news & blues Curses, Foiled Again
The Los Angeles County sheriff’s department solved a 2004 murder case after homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd recognized the crime depicted in a tattoo on the chest of Anthony Garcia, 25. The 30-year department veteran had been at the scene of the liquor store slaying and remembered the details when he spotted Garcia’s elaborate tattoo while reviewing snapshots of gang members’ markings. Deputies arrested Garcia and put him in a cell with an undercover detective posing as a suspect. Garcia soon began bragging about the liquor store killing, which the undercover detective dutifully recorded and played at Garcia’s trial. “Think about it,” Capt. Mike Parker said after Garcia’s conviction. “He tattooed his confession on his chest.” (Los Angeles Times) Atlanta police responding to a 3 a.m. breakin at a middle school quickly nabbed one suspect, but the other ran away. As an officer gave chase, the man grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to discharge it at the officer but ran smack into a wall. He was treated for a head injury, and police took both suspects into custody. (Atlanta’s WSB-TV)
Speedy Trial
After a jury in Hampden County, Mass., needed only three hours to find Charles L. Wilhite, 27, guilty of first-degree murder, his attorney, William J. O’Neil, moved to have the verdict set aside, pointing out there was so much evidence against his client that the jury couldn’t possibly have considered it all that quickly. (Springfield’s The Republican)
Poetry Ph.D.s Cheap
Ninety-three of 162 U.S. public research universities have adopted a “differential tuition” scale that charges students in potentially high-earning fields more than those with less earning potential. Business and engineering students typically pay more than English majors, for instance. Before 1988, only five institutions used the sliding scale, according to Glen Nelson, who researched the issue while at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In the past three years, Nelson said, 18 institutions have adopted the practice, with business students paying 14 percent more tuition and engineering students paying 15 percent more. (Omaha World-Herald)
Define “Certain Goods”
FBI Special Agent Frederick C. Kingston decided to take a joy ride in a 1995 Ferrari F50, which was being stored in Lexington, Ky., as evidence in a car-theft case. Within seconds of leaving the warehouse, Kingston lost control of the high-performance vehicle, which “fishtailed and slid sideways” and then crashed into a curb, bushes and a small tree, according to his passenger, Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Hamilton Thompson. Declaring the rare automobile a total loss, Motors Insurance Co. sued the government for the $750,000 it had paid the stolen car’s owner five years before the FBI recovered it. The Justice Department refuses to pay the Michigan company, insisting it is immune to tort claims when “certain goods” are in the hands of law enforcement. (Detroit News)
First Link in a Chain
After spending three months embedded with NASA’s mission control, Andrew Kessler wrote his first novel: Martian Summer:
Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen and My 90 Days with the Phoenix Mars Mission. Next, he opened a bookstore in New York City’s high-rent West Village and stocked it with just one book: his own. The store, Ed’s Martian Book, is divided into sections, among them “staff favorite,” “best-seller” and “self help.” Reactions vary. “A lot of people are scared to come in,” Kessler noted. “Some people wonder if we’re Scientologists.” (CNN)
No Detours
A 24-year-old German man told authorities he became trapped in a women’s prison in Hildesheim after he noticed its open gate and mistook it for a shortcut to a nearby park. By the time he realized his blunder, the gate had been locked. Mayor Henning Blum happened to be passing the prison when he heard the man’s cries for help and notified police, who freed the man and began investigating why the prison gate wasn’t closed. (Reuters)
Guilt Ridden
When police pulled over a car in Rensselaer, N.Y., a 21-year-old male passenger bolted from the car. He jumped into the Hudson River, whose current carried him 250 feet downstream before he could grab a branch and hold on until police rescued him. The unidentified man explained he fled because he thought officers had a warrant for his arrest. No warrants were outstanding. (Associated Press)
Counter-Revolutionary Spirit
Although 41 percent of adults in England and Wales support independence for Scotland, according to a poll by the market research firm YouGov, only 29 percent of Scottish adults favor breaking away from the United Kingdom. (Reuters)
News and Blues is compiled from the nation’s press. To contribute, submit original clippings, citing date and source, to Roland Sweet in care of The New Times.
