iTune card scams; Redford, Fonda team up; woman sues city over flasher
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Odd and interesting news from the West.
- By Mark Thiessen The Associated Press
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NOME, Alaska — The giant luxury cruise liner was anchored just off Nome, too hulking to use the Bering Sea community’s docks on its inaugural visit.
Instead, its more than 900 passengers piled into small transport boats and motored to shore, where they snapped photos of wild musk oxen, lifted glasses in the town’s colorful bars and nibbled blueberry pie while admiring Alaska Native dancers at Nome’s summer celebration.
The Crystal Serenity’s visit to Alaska’s western coast is historic.
At nearly three football fields long and 13 stories tall, the cruise ship is the largest ever to traverse the Northwest Passage, where its well-heeled guests glimpsed polar bears, kayaked along Canada’s north shore, landed on pristine beaches and hiked where few have stepped.
Some remote villages along the way are seeing dollar signs, while environmentalists are seeing doom. They say the voyage represents global warming and man’s destruction of the Earth.
The terrible irony with the Crystal Serenity’s voyage is that it’s taking place only because of climate change and the melting Arctic, said Michael Byers, a professor in the political science department at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The Northwest Passage, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, has long been choked off by ice.
But melting brought on by climate change is allowing passengers to cruise up the Bering Strait and then head east toward Greenland over the Arctic Ocean before docking in New York City.
“And yet, by actually taking advantage of climate change, it’s contributing to the problem because the ship has a very large carbon footprint of its own,” Byers said.
The cruise ship left Seward, on the Kenai Peninsula Aug. 16 with about 900 guests and 600 crewmembers on board. During its monthlong journey to New York, it visited towns and villages in western and northern Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the eastern seaboard.
Smaller cruise ships, those that hold about 200 people, routinely make a port call in Nome and continue through the passage, but this ship is different.
“This is the game-changer,” Nome Mayor Richard Beneville said. “This is the one that’s on everyone’s lips.”
Nome spared nothing to make sure tourists off the high-end cruise liner — tickets costs more than $20,000 per person, with a penthouse starting at about six times that — felt at home.
The guests came to town in waves so they didn’t overwhelm the available services in Nome, population about 3,800.
They arrived at the small harbor dock and loaded into vans or school buses for their adventures, which included getting a gander at a herd of wild musk oxen that had taken up residence just outside town.
Other activities were hiking and birding tours and helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft flights. Organizers even rescheduled the annual Blueberry Festival so visitors could enjoy a $5 piece of pie while watching traditional Eskimo dancers or browsing tables of seal skin gloves and wallets made by Alaska Native artists. The event took place a block from where the world’s most famous sled-dog race, the Iditarod, ends every March.
“Being at this festival here, the indigenous families that are here, I mean they are so proud of what they have, their handcrafts, their dancing, their music.
“They just love it, even with the hardships they have to endure, the prices they have to endure,” said Floridian Bob Lentz, who was traveling with his wife, Linda.
Charlie and Joan Davis of San Francisco signed up for the cruise within the first hour it was offered three years ago.
“We’ve been around the world many times, and this is someplace we’ve never been to, that’s somewhat unknown,” Charlie Davis said. “You know, just an adventure.”
They weren’t alone in wanting to be part of the historic cruise.
“This is the longest single cruise we have ever made, and it is the most expensive cruise we’ve ever made because it’s many days, and it’s very expensive to operate up here,” said the ship’s captain, Birger Vorland.
“And it’s the one that sold out the fastest; 48 hours, it was basically gone.”
This cruise was three years in the making, and just about everything is unique to the trip, said John Stoll, a Crystal vice president who organized it.
The Serenity was fitted with special equipment to operate in the Arctic, including an ice-navigation satellite system. Its operators even chartered cargo flights to northern communities to gather fresh perishables for the vessel’s five-star restaurants.
“The planning and the logistics that has gone into this ship has been nothing short of amazing,” Stoll said.
The cruise company is planning another Alaska-to-New York City voyage next August, catering to travelers like the Lentzes.
“We’re going off on a wildlife adventure right now, and that, to me, is what it’s all about in our twilight years — kind of experiencing things before crazy humans destroy it,” Bob Lentz said.
- By MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Cheap liquor, wine and beer have long been best-sellers among Utah alcohol drinkers, but new numbers from Utah's tightly-controlled liquor system show local craft brews, trendy box wines and flavored whiskies are also popular choices in a largely teetotaler state.
Utah, one of 11 states that control retail sales of liquor, requires residents to purchase products with more than 4 percent alcohol by volume at one of 44 state-run stores or more than 100 privately-run outlets at places like ski-resorts with government contracts.
Even though a large portion of the Utah's residents and lawmakers are members of the Mormon church, which teachers its member to avoid alcohol, liquor is big business for the state, generating about $400 million in annual sales.
For those who do drink, tastes run from low-cost beers and sparkling wines to trendy flavored whiskeys and eco-friendly boxed wines, according to data from Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
A look at the most popular choices from July 2015 through June 2016:
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SPIRITS
Cheaper vodka and whiskies that taste like cinnamon or apple were top choices for Utah drinkers. Flavored vodkas, such as those that taste like cookies and cream or whipped cream, had been trendy in years past but are now among the worst sellers.
Barton Vodka was the top selling spirit. Three different sizes of the product, costing about $12 or less, made the state's top 10 list. A combined 583,881 bottles were sold for about $4.3 million.
Fireball Cinnamon whiskey also a top seller in terms of bottles sold and dollars earned — with 118,199 bottles purchased. That's about $1.9 million in sales.
Rob Southworth, a program specialist with the beverage control agency, said flavored whiskeys are trendy around the country and Fireball was one of the earliest versions. It's been popular enough to be mentioned in several country songs.
Other top dollar earners were Jack Daniels Black Label whiskey, Smirnoff vodka, and Patron Silver Tequila, each selling $1.9 million or more.
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WINE
The wine Utah purchased more than any other was Cooks Brut Sparkling Wine, a cheap champagne alternative that costs about $8. About 67,000 bottles were sold.
The top dollar-earning wine was Kendall Jackson Chardonnay, which sold just over 56,000 bottles for about $927,000. That averages about $15 a bottle.
It was followed by Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label, a $56 bottle of champagne.
A number of other top sellers in terms of dollars and bottles sold were boxed wines — both red and white — with ranging from under $5 to about $20 for a small box.
Southworth said box wines have always been top sellers because of the relatively low cost, but they're becoming trendy and new, higher-end versions are selling well.
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BEER
Utah bought more Icehouse beer, brewed by MillerCoors, than any other kind of beer or cider, with about 1.1 million units sold.
But the second most popular choice was a local craft brew, the Hop Rising Double IPA from Salt Lake City-based brewery Squatters. About 882,000 bottles were sold. It was also the top-dollar earning beer. The canned version was another popular choice.
Two other Utah breweries, Wasatch and Red Rock, made the top 10 lists.
"Local is pretty hot right now in all markets, especially craft beers," Southworth said.
Southworth said another top seller, Angry Orchard's Crisp Apple hard cider, is not only another example of a popular-apple flavored alcohol, but it's a favorite choice among people who are trying to find a gluten-free alcoholic beverage.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California schools agreed to ensure language education for 1.4 million students who are designated as English learners under a federal settlement announced Friday.
The state Department of Education and Board of Education agreed to new training and monitoring procedures to make sure that language services to English Learner-designated students meet requirements of the federal Equal Educational Opportunities Act, according to an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.
The state, which cooperated with the Justice Department, had denied violations and didn't acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement.
Messages left for the Department of Education were not immediately returned.
The Justice Department said last year that California had failed to deal with reports from its public schools that indicated more than 20,000 of the estimated 1.4 million English Learner students hadn't received proper instruction in the English language and other subjects. The allegations covered school periods dating back to the 2007-2008 school year.
"We applaud the state of California for working cooperatively with the Justice Department to ensure that all English Learner students can access the language services they need to learn," Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with state officials to implement this important agreement and ensure full compliance in the months ahead."
In 2014, a Los Angeles judge ordered the state to educate all children who don't speak English after reports showed 20,000 students in a quarter of school districts failed to meet that state and federal requirement.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three Spanish-speaking Compton students. The suit alleged that language barriers held students back a grade or led to low test scores.
- By JULIE WATSON Associated Press
- Updated
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A wealthy Mexican businessman was convicted Friday of illegally funneling more than half a million dollars to support two former San Diego mayoral candidates — marking one of the federal government's largest cases against a foreigner secretly donating to U.S. political campaigns.
The jury in federal court in San Diego returned guilty verdicts against Jose Susumo Azano, his son, Edward Susumo Azano Hester, and Washington political consultant, Ravneet Singh.
The scheme gave more than $500,000 to the 2012 campaigns of San Diego mayoral candidates Bonnie Dumanis and Bob Filner, according to court documents. Azano wanted to develop San Diego's waterfront with a marina for yachts, a five-star high-rise hotel and mixed-use residential development and wanted to ensure he had a mayor who would support those plans, according to prosecutors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Schopler quoted Azano as saying the city's "trailer park losers" and "a small town mentality" were impeding its waterfront development.
Lawyers for the defendants could not be reached for comment. Azano's attorney, Michael J. Wynne, said during the six-week-long trial that his client never had plans for such a development. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he plans to appeal. Singh's lawyer had told jurors his client had worked in Mexico with Azano and was unaware of Azano's plans in San Diego.
Dumanis, a Republican San Diego County District Attorney, lost the race. Former congressman Filner, a Democrat, won but resigned after serving less than nine months as mayor amid sexual harassment allegations.
Dumanis testified that she thought Azano — who lives in the nearby city of Coronado — was a legal resident but she said she had little memory of their interaction.
Azano arranged with his son and others to hide the contributions by having straw donors send the money to the campaigns, according to court documents. Azano and Singh also arranged for Azano to secretly pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of services from Singh's campaign consulting company, and to use those services to benefit the campaigns. In addition, Azano secretly funneled $30,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee through a conduit straw donor, prosecutors said.
No charges were filed against Dumanis or Filner in the case.
The three are scheduled to be sentenced in December.
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This story has been corrected to show that Dumanis is still a District Attorney.
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas man whose company, Candy Color Lenses, filled internet orders across the U.S. has admitted he illegally imported counterfeit contact lenses from Asia and sold them without a prescription.
Federal prosecutors said Friday that Dmitriy Melnik pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to traffic counterfeit goods that could get him up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
A plea agreement filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas says Melnik's prison sentence is expected to be between 46 and 57 months, depending on any other criminal history.
He's also agreeing to forfeit thousands of boxes of contact lenses with labels such as Ciba Vision FreshLook COLORBLENDS, Cool Cosmetic Tornado B, and Innova Vision ColorMaker, ColorNova, Magic, Dragon Gold and Picasso.
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah public records officials are ordering the Provo and Orem police departments to release a report showing any time a Brigham Young University employee accessed police records.
The decision by Utah's Records Committee Thursday is a partial victory for The Salt Lake Tribune, which requested the records.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/2cjvFu0 ) the records committee ordered the police departments to release a report showing when BYU workers in the past year and a half accessed a police database. The committee said police should redact the names of victims, suspects and the BYU employee who accessed the file.
The decision comes as federal education officials investigate the school's sex assault policy and state police review whether BYU officers inappropriately shared sexual assault case information, leading to leading to honor code investigations of students who reported assault.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
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DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) — An Orange County pediatrician and outspoken critic of mandatory vaccinations faces possible discipline by California's medical board.
The Orange County Register reports Friday (http://bit.ly/2c2d05B) that Dr. Bob Sears is accused of failing to obtain a detailed medical history before writing a 2014 letter excusing a toddler from immunizations.
The board says Sears wrote the letter after the 2-year-old's mother described an adverse reaction to an earlier vaccination.
If Sears is found negligent, he could face a public reprimand or lose his medical license.
Sears declined comment through a representative over email.
Sears has authored a popular book on vaccines and advocates a staggered, alternative vaccination schedule that contrasts with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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CLATSKANIE, Ore. (AP) — A woman who was repeatedly flashed by the husband of a northern Oregon city mayor has filed a lawsuit against the city for defamation.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports (http://bit.ly/2bZ17Pd ) that the woman says in her lawsuit that Clatskanie Mayor Diane Pohl, her husband Ray Pohl and the Clatskanie city manager spread rumors the woman was having an affair with Ray Pohl after he was arrested for exposing himself to her.
Ray Pohl pleaded guilty to two counts of public indecency in connection to a September 2015 arrest for exposing himself to the woman over the course of 2 ½ years.
The woman is suing for $350,000, saying the rumors cost her business at her coffee stand.
City officials say they have not seen the lawsuit and cannot comment.
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Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Police say a toddler is dead after a day care worker sat on a bean bag chair the child had crawled under.
West Jordan Police Sgt. Joe Monson said Friday the child appears to have suffocated in what investigators believe was a tragic accident.
Monson says the approximately 18-month-old crawled under the beanbag on Thursday morning, though it's not clear why.
He says the worker sat on the chair to read a story to the other children, unaware that the baby was underneath.
The child died at a hospital shortly after being discovered.
Police are investigating but don't believe there was anything criminal involved in the death.
Police did not immediately release the name, age or gender of the child, or the name of the worker.
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ELKO, Nev. (AP) — State officials say the wild horse population is too large to be sustained by the rangeland on which the horses live.
The Elko Daily Free Press reports (http://bit.ly/2bY9Axc ) that at a public hearing with the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, State Veterinarian Dr. JJ Goicoechea said the horse population is in a state of emergency today and headed toward disaster in the future.
Goicoechea says both fertility control and the removal of excess horses is necessary.
The Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is considering treating some horses with contraceptives in order to shrink the herd southeast of Carson City.
Other supporters of shrinking the herd say the horses are taking too many resources, such as water, from the rangeland to the detriment of ranchers.
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Information from: Elko Daily Free Press, http://www.elkodaily.com
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SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (AP) — As many as 10 Cochise County employees are under investigation and five have resigned over allegations that they violated the county's computer use policy by visiting entertainment and pornographic sites.
The Sierra Vista Herald reports (http://bit.ly/2bXUZ53 ) that City Administrator Jim Vlahovich says employees who resigned did so after computer records showed visits to inappropriate websites.
Sheriff Mark Dannels says 10 employees are under investigation to determine if the county's computer logs and the activity reports of his deputies are accurate.
Dannels says the investigation began after he was notified that some employees were streaming television through Netflix or viewing pornography on the county's time.
None of the computer use violations were considered for criminal charges. County Attorney Brian McIntyre says the names of those involved will not be released.
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Information from: Sierra Vista Herald, http://www.svherald.com
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado museum says an 8-year-old boy discovered a rare dinosaur skull during his summer vacation.
Lachlan Barrett of Florida uncovered the 140-million-year-old skull on the Museums of Western Colorado's dinosaur dig at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry. Scientists believe it belonged to an apatosaurus louisae, which would make it the fourth such specimen ever found and the only one with vertebrae still attached.
Julia McHugh, a paleontology curator at the museum, tells The Daily Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2bZa3nI) that preparing the skull for display is a yearlong process. The top of the head is still encased in rock and only the palate and some teeth roots are visible.
The museum's former chief paleontologist, Brooks Britt, says it is unusual to find sauropod skulls because they were fragile and had a tendency to shatter.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel, http://www.gjsentinel.com
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BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) — Baker County authorities are investigating the death of a 5-week-old boy who died of asphyxiation caused by co-sleeping.
The Baker City Herald reports (https://is.gd/WLeOv4 ) the baby had been sleeping with his mother when he died last weekend. The baby's father was also home at the time.
District Attorney Matt Shirtcliff said in a press release that an autopsy was conducted Monday in Portland.
Shirtcliff said he and his staff helped establish a Cribs for Kids program in Baker County after three babies died of "positional asphyxiation" linked to co-sleeping in 2009 and another two died last year.
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Information from: Baker City Herald, http://www.bakercityherald.com/
- By Mark Thiessen The Associated Press
NOME, Alaska — The giant luxury cruise liner was anchored just off Nome, too hulking to use the Bering Sea community’s docks on its inaugural visit.
Instead, its more than 900 passengers piled into small transport boats and motored to shore, where they snapped photos of wild musk oxen, lifted glasses in the town’s colorful bars and nibbled blueberry pie while admiring Alaska Native dancers at Nome’s summer celebration.
The Crystal Serenity’s visit to Alaska’s western coast is historic.
At nearly three football fields long and 13 stories tall, the cruise ship is the largest ever to traverse the Northwest Passage, where its well-heeled guests glimpsed polar bears, kayaked along Canada’s north shore, landed on pristine beaches and hiked where few have stepped.
Some remote villages along the way are seeing dollar signs, while environmentalists are seeing doom. They say the voyage represents global warming and man’s destruction of the Earth.
The terrible irony with the Crystal Serenity’s voyage is that it’s taking place only because of climate change and the melting Arctic, said Michael Byers, a professor in the political science department at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The Northwest Passage, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, has long been choked off by ice.
But melting brought on by climate change is allowing passengers to cruise up the Bering Strait and then head east toward Greenland over the Arctic Ocean before docking in New York City.
“And yet, by actually taking advantage of climate change, it’s contributing to the problem because the ship has a very large carbon footprint of its own,” Byers said.
The cruise ship left Seward, on the Kenai Peninsula Aug. 16 with about 900 guests and 600 crewmembers on board. During its monthlong journey to New York, it visited towns and villages in western and northern Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the eastern seaboard.
Smaller cruise ships, those that hold about 200 people, routinely make a port call in Nome and continue through the passage, but this ship is different.
“This is the game-changer,” Nome Mayor Richard Beneville said. “This is the one that’s on everyone’s lips.”
Nome spared nothing to make sure tourists off the high-end cruise liner — tickets costs more than $20,000 per person, with a penthouse starting at about six times that — felt at home.
The guests came to town in waves so they didn’t overwhelm the available services in Nome, population about 3,800.
They arrived at the small harbor dock and loaded into vans or school buses for their adventures, which included getting a gander at a herd of wild musk oxen that had taken up residence just outside town.
Other activities were hiking and birding tours and helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft flights. Organizers even rescheduled the annual Blueberry Festival so visitors could enjoy a $5 piece of pie while watching traditional Eskimo dancers or browsing tables of seal skin gloves and wallets made by Alaska Native artists. The event took place a block from where the world’s most famous sled-dog race, the Iditarod, ends every March.
“Being at this festival here, the indigenous families that are here, I mean they are so proud of what they have, their handcrafts, their dancing, their music.
“They just love it, even with the hardships they have to endure, the prices they have to endure,” said Floridian Bob Lentz, who was traveling with his wife, Linda.
Charlie and Joan Davis of San Francisco signed up for the cruise within the first hour it was offered three years ago.
“We’ve been around the world many times, and this is someplace we’ve never been to, that’s somewhat unknown,” Charlie Davis said. “You know, just an adventure.”
They weren’t alone in wanting to be part of the historic cruise.
“This is the longest single cruise we have ever made, and it is the most expensive cruise we’ve ever made because it’s many days, and it’s very expensive to operate up here,” said the ship’s captain, Birger Vorland.
“And it’s the one that sold out the fastest; 48 hours, it was basically gone.”
This cruise was three years in the making, and just about everything is unique to the trip, said John Stoll, a Crystal vice president who organized it.
The Serenity was fitted with special equipment to operate in the Arctic, including an ice-navigation satellite system. Its operators even chartered cargo flights to northern communities to gather fresh perishables for the vessel’s five-star restaurants.
“The planning and the logistics that has gone into this ship has been nothing short of amazing,” Stoll said.
The cruise company is planning another Alaska-to-New York City voyage next August, catering to travelers like the Lentzes.
“We’re going off on a wildlife adventure right now, and that, to me, is what it’s all about in our twilight years — kind of experiencing things before crazy humans destroy it,” Bob Lentz said.
- By MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Cheap liquor, wine and beer have long been best-sellers among Utah alcohol drinkers, but new numbers from Utah's tightly-controlled liquor system show local craft brews, trendy box wines and flavored whiskies are also popular choices in a largely teetotaler state.
Utah, one of 11 states that control retail sales of liquor, requires residents to purchase products with more than 4 percent alcohol by volume at one of 44 state-run stores or more than 100 privately-run outlets at places like ski-resorts with government contracts.
Even though a large portion of the Utah's residents and lawmakers are members of the Mormon church, which teachers its member to avoid alcohol, liquor is big business for the state, generating about $400 million in annual sales.
For those who do drink, tastes run from low-cost beers and sparkling wines to trendy flavored whiskeys and eco-friendly boxed wines, according to data from Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
A look at the most popular choices from July 2015 through June 2016:
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SPIRITS
Cheaper vodka and whiskies that taste like cinnamon or apple were top choices for Utah drinkers. Flavored vodkas, such as those that taste like cookies and cream or whipped cream, had been trendy in years past but are now among the worst sellers.
Barton Vodka was the top selling spirit. Three different sizes of the product, costing about $12 or less, made the state's top 10 list. A combined 583,881 bottles were sold for about $4.3 million.
Fireball Cinnamon whiskey also a top seller in terms of bottles sold and dollars earned — with 118,199 bottles purchased. That's about $1.9 million in sales.
Rob Southworth, a program specialist with the beverage control agency, said flavored whiskeys are trendy around the country and Fireball was one of the earliest versions. It's been popular enough to be mentioned in several country songs.
Other top dollar earners were Jack Daniels Black Label whiskey, Smirnoff vodka, and Patron Silver Tequila, each selling $1.9 million or more.
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WINE
The wine Utah purchased more than any other was Cooks Brut Sparkling Wine, a cheap champagne alternative that costs about $8. About 67,000 bottles were sold.
The top dollar-earning wine was Kendall Jackson Chardonnay, which sold just over 56,000 bottles for about $927,000. That averages about $15 a bottle.
It was followed by Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label, a $56 bottle of champagne.
A number of other top sellers in terms of dollars and bottles sold were boxed wines — both red and white — with ranging from under $5 to about $20 for a small box.
Southworth said box wines have always been top sellers because of the relatively low cost, but they're becoming trendy and new, higher-end versions are selling well.
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BEER
Utah bought more Icehouse beer, brewed by MillerCoors, than any other kind of beer or cider, with about 1.1 million units sold.
But the second most popular choice was a local craft brew, the Hop Rising Double IPA from Salt Lake City-based brewery Squatters. About 882,000 bottles were sold. It was also the top-dollar earning beer. The canned version was another popular choice.
Two other Utah breweries, Wasatch and Red Rock, made the top 10 lists.
"Local is pretty hot right now in all markets, especially craft beers," Southworth said.
Southworth said another top seller, Angry Orchard's Crisp Apple hard cider, is not only another example of a popular-apple flavored alcohol, but it's a favorite choice among people who are trying to find a gluten-free alcoholic beverage.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California schools agreed to ensure language education for 1.4 million students who are designated as English learners under a federal settlement announced Friday.
The state Department of Education and Board of Education agreed to new training and monitoring procedures to make sure that language services to English Learner-designated students meet requirements of the federal Equal Educational Opportunities Act, according to an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.
The state, which cooperated with the Justice Department, had denied violations and didn't acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement.
Messages left for the Department of Education were not immediately returned.
The Justice Department said last year that California had failed to deal with reports from its public schools that indicated more than 20,000 of the estimated 1.4 million English Learner students hadn't received proper instruction in the English language and other subjects. The allegations covered school periods dating back to the 2007-2008 school year.
"We applaud the state of California for working cooperatively with the Justice Department to ensure that all English Learner students can access the language services they need to learn," Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with state officials to implement this important agreement and ensure full compliance in the months ahead."
In 2014, a Los Angeles judge ordered the state to educate all children who don't speak English after reports showed 20,000 students in a quarter of school districts failed to meet that state and federal requirement.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three Spanish-speaking Compton students. The suit alleged that language barriers held students back a grade or led to low test scores.
- By JULIE WATSON Associated Press
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A wealthy Mexican businessman was convicted Friday of illegally funneling more than half a million dollars to support two former San Diego mayoral candidates — marking one of the federal government's largest cases against a foreigner secretly donating to U.S. political campaigns.
The jury in federal court in San Diego returned guilty verdicts against Jose Susumo Azano, his son, Edward Susumo Azano Hester, and Washington political consultant, Ravneet Singh.
The scheme gave more than $500,000 to the 2012 campaigns of San Diego mayoral candidates Bonnie Dumanis and Bob Filner, according to court documents. Azano wanted to develop San Diego's waterfront with a marina for yachts, a five-star high-rise hotel and mixed-use residential development and wanted to ensure he had a mayor who would support those plans, according to prosecutors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Schopler quoted Azano as saying the city's "trailer park losers" and "a small town mentality" were impeding its waterfront development.
Lawyers for the defendants could not be reached for comment. Azano's attorney, Michael J. Wynne, said during the six-week-long trial that his client never had plans for such a development. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he plans to appeal. Singh's lawyer had told jurors his client had worked in Mexico with Azano and was unaware of Azano's plans in San Diego.
Dumanis, a Republican San Diego County District Attorney, lost the race. Former congressman Filner, a Democrat, won but resigned after serving less than nine months as mayor amid sexual harassment allegations.
Dumanis testified that she thought Azano — who lives in the nearby city of Coronado — was a legal resident but she said she had little memory of their interaction.
Azano arranged with his son and others to hide the contributions by having straw donors send the money to the campaigns, according to court documents. Azano and Singh also arranged for Azano to secretly pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of services from Singh's campaign consulting company, and to use those services to benefit the campaigns. In addition, Azano secretly funneled $30,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee through a conduit straw donor, prosecutors said.
No charges were filed against Dumanis or Filner in the case.
The three are scheduled to be sentenced in December.
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This story has been corrected to show that Dumanis is still a District Attorney.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas man whose company, Candy Color Lenses, filled internet orders across the U.S. has admitted he illegally imported counterfeit contact lenses from Asia and sold them without a prescription.
Federal prosecutors said Friday that Dmitriy Melnik pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to traffic counterfeit goods that could get him up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
A plea agreement filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas says Melnik's prison sentence is expected to be between 46 and 57 months, depending on any other criminal history.
He's also agreeing to forfeit thousands of boxes of contact lenses with labels such as Ciba Vision FreshLook COLORBLENDS, Cool Cosmetic Tornado B, and Innova Vision ColorMaker, ColorNova, Magic, Dragon Gold and Picasso.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah public records officials are ordering the Provo and Orem police departments to release a report showing any time a Brigham Young University employee accessed police records.
The decision by Utah's Records Committee Thursday is a partial victory for The Salt Lake Tribune, which requested the records.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/2cjvFu0 ) the records committee ordered the police departments to release a report showing when BYU workers in the past year and a half accessed a police database. The committee said police should redact the names of victims, suspects and the BYU employee who accessed the file.
The decision comes as federal education officials investigate the school's sex assault policy and state police review whether BYU officers inappropriately shared sexual assault case information, leading to leading to honor code investigations of students who reported assault.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) — An Orange County pediatrician and outspoken critic of mandatory vaccinations faces possible discipline by California's medical board.
The Orange County Register reports Friday (http://bit.ly/2c2d05B) that Dr. Bob Sears is accused of failing to obtain a detailed medical history before writing a 2014 letter excusing a toddler from immunizations.
The board says Sears wrote the letter after the 2-year-old's mother described an adverse reaction to an earlier vaccination.
If Sears is found negligent, he could face a public reprimand or lose his medical license.
Sears declined comment through a representative over email.
Sears has authored a popular book on vaccines and advocates a staggered, alternative vaccination schedule that contrasts with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CLATSKANIE, Ore. (AP) — A woman who was repeatedly flashed by the husband of a northern Oregon city mayor has filed a lawsuit against the city for defamation.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports (http://bit.ly/2bZ17Pd ) that the woman says in her lawsuit that Clatskanie Mayor Diane Pohl, her husband Ray Pohl and the Clatskanie city manager spread rumors the woman was having an affair with Ray Pohl after he was arrested for exposing himself to her.
Ray Pohl pleaded guilty to two counts of public indecency in connection to a September 2015 arrest for exposing himself to the woman over the course of 2 ½ years.
The woman is suing for $350,000, saying the rumors cost her business at her coffee stand.
City officials say they have not seen the lawsuit and cannot comment.
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Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Police say a toddler is dead after a day care worker sat on a bean bag chair the child had crawled under.
West Jordan Police Sgt. Joe Monson said Friday the child appears to have suffocated in what investigators believe was a tragic accident.
Monson says the approximately 18-month-old crawled under the beanbag on Thursday morning, though it's not clear why.
He says the worker sat on the chair to read a story to the other children, unaware that the baby was underneath.
The child died at a hospital shortly after being discovered.
Police are investigating but don't believe there was anything criminal involved in the death.
Police did not immediately release the name, age or gender of the child, or the name of the worker.
ELKO, Nev. (AP) — State officials say the wild horse population is too large to be sustained by the rangeland on which the horses live.
The Elko Daily Free Press reports (http://bit.ly/2bY9Axc ) that at a public hearing with the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, State Veterinarian Dr. JJ Goicoechea said the horse population is in a state of emergency today and headed toward disaster in the future.
Goicoechea says both fertility control and the removal of excess horses is necessary.
The Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is considering treating some horses with contraceptives in order to shrink the herd southeast of Carson City.
Other supporters of shrinking the herd say the horses are taking too many resources, such as water, from the rangeland to the detriment of ranchers.
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Information from: Elko Daily Free Press, http://www.elkodaily.com
SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (AP) — As many as 10 Cochise County employees are under investigation and five have resigned over allegations that they violated the county's computer use policy by visiting entertainment and pornographic sites.
The Sierra Vista Herald reports (http://bit.ly/2bXUZ53 ) that City Administrator Jim Vlahovich says employees who resigned did so after computer records showed visits to inappropriate websites.
Sheriff Mark Dannels says 10 employees are under investigation to determine if the county's computer logs and the activity reports of his deputies are accurate.
Dannels says the investigation began after he was notified that some employees were streaming television through Netflix or viewing pornography on the county's time.
None of the computer use violations were considered for criminal charges. County Attorney Brian McIntyre says the names of those involved will not be released.
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Information from: Sierra Vista Herald, http://www.svherald.com
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado museum says an 8-year-old boy discovered a rare dinosaur skull during his summer vacation.
Lachlan Barrett of Florida uncovered the 140-million-year-old skull on the Museums of Western Colorado's dinosaur dig at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry. Scientists believe it belonged to an apatosaurus louisae, which would make it the fourth such specimen ever found and the only one with vertebrae still attached.
Julia McHugh, a paleontology curator at the museum, tells The Daily Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2bZa3nI) that preparing the skull for display is a yearlong process. The top of the head is still encased in rock and only the palate and some teeth roots are visible.
The museum's former chief paleontologist, Brooks Britt, says it is unusual to find sauropod skulls because they were fragile and had a tendency to shatter.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel, http://www.gjsentinel.com
BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) — Baker County authorities are investigating the death of a 5-week-old boy who died of asphyxiation caused by co-sleeping.
The Baker City Herald reports (https://is.gd/WLeOv4 ) the baby had been sleeping with his mother when he died last weekend. The baby's father was also home at the time.
District Attorney Matt Shirtcliff said in a press release that an autopsy was conducted Monday in Portland.
Shirtcliff said he and his staff helped establish a Cribs for Kids program in Baker County after three babies died of "positional asphyxiation" linked to co-sleeping in 2009 and another two died last year.
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Information from: Baker City Herald, http://www.bakercityherald.com/
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