Boston Herald - Boston Herald

Hobby Lobby tests birth-control coverage mandate

Associated Press — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:19:31 -0400

DENVER — In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. asked a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill.

The Oklahoma City-based arts-and-crafts chain argued that businesses — not just the currently exempted religious groups — should be allowed to seek exception from that section of the health law if it violates their religious beliefs.

Colorado killer's reprieve sharply criticized

Associated Press — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:09:52 -0400

DENVER — Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper's decision to block the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap for as long as he is governor infuriated victims' relatives and drew quick criticism from Republicans ahead of the 2014 election.

Hickenlooper on Wednesday granted an indefinite reprieve to Dunlap, who is on death row for the ambush slayings of four people — three teenagers and a 50-year-old mother — in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1993.

Colo governor delays execution of convicted killer

Associated Press — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:19:55 -0400

DENVER — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has indefinitely delayed the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap, citing doubts about the death penalty.

Hickenlooper announced his decision Wednesday. He says he is granting Dunlap a reprieve, not clemency. Clemency would have changed Dunlap's sentence to life without parole.

Under a reprieve, Dunlap could conceivably be executed one day. The reprieve will stay in force until Hickenlooper or another governor lifted it.

Lawyer: Colorado parolee made woman turn over gun

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:16:30 -0400

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — An attorney for a woman accused of providing the weapon used to kill Colorado's prisons chief says parolee Evan Ebel forced her to turn over the gun.

Stevie Marie Anne Vigil pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of buying a handgun and giving it to Ebel, the sole suspect in the March shooting death of state corrections chief Tom Clements.

Ebel died days later in a shootout with officers in Texas.

Omaha task force probes 4 slayings 5 years apart

Associated Press — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:57:48 -0400

OMAHA, Neb. — Authorities in Omaha have launched a task force to investigate any connection between last week's killings of a Creighton University professor and his wife and the 2008 slayings of an 11-year boy and his family housekeeper.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said Monday that the public should report any suspicious activity as authorities investigate the deaths of Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary, as well as the unsolved 2008 stabbings of Thomas Hunter and 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman.

Colo. firefighters use ladder truck to rescue bear

Associated Press — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:45 -0400

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — It was a bigger-than-average tree rescue for firefighters in Colorado Springs.

They had to use a ladder truck to reach a black bear after it fell asleep in a tall pine tree after being tranquilized Sunday.

The bear weighed between 150 and 200 pounds. State wildlife division spokesman Michael Seraphin says a wildlife officer and firefighters put a harness around it. Then they lowered the bear to the ground as it dangled from the ladder.

Angry mob pelts man thought to be sex attacker

Associated Press — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:45:36 -0400

DENVER — Residents angry that police had not warned them about sex assaults took matters into their own hands, chasing down a man they thought was the attacker, pelting him with rocks and leaving him with a bloody face in Colorado.

Pueblo police later released the man because of lack of evidence.

Alex Pacheco, one of the pursuers, says neighborhood residents were looking for a man on Sunday suspected of two separate sexual acts involving children when they got word that a man matching the description had been spotted.

Residents confronted the man and he ran.

Idaho man charged in Uzbekistan terrorism plot

Associated Press — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:12:37 -0400

BOISE, Idaho — He was a Russian-speaking truck driver who came to Idaho nearly four years ago to join hundreds of other Uzbekistan refugees for whom the state has become a sanctuary from violence in their home country.

But federal officials say in an indictment that Fazliddin Kurbanov also was teaching people to build bombs that would target public transportation.

It's unclear whether those alleged targets were domestic or abroad — or how far Kurbanov would have gone. Prosecutors said Friday only that they believe he no longer is a threat.

Kan. prison officials charge doctor's killer

Associated Press — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:14:52 -0400

WICHITA, Kan. — The man convicted of killing one of Kansas' only late-term abortion providers is now accused of trying to intimidate the woman who reopened his shuttered clinic.

The Kansas Department of Corrections said Tuesday it filed an administrative charge against 55-year-old Scott Roeder under a prison regulation which prohibits threatening or intimidating anyone. Roeder is serving a life sentence for George Tiller's 2009 murder at the physician's church.

Mont. man in custody after release in 1979 slaying

Associated Press — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:44 -0400

BILLINGS, Mont. — After less than two years of freedom, a Montana man was returned to custody Wednesday following a state Supreme Court ruling that could send him back to prison for the rest of his life over the 1979 slaying of a teenage classmate.

Barry Beach surrendered to the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday morning without incident, said state attorney general spokesman John Barnes.

Remains in Colo. car tied to man missing since '87

Associated Press — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:53:00 -0400

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Authorities in western Colorado say a human skeleton found in a partially buried car belongs to a man who was reported missing 26 years ago.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/13VWmIK ) the Mesa County Coroner's Office identified the man on Monday as 65-year-old Ronald Vasey. He went missing in 1987.

Insanity plea by Holmes holds risks for both sides

Associated Press — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:50:37 -0400

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — One of James Holmes' lawyers asked a judge on Monday to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity in the Colorado theater shootings. Such a plea is seen as his best hope of avoiding the death penalty in the killings of 12 people at a packed midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora. Changing the plea still carries risks for Holmes but moving in that direction now allows them to challenge some of the problems they see with Colorado's laws on insanity and the death penalty.

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Sheriff: Girl slain on Kan. farm, body was moved

Associated Press — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:25:08 -0400

OTTAWA, Kan. — Authorities believe that a slain 18-month-old girl whose body was found over the weekend was killed on the eastern Kansas farm where her mother and two men were killed, and that the child's body was later disposed of in the next county.

An Osage County deputy found the girl's body on Saturday. Although she hasn't been positively identified, Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards said investigators were confident the body was that of Lana Leigh Bailey, who went missing with her mother more than a week earlier.

UK prince, injured US officer launch Warrior Games

Associated Press — Sun, 12 May 2013 04:04:18 -0400

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Combat helicopter pilot Prince Harry of Britain along with Olympic swimming champion Missy Franklin joined an American naval officer who had been blinded in Afghanistan in launching the Warrior Games for wounded service members.

Lt. Bradley Snyder, Harry and Franklin lifted a torch Saturday to ignite an Olympic-style cauldron, after completing the last leg of a brief torch relay at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to formally start the games. .

Bodies on Kansas farm belong to missing mom, 2 men

Associated Press — Wed, 08 May 2013 21:55:13 -0400

OTTAWA, Kan. — Authorities on Wednesday identified two men and a woman found slain on an eastern Kansas farm and continued searching for the woman's 18-month-old daughter, who was last seen at the same property where the bodies were discovered.

Franklin County Sheriff Jeffrey Richards said at a news conference Wednesday that law enforcement officials were questioning a person of interest they located in Emporia, about 50 miles southwest of the Ottawa farm where the bodies were found earlier this week. Richards said no charges had been filed in the case.

Survivors to wed on anniversary of Colo shootings

Associated Press — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:39:17 -0400

AURORA, Colo. — A young couple who survived the Aurora theater shootings have scheduled their wedding for the anniversary of the tragedy.

Eugene Han and Kirstin Davis told KMGH-TV (http://tinyurl.com/brtdddl ) in a story Tuesday that they decided to get married on July 20 to make it a happier day.

Han was shot in the hip and knee, and Davis says she suffered minor scratches during the assault on the packed movie theater. Twelve people were killed and 70 injured.

Davis says the wedding date was Han's idea.

New insanity plea may slow Colorado shooting case

Associated Press — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:06:33 -0400

DENVER — The trial of the former grad student charged in the deadly Colorado movie theater shootings will likely be delayed weeks or months because he wants to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

James Holmes' attorneys filed the court papers Tuesday.

Colorado shootings suspect to enter insanity plea

Associated Press — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:19:33 -0400

DENVER — The man accused in the deadly Colorado theater shootings wants to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, his lawyers said Tuesday, despite their fears that the plea could severely hamper his ability to mount a defense against the death penalty.

James Holmes is charged with more than 160 counts of murder and attempted murder in the July 20 assault on a packed Aurora movie theater that killed 12 and injured 70. Prosecutors announced last month they would seek the death penalty.

5 accused of diverting stimulus money for tribe

Associated Press — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:51:56 -0400

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Chippewa Cree tribal leader, a former state lawmaker and three others used a fake billing system and a shell company to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus aid meant for the Montana tribe, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Bury suspected Boston bomber in Denver-area?

Associated Press — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:18:40 -0400

AURORA, Colo. — The founder of the organization that built Colorado's largest mosque is offering to bury suspected Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a Denver-area Muslim cemetery.

Sheikh Abu-Omar Almubarac said Monday he will pay for a traditional Muslim burial — no headstone, monument or casket — at a plot at a Muslim cemetery in Denver or Bennett.

Almubarac refused to say which one out of concern for "undue publicity." He says he'll bury Tsarnaev as long as his family can get the body to Denver.