71 year old Fire Commissioner charged with assault
Apr 26, 12:17 AM (ET)

KEY CENTER, Wash. (AP) - A local fire commissioner was charged with assaulting a fellow commissioner with a coffee mug, the latest outbreak in a feud that a sheriff's spokesman says needs to end "before someone gets killed."

The commissioners, 71-year-old Allen Yanity and 64-year-old Jim Bosch, both of Lakebay, got into a heated exchange Tuesday during a break in a meeting as they were standing with their wives, sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said.

Yanity bashed Bosch repeatedly on the head with a coffee mug, Troyer said. A cut on Bosch's head required staples to close, prosecutors said.

Yanity said he didn't know exactly what happened during the struggle but that he might have hit Bosch with a coffee mug, according to prosecutors.

Mapquest Gives Wrong Directions
Apr 26, 5:10 PM (ET)

KIMBERLING CITY, Mo. (AP) - Travelers looking for Ozark Mountain Resort must be disappointed when they pull up to Tish and Lyle Ashley's place. It's a three-bedroom ranch-style home, not a 150-acre vacation spot, and it's on the wrong side of Table Rock Lake.

For the past two years, a lot of visitors have pulled travel trailers and boats up the Ashleys' one-way street - and gotten stuck - thanks to wayward directions from the computer search engine MapQuest.

"We've had them from Nebraska, Wisconsin, Chicago and Minnesota," Tish Ashley said. "I feel sorry for those people who've driven so far and end up on our one-way street in the middle of nowhere."

Man spends windfall and is charged with theft
Apr 27, 3:55 AM (ET)

LA VISTA, Neb. (AP) - A La Vista man was charged with felony theft after he spent $80,000 his bank deposited by mistake in his account.

George J. Costa, 45, is charged with theft of lost or mislaid property. It is a crime to take money that's been "delivered under a mistake."

More than $106,000 was deposited into Costa's account between August 2006 and February after a Pinnacle Bank employee mixed up account numbers, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

The bank was able to recover $26,000 from Costa's account after the mistake was recovered.

"'Finder's keepers' and 'possession is nine-tenths of the law' aren't legal principles," said Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov.

Costa's lawyer, James Martin Davis, said Costa is willing to work out repayment in civil court but shouldn't be charged criminally.

"If somebody sticks money in your pocket and you spend it, you can't be convicted of theft," he said.

1957 Time Capsule Violated
Apr 27, 5:11 PM (ET)

SEATTLE (AP) - There were a few surprises for the University of Washington's Class of 1957 when they opened a time capsule sealed 50 years ago.

Among audiotapes and copies of the yearbook and school newspaper were 1980s-era porn, a condom and some dirty underwear.

Alumni opened the capsule earlier this week in preparation for a public unveiling Saturday during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the university's communications program. The capsule had been placed in an interior wall of the then-new Communications Building in 1957.

The capsule is being replaced by another created by a student-faculty team. "The good news is that all the things that were in there are still there," said Jerry Baldasty, chairman of the Department of Communication. "The interesting news is that some other things were added."

There aren't any suspects in the case. But it was located outside the offices of The Daily - the campus newspaper - and it's assumed someone from the paper was responsible for the revisionism, said communication alumni and development manager Victoria Sprang.

The new capsule will be filled with digital media with a focus on "communication from a global perspective," said Coma Te, a senior among six students who created the new capsule.

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/483/drug_police_corruption

Three police officers and a prison guard arrested, and another prison guard gets sent to prison. Once again, we present the corrosive impact of the drug war on police ethics and morality in all its mundane banality. Let's get to it:

In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the former police chief is charged with leaking word of an impending drug raid. Former Chief Rolf Garcia and his 17-year-old son were arrested April 19 on charges Garcia told his son about a looming raid in February 2006, and his son called four other people to warn them. As a result, two men escaped the residence that was the target of the raid before they could be identified. Garcia told a grand jury that while he never told his son the location of a planned raid, he might have warned him to stay away from a certain area. His son testified that he had provided false information about drug busts in the past to obtain marijuana, but he denied telling anyone about the raid in question. Garcia and his son are charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, while Garcia is also charged with obstruction of justice. A preliminary hearing is set for May 24. [Ed: Whether reformers should be upset about Garcia's actions in this case is another question.]

In Columbus, Ohio, a Columbus police officer has been arrested for cocaine trafficking.?Officer Larry Lightning, a 23-year veteran of the department, was arrested last Friday after a two-year investigation by the Columbus office of the FBI, the Columbus Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the Metro Narcotics Task Force. He faces federal charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base, extortion by a public official, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

In Evansville, Indiana, an Evansville police officer will soon face trial for allegedly stealing money from a drug suspect. Officer Gerald Rainey, 33, faces one count of felony theft for allegedly taking $1,000 out of a backpack containing $19,500, which he seized from a cocaine dealing suspect. The accused dealer cried foul, police investigated, and they found the missing $1,000 in Rainey's patrol car. He faces a June 27 court date.

In Garden City, New York, a New York City jail guard was charged with supplying heroin to the Shinnecock Indian Reservation. Gary Morton, 25, surrendered to state police last Friday as part of the roll-up of a drug distribution network on the reservation, which is on the eastern end of Long Island. Morton was one of more than a dozen people arrested. He is charged with second-degree conspiracy. Authorities planned to arrest him at his job at Rikers Island, but he didn't show up for work, instead turning himself in later that day.

In Sacramento, a former prison guard was sentenced to prison for smuggling methamphetamine in to inmates. John Charles Whittle, 47, a 22-year veteran of the California Department of Corrections, pleaded guilty last month. He was busted after internal affairs agents intercepted a package of meth sent to Whittle's home, then raided the residence after he accepted delivery. The former guard at Mule Creek State Prison admitted to receiving more than $5,000 to smuggle drugs into the prison. He will now serve two years himself.