American Scene

COLORADO

Calf mutilations found on ranch

SAN LUIS | A creepy string of calf mutilations in southern Colorado has a rancher and sheriff’s officials mystified.

Four calves were found dead in a pasture just north of the New Mexico state line in recent weeks. The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.

But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion. Usually predators leave pools of blood or drag marks from carrying away the livestock.

Two officers from the Costilla County Sheriff’s Office have investigated the mutilations but say they don’t know what’s killing the calves.

IDAHO

Aviation advocate dies at 75

BOISE | Edward Stimpson, an aviation advocate who pushed to rejuvenate struggling small aircraft manufacturers in the 1990s by limiting lawsuits against them, has died after an extended illness. He was 75.

His death Wednesday was confirmed by state Rep. Wendy Jaquet, a Democrat. A cause of death was not known. Miss Jaquet said doctors discovered cancerous lesions in his lungs this year.

Mr. Stimpson, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association for 25 years, was a major proponent of legislation signed by President Clinton in 1994 to prevent general aviation companies from being named as defendants in lawsuits in crashes of small planes that are 18 years old or older.

By 1994, a wave of lawsuits in crashes was being blamed for a downturn at small aircraft manufacturers such as Beech Aircraft Co. and Cessna Aircraft Corp., costing 100,000 industry jobs over the previous decade. Annual sales of single-engine planes averaged 13,000 from 1965 to 1982, but had dropped to only about 500 by 1993.

Mr. Stimpson also advocated against record attempts such as 7-year-old Jessica Dubroff’s 1996 bid to become the youngest person to fly across the country. Jessica, her father and her flight instructor died when their plane crashed in Cheyenne, Wyo., prompting Mr. Stimpson to call for measures to “stop the circuslike, media-driven events.”

In the late 1990s, Mr. Stimpson was chairman of “Be A Pilot,” an industrywide education and research program aimed at increasing the number of people learning to fly.

MAINE

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