OSHAWA, Ontario (AP) - A Canadian couple who pleaded guilty to charges they beat and sometimes put their two adopted sons in a cage were sentenced Monday to nine months in jail.
The sentencing judge said the stepparents behavior was cruel, demeaning and damaging.
"Both accused share equal responsibility as parents," Judge Donald Halikowski said. "Both failed."
The couple, who pleaded guilty in January and had been free on bail, were jailed after the sentencing.
The boys were toddlers when they were taken in by the couple, their aunt and uncle.
The woman, 43, and man, 51, pleaded guilty to charges of assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and failure to provide the necessities of life. They cannot be named to protect the identities of the boys, now 17 and 18.
The boys were taken from their home in Blackstock three years ago after a tip from a relative.
Investigators who visited the ramshackle, two-story farmhouse, said one boy was found in a makeshift cage that was strapped to a wall and padlocked.
Although they were allowed to go school, officials said the boys were often tied to their beds and sometimes handcuffed and beaten. They were also not allowed to use the toilet and forced to wear diapers.
SNOHOMISH, Wash. (AP) - Once was not enough for Steven Eastman. After leaping out of an airplane with a parachute on his 94th birthday, he was ready to go skydiving again.
Clad in polyester pants and wingtip shoes, sporting a beret and braided beard, the retired Boeing Co. worker from Renton, Wash., realized a five-year dream when he took the plunge Sunday to the delight - and relief - of his watching children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
"I did it!" Eastman exclaimed. "I want to do it again."
Strapped to a skydiving instructor, Eastman jumped out of the plane 12,000 feet over Harvey Field, spent a minute in free fall, then popped the chute and spent five minutes drifting to the ground.
Upon landing he wobbled to his feet as a relative handed him his bald eagle-handled cane.
"That was wonderful," he said. "I think I should've done it sooner. … OK, let's have some champagne."
Making similar tandem jumps with him were his son, Harold "Hal" Eastman of La Jolla, and a granddaughter, Julie Pech of Denver. Her 9-year-old daughter Brittany also wanted to go but was legally barred because she is under 18.
Nearly 60 members of Eastman's family were in attendance.
Before boarding the plane, the family patriarch said, "I've always heard from people who've done it that they see a new vision of the Earth. It can change your life. I decided I better do it now because I might not be around much longer."
He's the second-oldest person to skydive at Harvey Field. The oldest was a 98-year-old Snohomish man.
"Am I a daredevil?" said Eastman, who wears a heart pacemaker. "Nowadays it's a daredevil thing just to live every day."
MIAMI (AP) - The Miami Herald fired an arts and culture critic after discovering he had copied substantially from articles he had written for other newspapers.
Octavio Roca was dismissed June 28. He joined the Herald last year.
Roca "produced several articles for the Herald that had been copied substantially from those he had written for newspapers where he had previously worked," executive editor Tom Fiedler wrote in a column Sunday.
Roca defended his work, likening it to a college professor delivering the same lecture to a different audience, Fiedler wrote. But Fiedler said the "self-plagiarism" was more akin to a student who turns in the same term paper to multiple classes.
Fiedler wrote that it broke faith with readers "who expect that the articles in the Herald are fresh and timely unless it's otherwise made clear."
The replicated work was brought to the paper's attention about two weeks ago, Fiedler said, and a staff librarian discovered more than half a dozen articles that were similar to his previous work.
Fiedler said most of the articles first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, where Roca was a dance critic before coming to the Herald.
Roca was on vacation abroad when the work was discovered. He was confronted by editors when he returned June 28, Fiedler said.
Roca's number is unlisted and other attempts to reach him Monday were not successful.
He previously worked as a classical music critic for The Washington Post and The Washington Times, and international theater correspondent for the CBC-Radio Canada network.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Sixty years after a fire erupted during a crowded Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus matinee, the city is dedicating a memorial to the 168 people killed when the big top burned to the ground.
An estimated 6,000 spectators - mostly women and children - fled in a panic when the circus tent, waterproofed with paraffin thinned with gasoline, caught fire.
Most of the 168 victims were found piled near an exit blocked by animal cages. Another 700 people were injured in the July 6, 1944, fire.
"You have no idea what the panic was like," said Eunice Groark, the state's former lieutenant governor, who was 6 when she attended the circus with her mother and her mother's nurse. "There was pushing and shoving, people just frantic to get out of there."
Groark said she is still haunted by the screams she heard and the sight of the circus tent, consumed by fire, crashing to the ground and trapping victims underneath.
"I am still terrified. When I go to the movies or am in a big crowd, I need to find the exit," she said.
For years, survivors were too grief-stricken to think about a memorial, said Hartford Fire Chief Charles A. Teale, a co-chairman of the Hartford Circus Fire Memorial Foundation.
"It was during the aftermath of depression and during World War II," Teale said. "People were already overwhelmed with the experiences of life. They went to the circus for entertainment, and came away losing 100 children and 68 adults."
Since its founding in August 2002, the group has raised more than $100,000 to erect a memorial. Its dedication is set for Tuesday.
The memorial will be placed where the center ring once stood, with the names of those who died etched in the blue stone. Circular in shape, it also will feature pedestrian pathways lined with descriptive plaques and bricks carrying the messages of victims' families, survivors and other contributors.
Completion is expected by fall.
"People have called to say they can't go up there," said Nancy Spada, who was 8 at the time of the fire, which killed her aunt and cousin. "When I was up there last year it was so difficult for me to even walk the grounds. But I've been there since, and each time is easier."
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) - Three men were arrested Monday after shrapnel from a homemade Fourth of July bomb killed a 45-year-old bystander.
Investigators said the men, working in a kitchen, emptied powder from legally purchased fireworks and packed it into metal containers. One of the improvised explosives was detonated about 11:20 p.m. Sunday in the center of a cul-de-sac.
Raymond Reilly III, who was standing about 60 feet away outside a home, was hit in the chest by shrapnel. He was taken to Bakersfield Heart Hospital, where he died.
Police arrested Aaron Formella and Mathew Brown, both 20, and Anthony Haenet, 18, all of Bakersfield, for investigation of conspiracy, explosion of a destructive device and explosion of a destructive device causing death.
NEW DELHI (AP) - A bus suffered a mechanical problem and plummeted into a mountain gorge in northern India on Monday, killing 28 people, news reports said.
At least 17 others were injured in the accident in Chitai in the northern state of Uttaranchal, Press Trust of India quoted Superintendent of Police Deepak Jyoti Ghildiyal as saying.
Chitai is about 150 miles northeast of New Delhi.
The bus, owned by a local transport cooperative, was traveling from the mountain resort of Pithoragarh to the town of Haldwani when the driver failed to negotiate a sharp turn because of a mechanical failure, Ghildiyal said. The bus tumbled 800 feet into a mountain gorge, he said. The mechanical failure was not identified.
The bus was carrying 45 passengers. The injured were out of danger, the officer said.
Road accidents are common in India, and are often caused by poor roads and disregard of traffic rules.
PATNA, India (AP) - Eleven children died and about 60 others fell ill after eating food served at a temple celebration, officials said Monday.
The children were among hundreds of people who attended the Guru Poornima festival Friday at the Birangabad temple in eastern Bihar state. The celebration included handouts of free food believed to be blessed by the gods.
Dozens of children complained of nausea and diarrhea over the weekend, and seven died over Saturday and Sunday, local official H.R. Srinivas told The Associated Press by telephone. Four more child died Monday, he said.
Government doctors were in the region treating the ill, and an inquiry had been ordered, Srinivas said.
The temple is located nine miles north of Patna, the capital of Bihar.
Bihar is one of India's poorest states. For many poor families, free food given after religious ceremonies at Hindu temples is a welcome addition to their diets.
It was not immediately clear why only children were known to have been sickened by the food.
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (AP) - A dog that vanished 15 months ago from the back yard of a San Diego home was found more than 1,000 miles away in a Seattle suburb.
Dharma, a black Labrador-Samoyed mix, was traced to owner Peggy Russell, 47, a nurse and paralegal worker, by a microchip in the dog's back. She was found last month wandering with a leash attached to her collar in Federal Way, Wash., located between Seattle and Tacoma.
"I'm thrilled," Russell said Friday after the dog was given a health certificate and clearance for a flight home. "My son is over the moon. My husband can't stop laughing."
Dharma disappeared after Russell came home to find someone had cut the lock to the yard where the dog had been playing. The family posted fliers, combed the surrounding streets and visited animal shelters daily to no avail.
About 2.5 weeks ago, Karen DePew of Federal Way was driving her 15-year-old daughter, Lauren, home around 11:30 p.m. when they saw a big black dog running down the street and stopped the van.
"We're thinking, 'Oh my gosh, this is odd.' We opened the door, and the dog jumps in the car," DePew said.
Skinny, beset with fleas and a rash, the dog was nonetheless affectionate and well-behaved.
"We knew it was a good dog," DePew said. "You could tell somebody had worked with it."
Thinking Dharma lived in the area and might go home on her own, DePew left the dog in the family's unfenced front yard, but the dog stayed put.
DePew and her daughter made a fruitless check for "lost dog" signs, then fed and bathed Dharma and took the dog to a veterinarian who didn't notice the microchip but suggested they go to the pound.
On June 18, they took Dharma to a shelter where the microchip was discovered.
MIAMI (AP) - Two children flung from a sport utility vehicle when it crashed on an overpass fell 60 feet to their deaths on the street below Monday, state troopers said.
Two other people traveling in the SUV were critically injured in the wreck on Interstate 95 in downtown Miami, troopers said.
The children, ages 5 and 10, died where they landed, troopers said. One struck a traffic signal at the intersection below before hitting the pavement.
A woman and a teenage girl were hospitalized in critical condition. They were also thrown from the Chevy Blazer but remained on the roadway.
None was wearing a seat belt, troopers said.
The Blazer was driving north when it went out of control and hit a vehicle. It skidded - at one point atop the interstate barrier wall - and knocked over a light post. At some point, the children were ejected.
The driver of the other vehicle was not hurt.
BROOMFIELD, Colo. (AP) - A reporter who published an account of being raped as a child and said he once considered killing his alleged attacker will not be charged with stalking the man, prosecutors said.
David Holthouse, 33, whose account was published in the Denver alternative weekly Westword, was arrested on suspicion of stalking on May 29, allegedly because he had asked a friend to watch the alleged rapist's home.
Prosecutor Steve Bernard said the alleged attacker did not want to press charges.
In the May 13 Westword story, Holthouse described being raped at knifepoint at age 7 in 1978 by the teenage son of a family acquaintance. Holthouse wrote that he bought a gun and planned to kill the man but changed his mind after his parents found out about the assault.
Holthouse said his mother sent letters to the alleged rapist's neighbors warning them of the man's past. Fearing retaliation against his parents, Holthouse said he asked a friend to watch the man.
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) - Three years after he was nearly killed by a shark, 11-year-old Jessie Arbogast is "growing like a weed" but still uses a wheelchair and has trouble speaking, his aunt says.
Doctors offered little hope for Jessie after a shark tore off his right arm and bit through his thigh. The 8-year-old lost most of his blood in the July 6, 2001, attack in Florida.
"Jessie is speaking clearer words but no sentences," said his aunt, Diana Flosenzier of Hattiesburg.
The boy's father, David Arbogast, gave up his job as a tile-setter three years ago to take care of Jessie.
"Jessie has grown so much that David is the only one who can handle the lifting," Flosenzier said. "Jessie is eating well and growing like a weed."
He smiles and laughs along with his two brothers and sister, the aunt said.
A 6.5-foot, 200-pound bull shark attacked Jessie as the boy frolicked at sunset about 15 yards offshore near Pensacola, Fla. His uncle, Vance Flosenzier, rescued the boy, and doctors reattached his arm.
LONDON (AP) - "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff will appear in the London stage production of the hit musical "Chicago."
Hasselhoff will play scheming lawyer Billy Flynn in his debut on the British stage at the Adelphi Theatre. The show has run in the West End for seven years.
Hasselhoff, 51, is booked for 60 performances starting July 16.
"This is not about making money - this is about following my heart, challenging myself and having fun," Hasselhoff said.
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - Four men claim the Wayans brothers stole the idea behind the movie "White Chicks" from them.
Mario Pittore and brothers Jason, Jon and James Coppola sued last week in federal court, seeking $15 million in damages.
"We feel not only does it rip us off, but it's not even as good" as the Pittore-Coppola script, said Pittore, 30.
"White Chicks" stars the Wayans as black FBI agents who pose as young white hotel heiresses. The movie has grossed $37.3 million since it opened June 23.
The mens' script, titled "Johnny Bronx," is about a bumbling black FBI agent who impersonates a white man to infiltrate the mob.
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Former college basketball coach Don Haskins had been approached before about doing a movie on his 1966 Texas Western team - the first to win a national title with five black starters.
But when Walt Disney Pictures came to him a few years ago, Haskins did not hesitate.
"I always liked their movies and I thought they were movies kids could watch," said Haskins, who coached 38 years at the school now known as the University of Texas at El Paso.
The movie, "Glory Road," will star Ben Affleck as Haskins. Filming is tentatively scheduled to begin this year.
Haskins, 74, said he simply picked the best players for the team that beat Kentucky's heavily favored - and all-white - basketball powerhouse 72-65.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Elizabeth Muto was abandoned as a baby at the Reno airport 24 years ago. Now she's Miss Nevada.
The Las Vegas woman beat 11 other women Saturday to become the first black Miss Nevada and to advance to the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J., in September.
"I've been Nevada's own since I was 10 days old," Muto said. "Since then, the people of Nevada have loved and supported me."
Muto was abandoned atop a counter at Reno-Tahoe airport. A Reno couple adopted her.
EAU CLAIRE, Mich. (AP) - The Krause family's cherry pit spitting legacy lives on.
With his father and 12-time champion looking on, Brian "Young Gun" Krause spit a tart cherry pit 88 feet, 2 inches to win the 31st annual International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship on Saturday.
The 25-year-old from Dimondale took the title for the third straight year at Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm. Last year, he set a record of 93 feet, 6.5 inches.
Meanwhile, Ann St. Amand, of St. Joseph, is working on her own streak, winning the women's title for the fourth time and third year in a row. Saturday's 46-foot, 1-inch spit marked her best ever. Shannon Fitzpatrick, 16, of Custer Park, Ill., finished second for the women at 42 feet, 11 inches.
When asked her secret, Amand responded: "I have four kids to yell at."
CAMPBELLSPORT, Wis. (AP) - It was no mere weenie roast here when residents of this community 50 miles north of Milwaukee cooked what they hope is the world's largest bratwurst.
The village of Campbellsport grilled a 48-foot long bratwurst made of 25 pounds of pork Saturday night, said Joel Fleischman with the Campbellsport Area Chamber of Commerce.
The village decided to go for the world record to celebrate its volunteer fire department's 100th birthday, he said.
It took more than 45 minutes and 85 pounds of charcoal to cook the Campbellsport bratwurst. It was made by Loehr's Meat Service and paraded through town on a flatbed semitrailer with police escort and a high school marching band, Fleischman said.
"Our little town's pretty fired up tonight," he said.
A local retired welder made a 50-foot long grill for the brat, which was then topped with more than 400 ounces of ketchup and mustard, four gallons of relish and more than a pound of onions.
It was served in 160 portions at $10 apiece to raise money for the fire department.
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) - There's so much fun stuff to do around in Teton County that it has been ranked as the top recreation area in the nation.
Colorado College's 2004 "State of the Rockies Report Card" said there were few places like Jackson, located within Teton County.
"Positioned as a gateway to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, and at the base of the world-renowned Jackson Hole ski resort, it is difficult to image a better place for the outdoor enthusiast or second-home owner."
Hinsdale County, Colo., northeast of Durango, ranked second.
The number of acres preserved in wilderness or owned by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management determined the rankings.
Scenic and outdoor recreational amenities are increasingly important contributors to economic and population growth for communities in the Rockies, the report said.
"In reality, public lands play a vital role in creating a setting that makes the adjacent communities attractive places to live and do business," wrote Ray Rasker, director of the Socioeconomics Program of the Sonoran Institute.
OREM, Utah (AP) - A Mountain View High School student made a clean sweep of the SAT and ACT college entrance exams.
Tyrie Vella, a 16-year-old who will be a senior at Mountain View this fall, got a perfect 36 on the ACT in November.
Even so, he still wasn't confident going in to the SAT this spring.
"I was worried because the odds were not very good that I would get perfect on both," he said. "And I had not scored that well on the verbal during two practice tests."
But when the results came back in April, Vella found out he had a perfect 1,600 on the SAT.
Vella tried to keep his test scores private, but his mother said excited friends and teachers made it difficult. Getting a congratulations from his track coach in front of the whole team also didn't help keep the scores under wraps.
Vella isn't sure where the test scores will take him next fall, but he said if he stays in Utah he will probably attend Brigham Young University.
As impressive as the test scores are, Vella's father, Shon, said Tyrie is not a perfect student.
"He waits until the last minute to finish long term projects and group work," he said last week.
Posted in Backpage on Tuesday, July 6, 2004 12:00 am Updated: 10:49 pm.
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