Kiss of death; buck stuck; no Thanksgiving dinner
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Odd and interesting news from around the West.
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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court has ruled a fellow justice illegally accepted a "no contest" plea while overseeing a sexual assault case in 2015.
Justices vacated Gary Hansen's 60-year prison sentence for raping an 8-year-old girl in 2006 and sent the case back to District Court in Great Falls where Hansen can enter a legal plea, reach a new plea agreement or take the case to trial.
The justices, in a Nov. 14 opinion, found then-District Judge Dirk Sandefur violated a state law that prohibits "no contest" pleas in cases involving sexual offenses. Hansen, who is now 61, was charged in in 2013. The plea agreement was reached in June 2015, just before his trial was to begin.
Sandefur was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in January 2017.
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PHOENIX (AP) — Large new overhead signs have been placed on Interstate 17 bridges in Phoenix to warn drivers going the wrong direction.
The state Department of Transportation says the 26 new signs are part of an effort to curtail wrong-way freeway crashes that have killed at least eight people in Arizona this year.
The overhead signs face the wrong direction of traffic and are located on the same 15-mile stretch of I-17 where ADOT is installing a system to use thermal cameras and other technology to detect wrong-way drivers and provide alerts to troopers and other drivers.
Other steps already taken to warn wrong-way drivers include placing large "wrong way" signs on Phoenix-area off-ramps and large white arrows in exit ramps' travel lanes to indicate the correct direction of travel.
- By BRADY McCOMBS Associated Press
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man accused of helping run a multimillion-dollar opioid drug ring based out of a suburban Salt Lake City basement lost his bid Tuesday to get out of jail pending trial.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said Tuesday in a ruling that he worries 31-year-old Drew Wilson Crandall would go back to running an online operation that poses "life-threatening danger to the community."
Prosecutors said Monday during a hearing about Crandall's detention that authorities are investigating 28 overdose deaths that could be connected to the ring. No charges have been filed in the deaths, but prosecutor Michael Gadd brought it up as part of his argument that Crandall should stay in jail as the investigation is ongoing.
Crandall's parents, active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he could live with them and work for the mother's catering business while out on supervised release. They also offered to put up their dream house in the middle-class Salt Lake City suburb of Draper as collateral if he's released.
Kimball noted the Crandall's strong family network, but said it would be difficult for them to monitor the activity of their son who has a history of keeping his parents in the dark by portraying himself in "the best possible light to his parents while acting in his own self-interest."
"It was obvious to the court that defendant's parents are good and honorable people who have repeatedly helped their son through challenges. The court also does not doubt that defendant's parents would be honest and forthcoming with any difficulties that may arise during a pretrial release," Kimball wrote. "But defendant's parents' law-abiding conduct is not transferrable to defendant."
Kimball also justified his decision by citing the serious nature of the charges, the fact that Crandall participated in the ring for more than one year and allegations he obstructed the government's investigation.
Prosecutors say Crandall helped alleged ringleader Aaron Shamo in selling the powerful opioid fentanyl online in a scheme that once raked in $2.8 million. They say he provided customer service in online sales of the powerful opioid fentanyl disguised as prescription drug pills on the dark web — an area of the internet often used for illegal activity.
Lawyers for Crandall, though, said prosecutors haven't shown evidence linking him to those deaths. He's been painted as a criminal mastermind when he actually made less than $65,000 during the two years he worked for a longtime friend, defense attorney Jim Bradshaw said.
Crandall has been indicted on three counts, and faces a minimum of 10 years in prison if convicted on one, conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.
- GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison Tuesday on a drug conspiracy charge after her inmate boyfriend died from a meth-laden kiss after a prison visit.
U.S. District Court Judge Marco Hernandez also ordered Melissa Ann Blair, 46, of Clackamas to complete three years of post-release supervision and to participate in drug treatment and mental health programs.
Blair visited her boyfriend, Anthony Powell, at the Oregon State Penitentiary on June 2, 2016, where he was serving a life sentence for aggravated murder in the stabbing death of his mother-in-law, according to court records.
At the end of the visit, Blair and Powell, 41, shared a long kiss and Blair passed seven tiny balloons filled with methamphetamine into Powell's mouth. Two of the balloons ruptured in Powell's stomach a short time later and he died of methamphetamine toxicity, prosecutors have said.
In issuing his sentence, Hernandez said Blair's actions were part of a scheme devised by Powell and others to get drugs inside the prison. There was dispute as to whether Blair participated of her own free will but Powell nonetheless shared responsibility for his own death, Hernandez said.
"It was tragic and sad but he shares responsibility for what happened," the judge said.
Blair declined to make a statement during the hearing. Her sister, who attended the hearing, declined to comment.
Blair felt coerced by Powell even though he was behind bars, her attorney, John Ransom, said outside court. She used methamphetamine but was not addicted, he said.
"It was a very Svengali-type situation where he had total control over her life," Ransom said. "She had to do whatever he said."
Powell's close friend, Brandy Pokovich, attended the hearing and said she became pen pals with him after Powell wrote to her husband — a former inmate — and she replied to him instead. Over a dozen years, she said, they formed a deep bond through letters, phone calls and visits.
She called herself Powell's "sister by choice" and believed he felt remorse for his crime, she told the judge.
"Now, because of the choices that were made, I no longer can pick up the phone and hear his voice, I can't go on a visit and see his big cheesy smile and get the best hug in the world," she said in a witness impact statement.
"He was not just an inmate. He was a very loved and cared for person who had a family that would always be there no matter what."
Outside court, Pokovich said she helped Powell find girlfriends from behind bars by using her social media accounts and introduced him to Blair.
Like Blair, the other four defendants in the case have pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge and will be sentenced in the coming weeks.
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Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus
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LAYTON, Utah (AP) — Authorities say a Layton couple that won $10,400 worth of groceries at a store-opening in Utah face felony charges alleging the theft of more than $5,000 worth of merchandise from another store.
The Deseret News reports the WinCo Foods store in South Salt Lake surprised Nicholas and Stephanie Mannino on Friday with the award of a year's worth of groceries through Operation HomeFront.
The program partners with stores to honor military families, and Nicholas Mannino retired as a corporal in 2007 after six years in the U.S. Army.
The newspaper says that on Thursday, the two pleaded not guilty in a Farmington courtroom to felony theft charges alleging they systematically stole items from a department store where Stepanie Mannino worked as a cashier.
Their attorney, Paul Remy, declined to comment Saturday, and the couple didn't respond Monday to a request for comment.
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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — The latest data shows Nevada recreational marijuana sales continue to surge.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports data released Monday by the Nevada Department of Taxation says the state's licensed and regulated cannabis dispensaries sold approximately $27.7 million in recreational marijuana in September. That's more than $5 million more than Nevada's projected sales for the month.
That's down from August's sales numbers, which topped $33 million, and slightly up from July's $27 million.
September's sales equated to $2.77 million in taxes going to the state's rainy day fund through the 10 percent excise tax.
The state has generated more than $12.5 million in taxes from the marijuana industry through its first three months since recreational sales started July 1.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Researchers say the ZIP code containing the highest number of registered hobbyist drone users in the country is in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports drone researchers at Bard College in New York analyzed data from the Federal Aviation Administration, finding the 89117 ZIP code had 672 hobbyist drone registrations.
The residential area west of the Las Vegas Strip had about 200 more hobbyist users than the next highest Zip code, which was in a Houston suburb.
Researchers say there are 836,796 hobbyist drone users and 106,739 non-hobbyist users registered across the country as of last month.
Michael Sherwood, who is the city's director of information technologies, says the findings speak well for Las Vegas as a community that embraces new technology.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
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SEATTLE (AP) — One of three elderly Seattle brothers accused in a child pornography case has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
KOMO-TV reports that 79-year-old Edwin Emery entered a guilty plea to two counts second-degree child pornography in King County Superior Court. He is to be sentenced Dec. 22.
Charges against 82-year-old Charles Emery were dropped last month after a judge ruled that he lacks the capacity to understand the proceedings and assist in his own defense. The third brother, 80-year-old Thomas Emery, is due in court Nov. 28.
Investigators said a relative discovered evidence of child exploitation as she was cleaning out the garage of a home her three uncles had shared for 55 years.
When Seattle police searched the home, they said they found it packed floor-to-ceiling with child pornography and children's toys and clothes — though the men have no children of their own.
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Information from: KOMO-TV, http://www.komotv.com/
- By ERIC RISBERG Associated Press
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YOUNTVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Mention Julia Child and the image that comes to mind is a tall woman with a spoon in one hand, saying in a high voice, "Bon appetit!"
That was Child in her heyday as a 1960s TV show host teaching Americans the art of French cooking. But a new photo exhibit at California's Napa Valley Museum Yountville documents her life in France in the years before she hosted one of America's most popular TV cooking shows.
Child, a graduate of Smith College, worked during World War II for the agency that was the predecessor of the CIA. In 1946, she married Paul Child, who worked as a cultural attache at the U.S. embassy in Paris while his wife learned how to cook at the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, subsequently studying with several famous chefs.
That period of her life was documented by Paul Child and is the subject of the show, "France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child." The exhibit was inspired and shown in conjunction with the release of the book "France is a Feast" by Paul Child's great-nephew, Alex Prud'homme, and Katie Pratt, the Childs' longtime friend, who also curated the exhibit.
The exhibit features 60 rarely seen black-and-white photographs taken between 1948 and 1954 along with notebooks, logs, letters and a Rolleiflex camera that Paul Child liked to use because it allowed him to look down and capture people unobtrusively.
"Julia and Paul loved France, especially Paris," said Pratt. She explained that the couple often took walks on weekends, and Paul would look for subjects that appealed to him, including architecture, rivers, fisherman, children and cats. Since Julia was 6 foot 2 (1.9 meters), she could help him take pictures by blocking the sun. Her role, as she told Pratt, often was that of a prop.
Other pictures range from her early cooking years to art shots like one of her legs in a telephone booth beneath a bright light. Photos of daily life show her looking down from the top of a spiral staircase, sitting in their living room with their cat, picnicking, and on their many trips traveling the countryside visiting castles. On the back wall of the exhibit is a large "selfie" of Paul and Julia sitting on their porch in Marseille, having a lunch of wine and mussels. Also in the exhibit is a cameo (nude) silhouette of Julia looking out a window with a reflection in a mirror.
Through his work at the embassy, Paul met and was influenced by many photographers of the day including Edward Weston, Man Ray and Brassai. Through Pierre Gassmann, the master printer who founded Pictorial Service and did Paul's darkroom work, he met and was influenced by Henri Cartier Bresson and Robert Capa.
Prud'homme said Paul was "talented, methodical in his work and happened to be in the right place at the right time." He said his best pictures "combine abstraction and reality with a narrative behind them. For example, a photo of hanging laundry represents the people that wear the clothes even if the people aren't in the clothes in the photo. On the one hand, they are a formal study of slope and texture and light and dark, but on the other hand, they tell a story about the people that used that laundry — looking at laundry like peeping through a keyhole."
Both Pratt and Prud'homme said the Childs — he died in 1994, she in 2004 — would have loved the exhibit. "Paul was a modest guy, but I think he was ambitious for his work," said Prud'homme. "He had several shows. Edward Steichen picked some of his pictures for MOMA," New York's Museum of Modern Art.
The Yountville museum is in the heart of the Napa Valley and not far from Thomas Keller's French Laundry restaurant and just above the Domaine Chandon winery. "Being in Yountville, which is one of the top culinary destinations in the world, that there's such interest and passion for it here, we thought it was the perfect subject matter," said museum director Laura Rafaty.
Plans are under way to take the exhibit to 10 other cities.
"Julia felt he never got the credit he deserved in his lifetime, and so when Katie suggested to Julia near the end of her life that we do a book of photos as a tribute to Paul, she immediately said yes," said Prud'homme, "and she would be thrilled to see this."
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If You Go...
FRANCE IS A FEAST: Julia Child photo exhibit through Feb. 18 at Napa Valley Museum Yountville, 55 Presidents Circle, Yountville, California; http://www.napavalleymuseum.org or 707-944-0500. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Adults, $10.
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KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — A deer attacking parked cars in Klamath Falls was finally stopped when it charged a sheriff's office patrol vehicle.
The Herald and News reports the buck got its head and antlers stuck in the driver's side front wheel well.
The deer was sedated with a tranquilizer. Once the animal was calm, authorities removed him from the awkward spot.
Donna Ross witnessed Saturday's incident. She says the buck was "assumed to be rabid, or at least really really mad."
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Information from: Herald and News, http://www.heraldandnews.com
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CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming church is ending a 33-year Thanksgiving Day tradition.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports Unity Missionary Baptist Church in Cheyenne recently voted to stop preparing and serving its free annual Thanksgiving Day meal.
The church took out an advertisement in Sunday's Wyoming Tribune Eagle to announce it would not serve the meals to the community this year or in future years after "joyfully providing free meals" to Cheyenne for three decades.
The advertisement says the difficult decision by the congregation is due to "an aging and declining church membership and other factors beyond our control that would greatly impact the overall quality of the dinner."
The Thanksgiving Day meals were meant for the sick, the homebound, singles and those who would be without their families on Thanksgiving Day.
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Information from: Wyoming Tribune Eagle, http://www.wyomingnews.com
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SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle City Council has passed a 2018 budget that includes $1.3 million to create what could be the nation's first authorized safe-injection site for drug users.
The Seattle Times reports that the $5.6 billion budget approved Monday also increases city spending on programs that address homelessness to $63 million, a nearly 40 percent jump over four years ago.
King County is considering two supervised sites where people can use heroin and other drugs under the care of trained staff that can treat an overdose if necessary. One will be in Seattle and the other outside the city.
Seattle's budget requires city departments to do a feasibility study on siting the facility in Seattle.
Mayor Tim Burgess said he'll sign the budget Wednesday.
Supporters say such sites are needed to help fight the opioid epidemic. Critics argue they undermine prevention and treatment.
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FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A man from Las Vegas is dead after chasing after a dog that ran onto Interstate 25 in northern Colorado.
The Colorado State Patrol says 39-year-old Jason Schaefer was riding in a pickup with a woman Sunday evening when they had a dispute and she pulled over on the interstate in Fort Collins.
The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports the dog jumped out and Schaefer ran after it. A Walmart semitrailer hit and killed both the man and the dog.
The unidentified 37-year-old driver of the truck, who was from Nevada, was taken to the hospital.
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Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com
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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Santa Fe woman was sentenced to three years of supervised probation after police say she drove while intoxicated with her 9-month-old granddaughter in a car seat dangling from an open car door.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports 65-year-old Bertha Boling was sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to driving while intoxicated and no contest to a child abuse charge.
Police say Boling's daughter was going to drive her mother home in July, so she placed the baby in the car seat. After the women entered into an argument, Boling got into the pickup truck to drive away.
Police say the daughter attempted to pull her child out, but the seat became stuck. Other drivers blocked the pickup's path a short distance away, and the baby was unharmed.
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Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, http://www.sfnewmexican.com
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SEATTLE (AP) — Snohomish County, Washington, has decided to treat its opioid crisis as a natural disaster.
KING-TV reported Monday that the Department of Emergency Management is partially activating its Emergency Coordination Center in response to Snohomish County's opioid crisis.
County Executive Dave Somers says that if the opioid crisis were any other disaster, the number of its victims would have already constituted emergency tools.
KING-TV reports that about 2 million dirty needles have been picked up across Snohomish County this year. Overdoses now make up 25 percent of all cases seen by the county's medical examiner.
The county's designation of the crisis means efforts to stop it will be more coordinated. Deputies and social workers will share data and information to see what's working.
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Information from: KING-TV, http://www.king5.com/
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court has ruled a fellow justice illegally accepted a "no contest" plea while overseeing a sexual assault case in 2015.
Justices vacated Gary Hansen's 60-year prison sentence for raping an 8-year-old girl in 2006 and sent the case back to District Court in Great Falls where Hansen can enter a legal plea, reach a new plea agreement or take the case to trial.
The justices, in a Nov. 14 opinion, found then-District Judge Dirk Sandefur violated a state law that prohibits "no contest" pleas in cases involving sexual offenses. Hansen, who is now 61, was charged in in 2013. The plea agreement was reached in June 2015, just before his trial was to begin.
Sandefur was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in January 2017.
PHOENIX (AP) — Large new overhead signs have been placed on Interstate 17 bridges in Phoenix to warn drivers going the wrong direction.
The state Department of Transportation says the 26 new signs are part of an effort to curtail wrong-way freeway crashes that have killed at least eight people in Arizona this year.
The overhead signs face the wrong direction of traffic and are located on the same 15-mile stretch of I-17 where ADOT is installing a system to use thermal cameras and other technology to detect wrong-way drivers and provide alerts to troopers and other drivers.
Other steps already taken to warn wrong-way drivers include placing large "wrong way" signs on Phoenix-area off-ramps and large white arrows in exit ramps' travel lanes to indicate the correct direction of travel.
- By BRADY McCOMBS Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man accused of helping run a multimillion-dollar opioid drug ring based out of a suburban Salt Lake City basement lost his bid Tuesday to get out of jail pending trial.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said Tuesday in a ruling that he worries 31-year-old Drew Wilson Crandall would go back to running an online operation that poses "life-threatening danger to the community."
Prosecutors said Monday during a hearing about Crandall's detention that authorities are investigating 28 overdose deaths that could be connected to the ring. No charges have been filed in the deaths, but prosecutor Michael Gadd brought it up as part of his argument that Crandall should stay in jail as the investigation is ongoing.
Crandall's parents, active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he could live with them and work for the mother's catering business while out on supervised release. They also offered to put up their dream house in the middle-class Salt Lake City suburb of Draper as collateral if he's released.
Kimball noted the Crandall's strong family network, but said it would be difficult for them to monitor the activity of their son who has a history of keeping his parents in the dark by portraying himself in "the best possible light to his parents while acting in his own self-interest."
"It was obvious to the court that defendant's parents are good and honorable people who have repeatedly helped their son through challenges. The court also does not doubt that defendant's parents would be honest and forthcoming with any difficulties that may arise during a pretrial release," Kimball wrote. "But defendant's parents' law-abiding conduct is not transferrable to defendant."
Kimball also justified his decision by citing the serious nature of the charges, the fact that Crandall participated in the ring for more than one year and allegations he obstructed the government's investigation.
Prosecutors say Crandall helped alleged ringleader Aaron Shamo in selling the powerful opioid fentanyl online in a scheme that once raked in $2.8 million. They say he provided customer service in online sales of the powerful opioid fentanyl disguised as prescription drug pills on the dark web — an area of the internet often used for illegal activity.
Lawyers for Crandall, though, said prosecutors haven't shown evidence linking him to those deaths. He's been painted as a criminal mastermind when he actually made less than $65,000 during the two years he worked for a longtime friend, defense attorney Jim Bradshaw said.
Crandall has been indicted on three counts, and faces a minimum of 10 years in prison if convicted on one, conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.
- GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison Tuesday on a drug conspiracy charge after her inmate boyfriend died from a meth-laden kiss after a prison visit.
U.S. District Court Judge Marco Hernandez also ordered Melissa Ann Blair, 46, of Clackamas to complete three years of post-release supervision and to participate in drug treatment and mental health programs.
Blair visited her boyfriend, Anthony Powell, at the Oregon State Penitentiary on June 2, 2016, where he was serving a life sentence for aggravated murder in the stabbing death of his mother-in-law, according to court records.
At the end of the visit, Blair and Powell, 41, shared a long kiss and Blair passed seven tiny balloons filled with methamphetamine into Powell's mouth. Two of the balloons ruptured in Powell's stomach a short time later and he died of methamphetamine toxicity, prosecutors have said.
In issuing his sentence, Hernandez said Blair's actions were part of a scheme devised by Powell and others to get drugs inside the prison. There was dispute as to whether Blair participated of her own free will but Powell nonetheless shared responsibility for his own death, Hernandez said.
"It was tragic and sad but he shares responsibility for what happened," the judge said.
Blair declined to make a statement during the hearing. Her sister, who attended the hearing, declined to comment.
Blair felt coerced by Powell even though he was behind bars, her attorney, John Ransom, said outside court. She used methamphetamine but was not addicted, he said.
"It was a very Svengali-type situation where he had total control over her life," Ransom said. "She had to do whatever he said."
Powell's close friend, Brandy Pokovich, attended the hearing and said she became pen pals with him after Powell wrote to her husband — a former inmate — and she replied to him instead. Over a dozen years, she said, they formed a deep bond through letters, phone calls and visits.
She called herself Powell's "sister by choice" and believed he felt remorse for his crime, she told the judge.
"Now, because of the choices that were made, I no longer can pick up the phone and hear his voice, I can't go on a visit and see his big cheesy smile and get the best hug in the world," she said in a witness impact statement.
"He was not just an inmate. He was a very loved and cared for person who had a family that would always be there no matter what."
Outside court, Pokovich said she helped Powell find girlfriends from behind bars by using her social media accounts and introduced him to Blair.
Like Blair, the other four defendants in the case have pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge and will be sentenced in the coming weeks.
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Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus
LAYTON, Utah (AP) — Authorities say a Layton couple that won $10,400 worth of groceries at a store-opening in Utah face felony charges alleging the theft of more than $5,000 worth of merchandise from another store.
The Deseret News reports the WinCo Foods store in South Salt Lake surprised Nicholas and Stephanie Mannino on Friday with the award of a year's worth of groceries through Operation HomeFront.
The program partners with stores to honor military families, and Nicholas Mannino retired as a corporal in 2007 after six years in the U.S. Army.
The newspaper says that on Thursday, the two pleaded not guilty in a Farmington courtroom to felony theft charges alleging they systematically stole items from a department store where Stepanie Mannino worked as a cashier.
Their attorney, Paul Remy, declined to comment Saturday, and the couple didn't respond Monday to a request for comment.
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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The latest data shows Nevada recreational marijuana sales continue to surge.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports data released Monday by the Nevada Department of Taxation says the state's licensed and regulated cannabis dispensaries sold approximately $27.7 million in recreational marijuana in September. That's more than $5 million more than Nevada's projected sales for the month.
That's down from August's sales numbers, which topped $33 million, and slightly up from July's $27 million.
September's sales equated to $2.77 million in taxes going to the state's rainy day fund through the 10 percent excise tax.
The state has generated more than $12.5 million in taxes from the marijuana industry through its first three months since recreational sales started July 1.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Researchers say the ZIP code containing the highest number of registered hobbyist drone users in the country is in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports drone researchers at Bard College in New York analyzed data from the Federal Aviation Administration, finding the 89117 ZIP code had 672 hobbyist drone registrations.
The residential area west of the Las Vegas Strip had about 200 more hobbyist users than the next highest Zip code, which was in a Houston suburb.
Researchers say there are 836,796 hobbyist drone users and 106,739 non-hobbyist users registered across the country as of last month.
Michael Sherwood, who is the city's director of information technologies, says the findings speak well for Las Vegas as a community that embraces new technology.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
SEATTLE (AP) — One of three elderly Seattle brothers accused in a child pornography case has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
KOMO-TV reports that 79-year-old Edwin Emery entered a guilty plea to two counts second-degree child pornography in King County Superior Court. He is to be sentenced Dec. 22.
Charges against 82-year-old Charles Emery were dropped last month after a judge ruled that he lacks the capacity to understand the proceedings and assist in his own defense. The third brother, 80-year-old Thomas Emery, is due in court Nov. 28.
Investigators said a relative discovered evidence of child exploitation as she was cleaning out the garage of a home her three uncles had shared for 55 years.
When Seattle police searched the home, they said they found it packed floor-to-ceiling with child pornography and children's toys and clothes — though the men have no children of their own.
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Information from: KOMO-TV, http://www.komotv.com/
- By ERIC RISBERG Associated Press
YOUNTVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Mention Julia Child and the image that comes to mind is a tall woman with a spoon in one hand, saying in a high voice, "Bon appetit!"
That was Child in her heyday as a 1960s TV show host teaching Americans the art of French cooking. But a new photo exhibit at California's Napa Valley Museum Yountville documents her life in France in the years before she hosted one of America's most popular TV cooking shows.
Child, a graduate of Smith College, worked during World War II for the agency that was the predecessor of the CIA. In 1946, she married Paul Child, who worked as a cultural attache at the U.S. embassy in Paris while his wife learned how to cook at the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, subsequently studying with several famous chefs.
That period of her life was documented by Paul Child and is the subject of the show, "France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child." The exhibit was inspired and shown in conjunction with the release of the book "France is a Feast" by Paul Child's great-nephew, Alex Prud'homme, and Katie Pratt, the Childs' longtime friend, who also curated the exhibit.
The exhibit features 60 rarely seen black-and-white photographs taken between 1948 and 1954 along with notebooks, logs, letters and a Rolleiflex camera that Paul Child liked to use because it allowed him to look down and capture people unobtrusively.
"Julia and Paul loved France, especially Paris," said Pratt. She explained that the couple often took walks on weekends, and Paul would look for subjects that appealed to him, including architecture, rivers, fisherman, children and cats. Since Julia was 6 foot 2 (1.9 meters), she could help him take pictures by blocking the sun. Her role, as she told Pratt, often was that of a prop.
Other pictures range from her early cooking years to art shots like one of her legs in a telephone booth beneath a bright light. Photos of daily life show her looking down from the top of a spiral staircase, sitting in their living room with their cat, picnicking, and on their many trips traveling the countryside visiting castles. On the back wall of the exhibit is a large "selfie" of Paul and Julia sitting on their porch in Marseille, having a lunch of wine and mussels. Also in the exhibit is a cameo (nude) silhouette of Julia looking out a window with a reflection in a mirror.
Through his work at the embassy, Paul met and was influenced by many photographers of the day including Edward Weston, Man Ray and Brassai. Through Pierre Gassmann, the master printer who founded Pictorial Service and did Paul's darkroom work, he met and was influenced by Henri Cartier Bresson and Robert Capa.
Prud'homme said Paul was "talented, methodical in his work and happened to be in the right place at the right time." He said his best pictures "combine abstraction and reality with a narrative behind them. For example, a photo of hanging laundry represents the people that wear the clothes even if the people aren't in the clothes in the photo. On the one hand, they are a formal study of slope and texture and light and dark, but on the other hand, they tell a story about the people that used that laundry — looking at laundry like peeping through a keyhole."
Both Pratt and Prud'homme said the Childs — he died in 1994, she in 2004 — would have loved the exhibit. "Paul was a modest guy, but I think he was ambitious for his work," said Prud'homme. "He had several shows. Edward Steichen picked some of his pictures for MOMA," New York's Museum of Modern Art.
The Yountville museum is in the heart of the Napa Valley and not far from Thomas Keller's French Laundry restaurant and just above the Domaine Chandon winery. "Being in Yountville, which is one of the top culinary destinations in the world, that there's such interest and passion for it here, we thought it was the perfect subject matter," said museum director Laura Rafaty.
Plans are under way to take the exhibit to 10 other cities.
"Julia felt he never got the credit he deserved in his lifetime, and so when Katie suggested to Julia near the end of her life that we do a book of photos as a tribute to Paul, she immediately said yes," said Prud'homme, "and she would be thrilled to see this."
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If You Go...
FRANCE IS A FEAST: Julia Child photo exhibit through Feb. 18 at Napa Valley Museum Yountville, 55 Presidents Circle, Yountville, California; http://www.napavalleymuseum.org or 707-944-0500. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Adults, $10.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — A deer attacking parked cars in Klamath Falls was finally stopped when it charged a sheriff's office patrol vehicle.
The Herald and News reports the buck got its head and antlers stuck in the driver's side front wheel well.
The deer was sedated with a tranquilizer. Once the animal was calm, authorities removed him from the awkward spot.
Donna Ross witnessed Saturday's incident. She says the buck was "assumed to be rabid, or at least really really mad."
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Information from: Herald and News, http://www.heraldandnews.com
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming church is ending a 33-year Thanksgiving Day tradition.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports Unity Missionary Baptist Church in Cheyenne recently voted to stop preparing and serving its free annual Thanksgiving Day meal.
The church took out an advertisement in Sunday's Wyoming Tribune Eagle to announce it would not serve the meals to the community this year or in future years after "joyfully providing free meals" to Cheyenne for three decades.
The advertisement says the difficult decision by the congregation is due to "an aging and declining church membership and other factors beyond our control that would greatly impact the overall quality of the dinner."
The Thanksgiving Day meals were meant for the sick, the homebound, singles and those who would be without their families on Thanksgiving Day.
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Information from: Wyoming Tribune Eagle, http://www.wyomingnews.com
SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle City Council has passed a 2018 budget that includes $1.3 million to create what could be the nation's first authorized safe-injection site for drug users.
The Seattle Times reports that the $5.6 billion budget approved Monday also increases city spending on programs that address homelessness to $63 million, a nearly 40 percent jump over four years ago.
King County is considering two supervised sites where people can use heroin and other drugs under the care of trained staff that can treat an overdose if necessary. One will be in Seattle and the other outside the city.
Seattle's budget requires city departments to do a feasibility study on siting the facility in Seattle.
Mayor Tim Burgess said he'll sign the budget Wednesday.
Supporters say such sites are needed to help fight the opioid epidemic. Critics argue they undermine prevention and treatment.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A man from Las Vegas is dead after chasing after a dog that ran onto Interstate 25 in northern Colorado.
The Colorado State Patrol says 39-year-old Jason Schaefer was riding in a pickup with a woman Sunday evening when they had a dispute and she pulled over on the interstate in Fort Collins.
The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports the dog jumped out and Schaefer ran after it. A Walmart semitrailer hit and killed both the man and the dog.
The unidentified 37-year-old driver of the truck, who was from Nevada, was taken to the hospital.
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Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Santa Fe woman was sentenced to three years of supervised probation after police say she drove while intoxicated with her 9-month-old granddaughter in a car seat dangling from an open car door.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports 65-year-old Bertha Boling was sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to driving while intoxicated and no contest to a child abuse charge.
Police say Boling's daughter was going to drive her mother home in July, so she placed the baby in the car seat. After the women entered into an argument, Boling got into the pickup truck to drive away.
Police say the daughter attempted to pull her child out, but the seat became stuck. Other drivers blocked the pickup's path a short distance away, and the baby was unharmed.
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Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, http://www.sfnewmexican.com
SEATTLE (AP) — Snohomish County, Washington, has decided to treat its opioid crisis as a natural disaster.
KING-TV reported Monday that the Department of Emergency Management is partially activating its Emergency Coordination Center in response to Snohomish County's opioid crisis.
County Executive Dave Somers says that if the opioid crisis were any other disaster, the number of its victims would have already constituted emergency tools.
KING-TV reports that about 2 million dirty needles have been picked up across Snohomish County this year. Overdoses now make up 25 percent of all cases seen by the county's medical examiner.
The county's designation of the crisis means efforts to stop it will be more coordinated. Deputies and social workers will share data and information to see what's working.
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Information from: KING-TV, http://www.king5.com/
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