Finding unfaithful husbands; doc sentenced for 'butchery'; sheriff jails himself
- Updated
Odd and interesting news from the Midwest.
- Updated
CINCINNATI (AP) — A Cincinnati police officer concerned about a lost driver trying to get to Florida gave the woman her personal GPS navigation system to help.
Officer Virginia Villing says Shirley McKeown was driving from Lynn, Indiana, to Venus, Florida, to spend Christmas with her daughter and other family when she pulled up to the officer and asked for help. The officer tells WXIX-TV (http://bit.ly/2i7Tzv0 ) McKeown had highlighted maps, but was lost with 1,000 miles to go.
She says McKeown reminded her of her own mother, and she would have wanted someone to help her mom.
McKeown last week mailed the GPS back and sent a thank you note. She said Villing was "just a sweetheart."
Villing's supervisor says she has a reputation for going out of her way to help people.
- By ALLISON CARTER Indianapolis Star
- Updated
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The room was festooned with twinkling lights and pale roses. The bride wore white lace; so did the flower girls. The mother of the bride wore burgundy, matching the peonies in the bridal bouquet.
The mother also wore an oxygen mask to help her breathe as she lay propped against pillows in her hospital bed.
The wedding of and Kristin Owens and Brian Powers, of Indianapolis, was supposed to come one month later. It was supposed to be different, bigger. But when Kristin's mother, Cheryl, was admitted to Indiana University Health West Hospital on Jan. 2, plans changed. The chemotherapy to treat her stage 4 kidney cancer wasn't working. The cancer was now in her lungs and still spreading. The doctor said she had just weeks to live.
But there was no way Kristin was getting married without her mom there. So she made a decision: They'd have the wedding today. Right at her mother's bedside.
At first Cheryl was unsure about having the wedding today -- and in the hospital. It wouldn't be the big wedding both mother and daughter had dreamed since Kristin was a girl.
"My mom's my best friend," Kristin, 33, told IndyStar. "She's prayed for me to get married."
Kristin assured her mom that the hospital staff and their friends would pull together something special. But even Kristin was blown away by the end result.
"It was better than the wedding I was planning for myself," she said. "They were able to show that my family is full of laughter and love in spite of everything."
Kristin and her mom had talked about her wedding day for years, but, the actual event came together in just six hours. Kristin's first call at 10 a.m. was to her pastor. He was in. Next she called her fiance Brian Powers, a guidance counselor at Tri-West, and asked him how he felt about getting married not on Feb. 4, but today, in about six hours. He was in. Alterations on her dress were completed in just a few hours. Her best friend put together a homemade bouquet. A family friend arrived to act as photographer.
This was going to be a complete wedding ceremony.
The hospital staff was busy during those six hours, too. Kristin's Franklin College sorority sister Jennifer Markowitz is a nurse there. As soon as she heard what Kristin wanted, she started pulling together departments at the hospital to help. Nurses were dispatched to Kroger for cake and punch. The dietary team whipped up lasagna and hors d'oeuvres. A rule forbidding fresh flowers in ICU was set aside for the day.
"This was a huge exception to everything," Markowitz said.
Fifty loved ones, who had mostly come to say goodbye to Cheryl, crowded into the vacant ICU patient room turned wedding chapel. Next door, in her room, Cheryl had her hair done. She was dressed carefully by her nurse. When the staff wheeled Cheryl into the wedding room, she marveled at the decorations. Despite the morphine keeping her pain at bay, Cheryl was awake and laughing. She was there as her daughter walked down the makeshift aisle as the sounds of "At Last" played on her husband-to-be's cellphone.
"You're killing me!" Cheryl called during the vows. She cried as a nurse led the room in her daughter's favorite song, "Amazing Grace."
"We did it, baby," Cheryl said later, giving Kristin a high-five. "You had a good wedding."
All doctors can do for Cheryl now is keep her comfortable. It's a process that Kristin is intimately familiar with. She works as a manager of volunteer services at Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care
"I started this job in September and I found out my mom had cancer the first week of October," Kristin said. "Sometimes it feels like a cruel joke, and sometimes it feels like a blessing," Kristin said. "You realize how fortunate you are even when life sucks."
But for now, there is time left for mother and daughter to say the things they need to say and to celebrate together.
___
Source: Indianapolis Star, http://indy.st/2ifqATT
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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com
- Updated
NORTHWOOD, Iowa (AP) — A judge says deputies in northern Iowa did not use excessive force when they repeatedly deployed stun guns against a violent suspect who died after their 2013 confrontation.
U.S. Magistrate Judge C.J. Williams dismissed a lawsuit Sunday filed by Larry and Cheryl Zubrod, the parents of 39-year-old Michael Zubrod of Northwood.
Williams ruled that Worth County deputies were justified in using Tasers because Zubrod actively resisted arrest after using a hammer to severely wound his girlfriend. Williams says Zubrod posed a threat to the woman and the deputies until he was handcuffed.
Williams says there's no evidence that deputies stunned Zubrod after he was cuffed, or that they were aware Zubrod was high and mentally ill. He says the jolts were at most a contributing factor in Zubrod's death, which an autopsy said was caused by a heart condition and methamphetamine abuse.
Williams says it's "the type of case where courts cannot use 20/20 hindsight to second-guess law enforcement officers' split-second decision-making."
- By VANESSA MCCRAY The (Toledo) Blade
- Updated
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — When anonymous hackers divulged customer data from a popular extramarital matchmaking website, many just saw a juicy scandal.
But two University of Toledo graduate students found material ripe for research.
Michael Chohaney and Kimberly Panozzo used the data, retrievable online after hackers swiped it last year from the website Ashley Madison, to map areas of the United States with the most unfaithful husbands.
The result was a first-of-its-kind geographical look at internet-facilitated infidelity, and serves as a warning to the wives of affluent Fairfield County, Connecticut, home to tony Greenwich and Stamford.
That area posted the highest rate of male subscribers who paid the website to engage in extramarital affairs.
Researchers found the Fairfield area led the nation with 6.23 Ashley Madison subscriptions per 1,000 people aged 18 to 79, followed by the metropolitan areas of Boulder, Colorado., Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Manchester, New Hampshire
The metro Toledo area was in the "middle-of-the-pack," with "nothing unusual going on," said Mr. Chohaney.
The researchers' map indicates the Cleveland area and Ohio's southwest corner have higher subscription rates than the local region.
Metropolitan areas with some of the lowest subscription rates were in poor Appalachian and southern locations, strengthening the conclusion that affluence is linked to this kind of online adultery.
"Income drives this whole market," Mr. Chohaney said.
Researchers narrowed the millions of leaked Ashley Madison accounts to 702,309 subscriber profiles with usable billing addresses.
They eliminated inactive or duplicate accounts, and focused on men who paid for the website's services. Women were not charged for sending messages using the site.
The Fairfield County area also topped the list of metro areas in spending rates, doling out $1,127 on the site per 1,000 people.
The Washington metro area came in second at $741 spent per 1,000 people, followed by the Boston area at $715, and the New York City metro area at $711.
The study compared the Ashley Madison-user data to demographic information culled from census reports and other resources to create a geographic profile that showed cheaters to be wealthier, younger, and less religious.
One thing Mr. Chohaney said he can't explain is the appearance of the Salt Lake City metro area, a heavily Mormon area, among the top 10 metropolitan areas for subscription rates.
"My cynical theory is that it's the Californians that move in," he said.
Some academics have shied away from using stolen data, such as the account information from the Ashley Madison hack.
Mr. Chohaney, who at age 27 is months from completing his doctoral degree in spatially integrated social science, said he's already received negative comments about the research.
He has a simple response. The data is freely available to download, and he and Ms. Panozzo, who recently completed her master's degree in geography and planning, took care to analyze the information without identifying anyone in the research.
"We are looking to use hacked data as a really unique source of knowledge creation because, otherwise, social science kind of stagnates," he said.
Mr. Chohaney contends researchers "have a duty" to make new knowledge available.
He noted that the field of geography which, along with anthropology, economics, and sociology constitutes his interdisciplinary studies, is notably adverse to risky research.
Social scientists who study people and their behavior are going to have to follow Mr. Chohaney's lead, said David Nemeth, a professor in UT's department of geography and planning who has mentored the doctoral student.
This kind of "big data research" pushes the envelope, said Mr. Nemeth, who called the study "provocative."
"He's adventurous, and it takes a pioneer," Mr. Nemeth said.
Mr. Chohaney said it was his co-author who told him about the Ashley Madison data dump, sparking the idea for their project.
"We both kind of looked at each other with a light bulb over our head and said, 'They have address information. We could put this on a map,' " he said.
They started their work in September, 2015, and the resulting paper was recently published online in the journal Geographical Review.
An Ashley Madison representative could not be reached for comment.
___
This story has been corrected to show the reporter was Vanessa McCray.
___
Information from: The Blade, http://www.toledoblade.com/
- Updated
FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy is injured after being accidentally shot by an uncle playing with a gun in St. Louis County.
The shooting happened Sunday night at an apartment complex in north St. Louis County. Police say a 20-year-old man was playing with a gun when it went off, striking the child.
The boy is hospitalized and expected to survive. His name and the name of the uncle have not been released, but police are expected to pursue charges.
- Updated
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An internal investigation of the Kansas National Guard has raised alarms about leadership problems that include instances of enlistment document forgery and racism.
Guard officers found evidence that confidential information about the inquiry was leaked to people under scrutiny and retaliation occurred against individuals cooperating with the investigation, according to documents obtained by The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/2jr7ZYY ).
The Air Guard one-star general and Army Guard lieutenant colonel who led the investigation separately concluded the Kansas National Guard was being damaged by "toxic" leadership. Both investigating officers urged Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli to end management culture that protects wrongdoers and to demonstrate fair treatment was available to all in the Kansas Guard.
Tafanelli, who as Kansas' adjutant general has served as commander of the Kansas Army and Air Guard since 2011, declined to be interviewed by the newspaper but responded in an opinion page column.
"Unfortunately, there are a few that will choose to act in an inappropriate manner and bring discredit to themselves and their service," Tafanelli said. "When this occurs, we work to thoroughly and impartially investigate those instances and take action to address these behaviors where necessary and when appropriate."
The investigation started in 2013 amid renewed allegations that Guard recruiters were pressured by superiors to forge documents to clear unqualified applicants or speed processing of paperwork. The inquiry was closed in 2015.
Investigators recommended discipline for five individuals ranging in rank from a first sergeant to a one-star general, for violating "trust and confidence of our soldiers" and disrupting the "important mission of enlisting soldiers into our ranks." Recommendations involved denial of promotion, reduction in rank, job reassignment and forced retirement.
Several under scrutiny eventually retired with full pomp and ceremony. And a white officer accused of inflaming racial tension was among those promoted or able to retain prestigious assignments.
Tod Bunting, a retired major general in the Kansas Air Guard who served as adjutant general from 2004 to 2011 under Democratic Govs. Kathleen Sebelius and Mark Parkinson, told the newspaper that Guard members and retirees who complained faced retaliation by superiors and pressure to leave.
"There are people internally who are fed up, but they are so intimidated," he said.
Gov. Sam Brownback said Sunday he would "maintain full support" for Tafanelli, whom he appointed.
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Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com
- Updated
MASON, Mich. (AP) — A new Michigan sheriff has put himself behind bars to help learn more about how his county jail works.
Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth and Undersheriff Andrew Bouck checked themselves into the Ingham County Jail in Mason on Sunday evening.
In a statement, the sheriff's office says they were booked into the jail, given jumpsuits and are currently lodged at the facility. They're planning to stay there until Tuesday morning and, until that time, they're expected to be treated like other jail inmates.
Wriggelsworth says the temporary stay will "provide a great snapshot of housing conditions, jail rules and regulations and the overall incarceration experience." He says "some people will question the move, and maybe our sanity," but he thinks it will be a good experience.
- By ROB STROUD Mattoon Journal Gazette and (Charleston) Times-Courier
- Updated
ARCOLA, Ill. (AP) — The two prairie falcons that are roosting in a crab apple stump east of Humboldt have become celebrities among the bird-watching community.
These prairie falcons were the top billed attraction on an Illinois Ornithological Society field trip that Tyler Funk of Charleston led Saturday. Funk said he and the other bird watchers were unable to spot the falcons, but did see a snowy owl and a variety of water fowl during their trip in East Central Illinois.
Funk, 55, said he started bird watching when he was child but had never seen a prairie falcon in his native Coles County until 2010. He said these falcons typically reside in open country with low lying vegetation in the western United States.
"The prairie falcons are considered to be a rare bird for Illinois," Funk said. The bird watcher added that he and the Illinois Ornithological Society are studying the two prairie falcons to determine what has brought them to Coles County.
In 2012, Funk first spotted this pair of falcons. With the help of other bird watchers, Funk said he searched for the roosting site that winter and eventually narrowed down his search area to a crab apple stump near Walnut Grove Christian Church, which has a rural Arcola address.
Funk said he has been watching the two prairie falcons every winter since then. He said these falcons tend to have a high degree of fidelity for their nesting and winter roosting sites, so he believes the same pair has been returning to the crab apple stump year after year.
Two years ago, Funk placed a trail camera near the stump. Funk said he has been taking photos of the prairie falcons, plus videos of them preening and stretching. Funk said he might otherwise only get glimpses of the falcons as they fly a few feet above fields in search of small birds and rodents.
"The video has made for a much better learning experience than just capturing still images," Funk said. "Having those close images has been just a lot more fun for appreciating how pretty they are and learning how they behave."
Funk said he has been posting information about the pair of prairie falcons on the eBird online checklist for bird watching. He said this has caught the attention of bird watchers nationwide who are looking to add prairie falcons to their "life lists" of birds they have seen in the wild.
Bird watchers from as far away as New York, Ohio and Michigan have stopped by to look for the two falcons in recent years, Funk said. He estimated that he has taken more than 100 requests to guide visitors to the crab apple stump, including many visitors from the Chicago area.
"They don't get a lot of the woodland birds we get here in Central Illinois," Funk said of the Chicago area.
The Illinois Ornithological Society decided to organize Saturday's field trip to give more bird watchers an opportunity to look for the pair of prairie falcons, Funk said. Despite the frigid weather, Funk said the trip drew six participants for the full day and another six joined up in the late afternoon.
Funk said they did not spot the prairie falcons in the vicinity of the crab apple stump but nearby they did see a snowy owl, which is also rare to the area.
In addition, the field trip group went on a sparrow spotting walk at the Larry Closson Habitat Area near Hindsboro and counted trumpeter swans and other waterfowl at the Universal Mines quarry in eastern Edgar County.
Funk said he and other bird watchers are always looking to see new birds and familiar favorites, and to learn more about their appearance, calls, behavior and habitats.
"It really becomes a lifelong learning experience about the birds," Funk said.
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Source: Mattoon Journal Gazette and (Charleston) Times-Courier, http://bit.ly/2i9v79l
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Information from: Mattoon Journal-Gazette, http://www.jg-tc.com
- Updated
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Indiana State Police say a man has died after two sheriff's deputies subdued him using stun guns.
Police say 34-year-old Jason Schmidt of Craigville died Sunday.
Schmidt was huffing aerosol dusting spray and was incoherent with shallow and labored breathing when Wells County sheriff's deputies arrived at his home early Sunday.
Police say Schmidt became physically combative when they tried to take the aerosol can from him. One deputy fired his stun gun at Schmidt, but it was ineffective. Authorities say another deputy then fired his stun gun so Schmidt could be handcuffed.
Police say medics took Schmidt to a hospital for medical clearance before taking him to jail, but he died at the hospital.
An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
Craigville is about 100 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
- Updated
VALLEY CITY, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Highway Patrol says a woman was killed when her car vaulted off an interstate overpass and became wedged between the bridge deck and the underpass below.
The patrol says the woman was driving east on Interstate 94 near Valley City Sunday evening when her car flew over the guardrail. WDAY-TV (http://bit.ly/2i5LAjV ) reports the woman was extricated from the vehicle and taken to a Valley City hospital where she was pronounced dead.
It's not clear whether travel conditions played a role in the crash.
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Information from: WDAY-TV, http://wday.com
CINCINNATI (AP) — A Cincinnati police officer concerned about a lost driver trying to get to Florida gave the woman her personal GPS navigation system to help.
Officer Virginia Villing says Shirley McKeown was driving from Lynn, Indiana, to Venus, Florida, to spend Christmas with her daughter and other family when she pulled up to the officer and asked for help. The officer tells WXIX-TV (http://bit.ly/2i7Tzv0 ) McKeown had highlighted maps, but was lost with 1,000 miles to go.
She says McKeown reminded her of her own mother, and she would have wanted someone to help her mom.
McKeown last week mailed the GPS back and sent a thank you note. She said Villing was "just a sweetheart."
Villing's supervisor says she has a reputation for going out of her way to help people.
- By ALLISON CARTER Indianapolis Star
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The room was festooned with twinkling lights and pale roses. The bride wore white lace; so did the flower girls. The mother of the bride wore burgundy, matching the peonies in the bridal bouquet.
The mother also wore an oxygen mask to help her breathe as she lay propped against pillows in her hospital bed.
The wedding of and Kristin Owens and Brian Powers, of Indianapolis, was supposed to come one month later. It was supposed to be different, bigger. But when Kristin's mother, Cheryl, was admitted to Indiana University Health West Hospital on Jan. 2, plans changed. The chemotherapy to treat her stage 4 kidney cancer wasn't working. The cancer was now in her lungs and still spreading. The doctor said she had just weeks to live.
But there was no way Kristin was getting married without her mom there. So she made a decision: They'd have the wedding today. Right at her mother's bedside.
At first Cheryl was unsure about having the wedding today -- and in the hospital. It wouldn't be the big wedding both mother and daughter had dreamed since Kristin was a girl.
"My mom's my best friend," Kristin, 33, told IndyStar. "She's prayed for me to get married."
Kristin assured her mom that the hospital staff and their friends would pull together something special. But even Kristin was blown away by the end result.
"It was better than the wedding I was planning for myself," she said. "They were able to show that my family is full of laughter and love in spite of everything."
Kristin and her mom had talked about her wedding day for years, but, the actual event came together in just six hours. Kristin's first call at 10 a.m. was to her pastor. He was in. Next she called her fiance Brian Powers, a guidance counselor at Tri-West, and asked him how he felt about getting married not on Feb. 4, but today, in about six hours. He was in. Alterations on her dress were completed in just a few hours. Her best friend put together a homemade bouquet. A family friend arrived to act as photographer.
This was going to be a complete wedding ceremony.
The hospital staff was busy during those six hours, too. Kristin's Franklin College sorority sister Jennifer Markowitz is a nurse there. As soon as she heard what Kristin wanted, she started pulling together departments at the hospital to help. Nurses were dispatched to Kroger for cake and punch. The dietary team whipped up lasagna and hors d'oeuvres. A rule forbidding fresh flowers in ICU was set aside for the day.
"This was a huge exception to everything," Markowitz said.
Fifty loved ones, who had mostly come to say goodbye to Cheryl, crowded into the vacant ICU patient room turned wedding chapel. Next door, in her room, Cheryl had her hair done. She was dressed carefully by her nurse. When the staff wheeled Cheryl into the wedding room, she marveled at the decorations. Despite the morphine keeping her pain at bay, Cheryl was awake and laughing. She was there as her daughter walked down the makeshift aisle as the sounds of "At Last" played on her husband-to-be's cellphone.
"You're killing me!" Cheryl called during the vows. She cried as a nurse led the room in her daughter's favorite song, "Amazing Grace."
"We did it, baby," Cheryl said later, giving Kristin a high-five. "You had a good wedding."
All doctors can do for Cheryl now is keep her comfortable. It's a process that Kristin is intimately familiar with. She works as a manager of volunteer services at Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care
"I started this job in September and I found out my mom had cancer the first week of October," Kristin said. "Sometimes it feels like a cruel joke, and sometimes it feels like a blessing," Kristin said. "You realize how fortunate you are even when life sucks."
But for now, there is time left for mother and daughter to say the things they need to say and to celebrate together.
___
Source: Indianapolis Star, http://indy.st/2ifqATT
___
Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com
NORTHWOOD, Iowa (AP) — A judge says deputies in northern Iowa did not use excessive force when they repeatedly deployed stun guns against a violent suspect who died after their 2013 confrontation.
U.S. Magistrate Judge C.J. Williams dismissed a lawsuit Sunday filed by Larry and Cheryl Zubrod, the parents of 39-year-old Michael Zubrod of Northwood.
Williams ruled that Worth County deputies were justified in using Tasers because Zubrod actively resisted arrest after using a hammer to severely wound his girlfriend. Williams says Zubrod posed a threat to the woman and the deputies until he was handcuffed.
Williams says there's no evidence that deputies stunned Zubrod after he was cuffed, or that they were aware Zubrod was high and mentally ill. He says the jolts were at most a contributing factor in Zubrod's death, which an autopsy said was caused by a heart condition and methamphetamine abuse.
Williams says it's "the type of case where courts cannot use 20/20 hindsight to second-guess law enforcement officers' split-second decision-making."
- By VANESSA MCCRAY The (Toledo) Blade
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — When anonymous hackers divulged customer data from a popular extramarital matchmaking website, many just saw a juicy scandal.
But two University of Toledo graduate students found material ripe for research.
Michael Chohaney and Kimberly Panozzo used the data, retrievable online after hackers swiped it last year from the website Ashley Madison, to map areas of the United States with the most unfaithful husbands.
The result was a first-of-its-kind geographical look at internet-facilitated infidelity, and serves as a warning to the wives of affluent Fairfield County, Connecticut, home to tony Greenwich and Stamford.
That area posted the highest rate of male subscribers who paid the website to engage in extramarital affairs.
Researchers found the Fairfield area led the nation with 6.23 Ashley Madison subscriptions per 1,000 people aged 18 to 79, followed by the metropolitan areas of Boulder, Colorado., Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Manchester, New Hampshire
The metro Toledo area was in the "middle-of-the-pack," with "nothing unusual going on," said Mr. Chohaney.
The researchers' map indicates the Cleveland area and Ohio's southwest corner have higher subscription rates than the local region.
Metropolitan areas with some of the lowest subscription rates were in poor Appalachian and southern locations, strengthening the conclusion that affluence is linked to this kind of online adultery.
"Income drives this whole market," Mr. Chohaney said.
Researchers narrowed the millions of leaked Ashley Madison accounts to 702,309 subscriber profiles with usable billing addresses.
They eliminated inactive or duplicate accounts, and focused on men who paid for the website's services. Women were not charged for sending messages using the site.
The Fairfield County area also topped the list of metro areas in spending rates, doling out $1,127 on the site per 1,000 people.
The Washington metro area came in second at $741 spent per 1,000 people, followed by the Boston area at $715, and the New York City metro area at $711.
The study compared the Ashley Madison-user data to demographic information culled from census reports and other resources to create a geographic profile that showed cheaters to be wealthier, younger, and less religious.
One thing Mr. Chohaney said he can't explain is the appearance of the Salt Lake City metro area, a heavily Mormon area, among the top 10 metropolitan areas for subscription rates.
"My cynical theory is that it's the Californians that move in," he said.
Some academics have shied away from using stolen data, such as the account information from the Ashley Madison hack.
Mr. Chohaney, who at age 27 is months from completing his doctoral degree in spatially integrated social science, said he's already received negative comments about the research.
He has a simple response. The data is freely available to download, and he and Ms. Panozzo, who recently completed her master's degree in geography and planning, took care to analyze the information without identifying anyone in the research.
"We are looking to use hacked data as a really unique source of knowledge creation because, otherwise, social science kind of stagnates," he said.
Mr. Chohaney contends researchers "have a duty" to make new knowledge available.
He noted that the field of geography which, along with anthropology, economics, and sociology constitutes his interdisciplinary studies, is notably adverse to risky research.
Social scientists who study people and their behavior are going to have to follow Mr. Chohaney's lead, said David Nemeth, a professor in UT's department of geography and planning who has mentored the doctoral student.
This kind of "big data research" pushes the envelope, said Mr. Nemeth, who called the study "provocative."
"He's adventurous, and it takes a pioneer," Mr. Nemeth said.
Mr. Chohaney said it was his co-author who told him about the Ashley Madison data dump, sparking the idea for their project.
"We both kind of looked at each other with a light bulb over our head and said, 'They have address information. We could put this on a map,' " he said.
They started their work in September, 2015, and the resulting paper was recently published online in the journal Geographical Review.
An Ashley Madison representative could not be reached for comment.
___
This story has been corrected to show the reporter was Vanessa McCray.
___
Information from: The Blade, http://www.toledoblade.com/
FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy is injured after being accidentally shot by an uncle playing with a gun in St. Louis County.
The shooting happened Sunday night at an apartment complex in north St. Louis County. Police say a 20-year-old man was playing with a gun when it went off, striking the child.
The boy is hospitalized and expected to survive. His name and the name of the uncle have not been released, but police are expected to pursue charges.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An internal investigation of the Kansas National Guard has raised alarms about leadership problems that include instances of enlistment document forgery and racism.
Guard officers found evidence that confidential information about the inquiry was leaked to people under scrutiny and retaliation occurred against individuals cooperating with the investigation, according to documents obtained by The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/2jr7ZYY ).
The Air Guard one-star general and Army Guard lieutenant colonel who led the investigation separately concluded the Kansas National Guard was being damaged by "toxic" leadership. Both investigating officers urged Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli to end management culture that protects wrongdoers and to demonstrate fair treatment was available to all in the Kansas Guard.
Tafanelli, who as Kansas' adjutant general has served as commander of the Kansas Army and Air Guard since 2011, declined to be interviewed by the newspaper but responded in an opinion page column.
"Unfortunately, there are a few that will choose to act in an inappropriate manner and bring discredit to themselves and their service," Tafanelli said. "When this occurs, we work to thoroughly and impartially investigate those instances and take action to address these behaviors where necessary and when appropriate."
The investigation started in 2013 amid renewed allegations that Guard recruiters were pressured by superiors to forge documents to clear unqualified applicants or speed processing of paperwork. The inquiry was closed in 2015.
Investigators recommended discipline for five individuals ranging in rank from a first sergeant to a one-star general, for violating "trust and confidence of our soldiers" and disrupting the "important mission of enlisting soldiers into our ranks." Recommendations involved denial of promotion, reduction in rank, job reassignment and forced retirement.
Several under scrutiny eventually retired with full pomp and ceremony. And a white officer accused of inflaming racial tension was among those promoted or able to retain prestigious assignments.
Tod Bunting, a retired major general in the Kansas Air Guard who served as adjutant general from 2004 to 2011 under Democratic Govs. Kathleen Sebelius and Mark Parkinson, told the newspaper that Guard members and retirees who complained faced retaliation by superiors and pressure to leave.
"There are people internally who are fed up, but they are so intimidated," he said.
Gov. Sam Brownback said Sunday he would "maintain full support" for Tafanelli, whom he appointed.
___
Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com
MASON, Mich. (AP) — A new Michigan sheriff has put himself behind bars to help learn more about how his county jail works.
Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth and Undersheriff Andrew Bouck checked themselves into the Ingham County Jail in Mason on Sunday evening.
In a statement, the sheriff's office says they were booked into the jail, given jumpsuits and are currently lodged at the facility. They're planning to stay there until Tuesday morning and, until that time, they're expected to be treated like other jail inmates.
Wriggelsworth says the temporary stay will "provide a great snapshot of housing conditions, jail rules and regulations and the overall incarceration experience." He says "some people will question the move, and maybe our sanity," but he thinks it will be a good experience.
- By ROB STROUD Mattoon Journal Gazette and (Charleston) Times-Courier
ARCOLA, Ill. (AP) — The two prairie falcons that are roosting in a crab apple stump east of Humboldt have become celebrities among the bird-watching community.
These prairie falcons were the top billed attraction on an Illinois Ornithological Society field trip that Tyler Funk of Charleston led Saturday. Funk said he and the other bird watchers were unable to spot the falcons, but did see a snowy owl and a variety of water fowl during their trip in East Central Illinois.
Funk, 55, said he started bird watching when he was child but had never seen a prairie falcon in his native Coles County until 2010. He said these falcons typically reside in open country with low lying vegetation in the western United States.
"The prairie falcons are considered to be a rare bird for Illinois," Funk said. The bird watcher added that he and the Illinois Ornithological Society are studying the two prairie falcons to determine what has brought them to Coles County.
In 2012, Funk first spotted this pair of falcons. With the help of other bird watchers, Funk said he searched for the roosting site that winter and eventually narrowed down his search area to a crab apple stump near Walnut Grove Christian Church, which has a rural Arcola address.
Funk said he has been watching the two prairie falcons every winter since then. He said these falcons tend to have a high degree of fidelity for their nesting and winter roosting sites, so he believes the same pair has been returning to the crab apple stump year after year.
Two years ago, Funk placed a trail camera near the stump. Funk said he has been taking photos of the prairie falcons, plus videos of them preening and stretching. Funk said he might otherwise only get glimpses of the falcons as they fly a few feet above fields in search of small birds and rodents.
"The video has made for a much better learning experience than just capturing still images," Funk said. "Having those close images has been just a lot more fun for appreciating how pretty they are and learning how they behave."
Funk said he has been posting information about the pair of prairie falcons on the eBird online checklist for bird watching. He said this has caught the attention of bird watchers nationwide who are looking to add prairie falcons to their "life lists" of birds they have seen in the wild.
Bird watchers from as far away as New York, Ohio and Michigan have stopped by to look for the two falcons in recent years, Funk said. He estimated that he has taken more than 100 requests to guide visitors to the crab apple stump, including many visitors from the Chicago area.
"They don't get a lot of the woodland birds we get here in Central Illinois," Funk said of the Chicago area.
The Illinois Ornithological Society decided to organize Saturday's field trip to give more bird watchers an opportunity to look for the pair of prairie falcons, Funk said. Despite the frigid weather, Funk said the trip drew six participants for the full day and another six joined up in the late afternoon.
Funk said they did not spot the prairie falcons in the vicinity of the crab apple stump but nearby they did see a snowy owl, which is also rare to the area.
In addition, the field trip group went on a sparrow spotting walk at the Larry Closson Habitat Area near Hindsboro and counted trumpeter swans and other waterfowl at the Universal Mines quarry in eastern Edgar County.
Funk said he and other bird watchers are always looking to see new birds and familiar favorites, and to learn more about their appearance, calls, behavior and habitats.
"It really becomes a lifelong learning experience about the birds," Funk said.
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Source: Mattoon Journal Gazette and (Charleston) Times-Courier, http://bit.ly/2i9v79l
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Information from: Mattoon Journal-Gazette, http://www.jg-tc.com
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Indiana State Police say a man has died after two sheriff's deputies subdued him using stun guns.
Police say 34-year-old Jason Schmidt of Craigville died Sunday.
Schmidt was huffing aerosol dusting spray and was incoherent with shallow and labored breathing when Wells County sheriff's deputies arrived at his home early Sunday.
Police say Schmidt became physically combative when they tried to take the aerosol can from him. One deputy fired his stun gun at Schmidt, but it was ineffective. Authorities say another deputy then fired his stun gun so Schmidt could be handcuffed.
Police say medics took Schmidt to a hospital for medical clearance before taking him to jail, but he died at the hospital.
An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
Craigville is about 100 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
VALLEY CITY, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Highway Patrol says a woman was killed when her car vaulted off an interstate overpass and became wedged between the bridge deck and the underpass below.
The patrol says the woman was driving east on Interstate 94 near Valley City Sunday evening when her car flew over the guardrail. WDAY-TV (http://bit.ly/2i5LAjV ) reports the woman was extricated from the vehicle and taken to a Valley City hospital where she was pronounced dead.
It's not clear whether travel conditions played a role in the crash.
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Information from: WDAY-TV, http://wday.com
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