A 60-year-old Laytonville man was found dead of a suspected drug overdose in his home Sunday. An autopsy has been ordered.
Terry Allen Cohen had been scheduled for a mental competency hearing Friday to determine whether he was fit to face a retrial for the 2008 murder of Sean Jason Piper.
Last week Kenneth Rogers, 52, of Westport, was sentenced to a term of 25 years to life in prison for the June 2005 attempted murder for hire of political rival Alan Simon, 53, also of Westport.
Rogers was found convicted by jury trial in July 2009 of conspiracy to commit first degree murder; attempted murder with special findings of willfulness, deliberation, and premeditation.
A pre-trial was set on Monday for one of two men who face charges related to the apparent killing of a Willow Creek man in February. Limmie Greg Curry III, 19, had a pre-trial date set for May 3 at 2 p.
A Laytonville man who apparently tried to kill himself twice during his murder trial has now succeeded.
A Laytonville man who apparently tried to kill himself twice during his murder trial has now succeeded.
A hazardous-waste landfill that Kettleman City residents blame for a rash of birth defects has improperly stored PCB – a cancer-causing chemical that can cause reproductive problems, federal inspectors said Thursday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notified Waste Management that its landfill has violated disposal rules for polychlorinated biphenyl, a now-banned toxin found in electrical transformers and coolants.
Waste Management has 60 days to correct the problems or the EPA will stop sending PCB to the landfill from its cleanup sites, and the company could face fines, the EPA said.
The violations could damage the company’s ability to fight allegations by residents that its landfill is to blame for birth defects.
They also could hamper Waste Management’s efforts to expand the landfill about three miles from Kettleman City. Kings County supervisors on Dec. 22 approved a permit for the expansion. But the company also needs permits from federal and state agencies.
Jared Blumenfeld, EPA administrator for the Pacific Southwest region, said Waste Management first must correct the PCB disposal problem before he will consider a permit.
The EPA will not issue a permit “until we’re confident the facility does not present a health risk to the community,” Blumenfeld said Thursday.
Waste Management said it is correcting the problems. The health and safety of Kettleman City residents is the company’s top priority, the firm said in a news release, adding that it has worked with the EPA for decades to run a safe operation.
Residents in the San Joaquin Valley community of 1,500 – where most people are poor and Latino – believe toxic substances at the landfill could be responsible for birth defects beginning in 2007. To date, 10 babies have been born with defects, including cleft lip and cleft palate facial deformities. Three of the infants died. An 11th baby was stillborn with birth defects.
The EPA announcement of violations Thursday was “bombshell news,” said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction for Environmental Justice and Health. It should raise concern that the company is “not capable of safely handling hazardous materials that can be linked to cancer and reproductive health problems,” Angel said.
PCBs were manufactured in the United States from 1929 until their manufacture was banned in 1979, according to the EPA. They vary in consistency from thin, light-colored liquids to yellow or black waxy solids, according to the agency’s Web site, and were used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications.
Federal inspectors spent five days in mid-February at the landfill near Kettleman City and found several problems with disposal of PCBs.
“We found PCBs in places they shouldn’t be,” Blumenfeld said.
The chemicals were not contained where they were stored and where they were finally disposed of, in violation of federal regulations, he said. The company also failed to decontaminate the PCB storage area, Blumenfeld said.
He said he ordered the landfill’s inspection to make sure the operation was in compliance with federal laws.
Gopher Gulch: How to get rid of those slimy slugs [Daily Triplicate]
I hate it when folks tell me what I should or shouldn’t do, but don’t offer any better alternatives. With that in mind, this column attempts to provide some potential solutions to what’s sliming us. There really ought to be some industrial use for slug slime — perhaps replacing the rivets that hold airplanes together. Until such a market for the stuff is found, we’re condemned to the Sisyphean task of trying to keep it off our food.
The jury trial for James Robert Stanko, who faces charges of murder and armed robbery, was moved to May in a trial confirmation hearing on Monday. Humboldt County public defender Ken Robinson submitted a motion Monday to continue Stanko’s trial,
A Humboldt County man accused of shooting and killing his brother last year will likely have his April 19 trial delayed, the court was told Monday. As the defense of Roy Lee Stevens, 60 at the time of his arrest, anticipated not being quite ready
The Daily Journal
A 60-year-old Laytonville man charged with murder in connection with a 2008 shooting in the Laytonville area is scheduled to be in court April 16 to determine if he is competent to stand trial.
Juan Octavio Fernandez , 35, of Long Beach was found guilty during a jury trial in February of home invasion robbery, aggravated kidnapping, child endangerment and 10 other felonies, and 13 special allegations for his part in a January 2008 Laytonville home invasion robbery.
Kenneth Allen Rogers, convicted of hiring a hit man to murder his political competition on the Westport County Water Board more than five years ago, was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison, according to a press release from the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.
The former bouncer for a Eureka bar was convicted of possession of methamphetamine by a jury in Humboldt County Superior Court on Thursday. The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office said Richard Lee Sovereign Jr.
Murder suspect’s transfer sought [Daily Triplicate]
Sheriff’s Office alleges numerous assaults over the past several weeks
A Del Norte County judge will rule today whether the man accused of killing 21-year-old Taylor Powell in Klamath on Sunday will be housed at Pelican Bay State Prison instead of at the local jail.
Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Bill Steven, who oversees the jail’s operations, requested that Jarrod Wyatt, 26, be transferred from the facility while awaiting trial because of safety concerns for his staff and other inmates.
Former County Prosecutor Allison Jackson says she has a wide-ranging base of support that’s united in the belief that the District Attorney’s Office needs to change for the better.
