Tulsa World: Nation Briefs

MAKE US YOUR HOMEPAGE | Saturday, November 21, 2009 | WIRELESS

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Nation Briefs

Russ Arthur, a U.S. Forest Service special agent, points Tuesday to an aerial picture showing the site where investigators believe marijuana growers started an 88,650-acre wildfire in Santa Barbara County, Calif. Steve malone/Santa Barbara News-Press/AP

By Wire Reports
Published: 8/19/2009 2:27 AM
Last Modified: 8/19/2009 4:28 AM

Pot growers suspected of starting Calif. wildfire

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Investigators said Tuesday that they believe marijuana growers with possible ties to Mexican drug cartels caused an 88,650-acre wildfire in Santa Barbara County, and that many more pot farms are hidden in remote areas around the country.

U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Russ Arthur said said an unspecified "cooking device" left at an encampment by suspected drug traffickers sparked the blaze Aug. 8. The fire has scorched more than 137 square miles of brush and timber and threatened two dozen ranches and homes. It was 75 percent contained Tuesday.

Authorities said investigators found about 30,000 marijuana plants and an AK-47 assault rifle near the origin of the blaze in a remote canyon in Los Padres National Forest. Arthur said the plants' quality is similar to marijuana linked to Mexican drug cartels.

Authorities raid house, rescue 19 held for ransom

PHOENIX — Arizona state police said Tuesday that they rescued 19 Mexican men being held for ransom in a drop house in southwestern Phoenix.

Authorities said it's the same house raided last year in a similar case.

Department of Public Safety Officer Robert Bailey said a caller complained to police Monday about ransom demands, prompting federal immigration agents and officers from the department and local police to investigate.

Authorities found the home Tuesday and officers watched as a man drove away in a van. When they

began to follow him, he got in a minor accident and tried to run but was captured.

A SWAT team converged on the home, whose occupants began running away.

Police rescued the hostages and arrested 11 Mexican men suspected of holding them for $2,700 in ransom each.

A 2008 raid on the same house yielded 53 arrests.

Hurricane Bill intensifies, but it's far out in Atlantic

MIAMI, Fla. — Hurricane Bill has become a Category 3 storm far out in the Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday night.

A hurricane hunter plane found that Bill's winds had increased to near 125 mph, making it the first major hurricane of the Atlantic season.

Bill was centered about 635 miles east of the Leeward Islands and was moving west-northwest near 16 mph.

The most significant threat the storm seemed to pose was to Bermuda, which it could pass in three or four days. But it also could move directly between Bermuda and the eastern coast of the U.S. without making landfall.

Woman found stranded on raft after several days

ANAMOSA, Iowa — A 63-year-old woman missing for nearly a week after going fishing has been found alive on a raft caught in a river brush pile.

Clint Schnepp said Tuesday that his mother, Jeanne Schnepp, was found by a fisherman Monday on the Wapsipinicon River. She was sunburned and dehydrated and remained hospitalized. But he said she's doing "remarkably great."

Clint Schnepp said his mother could hear passing cars and people but was caught in a spot where she couldn't be seen.

The Sheriff's Department and other agencies had searched and dragged the river. But Monday, a man who lives and fishes along the river spotted Jeanne Schnepp.

Officials say high water took her raft about a mile downstream, where it became caught in the brush.

Trial ordered in slaying of Kansas online porn model

EL DORADO, Kan. — A suspect in the killing of a Kansas college student who led a secret life as an Internet porn model has pleaded not guilty.

Israel Mireles, 26, entered the plea Tuesday evening after a daylong preliminary hearing in Butler County District Court.

Evidence presented by prosecutors included testimony from friends and witnesses who said they saw the victim, Emily Sander, 18, leave a southeastern Kansas bar with Mireles the night of Nov. 23, 2007. Her body was found six days later, about 50 miles away.

Judge David Ricke ruled there was enough evidence to try Mireles on charges of capital murder, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy. The trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 2.

Pitt turns down bequest from health club killer

PITTSBURGH — The University of Pittsburgh says it won't accept an estimated $225,000 bequest from the gunman who committed suicide after killing three women and wounding nine others at a Pittsburgh-area health club.

Court papers of the intended estate gift were filed Friday by the brother and executor for George Sodini, 48. A university spokesman, Robert Hill, rejected the offer Tuesday.

Two women wounded in the Aug. 4 shooting intend to sue Sodini's estate. The women, Lisa Marie Fleeher and Ashley Ferragonio, filed notices Tuesday in Allegheny County court.

Sodini graduated from Pitt in 1992 and named the school as his beneficiary in a 2007 will.

Handwriting expert says Astor's signature genuine

NEW YORK — A former FBI agent trained in handwriting analysis testified Tuesday that Brooke Astor's signature was not forged when she amended her will at age 102.

"It's my conclusion that it's very probable that the questioned signature is authentic," said Alan Robillard, the first witness called by the defense in the trial over Astor's will.

Astor, a philanthropist and longtime fixture in New York society, died in 2007 at age 105.

Her son Anthony Marshall and estate lawyer, Francis X. Morissey Jr., are on trial in Manhattan state Supreme Court, accused of exploiting her mental decline to secure more of her estimated $180 million fortune.

Woman slain, stuffed in suitcase is former model

BUENA PARK, Calif. — A body that was found stuffed in a suitcase and thrown in an Orange County trash bin has been identified as that of a former swimsuit model who disappeared over the weekend.

Police said Tuesday that the victim, Jasmine Fiore, 28, had been strangled.

Lt. Gary Worrall said police want to speak with Ryan Alexander Jenkins of Alberta, Canada, who reported Fiore missing Saturday night after he reportedly took her to a poker party in San Diego the night before.

Los Angeles police investigators realized Monday evening that the description of the body found Saturday in Buena Park matched the description of Fiore given by her mother. By Wire Reports

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oldrustytulsa, Tulsa (8/19/2009 7:47:46 PM)

Oh, my this pristine wilderness is being burn up by pot growers, from Mexico, where are the tree huggers out there protesting.? Guess some got stoned.

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