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Man who killed Maine sheriff's deputy now in custody
NORRIDGEWOCK, Maine (AP) -- The search for a man accused of killing a sheriff's deputy came to an end Saturday, the fourth day of an intense manhunt in the woods of central Maine.
The state's Department of Public Safety said 29-year-old John Williams was in custody but provided no details of the arrest. A state police spokesman declined to say whether Williams had been apprehended or had turned himself in.
Williams was wanted in the fatal shooting of Cpl. Eugene Cole early Wednesday after the two had an encounter on a darkened road in Norridgewock. Officials said the 29-year-old Madison man also stole Cole's cruiser and robbed a convenience store.
Cole became the first law enforcement officer to be killed in the line of duty in nearly 30 years in Maine, leaving the community of 3,500 stunned.
Images show an exhausted and shirtless Williams being taken out of a wooded area at 1:15 p.m. He was put into the back seat of an unmarked state police vehicle and whisked away.
"I'm just glad it ended peacefully, and no one else got hurt," said Tasha Raymond, whose kids have been forced to play indoors for the past four days.
The arrest brought some closure to the deputy's family and relief to local residents who've been "on edge," said Larry Tilton, a friend of Cole's.
Helicopters, armored vehicles and scores of state, federal and local officers poured into Norridgewock during the search.
On Saturday, about 150 law enforcement officers remained in the area as searchers took advantage of improving weather to use ground patrols and aircraft to focus on a certain section of woods where they believe Williams might be hiding.
The wife of the slain deputy known for showing kindness had implored his killer Saturday to turn himself in, or at least reach out to police.
Sheryl Cole promised to Williams that he'd be treated the way her late husband would've treated him: "with dignity and respect."
It's unclear what preceded the shooting.
But Cole, 62, had been involved in the arrest of Williams' girlfriend several days earlier, and Williams was worried about being arrested himself for failing to appear in court in Massachusetts on firearm charges the day of the shooting.
Williams was angry about his girlfriend's arrest and he'd told a friend that "as of tomorrow, I'll be a fugitive." The friend said Williams was acting paranoid and noticed that he had body armor in one of his bags.
Cole was a 13-year veteran of the department who was known for being respectful and patient in his dealing with people. Sheriff Dale Lancaster described him an "outstanding employee, one of the finest deputies."
US House OKs balloon pilot medical exams after Texas crash
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The U.S. House has approved a measure requiring medical checks for commercial hot air balloon pilots in an effort to avoid a reoccurrence of a 2016 crash that killed 16 people in Texas.
The House voted Friday on a wide-ranging Federal Aviation Administration bill that includes a provision requiring medical checks similar to those required for helicopter and airline pilots.
The vote comes after federal investigators last year scolded the FAA for lax oversight in the wake of the deadliest hot air balloon crash in U.S. history.
The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that Alfred "Skip" Nichols was probably impaired by Valium, opioids and other drugs before the takeoff south of Austin.
The Senate has yet to consider its own version of the legislation.
Virginia authorities charge woman with possession of ricin
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Federal authorities in Virginia have charged a South Carolina woman with possession of the deadly poison ricin and having a gun with an obliterated serial number.
Sixty-two-year-old Debra Siers-Hill of Ladson, South Carolina, made an initial court appearance Friday and is due back in court Tuesday for a hearing to determine whether she should remain in custody pending trial.
An indictment alleges that Siers-Hill had the poison and gun in March 2016, one month after her boyfriend, 67-year-old Frederick Brooks, died in Virginia Beach.
Brooks' family has filed several lawsuits alleging that Siers-Hill poisoned him, but she has never been charged in his death.
Media outlets have reported that Siers-Hill's first husband died in 1993 in South Carolina from what a coroner determined was suicide by drinking antifreeze.
Man pleads guilty in 2010 Key West gold bar theft
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) -- One of two men accused of stealing a Key West museum's 17th-century gold bar in 2010 has pleaded guilty.
Appearing Friday at Key West's federal courthouse, Richard Steven Johnson, of Rio Linda, California, pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal an object of cultural heritage and stealing a major artwork.
The 74.85-ounce gold bar valued at $556,000 was found in 1980 on a 1622 Spanish galleon wreck site off the Florida Keys by late shipwreck salvor Mel Fisher.
Until the theft, the bar was displayed in an acrylic case at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum where visitors could touch it. Investigators proved that Johnson broke the case.
Johnson's sentencing date was not set. Alleged co-conspirator Jarred Alexander Goldman, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, is scheduled for trial next month.
No information is available regarding the bar's status.
Land deal will preserve site linked to Lost Colony mystery
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Efforts to unravel the mysterious fate of North Carolina's fabled Lost Colony could benefit after a land trust bought a coastal property where archaeologists believe at some of the colonists resettled.
For the first time, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust borrowed money to buy land, paying more than $5 million for 1,000 acres. Eventually, the trust will turn over the waterfront tract to the state, preserving it for future study.
England's ill-fated first settlement in North America has piqued popular imagination and intrigued historians for centuries.
In 1587, 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina, but they later vanished.
The property also was home to an Indian village and the plantation of Thomas Pollock, who was governor in the early 1700s.
Enjoying leftovers: Sheriffs feed inmates, keep extra cash
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- There's a move afoot to change a system that lets Alabama sheriffs pocket money from feeding prisoners in jail.
The practice dates back decades, and it's under new scrutiny amid challenges that include a lawsuit against multiple sheriffs.
Records show some sheriffs pocket thousands annually that critics should go to better meals for inmates.
A sheriff was jailed a decade ago for scrimping on inmate meals, and another was held in contempt for taking money out of a food account. Others have revealed tens of thousands of dollars in profits under pressure.
The head of a state association for counties says groups are working on proposals to scrap the system. But he says that won't happen before next year's legislative session.
Lawmakers approved potential changes in two counties this year.
Democrats unhappy over House chaplain's firing
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats are very unhappy over House Speaker Paul Ryan's move to oust the House chaplain, saying Ryan hasn't offered any explanation and charging that Rev. Patrick Conroy's political leanings contributed to his dismissal.
Ryan told Republican lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that he forced Conroy out because he wasn't doing a very good job tending to the pastoral needs of lawmakers and that lawmakers had brought concerns to him.
While Ryan has the support of most of the chamber's Republicans, many Democrats are upset about Conroy's ouster and say politics may be behind it.
Fitted with ankle bracelet, Cosby to be prisoner inside home
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Two days after his conviction, Bill Cosby has already started life as an inmate -- though his surroundings are far nicer than they likely will be in a few months.
A judge says Cosby will be confined to the same suburban Philadelphia mansion where jurors concluded he drugged and molested a Temple University women's basketball administrator, ordering him to be outfitted with a GPS ankle bracelet to monitor compliance. Until sentencing, Judge Steven O'Neill ruled Friday, the 80-year-old comedian may leave his house only to meet with his lawyers or go to the doctor, and he must get permission first.
It was the latest sign that Cosby's past -- a sordid double life that gave lie to his carefully cultivated image as America's Dad -- had finally caught up with him.
Cosby was convicted Thursday of three counts of aggravated indecent assault and now faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars. His team blasted the retrial as a "public lynching" and began looking ahead to an appeal.
Lawyers not connected with the case said the defense might have a winning argument.
Prosecutors put five other women on the stand to testify that they, too, were abused by the former TV star, but the strategy that helped them secure a conviction could also serve as a template for his lawyers seeking to overturn the jury's verdict.
Christopher Adams, a defense attorney whose clients have included former NBA star Jayson Williams, said the judge's decision to allow the "prior bad acts" testimony could have tainted the jury.
"It's one thing if they looked at one or two, but five? He wasn't charged with being a serial assaulter," he said.
Former federal prosecutor David Axelrod, now in private practice in Philadelphia, agreed that Cosby's team has a shot at convincing an appeals court that the judge went too far.
Chief accuser Andrea Constand, meanwhile, took to Twitter to thank prosecutors in her first comment on the verdict.
"Truth prevails," she wrote.
Constand, now 45, first went to police in 2005 with her allegation that Cosby had knocked her out with three blue pills he called "your friends" and then penetrated her with his fingers as she lay immobilized, unable to resist or say no. But the district attorney at the time halted a police investigation after just four weeks, declaring the case too weak to be prosecuted.
The current district attorney, Kevin Steele, who made the decision to retry Cosby after last year's hung jury, said in a statement Friday he hoped the case would "pave the road for future victims to come forward to law enforcement and have their allegation investigated."
How the jury arrived at its verdict remained a mystery. O'Neill did not immediately make public the names of the seven men and five women, prompting The Associated Press and other news organizations to go to court Friday in a bid to get them released. The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Constand has done.
Nevada leader to give first Hindu prayer in Oklahoma Senate
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A spiritual leader from Nevada will deliver the Oklahoma Senate's first Hindu prayer, part of an interfaith movement in a Legislature in the Bible Belt that has faced criticism its lack of religious diversity.
Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, will visit Oklahoma on Monday as part of his effort to pray before lawmakers in state Capitols across the country. He is the guest of state Sen. Stephanie Bice, an Oklahoma City Republican who also has invited a local rabbi and people from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and African Methodist Episcopal Church to pray before the body this week.
"I think it was a situation where we thought: 'Hey, let's do something different here,'" Bice said. "I think the nice thing for me was that some our staff was excited to see some of the other faiths brought in."
Zed already has visited legislative chambers in more than a dozen states, but his arrival in Oklahoma comes as Republican House leaders have faced pointed criticism from the interfaith community over a lack of diversity. Rep. Chuck Strohm, a Republican from the Tulsa suburb of Jenks tapped to lead the House chaplain program, first denied a local Muslim imam an opportunity to serve as minister in the House last year, then changed the rules of the program to allow only ministers from a member's "own place of worship."
Strohm, who didn't return phone calls or emails seeking comment about the matter, resigned as head of the program this month, and House Speaker Charles McCall has said he plans to align the visiting minister program with the one used in the U.S. House, which is more interfaith oriented.
The flap over Oklahoma's chaplain program reignited last month after a Baptist minister delivered a nearly 17-minute sermon in the Senate and suggested gay marriage and "immorality" were to blame for recent school shootings and natural disasters, drawing a sharp rebuke from the chamber's minority leader.
Zed, who said the purpose of his legislative prayers is to create awareness about the harmonious co-existence of diverse religions, is no stranger to controversy. His first official Hindu prayer before the U.S. Senate in 2007 was interrupted by several Christian activists who had to be restrained by the sergeant at arms and were later arrested.
But in the decade since, Zed said he has seen a shift among Americans, especially young people, toward more acceptance and tolerance of different faith communities.
"Youth is becoming aware that religion encompasses much more than their particular tradition and a broader, deeper understanding of religion is needed," Zed said.
Recent surveys on Americans' views on religion confirm a growing number of adults, especially among millennials, who don't identify with a particular religion, said Nancy Pittman, dean of Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa.
"While my experience as a seminary dean leads me to believe that younger people are more open to other faiths, the bigger news is that they're increasingly likely to not hold closely to any particular faith tradition," Pittman said.
Oklahoma Conference of Churches Executive Director Shannon Fleck said the Legislature's welcome to leaders of different faiths sends an important message to the pockets of non-Christians across Oklahoma. About 2 percent of the state's residents identified themselves as belonging to a non-Christian faith, according to a 2014 survey on religion by the Pew Research Center. About 18 percent didn't identify with any religion.
"We need to constantly remind everyone that although we are perceived as the buckle of the Bible belt, we are a diverse and widespread state with a vast religious experience, and that needs to be recognized," she said.