August 31, 2016

Republican Meg Whitman makes campaign debut for Hillary Clinton in Colorado

Meg Whitman made her debut on the campaign trail as Hillary Clinton’s most vocal Republican supporter at a Tuesday event in Denver and didn’t mention Donald Trump’s name once.

The Hewlett-Packard executive and former California gubernatorial candidate declared she is “all in” for Clinton. And she made clear in her remarks at Union Station that she doesn’t think Trump is qualified to be president, repeatedly mentioning “temperament” as an important factor.

“If you are a lifelong Republican, it’s hard to come across (the partisan divide),” she said. “But I decided that this year it was clear to me that Secretary Clinton’s temperament, leadership experience and commitment to America’s foundational values make her the far better choice for president.”

The softer tone contrasted with her eye-catching remarks about Trump at a private event in June, in which she compared him to Hitler and Mussolini, and earlier this month when she announced her support for Clinton and called Trump “a dishonest demagogue.”

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/30/meg-whitman-makes-campaign-debut-hillary-clinton-colorado/

August 31, 2016

ColoradoCare would operate in the black for at least 9 years, supporters argue in new analysis

Supporters of ColoradoCare, a ballot measure that would provide health care coverage to everyone in the state, said Tuesday that their system could operate for at least nine years without running a deficit.

The new analysis from the campaign was a response to a report released this month by the independent Colorado Health Institute that showed ColoradoCare operating in the red from the first year on. In its analysis, the pro-ColoradoCare campaign projected that the system could go until 2028 before expenses outweigh revenue. By then, according to the campaign’s analysis, ColoradoCare would be sitting on a nearly $16 billion surplus accrued in previous years.

“ColoradoCare, Amendment 69, will operate in the black,” former state Sen. Jeanne Nicholson, a supporter of the measure, said at a Tuesday news conference.

Unless a person opts to pay extra for a private plan or is already on another government plan — like Medicare — ColoradoCare would pick up the bill for any health care expenses incurred by a Colorado resident.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/30/coloradocare-operate-in-black-new-analysis/

August 31, 2016

United employee charged in $129,000 Denver International Airport jewel heist

Denver police have arrested a United Airlines customer service agent at Denver International Airport who is suspected of stealing a cosmetic case containing $129,000 worth of jewelry after it fell from a traveler’s suitcase.

Commerce City resident Rafael Magana, 42, is charged with one count of felony theft in the case.

Christine Ferer arrived at DIA on an Aug. 8 United flight from Aspen and discovered that the case, which contained diamond earrings worth $35,000 and other expensive jewelry, had fallen from her suitcase, according to a search warrant.

She contacted Aspen-Pitkin County Airport and was told the case had been found and was put on a flight to Denver.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/30/united-employee-charged-dia-jewel-heist/

August 31, 2016

Lawyer: Fugitive polygamist Lyle Jeffs may have been swept away in the rapture

Source: AP

The FBI thinks that Lyle Jeffs, the polygamist religious leader accused in a multimillion-dollar food stamp scheme, disappeared from house arrest this summer by coating his ankle monitor in olive oil and sliding it off.

That explanation may fly with nonbelievers, but in court documents filed last week, Jeffs’s attorney has put forth a divine reason for his disappearance – the miracle of rapture:

“As this Court is well aware, Mr. Jeffs is currently not available to inform his counsel whether or not he agrees to the Continuance. Whether his absence is based on absconding, as oft alleged by the Government in their filings, or whether he was taken and secreted against his will, or whether he experienced the miracle of rapture is unknown to counsel.”

Rapture, for the uninitiated, is the Christian belief that during the second coming of Christ, the holy will be whisked away to heaven.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/30/lawyer-fugitive-polygamist-lyle-jeffs-may-have-been-swept-away-in-the-rapture/

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August 31, 2016

Vladimir Putin nabbed in Florida

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Vladimir Putin has been arrested at a Florida supermarket. No, not THAT Vladimir Putin.

Police in West Palm Beach say a 48-year-old man who shares the name of the Russian president was arrested at a Publix supermarket in the city's downtown on Aug. 21. Police say Putin was screaming at employees and refused to leave the store.

Records with the Palm Beach County sheriff's office show he's charged with trespassing and resisting an officer without violence.

Putin appeared in court Monday morning and was released on his own recognizance.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FLORIDAS_VLADIMIR_PUTIN?SITE=ORGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

August 31, 2016

11 freshmen victims in alleged Philomath hazing, coach charged

PORTLAND — A volunteer football coach and six players for a small town Oregon high school team face criminal charges for a hazing initiation in which 11 freshmen at a summer training camp had intimate parts of their bodies "aggressively targeted," a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The Philomath High School volunteer coach, Cooper Kikuta, has been charged with misdemeanor criminal mistreatment, punishable by up to a year in jail, and the players who allegedly hazed the freshmen are accused of juvenile crimes similar to adult charges of misdemeanor harassment and assault, said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson.

Haroldson said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that sexual abuse charges were not filed because he "didn't see any evidence in the case to indicate that the touching was done for purposes of sexual arousal, but rather it was done in a hazing context."

The alleged hazing happened during the football team's July trip to Camp Rilea on Oregon's northern coast, Haroldson said. The players were targeted "as a form of initiation" and one of the alleged victims was grabbed and held down twice, said Haroldson, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reported.

Read more: http://www.mailtribune.com/news/20160830/11-freshmen-victims-in-alleged-philomath-hazing-coach-charged

August 31, 2016

Rare meeting between Beavers and Gophers

There's not a lot of history between the Oregon State and Minnesota football programs.

The Beavers and Gophers have met three times with Minnesota winning twice but the teams have not played since 1981.

So it stands to reason that OSU fans might not be familiar with the Gophers.

OSU coach Gary Andersen knows the Minnesota program quite well, however. Andersen coached against the Gophers in 2013 and 2014 while he was at Wisconsin.

Read more: http://www.gazettetimes.com/sports/beavers-sports/football/osu-football-rare-meeting-between-beavers-and-gophers/article_d29d6282-3aa5-5312-a934-491aaa003008.html

August 31, 2016

Oregon's road usage charge program gets grant to expand

The Oregon Department of Transportation has received a $2.1 million federal grant to expand its pilot pay-by-the-mile program.

"Our goal is to enroll more vehicles in this program," said Michelle Godfrey with ODOT. "Registrations have started to taper off a little bit."

Volunteers joining the OreGO pay-per-mile program sign up online and work with one of three private business partners to install a small reporting device, sometimes a GPS, in their vehicle. ODOT collects a charge of 1.5 cents per mile and issues drivers a refund of their gas taxes.

The grant funds will be used to develop a manual mileage reporting tracker, work with cities like Salem and Portland to standardize road charge-type services, and work with other states to encourage the growth of pay-by-the-mile programs.

Read more: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2016/08/30/oregons-road-usage-charge-program-gets-grant-expand/89600312/

August 31, 2016

Elected officials reject a proposed plan from residents sseking local control over federal lands

Elected officials in an Oregon county rejected a proposed plan from a group of residents that sought greater local control over the management of federal lands

PRINEVILLE, Ore. — Elected officials in an Oregon county rejected a proposed plan on Tuesday from a group of residents that sought greater local control over the management of federal lands.

The development came as local officials in the West are wrestling with ways to have greater say in how the vast swaths of federal land are managed.

The issue came to a head in adjacent Harney County, where an armed group from out of state seized the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and held it for 41 days.

About half of Crook County in Central Oregon is public land, most of it managed by the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management.

Read more: http://projects.registerguard.com/apf/ore/or-oregon-public-lands-battle/

August 31, 2016

Family of Portland woman killed by ex-boyfriend file a $30M lawsuit against county and halfway house

PORTLAND, Ore. — The family of a Portland woman killed by her ex-boyfriend while he was on work release from a Washington County halfway house has filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against the facility and the county.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports (http://bit.ly/2c79KUm) Eric Petersen is serving a life sentence for the 2014 death of 24-year-old Aimie Zdrantan, who was stabbed in her Hillsboro apartment.

The 26-year-old Peterson had been given a day pass from a minimum-security transitional facility when he violated a restraining order and went to the victim's apartment.

The lawsuit alleges the halfway house's lax policies contributed to Zdrantan's death. It also blames staff for letting Petersen leave without any electronic monitoring.

Read more: http://projects.registerguard.com/apf/ore/or-work-release-killing/