Around the Nation

GEORGIA

Laws limit G-8 protests

BRUNSWICK — Local governments have passed laws to control large-scale demonstrations during the Group of Eight summit this summer on nearby Sea Island.

Thousands of protesters are expected June 8 to 10 when President Bush plays host to leaders of major industrial nations.

Brunswick passed a law last month that requires protest organizers to post deposits equal to the city’s estimated cost for cleanup and police protection. Protests may last only 2 hours. Signs may measure no larger than 2 feet by 3 feet and may not be carried on sticks that could be used as weapons.

PENNSYLVANIA

Rocker ridicules gun control

PITTSBURGH — Gun-control advocates are “against freedom” and not carrying a weapon is “irresponsible,” rock guitarist Ted Nugent said yesterday at the National Rifle Association’s convention here.

“Everyone who will be raped, murdered and carjacked in America will have one thing in common — they were unarmed,” Mr. Nugent told the Harrisburg Patriot-News. “Unarmed is helpless. That’s irresponsible. I have an undeniable right to win when I’m confronted by evil.”

Mr. Nugent described the position of gun-control advocates as “weird” and said: “They’re against freedom.” Asked what he would say if he could say one thing to the protesters, Mr. Nugent told the newspaper: “I’d say, ’Drive safely.’ … They’re retarded.”

ARIZONA

Police fatally shoot ax-wielding man

PHOENIX — A man who hacked at neighborhood homes with an ax Saturday morning was fatally shot after a showdown with Phoenix police.

Neighbors of the dead man, identified as Danny Lepker, 42, called police Saturday after he began to damage property near his home.

A Phoenix police spokesman told the Arizona Republic that officers spoke to the man earlier over a fence in his back yard, but he then threw an ax and another object at the officers, missing them both times.

During the ensuing confrontation, police said, Mr. Lepker continued to resist officers after being shot with a beanbag gun and an electrical stun gun. Mr. Lepker then broke into a neighboring home and pointed a weapon at officers. He was fatally shot after a standoff.

The weapon that Mr. Lepker pointed at officers turned out to be a BB or pellet gun.

“From the end of the driveway, our officers had no way of knowing that,” a police spokesman said.

CALIFORNIA

HIV outbreak spurs porn concerns

LOS ANGELES — Some California health officials have called for government regulation of the San Fernando Valley-based adult-film industry after two top performers tested positive last week for the virus that causes AIDS.

Dozens of pornography production companies shut down after Darren James tested positive for HIV on April 12. Lara Roxx, 22 — one of 14 women who worked with Mr. James after March 17 when he tested negative — subsequently tested positive as well, and about 55 people have been voluntarily quarantined because of potential exposure.

Dr. Peter Kerndt, director of the sexually transmitted disease program for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said officials take the outbreak seriously and see unsafe practices in the adult-film industry as posing health dangers to the general population.

“We’re concerned about this, because it has the potential, unchecked, to spread rapidly to their partners apart from their industry partners,” he said. “We want to bring this industry into the mainstream by putting it under the regulations that currently exist for [California’s workplace safety program].”

COLORADO

Ex-pilot gets life for wife’s murder

GRAND JUNCTION — A former Navy helicopter pilot, whose wife’s mummified body was unearthed in a landfill seven months after her disappearance, has been sentenced to life in prison.

Michael Blagg was sentenced Friday after a jury found him guilty of murdering his wife, Jennifer.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s a narcissistic pig,” said Mesa County District Attorney Frank Daniels, who prosecuted the case.

The prosecution portrayed Blagg, 41, as manipulative and sexually abusive, presenting evidence that he was addicted to pornographic Web sites.

Blagg’s 6-year-old daughter, Abby, who disappeared with her mother on Nov. 13, 2001, is still missing and presumed dead.

FLORIDA

Charity director cited for misusing funds

MIAMI — The executive director of one of South Florida’s largest homeless charities had his employees and homeless clients renovate his homes for free using thousands of dollars in materials bought on the organization’s credit cards, the Miami Herald reported yesterday.

Dale A. Simpson, 57, was forced to resign last month from his $182,000-a-year job at Camillus House. Mr. Simpson denied any wrongdoing and said he reimbursed the charity for the home repairs.

However, the Herald said interviews and records indicate that he reimbursed Camillus House for only about half of nearly $4,500 in materials that it could trace to work at his homes.

The newspaper said it found no record that he reimbursed the charity for hundreds of hours that its workers said they spent at his home on charity time.

Camillus House is run by a Roman Catholic order of missionaries called Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd.

IOWA

Festival riot ends in 25 arrests

AMES — A yearly festival near the Iowa State University campus turned riotous early yesterday when more than 1,000 people vandalized cars, broke storefront windows and tore down street lights, police said.

Officers broke up the crowd with tear gas and arrested nearly 25 people on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assaulting a police officer, police said.

About 20 people at the annual student-organized Veishea celebration received treatment for minor injuries at a nearby hospital. There were no estimates of property damage yesterday afternoon, but police said the damage was “extensive.”

The festival crowd began throwing bottles and cans at police, and yelling “Riot, riot!” police said. Festival-goers tore down street lights and road signs, set trash bins on fire, rolled parked cars and broke storefront windows, police said. The crowd did not completely disperse until about 5:30 a.m.

KENTUCKY

Father charged with taking daughter

LOUISVILLE — A Louisville man who police think forcibly took his infant daughter from her mother’s Knox County home was caught in Louisville on Saturday. The 3-month-old baby was unharmed.

Kentucky State Police said Jorge Guerrero had made prior threats of taking the baby to Mexico, and authorities feared he was on his way to a Louisville airport before he was apprehended. Police issued an Amber Alert that prompted a statewide search for the baby.

Mr. Guerrero, 34, was charged with third-degree burglary and fourth-degree assault, police said. He kicked open the mother’s front door and took the baby, saying he was taking the girl to Mexico, according to police.

NEVADA

Investigator had previous complaint

LAS VEGAS — An investigator who recently was charged with bribery and sexual assault was the subject of a detailed complaint to the district attorney’s office in 2001, but no charges were pursued.

Peter Baldonado, an investigator with the district attorney’s office, was arrested this year amid accusations that he demanded sex from women in return for quashing warrants. In addition, Mr. Baldonado has been charged with raping a witness in a Clark County murder case.

But according to federal reports and interviews conducted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the district attorney’s office was warned that Mr. Baldonado might be a problem employee as early as 2001.

One woman, Crystal Chipman, told the Review-Journal that she and another woman, met with the district attorney in 2001 to tell him that Mr. Baldonado was fixing warrants in return for sexual favors.

NORTH CAROLINA

University abolishes 8 a.m. classes

DURHAM — Duke University is eliminating 8 a.m. classes and trying to come up with other ways help its sleep-deprived students, who too often are struggling to survive on a mix of caffeine, adrenaline and ambition.

The school also is considering new orientation programs this fall that would help freshmen understand the importance of sleep.

James Clack, Duke’s director of counseling and psychological services, said the latest research shows that college-age people should be getting nine hours of sleep a night.

“They begin to get into a pattern of sleeping four to five hours,” he said. “They really think it doesn’t bother them, but that really isn’t the case.”

OREGON

Sex offender arrested after search

GRESHAM — A sex offender who authorities had been trying to find since his release from prison this month was arrested yesterday.

Edward Stokes, 49, was freed April 7 from a California prison. He had been serving a life sentence, but his child-molestation conviction was overturned on appeal.

Stokes was arrested in Gresham, near Portland, and is accused of providing a false address to obtain a Washington state driver’s license.

Authorities described Stokes as one of the worst sexual predators on the West Coast. Arrested at least five times in Washington and Oregon on sex charges dating from 1974, Stokes once said he had molested 212 victims.

In 1995, he completed a three-year Oregon prison sentence for sex abuse and sodomy. He was convicted in the 1996 assault of a 16-year-old Seattle boy, but the boy committed suicide before Stokes’ trial. An appeals court ruled Stokes had thus been denied the right to confront his accuser at trial.

TEXAS

Arrested man has history of insanity

BEAUMONT — A man accused of killing a child after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the death of his sister is the latest example of why Texas’ insanity laws need to be changed, critics and lawyers said Saturday.

Kenneth Lee Pierott, 27, remained in jail on suspicion of capital murder after he was accused Friday of placing Tre-Devon Odoms in an oven. The boy was 5 or 6 years old, authorities said.

Pierott was sent to a state hospital in 1998 for the December 1996 beating death of his 25-year-old sister, who was bedridden with cerebral palsy. He was released after less than a year of treatment.

Tre-Devon was discovered in his family’s oven Friday morning. The child’s mother, Kathy Jo Odoms, discovered her son’s body.

Dianne Clements, president of a Houston-based victims rights group, said the case shows why Texas’ insanity laws should include the option of finding someone “guilty, but insane.” The verdict would give courts more power over people with mental illnesses, she said.

UTAH

Distraught guardsman shot by deputies

RIVERTON — A Utah National Guardsman, apparently distraught that his brother was being redeployed to Iraq, was fatally shot early yesterday morning after threatening his family and brandishing a shotgun at deputies, authorities said.

Chad Thompson, 32, who had been drinking according to his family, was upset after learning that his brother’s tour of duty was being extended, according to a spokeswoman for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Mr. Thompson, a guardsman for more than a decade, was a full-time supply staff sergeant stationed at Camp William in Riverton.

Mr. Thompson was shot after waving a shotgun at the deputies, the spokeswoman said. He died en route to a hospital.

WASHINGTON

Police foil robber’s swim plan

OLYMPIA — Maybe it was the weight belt. Or the air tank and regulator. Whatever his excuse, a wetsuit-wearing bank robber couldn’t make it to the water before being tackled by police.

Police subdued the man Thursday evening on the shore of Budd Inlet after a quarter-mile dash through the woods, a car chase and crash, and his attempt to sprint into the water while lugging his diving gear and a backpack filled with stolen cash, Olympia police Sgt. Ray Holmes said.

“No truth to the rumor he was running in flippers,” police spokesman Tor Bjornstad said, although he noted officers found a pair of fins inside the car after making the arrest.

The pursuit began at a Key Bank branch on the west side of Olympia. Charles E. Coma, 35, of Shelton, was arrested for investigation of first-degree robbery and was being held in the Thurston County Jail on Friday.

WISCONSIN

Officials could get pension lump sums

MILWAUKEE — Two top administrators who were retained by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker from his disgraced predecessor’s staff could earn lump-sum payments of more than $750,000 each upon retirement.

Terry Kocourek, who was promoted to acting director of parks and public infrastructure in December, would gain a lump-sum payment of at least $300,000 if he retired this year at 53 and more than $1.1 million at 60, according to estimates by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Mr. Kocourek’s wife, Genevie, a former county manager who retired at 49, is getting a yearly pension of at least $68,000.

Tom Kenney, 51, who recently has been appointed acting transportation superintendent, could get a so-called backdrop payment of at least $320,000 if he served until 56, and at least $765,000 if he served until 60. His yearly pension would be at least $71,000.

At least six other veteran officials retained from the administration of former County Executive F. Thomas Ament are eligible for the 25 percent pension bonus and lump-sum payout.