.
The state Commission on Sentencing — which included legislators, judges and others — considered several recommendations made by the Council of State Government's Justice Center after it reviewed Montana's criminal justice system with an eye toward reducing costs and recidivism.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah prosecutors have filed charges against a juvenile in the deaths of two 13-year-old Park City boys that may be connected to a new synthetic opioid drug available online.
Park City Police Chief Wade Carpenter announced the charges in a statement Wednesday. Search warrants show police have been investigating reports that other teens in Park City had ordered online the drug U-47700, sometimes known as "pink."
Carpenter did not say what charges have been filed.
Authorities are still waiting on toxicology results to determine exactly how the teens died. Carpenter has said that messages on the teens' social media accounts pointed to the drug.
Police say U-47700 is one of several new drugs being manufactured overseas and too new to immediately be listed as illegal substances in the U.S.
- By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A northern Idaho prosecutor has asked the state Attorney General to look into complaints of voter intimidation and interference.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane said Wednesday that the office is currently reviewing the case submitted by the Bonner County prosecutor's office and could not yet comment.
The Idaho Democratic Party announced earlier this month that it had pulled a volunteer from campaign work in District 1. The district includes Bonner and Boundary counties, where many residents support far-right Republican candidates.
"Most of us in Idaho will go to the polls in November without any fear lurking about this basic act of participating and growing our democracy. But not all," Idaho Democratic Chairman Bert Marley said in a statement this week.
According to police reports, the volunteer was approached by a man wearing a GOP Rep. Heather Scott hat who told his that he "better watch his back." Later, the volunteer found a group of people taking pictures of his vehicle while wearing GOP Rep. Heather Scott campaign hats and buttons in a grocery store parking lot in late September.
Scott did not return requests for comment.
Several days later, that same volunteer called the Bonner County sheriff's office to alert them that a truck had pulled into his driveway at his rural residence in the middle of the night to take photos of his vehicle.
Sgt. Aaron Flynn, who responded to the volunteer's call, wrote that he told the volunteer's feeling of being targeted were being taken seriously and requested extra patrols for the area. In a statement, the volunteer said that he doubted his report would do any good because Flynn told him that "Democrat is not a protected class."
Scott running for her second term against Democratic challenger Kate McAlister.
SEATTLE (AP) — Teachers, students and parents across Seattle public schools wore "Black Lives Matter" T-shirts Wednesday to promote racial equity in schools.
Event organizers say many educators in Washington's largest school district are voluntarily using the day to lead discussions about institutional racism, teach about black history and hold rallies.
Organizer Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Garfield High School, said the day of action also offers opportunities to address racial inequities in Seattle schools.
About 53 percent of the district's 53,000 students are non-white, with blacks making up the largest minority group at 16 percent.
"It's also important to understand that for black lives to matter, black education has to matter," Hagopian told KUOW-FM (https://goo.gl/X8gK1H). "This movement is also broader than police accountability. In a school system as dramatically unequal as ours, it's incumbent upon educators and families to stand up and say something about this."
About 2,000 "Black Lives Matter" T-shirts quickly sold out, and hundreds more were printed, he said. Some people posted photos on social media Wednesday showing them wearing those shirts or wearing their own spray-painted ones.
Teachers and students stood in front of Garfield High School in Seattle's Central District, a historically black neighborhood, chanting "black lives matter," holding signs and speeches.
"Just to see our peers and teachers out here saying, 'We support you in the movement you're part of,' it's amazing," said Felicia Bazie, a senior and student-body president at Garfield.
Blue Lives Matter, a group of active and retired law enforcement officers, has criticized the action as inappropriate, saying public employees shouldn't be pushing the "political message."
The 5,000-member union representing Seattle educators, however, is backing it. "Eliminating the opportunity gap and providing an equitable quality public education is at the forefront of our mission," the Seattle Education Association said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the school district is in the middle of a weeklong campaign to close racial disparities in achievement, discipline and other areas.
"Eliminating the opportunity gaps really is the issue of our time," Superintendent Larry Nyland said in a statement last week. "We have not as a district or as a nation done well at serving all of our students of color or serving all of our students that quality for free and reduced and lunch."
African-American students were suspended or expelled at a rate four times higher than white students in the 2013-2014 school year, according to the district. Students of color received a high school diploma at a significantly lower rate than their white counterparts.
Victoria Nunes and her 6-year-old daughter joined several dozen others in wearing Black Lives Matter shirts to Queen Anne Elementary School on Wednesday.
"I feel like it's my duty as a parent of a student in public schools, and someone who lives life with empathy, to get involved," she said in an interview. "It's a conscious-raising event. Schools are part of society. This is what's happening in society, and it deserves and demands our attention."
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — The police department in a polygamous community along the Utah-Arizona border is facing new claims of discrimination in a lawsuit filed by two men arrested on allegations of trespassing at a former city zoo.
The men said in court documents that they were trying to take court-ordered possession of the property in Colorado City, Arizona, but the town marshals sided with a man who the plaintiffs say was squatting there, the Spectrum newspaper in St. George, Utah, reported (http://bit.ly/2enTRur).
Andrew Chatwin and Patrick Pipkin said they were arrested again a few days later in October 2015 after calling to report that people who had set up an herb growing operation were removing things from the property. Chatwin, Pipkin, and lease holder Claude Seth Cooke, the operator of business enterprise Prairie Farms, claim they were granted authorization to work on the property by the owner, a once-communal trust known as the United Effort Plan, the Spectrum reported.
The arrests came because they aren't members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the men argued in the lawsuit filed last week. "The arrests of Chatwin and Pipkin and the charges made against them were illegal, in clear violation of Arizona law and were clearly discriminatory," the lawsuit states.
Though the charges were later dismissed, Chatwin and Pipkin said the October 2015 arrests violated their constitutional rights, harmed their reputations and cost them money.
A lawyer for the marshals disputed their account, saying legal ownership of the property was unclear amid a long-running court case over property once held communally by the sect and later taken over by the state of Utah.
Attorney Blake Hamilton told the Associated Press and the men were arrested because they refused to leave, not over religion. "There was no arrest because they weren't FLDS, they were arrested because they weren't obeying the lawful commands of the officers," he said.
The lawsuit comes as federal prosecutors in Arizona argue the marshals should be disbanded after a jury found the sister towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic government services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups.
A hearing on in that case is set for Monday.
Justice officials contend the slate needs to be wiped clean because of the deep-rooted control of the town marshals by leaders of a polygamous sect run by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs.
The towns fiercely oppose the idea of disbanding the department, saying problems at the agency don't require such a drastic step.
They say other departments targeted in federal civil rights investigations haven't faced disbandment. The towns say they can resolve their problems through policy changes and employee training and should be able to demonstrate their compliance through reports and documents.
ELKHART, Ind. (AP) — A painting by French artist William Adolphe Bouguereau that had been missing for decades has sold at auction for $1.1 million.
Cincinnati, Ohio-based Cowan's Auctions announced the painting entitled "Sunbeam" was bought Saturday by a bidder who requested anonymity.
Auction house owner Wes Cowan said the whereabouts of the painting had been unknown until, acting on a tip, he found it hanging in the parlor of a modest clapboard home. The portrait of a young girl standing in a garden, completed in 1899, had been sold in 1909 to Charles Gerald Conn of Elkhart, founder of the C.G. Conn musical instrument company.
Cowan estimated last month the painting could sell for between $300,000 and $500,000. Bidding opened Saturday at $250,000.
He said the seller of the painting also requested anonymity.
PLAIN CITY, Utah (AP) — An 18-year-old man has been cited after he dressed up as a clown with a sword to play a prank on his friends.
The Standard-Examiner reports (http://bit.ly/2e17gsM ) that Weber County authorities were called Tuesday after multiple people saw a clown holding what appeared to be a machete near Plain City Elementary School.
Weber County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Matt Jensen says when deputies responded they found the 18-year-old dressed as a clown and carrying a plastic sword. He told police he was trying to prank his friends. At one point he approached a vehicle he incorrectly thought contained his friends, which Jensen says caused alarm for those inside the truck.
Jensen says when deputies responded to the incident, the man told them he realized the prank wasn't a smart idea.
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Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net
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