Freeway piglet rescued; teen party bus bust; porn-sniffing dog
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Odd and interesting news from around the West.
- The Associated Press
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LAS VEGAS — Backpacks, bulky purses and coolers are being banned on the Las Vegas Strip as a security measure during an annual New Year's Eve fireworks show that attracts hundreds of thousands of people.
A law unanimously approved Tuesday by the Clark County Commission also prohibits briefcases, computer and camera bags, luggage, fanny packs, strollers and carts.
Las Vegas police informally banned large bags for the estimated 300,000 people who crowded Las Vegas Boulevard last Dec. 31, but later conceded they didn't have authority for the restrictions.
Officials cited safety concerns at the time following deadly attacks in December in San Bernardino, California, and in November at a Paris nightclub. They also noted the bombs that killed three people and wounded 246 at the Boston Marathon in 2013 were hidden in backpacks.
But Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said they just couldn't get lawmakers to pass the measure in time.
The new county ordinance also banned glass bottles on the Strip during the Fourth of July, and on the resort-lined Casino Drive in Laughlin during the Colorado River resort town's annual Laughlin River Run motorcycle rally in April.
The law limits handbags to 12 inches by 6 inches by 12 inches.
Violators could face a $250 fine or 30 days in jail for a first offense, but officials say people will first get a warning.
- The Associated Press
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PORTLAND, Ore. — Officials say about 300 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from a train heading east through the Columbia River Gorge Tuesday night.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the leak happened east of a bridge over the Sandy River, about 27 miles east of Portland.
Union Pacific spokesman Justin Jacobs says authorities have determined fuel didn't enter any waterways.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said their responders worked with Union Pacific personnel and others to minimize further release of fuel while the 92-car train was moved across Bridal Veil Creek for fuel removal and cleanup.
Jacobs says a fuel filter ring failure caused the leak and he didn't know how it happened. The train has been moved and the tracks are open.
The leak comes after a fiery oil train derailment along the Columbia River earlier this month.
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Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com
- The Associated Press
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BISBEE — Authorities say a 15-year-old boy reported missing or lost on a hike near Bisbee has been found safe.
Cochise County Sheriff's officials say the teen was checked by paramedics and released to his parents Wednesday afternoon.
Sheriff's officials had received a call from the boy's father about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.
The man said his son had left his home in Zacatacas Canyon at 5 a.m. to hike in the Mule Mountains.
The teen called his dad about 3 ½ hours later to say he was out of water and out of breath and didn't know where he was.
The U.S. Border Patrol and Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted the sheriff's office in the search for the teenager.
The name of the boy and his father haven't been released yet.
- The Associated Press
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BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho recreation spot known as the Skinny Dipper Hot Springs has been shut down by federal officials.
Bureau of Land Management officials plan to remove illegal piping and illegal pools during a temporary five-year shutdown at the Boise County hot springs. The agency also plans to re-establish vegetation in the area, reported KTVB-TV.
BLM conducted an environmental analysis on the pools in 2015 that showed they're unsafe and damaging natural resources.
Officials also cited public health and safety concerns at the hot springs. There have been nearly 150 incidents there since 2004, according to BLM Four Rivers field manager Tate Fischer, including underage alcohol consumption, public intoxication, public nudity, assault and rape. He said the region also has health hazards like hypodermic needles, dirty diapers and human waste.
"If the pools weren't there, we wouldn't be dealing with those safety and health hazards," said Fischer.
The closure means that anyone visiting the springs can receive a $130 ticket. The shutdown began Tuesday.
BLM has worked with Antonio Bommarito and a non-profit group, Growing Change, over the past year on a plan to keep the hot springs open.
Bommarito said they have come up with a design for a new trail system that will offer access different parts of the mountain in a more environmentally friendly way.
- By STEVEN DUBOIS Associated Press
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Seattle man who pimped out his girlfriend after losing his job to a failed drug test was sentenced Wednesday to nearly four years in federal prison.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones told Zarin Price he was "very reluctantly" following the sentencing recommendation lawyers agreed to in exchange for a guilty plea.
"You don't deserve it," Jones said of what he considered a lenient punishment. The judge said he hopes the 36-year-old matures in prison and opts for a different life than that of a heroin addict and pimp.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Martin said in a sentencing memorandum that the victim was a good student-athlete before suffering a serious injury that ended her ability to play. During her recovery, she became addicted to prescription opioid drugs and, later, heroin. She had a child and decided to enter drug treatment, where she met Price.
The recovering addicts moved in together. Price became abusive after they relapsed.
In January 2015, Price had lost his job after testing positive for drugs. He had attempted to beat the test by submitting a urine sample from the victim, who had recently quit using.
Blaming her for the failed test, Price tied the young woman up with a phone cord and held a gun to her head. He then forced her out on "the track" in Seattle, where he negotiated with drivers. He pocketed the money they paid for sex acts.
About a month later, he brought her to the Portland area, where she met clients on the street and online.
Price was arrested on an assault charge in July 2015 after witnesses saw him repeatedly punch the victim in the face during a confrontation in the parking lot of a hotel in Tigard, Oregon.
In a search, officers found Price in possession of meth, cocaine, numerous hotel key cards and the book "Pimpology," a guide to becoming a pimp.
Price pleaded guilty last fall to coercing and transporting the woman across the state line to engage in prostitution.
He apologized in the Portland courtroom Wednesday, saying drugs were the focus of his crime, not the money.
"I want you to know this is the cataclysmic event," he told the judge. "You will never hear from me again. This is the end, I know. I learned and I was wrong for this — and I'm sorry."
Martin said the victim has a "continuing emotional attachment" to Price. The woman initially cooperated with authorities before deciding to no longer participate. She declined to submit a victim impact statement or return paperwork necessary to receive restitution.
It was anticipated she would show up in court Wednesday to support Price. She never arrived.
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Follow Steven DuBois at twitter.com/pdxdub
- The Associated Press
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EUGENE, Ore. — Police are searching for the owner of a piglet found running alongside Interstate 5 south of Eugene.
Oregon State Police troopers responded Tuesday night after someone reported that a dog was in the northbound median of the freeway.
Troopers discovered it was a female piglet estimated to be about a month old. She had no identifying tags and nobody had called to report her missing. The animal was taken to a Eugene shelter.
The owner is asked to call Oregon State Police at 541-726-2536 or the animal shelter at 541-844-1606.
- Wyoming Tribune Eagle
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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Not all heroes wear capes.
That's what the internet says, anyway, and it's a rare person who will disagree.
Historians and museum curators likely would count Larry Fulton of Cheyenne as a hero.
Fulton rescues old farm equipment from the salvage heaps and fixes them up. Some of his "patients" date as far back as the 19th century.
"My thrill in life is to find a tractor that's complete, that's been sitting in a tree row for 50-60 years, and bring it back to life," he said.
His 21-year-old granddaughter, Erin Fulton, who helps with his various projects, said, "He could fix anything. He's a genius."
She is right, it's not just tractors. Fulton fixed up two towering rope water well drills. Based on the features of the drills, he dated his first one at about 1870 and his second about 1880.
He estimated the date of the first one, which he received in 2013, based on built-in oil trays, a single drum and a 15-foot derrick, among other features.
"All of this pushes it before 1880," Fulton said.
That same drill has wheel protection strips that he had to move to accommodate the steel wheels that were on its wagon when it came to him. The strips' original placing indicated the driller originally had wooden-spoke wheels. "In 1890 is when the steel wheels on the wagons became common," he said.
"There's a lot of these old water well drills and stuff around, but they've never been restored. People have got them, but these two are actually the only two functioning ones that I know of in existence," Fulton said. "I do a lot of looking through the internet, trying different ways - asked for percussion drilling, rope drilling and stuff like that."
Fulton said he's found a lot of similar ones, but none exactly like his. "A lot of them have the big walking beam arms on top or a clutch-type - all different functions of getting the rope to go up and down. But these are the only two that I'm aware of that actually have the freefall."
Much of Fulton's restoration work is focused on tractors. He said his favorite piece is a reddish 1940 Cletrac crop tractor that he paid a scrap metal price for. He adhered rubber blocks to the tractor's treads in order to ride it in street parades.
Fulton said he will have that Cletrac, a green Oliver tractor and an old-fashioned kitchen sink pump at Superday on Saturday, June 25, but he won't be able to bring his water well drills.
But he said he will have at least one of those at the Laramie County Fair Aug. 1-13.
Fulton has more than water well drills and tractors on his property too. In addition to the kitchen pump, he has a water pump from the Civil War era, old washing machine motors that had to be run by hand or foot pedal, and a rusted International pickup truck from about 1937-1940.
The truck has rotted out tires with spoke rims and a rusted 1948 license plate on which you can still make out a 31. "My brother-in-law up there in Shoshoni had what they call the KB series of International trucks, and he was storing all of them. He had all of his restored trucks in a Quonset hut along with a farm loader. The alternator shorted out on the loader and burned the building down and ruined all of his trucks," Fulton said.
"They just took them out of the building and just parked them along a ditch that they call a tree row. So they were just sitting there, and somehow this pickup appeared in that lineup. No one knows where it came from. They don't know if he bought it at an auction or if it was given to him."
Fulton said that his family gave him the truck to restore because he'd been looking for an International pickup truck. He'd had one years ago when he was young.
Adding to the rarities at Fulton's workshop is a huge wrench circle that was used for 20- to 24-inch diameter bits, and had to be used by laying it on the ground. Fulton said when he found it he didn't know what it was at first. It's the only one he's ever seen, he said, and he bought it specifically to be donated to a museum at some point.
Fulton, who is the vice president of the Centennial Antique Tractor and Engine Club, hopes many of his restored projects will benefit future generations.
"I think when I'm gone and dead, you know, what's gonna happen to this? And I just hope some of this stuff will wind up in museums. That's what I would like to see," he said.
- The Associated Press
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OGDEN, Utah — Police in northern Utah have a new K-9 officer trained to sniff out devices that could contain child pornography.
The Weber County Sheriff's Office says the 17-month-old black lab is named URL, pronounced "Earl." He joined the department at the end of May and officers jokingly call him their "porn dog."
URL is trained to smell the chemical components unique to photo and video storage and can sniff out devices like flash drives, DVDs and memory cards. He is the state's first electronic detection K-9 and one of only nine such dogs in the country.
URL's handler, Detective Cameron Hartman, says Utah won a bid for URL because of the state's high rate of porn consumption, although he did not present data to confirm that anecdote.
- The Associated Press
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LAS VEGAS — A woman who brought a gun while she checked out library books with her children will remain banned after a judge denied her preliminary injunction.
Las Vegas-Clark County Library District attorney Dennis Kennedy said Michelle Flores sat in the Rainbow Library doorway with her children after a security guard told her not to bring the weapon again.
Kennedy said Flores was banned for disruptive behavior.
The library has a sign posted prohibiting firearms.
Flores' attorney Jeffrey Barr said the library cannot prohibit patrons from openly carrying firearms under state law.
Barr said the trespass notice lists firearms as the reason for her year-long ban. He and Flores plan to appeal.
Kennedy said the state law that Barr referenced applies to counties, towns and cities and not the library district.
- The Associated Press
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PORT TOWNSEND, Wash.— The U.S. Navy was called in to investigate after a beachcomber found an unexploded World War II artillery shell near a Washington park.
Port Townsend police officials say the shell was found about 1.5 miles west of North Beach County Park and Fort Warden State Park.
Navy officials concluded the shell was an unfired 70 pound artillery shell likely from World War II. It did not have a fuse so it was not likely to explode. They also checked to make sure it wasn't a chemical weapon.
Navy officials believe the shell probably came from the bunker located above the beach at the end of Elmira Street, also known as Land's End Park. The bunker was part of the Fort Worden military base complex.
- The Associated Press
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A man suspected of shooting bear pepper spray into the face of an Anchorage police officer was arrested on suspicion of assault, resisting arrest and drug misconduct.
Anchorage police say 25-year-old Joshua Chiskok tried to remove the officer's handgun from its holster as they wrestled.
A caller early Tuesday reported hearing a fight and a man calling for help at 15th Avenue and Cordova Street.
An officer contacted Chiskok, and as they talked, Chiskok pulled a can of bear spray from his backpack and fired it into the officer's face.
As the men wrestled to the ground, backup officers arrived and used a baton and a stun gun on Chiskok.
He was treated for injuries at a hospital and arrested.
Online court records did not list Chiskok's attorney.
- The Associated Press
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LITTLETON, Colo. — Two people suffered minor injuries and a third person walked away after a hot air balloon went down at the Lockheed Martin space systems assembly plant in Littleton on Wednesday.
Lockheed spokesman Matt Kramer says the tour balloon came down in the parking lot of executive office buildings at the plant. The facility is used to assemble commercial and defense department space vehicles and satellites.
Mark Stokes of Littleton Fire Rescue says the balloon took off from a nearby park and landed hard when the wind shifted.
Stokes says the two people who were injured were taken to a hospital for treatment.
- The Associated Press
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LARKSPUR, Calif. — An anonymous tip led police in Marin County to a party bus loaded with teens and stocked with alcohol and drugs.
After stopping the bus Monday evening police found 33 teens with 30 empty and partially empty containers of hard alcohol, a case of hard lemonade, and a jar of marijuana. Prescription drugs were also located in a purse. Drugs and alcohol were also found in the bus driver's compartment. He was arrested.
Police say a teen who rented the bus online did not have to show any identification after making a cash payment of $900 for the bus rental.
The teen with the prescription drugs was cited for possession of a controlled substance and marijuana, and possession of false identification cards. The teens were released to their parents.
The California Public Utilities Commission Transportation Enforcement Section has been notified about the incident.
- The Associated Press
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PHOENIX — An Arizona man has been sentenced for exposing himself on a passenger flight to Phoenix last year.
The Office of the U.S. Attorney for Arizona says 61-year-old Craig Dewalt was sentenced to two days in prison Monday.
Dewalt, of Cave Creek, also received three years' probation and must pay a $2,500 fine.
He was found guilty in a bench trial of committing lewd, indecent or obscene acts on an aircraft.
Authorities say Dewalt exposed himself twice while in a window seat on a flight from Burbank, California in February 2015.
A woman seated next to him testified witnessing his actions and suffering emotional trauma as a result.
- The New Mexican
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SANTA FE, N.M. — Dr. Gale Cooper doesn't remember the exact date in July 1998 when she was perusing the shelves at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Southern California — it might have been the 14th — but her impulse purchase that day of a book about Billy the Kid changed her life.
A Harvard-educated psychiatrist with a practice in Beverly Hills, Cooper was not particularly an enthusiast of Old West history. Still, she devoured The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid — a firsthand account by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett — and by the month's end, she was on a flight to New Mexico to see for herself the sites where the kid fought and died.
The next year, she closed her office, moved to New Mexico to write a novel based on the life of William Bonney, the Kid, and ended up an unlikely crusader for the public's right to know, reported The New Mexican (http://bit.ly/28KXLx3).
Her battle to preserve the spirit of New Mexico's public records law began more than a decade ago, when Gov. Bill Richardson announced a new investigation into the legendary outlaw's death, to determine whether Sheriff Garrett had killed an innocent man and the Kid had escaped, unscathed. Cooper was dismayed by the effort — she says Bonney's story has always been hijacked, twisted and exploited. But when the investigation ultimately fizzled and no forensic reports from the effort were released, Cooper was outraged. She filed a lawsuit against a rural sheriff's office, demanding it hand over public documents in the case.
After a win and a loss in state courts, Cooper is asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to take up her case and give some bite to a state law that many say has become toothless.
Bonney gained notoriety in the 1870s and early 1880s amid the Lincoln County War, a conflict between factions of eastern New Mexico landowners. He was part of a deadly ambush that killed Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady. When Bonney was captured, New Mexico Gov. Lew Wallace offered to pardon him if he testified before a grand jury investigating another killing during the war. Bonney agreed, but Wallace did not hold up his end of the bargain. Instead, Bonney stood trial for shooting the sheriff. A jury convicted him, but he broke out of jail, killing two deputies during his escape.
Less than three months later, on July 14, 1881, the new sheriff, Garrett, shot and killed Bonney in Fort Sumner.
The Kid's death is memorialized with roadside attractions in the town.
While he is derided by some as saddle trash and a scofflaw, others have celebrated Bonney. Cooper joined the ranks of enthusiasts who view him as something of a revolutionary.
To Cooper, he is a freedom fighter.
"I could tell there was a woman, too," she said in a recent interview. She learned as much as possible about the Kid's relationship with Paulita Maxwell, the daughter of a prominent land baron. She sees their romance as an American Romeo and Juliet, and the tale served as the premise for her novel, Joy of the Birds.
She visited New Mexico twice in 1998 after reading Garrett's book about Billy, immersing herself in the outlaw's world. On her second trip, she traveled to a canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains where Bonney was almost killed in an ambush by Apaches. A guide fired a revolver during her visit so she could hear the same echo that Bonney would have heard.
Until then, Cooper said, her life was headed in a "logical direction" for a self-described idealistic, Ivy League-educated psychiatrist. She might have been shy and bookish but was busy, consulting on murder cases and breeding miniature horses. But in 1999, Cooper moved to Sandia Park, a town near Albuquerque, donned a Stetson and became what she calls Bonney's revisionist historian.
She was apoplectic in 2003 when Richardson announced that state and local officials planned to gather new DNA evidence, pardon Bonney and prove Garrett gunned down an innocent man instead of the Kid. At least two men had claimed they were the real Kid, and theories whirled that his death was a hoax — yet another escape.
A similar theory — that a "Brushy Bill" Roberts of Hico, Texas, was the real Kid — had long been discredited. Roberts died in 1950.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office investigation may have generated plenty of attention, but it did not go far.
Residents of Fort Sumner put the kibosh on a proposal to dig up Bonney's remains, and residents of Silver City fought back against plans to exhume the remains of his mother for a DNA sample.
Nonetheless, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office dug up the remains of a supposed Bonney impostor in Arizona in 2005. Officials, however, wouldn't initially disclose the results of the forensic tests. Investigators also gathered DNA from a workbench where Bonney — or his innocent stand-in — is believed to have bled to death after Garrett shot him. Dr. Henry Lee, a renowned forensic scientist involved in the high-profile cases of O.J. Simpson and JonBenét Ramsey, tested the samples. But the investigation led nowhere.
Cooper and other observers argued that reopening the case was a publicity stunt by Richardson and local officials. It worked, grabbing headlines on the front page of The New York Times and around the world.
But Cooper didn't take it lightly. She said the effort has wrecked a piece of New Mexico history.
Intent on debunking the theory of "the hoaxers," as she calls them, she sent several requests under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office between April and June 2007 for the DNA reports.
First, according to court records, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office sent her a letter denying it had the documents she requested. Then in June 2007, Deputies Steve Sederwall and Tom Sullivan, who were both involved in the investigation and admitted they had the records Cooper requested, left their jobs at the sheriff's office and may have taken the files with them. They considered the files their private property — part of a hobby. Sederwall even posted some of the documents for sale online, court records say.
Cooper and a local newspaper, the De Baca County News, sued the sheriff's office in October 2007, asking a judge to order the release of records.
The case dragged on for years. The sheriff's office did turn over some records in the case, but not the ones Cooper and the newspaper had requested. And through subpoenas and depositions, they learned Sullivan and Sederwall had altered and forged some of the documents from their investigation.
Meanwhile, Cooper's alliances frayed. She had a falling out with the newspaper's publisher and burned through lawyers. She penned two lengthy books about her legal battle, purporting in one of them that she had to fire four attorneys who had attempted to throw the case.
The books read like poison pen letters to New Mexico's political and media elite, drawing a straight line from the corruption in the 19th-century New Mexico Territory to the Land of Enchantment's contemporary leaders.
Seven years after she began firing off records requests in the Kid investigation, Cooper caught a break. State District Court Judge George P. Eichwald ruled in May 2014 that the Lincoln County sheriff and his deputies had willfully and wantonly violated the state Inspection of Public Records Act.
Eichwald ordered the sheriff's office, as well as its former deputies, to pay Cooper $100,000 in punitive damages, $1,000 in what he termed nominal damages and nearly $20,000 in legal fees under the state law.
The award was a big victory, but Cooper said it didn't go far enough.
Citing a section of the law that allows courts to impose a steeper penalty on agencies that do not comply — up to $100 a day — she appealed Eichwald's decision, calling for the maximum penalty of $966,000.
But a three-judge panel of the New Mexico Court of Appeals interpreted the law differently, and it decided earlier this year to not only deny the steeper penalty but to also overturn the $100,000 Cooper previously was awarded.
As long as an agency gives some response to a request for records within the time required by the act, the judges determined, it cannot be penalized for withholding records. It is only liable for legal fees and actual damages.
A state Supreme Court decision in Faber v. King in 2014 strictly limited the circumstances in which judges can award punitive damages in public records cases. In that decision, justices expressed concern that demanding public bodies to pay big awards for punitive damages when records are wrongly withheld could lead to frivolous lawsuits and strain coffers, penalizing taxpayers for the misdeeds or mistakes of their officials.
Cooper says the ruling rendered the state law useless, leaving it cheaper for public officials to lie than ignore a request.
Susan Boe, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, agrees. She argues that courts should at least have the discretion to apply financial pressure on agencies that withhold public records in bad faith.
Without that option, she said in a recent interview, a public body could provide an inadequate response to a records request just to dodge a penalty.
Cooper's case could allow the court to draw a distinction between honest but inadequate efforts to fulfill a records request and intentional obstruction, Boe said.
Cooper believes her case provides a perfect challenge to the Supreme Court's ruling in Faber v. King. If it takes the case, the court could redraw the lines on a government agency's liability when it willfully withholds public records.
Boe notes, however, that Cooper is asking the court to reverse a decision it issued only a few years ago.
"That's swimming upstream," Boe says.
Billy the Kid's self-proclaimed revisionist historian knows her petition to the state Supreme Court is a long shot, and Cooper won't be surprised if it declines to hear her arguments. For her, it will be another sign that Billy's battle isn't over.
- Jackson Hole News and Guide
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JACKSON, Wyo. — Farms don't happen overnight. Nate Ray and his wife, Ginny Robbins, spent years building their goat cheese farm, Winter Winds Farm near Victor, Idaho, from scratch.
Five years ago the couple officially started the farm. They had only four goats, made their cheese in their kitchen and sold it at the Jackson Hole Farmers Market on Town Square. Ray worked nights as a head chef — first at Local Restaurant and Bar, then at Trio An American Bistro — while he saved money to build his farm.
Today the farm has a stand-alone, cheese-making facility with a stainless-steel refrigeration tank, a large vat in a cheese-making room, milking stands for 23 goats and a cheese cave next to pens that house 50 goats.
It's safe to say the business is off the ground.
"It's hard to start a farm overnight," Ray said. "Since I kind of built this paycheck to paycheck and did a lot of the work myself, it feels great to be set up and actually doing what I've been trying to get to for years, making cheese and producing, instead of just the construction and building phase."
He milks the goats twice a day, every day. The milk is stored in a bulk tank, and every three days Ray makes one of his varieties of cheese. There's chevre, a soft, fresh variety with a mild flavor; chevre smoked with applewood; tomme, a semi-hard alpine-style cheese; and crottin, a surface-ripened cheese like brie with a rich, tangy flavor.
The soft cheeses must be pasteurized, and the harder cheeses like the tomme must be aged for at least 60 days. While he's making the cheeses he adds bacteria to the vat, which gives the cheese its flavor and hinders bad bacteria, and yeast, which adds flavor and creates a rind.
That whole time he's turning the milk into curds and whey, and depending on which cheese he's making that day the curd will differ. The bigger the curd the softer the cheese is, and the smaller the curd the harder the cheese. The curd is separated and pushed into molds, flipped and, eventually, placed in the cheese cave, a cool, dark, humid room where the cheese ages.
Ray is the only employee, besides his wife helping out with the animals when she's not at her full-time job at Intermountain Aquatics, a habitat restoration company.
Ray may not be working in a kitchen anymore, but he's still a chef at heart, and he uses that mindset to help him make his cheese.
"I have a good palate, so I know what a good cheese tastes like," he said. "I know what I'm looking for, I know what kind of final product I'm trying to get. I've seen a lot of cheese and tasted a lot of cheese working in kitchens. But it also comes down to I'm still just making a food product. Basically it's all the same, just a little different scale, different medium."
Ray aims to make a new variety each season and get the recipe down. He is trying his hand at making goat cheese Gouda this year.
"Since I'm using goat milk it's going to be different than the same cheese from cow's milk, so I have to use different amounts of rennin, different culture, until I get on the right track," Ray said.
It's all an experiment, but he has to wait two months to try the Gouda to even see if it will turn out right due to the aging process.
"You don't really get instant gratification," Ray said. "In the restaurant, 10 minutes later you can have something great, whereas cheese making, it takes a lot more time."
Last year he produced 1,500 pounds of cheese. In comparison the state of Wisconsin made 3 billion pounds of cheese in 2015. Winter Winds Farm will be producing more and more every year because its facilities can accommodate 100 goats, twice as many as it has now.
"Needless to say, I'm a small producer," Ray said.
While cheese-making brings out the culinary side of Ray, he also has to care for the goats, more of a challenge for him.
"Animal husbandry is frustrating and rewarding and easy and hard all at the same time," he said. "There's always something."
The goats are fed twice a day, and the kids are bottle-fed twice a day until they can eat solid food. Then there's also hoof trimming, coat brushing and baby-sitting goats that get sick. During the spring the goats are also giving birth; this year 40 kids were born.
"I definitely learn something new every day," Ray said.
His background in the kitchen, and science, help him along the way. Charting every little detail, Ray keeps meticulous notes so he can look back on batches that turned out well (or badly) and what little variations occurred: how much bacteria and rennet he added, the temperature levels, when the whey was stirred, when it was drained, when it was put in the molds — all the way until it's set in the brine, for tomme.
"This math is easy," Ray said. "It's knowing what's happening with the bacteria, because you change the temperature or you change the amount of time the curd is in the whey and the bacteria is growing. It's more a chemistry."
Ray originally went to Western Michigan University following in his father's footsteps as an engineer, but he decided to switch gears and go to community college for culinary school.
The first few times Ray made cheese he was working in New England restaurants, making mozzarella and ricotta. He was hooked.
He visited a few goat cheese farms in Vermont and saw the facilities and how everything was done. He decided to move to Oregon to work at Juniper Grove Farm, a goat cheese farm. He worked at the farm for two years. It is no longer in business because the owner retired after 30 years.
"I learned how to raise animals, make cheese and how to run a business," Ray said.
He and his wife made the move to the Tetons in 2009. After working in a kitchen for so long he knew he wanted to own his own business.
"We were going to start a bowling alley, but that seemed more expensive," he said.
So they bought 8 acres between Victor and Driggs on the north end of a field. The property holds the cheese-making facility, their quaint home, three goat pens and barns, all built by the couple and their family.
"We can do all the things we love right from our house," Ray said. "I don't have to travel on vacation to do the things I like. I can do them right from my doorstep.
"I don't always feel bad that I can't leave the house because I can go mountain biking from here, spend the day boating, ski every day."
His cheese can be found during the summers at the Teton Valley Farmers Market in Driggs, the Jackson Hole People's Market and the Jackson Hole Farmers Market. You can also find his cheese in the Aspens Market, Local Butcher, Pearl Street Market. In Idaho it's at Victor Valley Market and Driggs' Barrels and Bins.
The cheeses are also used at the restaurants Trio and Local.
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VAIL, Colo. (AP) — A Lakewood man has died after striking a deer while riding his motorcycle in Vail.
The Vail Daily reported emergency personnel had responded to the early morning crash to find Gary George Stock breathing but unresponsive. The 54-year-old man was taken to a hospital and later died.
He had struck the deer near the East Vail interchange and sustained major injuries to his head and torso. The animal did not survive.
Stock had not been wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.
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MISSOULA, Mont. — A Missoula woman will be behind bars for at least one month after cursing and shouting insults at a judge.
KGVO-AM reported that 30-year-old Tiffany Ortega had appeared in court via video from the Missoula County jail on DUI and careless driving charges.
Judge Karen Orzech had started asking questions when Ortega became verbally abusive toward her.
Orzech had initially given Ortega a two-day jail sentence and set her bail at $5,000, but she added more time after Ortega continued cursing and made an obscene gesture.
Ortega was found in contempt of court and sentenced to a total of 30 days in jail for "calling me that word," Orzech said.
Ortega is scheduled to appear before Orzech again in August.
- The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Backpacks, bulky purses and coolers are being banned on the Las Vegas Strip as a security measure during an annual New Year's Eve fireworks show that attracts hundreds of thousands of people.
A law unanimously approved Tuesday by the Clark County Commission also prohibits briefcases, computer and camera bags, luggage, fanny packs, strollers and carts.
Las Vegas police informally banned large bags for the estimated 300,000 people who crowded Las Vegas Boulevard last Dec. 31, but later conceded they didn't have authority for the restrictions.
Officials cited safety concerns at the time following deadly attacks in December in San Bernardino, California, and in November at a Paris nightclub. They also noted the bombs that killed three people and wounded 246 at the Boston Marathon in 2013 were hidden in backpacks.
But Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said they just couldn't get lawmakers to pass the measure in time.
The new county ordinance also banned glass bottles on the Strip during the Fourth of July, and on the resort-lined Casino Drive in Laughlin during the Colorado River resort town's annual Laughlin River Run motorcycle rally in April.
The law limits handbags to 12 inches by 6 inches by 12 inches.
Violators could face a $250 fine or 30 days in jail for a first offense, but officials say people will first get a warning.
- The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. — Officials say about 300 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from a train heading east through the Columbia River Gorge Tuesday night.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the leak happened east of a bridge over the Sandy River, about 27 miles east of Portland.
Union Pacific spokesman Justin Jacobs says authorities have determined fuel didn't enter any waterways.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said their responders worked with Union Pacific personnel and others to minimize further release of fuel while the 92-car train was moved across Bridal Veil Creek for fuel removal and cleanup.
Jacobs says a fuel filter ring failure caused the leak and he didn't know how it happened. The train has been moved and the tracks are open.
The leak comes after a fiery oil train derailment along the Columbia River earlier this month.
___
Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com
- The Associated Press
BISBEE — Authorities say a 15-year-old boy reported missing or lost on a hike near Bisbee has been found safe.
Cochise County Sheriff's officials say the teen was checked by paramedics and released to his parents Wednesday afternoon.
Sheriff's officials had received a call from the boy's father about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.
The man said his son had left his home in Zacatacas Canyon at 5 a.m. to hike in the Mule Mountains.
The teen called his dad about 3 ½ hours later to say he was out of water and out of breath and didn't know where he was.
The U.S. Border Patrol and Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted the sheriff's office in the search for the teenager.
The name of the boy and his father haven't been released yet.
- The Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho recreation spot known as the Skinny Dipper Hot Springs has been shut down by federal officials.
Bureau of Land Management officials plan to remove illegal piping and illegal pools during a temporary five-year shutdown at the Boise County hot springs. The agency also plans to re-establish vegetation in the area, reported KTVB-TV.
BLM conducted an environmental analysis on the pools in 2015 that showed they're unsafe and damaging natural resources.
Officials also cited public health and safety concerns at the hot springs. There have been nearly 150 incidents there since 2004, according to BLM Four Rivers field manager Tate Fischer, including underage alcohol consumption, public intoxication, public nudity, assault and rape. He said the region also has health hazards like hypodermic needles, dirty diapers and human waste.
"If the pools weren't there, we wouldn't be dealing with those safety and health hazards," said Fischer.
The closure means that anyone visiting the springs can receive a $130 ticket. The shutdown began Tuesday.
BLM has worked with Antonio Bommarito and a non-profit group, Growing Change, over the past year on a plan to keep the hot springs open.
Bommarito said they have come up with a design for a new trail system that will offer access different parts of the mountain in a more environmentally friendly way.
- By STEVEN DUBOIS Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Seattle man who pimped out his girlfriend after losing his job to a failed drug test was sentenced Wednesday to nearly four years in federal prison.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones told Zarin Price he was "very reluctantly" following the sentencing recommendation lawyers agreed to in exchange for a guilty plea.
"You don't deserve it," Jones said of what he considered a lenient punishment. The judge said he hopes the 36-year-old matures in prison and opts for a different life than that of a heroin addict and pimp.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Martin said in a sentencing memorandum that the victim was a good student-athlete before suffering a serious injury that ended her ability to play. During her recovery, she became addicted to prescription opioid drugs and, later, heroin. She had a child and decided to enter drug treatment, where she met Price.
The recovering addicts moved in together. Price became abusive after they relapsed.
In January 2015, Price had lost his job after testing positive for drugs. He had attempted to beat the test by submitting a urine sample from the victim, who had recently quit using.
Blaming her for the failed test, Price tied the young woman up with a phone cord and held a gun to her head. He then forced her out on "the track" in Seattle, where he negotiated with drivers. He pocketed the money they paid for sex acts.
About a month later, he brought her to the Portland area, where she met clients on the street and online.
Price was arrested on an assault charge in July 2015 after witnesses saw him repeatedly punch the victim in the face during a confrontation in the parking lot of a hotel in Tigard, Oregon.
In a search, officers found Price in possession of meth, cocaine, numerous hotel key cards and the book "Pimpology," a guide to becoming a pimp.
Price pleaded guilty last fall to coercing and transporting the woman across the state line to engage in prostitution.
He apologized in the Portland courtroom Wednesday, saying drugs were the focus of his crime, not the money.
"I want you to know this is the cataclysmic event," he told the judge. "You will never hear from me again. This is the end, I know. I learned and I was wrong for this — and I'm sorry."
Martin said the victim has a "continuing emotional attachment" to Price. The woman initially cooperated with authorities before deciding to no longer participate. She declined to submit a victim impact statement or return paperwork necessary to receive restitution.
It was anticipated she would show up in court Wednesday to support Price. She never arrived.
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Follow Steven DuBois at twitter.com/pdxdub
- The Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. — Police are searching for the owner of a piglet found running alongside Interstate 5 south of Eugene.
Oregon State Police troopers responded Tuesday night after someone reported that a dog was in the northbound median of the freeway.
Troopers discovered it was a female piglet estimated to be about a month old. She had no identifying tags and nobody had called to report her missing. The animal was taken to a Eugene shelter.
The owner is asked to call Oregon State Police at 541-726-2536 or the animal shelter at 541-844-1606.
- Wyoming Tribune Eagle
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Not all heroes wear capes.
That's what the internet says, anyway, and it's a rare person who will disagree.
Historians and museum curators likely would count Larry Fulton of Cheyenne as a hero.
Fulton rescues old farm equipment from the salvage heaps and fixes them up. Some of his "patients" date as far back as the 19th century.
"My thrill in life is to find a tractor that's complete, that's been sitting in a tree row for 50-60 years, and bring it back to life," he said.
His 21-year-old granddaughter, Erin Fulton, who helps with his various projects, said, "He could fix anything. He's a genius."
She is right, it's not just tractors. Fulton fixed up two towering rope water well drills. Based on the features of the drills, he dated his first one at about 1870 and his second about 1880.
He estimated the date of the first one, which he received in 2013, based on built-in oil trays, a single drum and a 15-foot derrick, among other features.
"All of this pushes it before 1880," Fulton said.
That same drill has wheel protection strips that he had to move to accommodate the steel wheels that were on its wagon when it came to him. The strips' original placing indicated the driller originally had wooden-spoke wheels. "In 1890 is when the steel wheels on the wagons became common," he said.
"There's a lot of these old water well drills and stuff around, but they've never been restored. People have got them, but these two are actually the only two functioning ones that I know of in existence," Fulton said. "I do a lot of looking through the internet, trying different ways - asked for percussion drilling, rope drilling and stuff like that."
Fulton said he's found a lot of similar ones, but none exactly like his. "A lot of them have the big walking beam arms on top or a clutch-type - all different functions of getting the rope to go up and down. But these are the only two that I'm aware of that actually have the freefall."
Much of Fulton's restoration work is focused on tractors. He said his favorite piece is a reddish 1940 Cletrac crop tractor that he paid a scrap metal price for. He adhered rubber blocks to the tractor's treads in order to ride it in street parades.
Fulton said he will have that Cletrac, a green Oliver tractor and an old-fashioned kitchen sink pump at Superday on Saturday, June 25, but he won't be able to bring his water well drills.
But he said he will have at least one of those at the Laramie County Fair Aug. 1-13.
Fulton has more than water well drills and tractors on his property too. In addition to the kitchen pump, he has a water pump from the Civil War era, old washing machine motors that had to be run by hand or foot pedal, and a rusted International pickup truck from about 1937-1940.
The truck has rotted out tires with spoke rims and a rusted 1948 license plate on which you can still make out a 31. "My brother-in-law up there in Shoshoni had what they call the KB series of International trucks, and he was storing all of them. He had all of his restored trucks in a Quonset hut along with a farm loader. The alternator shorted out on the loader and burned the building down and ruined all of his trucks," Fulton said.
"They just took them out of the building and just parked them along a ditch that they call a tree row. So they were just sitting there, and somehow this pickup appeared in that lineup. No one knows where it came from. They don't know if he bought it at an auction or if it was given to him."
Fulton said that his family gave him the truck to restore because he'd been looking for an International pickup truck. He'd had one years ago when he was young.
Adding to the rarities at Fulton's workshop is a huge wrench circle that was used for 20- to 24-inch diameter bits, and had to be used by laying it on the ground. Fulton said when he found it he didn't know what it was at first. It's the only one he's ever seen, he said, and he bought it specifically to be donated to a museum at some point.
Fulton, who is the vice president of the Centennial Antique Tractor and Engine Club, hopes many of his restored projects will benefit future generations.
"I think when I'm gone and dead, you know, what's gonna happen to this? And I just hope some of this stuff will wind up in museums. That's what I would like to see," he said.
- The Associated Press
OGDEN, Utah — Police in northern Utah have a new K-9 officer trained to sniff out devices that could contain child pornography.
The Weber County Sheriff's Office says the 17-month-old black lab is named URL, pronounced "Earl." He joined the department at the end of May and officers jokingly call him their "porn dog."
URL is trained to smell the chemical components unique to photo and video storage and can sniff out devices like flash drives, DVDs and memory cards. He is the state's first electronic detection K-9 and one of only nine such dogs in the country.
URL's handler, Detective Cameron Hartman, says Utah won a bid for URL because of the state's high rate of porn consumption, although he did not present data to confirm that anecdote.
- The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — A woman who brought a gun while she checked out library books with her children will remain banned after a judge denied her preliminary injunction.
Las Vegas-Clark County Library District attorney Dennis Kennedy said Michelle Flores sat in the Rainbow Library doorway with her children after a security guard told her not to bring the weapon again.
Kennedy said Flores was banned for disruptive behavior.
The library has a sign posted prohibiting firearms.
Flores' attorney Jeffrey Barr said the library cannot prohibit patrons from openly carrying firearms under state law.
Barr said the trespass notice lists firearms as the reason for her year-long ban. He and Flores plan to appeal.
Kennedy said the state law that Barr referenced applies to counties, towns and cities and not the library district.
- The Associated Press
PORT TOWNSEND, Wash.— The U.S. Navy was called in to investigate after a beachcomber found an unexploded World War II artillery shell near a Washington park.
Port Townsend police officials say the shell was found about 1.5 miles west of North Beach County Park and Fort Warden State Park.
Navy officials concluded the shell was an unfired 70 pound artillery shell likely from World War II. It did not have a fuse so it was not likely to explode. They also checked to make sure it wasn't a chemical weapon.
Navy officials believe the shell probably came from the bunker located above the beach at the end of Elmira Street, also known as Land's End Park. The bunker was part of the Fort Worden military base complex.
- The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A man suspected of shooting bear pepper spray into the face of an Anchorage police officer was arrested on suspicion of assault, resisting arrest and drug misconduct.
Anchorage police say 25-year-old Joshua Chiskok tried to remove the officer's handgun from its holster as they wrestled.
A caller early Tuesday reported hearing a fight and a man calling for help at 15th Avenue and Cordova Street.
An officer contacted Chiskok, and as they talked, Chiskok pulled a can of bear spray from his backpack and fired it into the officer's face.
As the men wrestled to the ground, backup officers arrived and used a baton and a stun gun on Chiskok.
He was treated for injuries at a hospital and arrested.
Online court records did not list Chiskok's attorney.
- The Associated Press
LITTLETON, Colo. — Two people suffered minor injuries and a third person walked away after a hot air balloon went down at the Lockheed Martin space systems assembly plant in Littleton on Wednesday.
Lockheed spokesman Matt Kramer says the tour balloon came down in the parking lot of executive office buildings at the plant. The facility is used to assemble commercial and defense department space vehicles and satellites.
Mark Stokes of Littleton Fire Rescue says the balloon took off from a nearby park and landed hard when the wind shifted.
Stokes says the two people who were injured were taken to a hospital for treatment.
- The Associated Press
LARKSPUR, Calif. — An anonymous tip led police in Marin County to a party bus loaded with teens and stocked with alcohol and drugs.
After stopping the bus Monday evening police found 33 teens with 30 empty and partially empty containers of hard alcohol, a case of hard lemonade, and a jar of marijuana. Prescription drugs were also located in a purse. Drugs and alcohol were also found in the bus driver's compartment. He was arrested.
Police say a teen who rented the bus online did not have to show any identification after making a cash payment of $900 for the bus rental.
The teen with the prescription drugs was cited for possession of a controlled substance and marijuana, and possession of false identification cards. The teens were released to their parents.
The California Public Utilities Commission Transportation Enforcement Section has been notified about the incident.
- The Associated Press
PHOENIX — An Arizona man has been sentenced for exposing himself on a passenger flight to Phoenix last year.
The Office of the U.S. Attorney for Arizona says 61-year-old Craig Dewalt was sentenced to two days in prison Monday.
Dewalt, of Cave Creek, also received three years' probation and must pay a $2,500 fine.
He was found guilty in a bench trial of committing lewd, indecent or obscene acts on an aircraft.
Authorities say Dewalt exposed himself twice while in a window seat on a flight from Burbank, California in February 2015.
A woman seated next to him testified witnessing his actions and suffering emotional trauma as a result.
- The New Mexican
SANTA FE, N.M. — Dr. Gale Cooper doesn't remember the exact date in July 1998 when she was perusing the shelves at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Southern California — it might have been the 14th — but her impulse purchase that day of a book about Billy the Kid changed her life.
A Harvard-educated psychiatrist with a practice in Beverly Hills, Cooper was not particularly an enthusiast of Old West history. Still, she devoured The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid — a firsthand account by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett — and by the month's end, she was on a flight to New Mexico to see for herself the sites where the kid fought and died.
The next year, she closed her office, moved to New Mexico to write a novel based on the life of William Bonney, the Kid, and ended up an unlikely crusader for the public's right to know, reported The New Mexican (http://bit.ly/28KXLx3).
Her battle to preserve the spirit of New Mexico's public records law began more than a decade ago, when Gov. Bill Richardson announced a new investigation into the legendary outlaw's death, to determine whether Sheriff Garrett had killed an innocent man and the Kid had escaped, unscathed. Cooper was dismayed by the effort — she says Bonney's story has always been hijacked, twisted and exploited. But when the investigation ultimately fizzled and no forensic reports from the effort were released, Cooper was outraged. She filed a lawsuit against a rural sheriff's office, demanding it hand over public documents in the case.
After a win and a loss in state courts, Cooper is asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to take up her case and give some bite to a state law that many say has become toothless.
Bonney gained notoriety in the 1870s and early 1880s amid the Lincoln County War, a conflict between factions of eastern New Mexico landowners. He was part of a deadly ambush that killed Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady. When Bonney was captured, New Mexico Gov. Lew Wallace offered to pardon him if he testified before a grand jury investigating another killing during the war. Bonney agreed, but Wallace did not hold up his end of the bargain. Instead, Bonney stood trial for shooting the sheriff. A jury convicted him, but he broke out of jail, killing two deputies during his escape.
Less than three months later, on July 14, 1881, the new sheriff, Garrett, shot and killed Bonney in Fort Sumner.
The Kid's death is memorialized with roadside attractions in the town.
While he is derided by some as saddle trash and a scofflaw, others have celebrated Bonney. Cooper joined the ranks of enthusiasts who view him as something of a revolutionary.
To Cooper, he is a freedom fighter.
"I could tell there was a woman, too," she said in a recent interview. She learned as much as possible about the Kid's relationship with Paulita Maxwell, the daughter of a prominent land baron. She sees their romance as an American Romeo and Juliet, and the tale served as the premise for her novel, Joy of the Birds.
She visited New Mexico twice in 1998 after reading Garrett's book about Billy, immersing herself in the outlaw's world. On her second trip, she traveled to a canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains where Bonney was almost killed in an ambush by Apaches. A guide fired a revolver during her visit so she could hear the same echo that Bonney would have heard.
Until then, Cooper said, her life was headed in a "logical direction" for a self-described idealistic, Ivy League-educated psychiatrist. She might have been shy and bookish but was busy, consulting on murder cases and breeding miniature horses. But in 1999, Cooper moved to Sandia Park, a town near Albuquerque, donned a Stetson and became what she calls Bonney's revisionist historian.
She was apoplectic in 2003 when Richardson announced that state and local officials planned to gather new DNA evidence, pardon Bonney and prove Garrett gunned down an innocent man instead of the Kid. At least two men had claimed they were the real Kid, and theories whirled that his death was a hoax — yet another escape.
A similar theory — that a "Brushy Bill" Roberts of Hico, Texas, was the real Kid — had long been discredited. Roberts died in 1950.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office investigation may have generated plenty of attention, but it did not go far.
Residents of Fort Sumner put the kibosh on a proposal to dig up Bonney's remains, and residents of Silver City fought back against plans to exhume the remains of his mother for a DNA sample.
Nonetheless, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office dug up the remains of a supposed Bonney impostor in Arizona in 2005. Officials, however, wouldn't initially disclose the results of the forensic tests. Investigators also gathered DNA from a workbench where Bonney — or his innocent stand-in — is believed to have bled to death after Garrett shot him. Dr. Henry Lee, a renowned forensic scientist involved in the high-profile cases of O.J. Simpson and JonBenét Ramsey, tested the samples. But the investigation led nowhere.
Cooper and other observers argued that reopening the case was a publicity stunt by Richardson and local officials. It worked, grabbing headlines on the front page of The New York Times and around the world.
But Cooper didn't take it lightly. She said the effort has wrecked a piece of New Mexico history.
Intent on debunking the theory of "the hoaxers," as she calls them, she sent several requests under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office between April and June 2007 for the DNA reports.
First, according to court records, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office sent her a letter denying it had the documents she requested. Then in June 2007, Deputies Steve Sederwall and Tom Sullivan, who were both involved in the investigation and admitted they had the records Cooper requested, left their jobs at the sheriff's office and may have taken the files with them. They considered the files their private property — part of a hobby. Sederwall even posted some of the documents for sale online, court records say.
Cooper and a local newspaper, the De Baca County News, sued the sheriff's office in October 2007, asking a judge to order the release of records.
The case dragged on for years. The sheriff's office did turn over some records in the case, but not the ones Cooper and the newspaper had requested. And through subpoenas and depositions, they learned Sullivan and Sederwall had altered and forged some of the documents from their investigation.
Meanwhile, Cooper's alliances frayed. She had a falling out with the newspaper's publisher and burned through lawyers. She penned two lengthy books about her legal battle, purporting in one of them that she had to fire four attorneys who had attempted to throw the case.
The books read like poison pen letters to New Mexico's political and media elite, drawing a straight line from the corruption in the 19th-century New Mexico Territory to the Land of Enchantment's contemporary leaders.
Seven years after she began firing off records requests in the Kid investigation, Cooper caught a break. State District Court Judge George P. Eichwald ruled in May 2014 that the Lincoln County sheriff and his deputies had willfully and wantonly violated the state Inspection of Public Records Act.
Eichwald ordered the sheriff's office, as well as its former deputies, to pay Cooper $100,000 in punitive damages, $1,000 in what he termed nominal damages and nearly $20,000 in legal fees under the state law.
The award was a big victory, but Cooper said it didn't go far enough.
Citing a section of the law that allows courts to impose a steeper penalty on agencies that do not comply — up to $100 a day — she appealed Eichwald's decision, calling for the maximum penalty of $966,000.
But a three-judge panel of the New Mexico Court of Appeals interpreted the law differently, and it decided earlier this year to not only deny the steeper penalty but to also overturn the $100,000 Cooper previously was awarded.
As long as an agency gives some response to a request for records within the time required by the act, the judges determined, it cannot be penalized for withholding records. It is only liable for legal fees and actual damages.
A state Supreme Court decision in Faber v. King in 2014 strictly limited the circumstances in which judges can award punitive damages in public records cases. In that decision, justices expressed concern that demanding public bodies to pay big awards for punitive damages when records are wrongly withheld could lead to frivolous lawsuits and strain coffers, penalizing taxpayers for the misdeeds or mistakes of their officials.
Cooper says the ruling rendered the state law useless, leaving it cheaper for public officials to lie than ignore a request.
Susan Boe, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, agrees. She argues that courts should at least have the discretion to apply financial pressure on agencies that withhold public records in bad faith.
Without that option, she said in a recent interview, a public body could provide an inadequate response to a records request just to dodge a penalty.
Cooper's case could allow the court to draw a distinction between honest but inadequate efforts to fulfill a records request and intentional obstruction, Boe said.
Cooper believes her case provides a perfect challenge to the Supreme Court's ruling in Faber v. King. If it takes the case, the court could redraw the lines on a government agency's liability when it willfully withholds public records.
Boe notes, however, that Cooper is asking the court to reverse a decision it issued only a few years ago.
"That's swimming upstream," Boe says.
Billy the Kid's self-proclaimed revisionist historian knows her petition to the state Supreme Court is a long shot, and Cooper won't be surprised if it declines to hear her arguments. For her, it will be another sign that Billy's battle isn't over.
- Jackson Hole News and Guide
JACKSON, Wyo. — Farms don't happen overnight. Nate Ray and his wife, Ginny Robbins, spent years building their goat cheese farm, Winter Winds Farm near Victor, Idaho, from scratch.
Five years ago the couple officially started the farm. They had only four goats, made their cheese in their kitchen and sold it at the Jackson Hole Farmers Market on Town Square. Ray worked nights as a head chef — first at Local Restaurant and Bar, then at Trio An American Bistro — while he saved money to build his farm.
Today the farm has a stand-alone, cheese-making facility with a stainless-steel refrigeration tank, a large vat in a cheese-making room, milking stands for 23 goats and a cheese cave next to pens that house 50 goats.
It's safe to say the business is off the ground.
"It's hard to start a farm overnight," Ray said. "Since I kind of built this paycheck to paycheck and did a lot of the work myself, it feels great to be set up and actually doing what I've been trying to get to for years, making cheese and producing, instead of just the construction and building phase."
He milks the goats twice a day, every day. The milk is stored in a bulk tank, and every three days Ray makes one of his varieties of cheese. There's chevre, a soft, fresh variety with a mild flavor; chevre smoked with applewood; tomme, a semi-hard alpine-style cheese; and crottin, a surface-ripened cheese like brie with a rich, tangy flavor.
The soft cheeses must be pasteurized, and the harder cheeses like the tomme must be aged for at least 60 days. While he's making the cheeses he adds bacteria to the vat, which gives the cheese its flavor and hinders bad bacteria, and yeast, which adds flavor and creates a rind.
That whole time he's turning the milk into curds and whey, and depending on which cheese he's making that day the curd will differ. The bigger the curd the softer the cheese is, and the smaller the curd the harder the cheese. The curd is separated and pushed into molds, flipped and, eventually, placed in the cheese cave, a cool, dark, humid room where the cheese ages.
Ray is the only employee, besides his wife helping out with the animals when she's not at her full-time job at Intermountain Aquatics, a habitat restoration company.
Ray may not be working in a kitchen anymore, but he's still a chef at heart, and he uses that mindset to help him make his cheese.
"I have a good palate, so I know what a good cheese tastes like," he said. "I know what I'm looking for, I know what kind of final product I'm trying to get. I've seen a lot of cheese and tasted a lot of cheese working in kitchens. But it also comes down to I'm still just making a food product. Basically it's all the same, just a little different scale, different medium."
Ray aims to make a new variety each season and get the recipe down. He is trying his hand at making goat cheese Gouda this year.
"Since I'm using goat milk it's going to be different than the same cheese from cow's milk, so I have to use different amounts of rennin, different culture, until I get on the right track," Ray said.
It's all an experiment, but he has to wait two months to try the Gouda to even see if it will turn out right due to the aging process.
"You don't really get instant gratification," Ray said. "In the restaurant, 10 minutes later you can have something great, whereas cheese making, it takes a lot more time."
Last year he produced 1,500 pounds of cheese. In comparison the state of Wisconsin made 3 billion pounds of cheese in 2015. Winter Winds Farm will be producing more and more every year because its facilities can accommodate 100 goats, twice as many as it has now.
"Needless to say, I'm a small producer," Ray said.
While cheese-making brings out the culinary side of Ray, he also has to care for the goats, more of a challenge for him.
"Animal husbandry is frustrating and rewarding and easy and hard all at the same time," he said. "There's always something."
The goats are fed twice a day, and the kids are bottle-fed twice a day until they can eat solid food. Then there's also hoof trimming, coat brushing and baby-sitting goats that get sick. During the spring the goats are also giving birth; this year 40 kids were born.
"I definitely learn something new every day," Ray said.
His background in the kitchen, and science, help him along the way. Charting every little detail, Ray keeps meticulous notes so he can look back on batches that turned out well (or badly) and what little variations occurred: how much bacteria and rennet he added, the temperature levels, when the whey was stirred, when it was drained, when it was put in the molds — all the way until it's set in the brine, for tomme.
"This math is easy," Ray said. "It's knowing what's happening with the bacteria, because you change the temperature or you change the amount of time the curd is in the whey and the bacteria is growing. It's more a chemistry."
Ray originally went to Western Michigan University following in his father's footsteps as an engineer, but he decided to switch gears and go to community college for culinary school.
The first few times Ray made cheese he was working in New England restaurants, making mozzarella and ricotta. He was hooked.
He visited a few goat cheese farms in Vermont and saw the facilities and how everything was done. He decided to move to Oregon to work at Juniper Grove Farm, a goat cheese farm. He worked at the farm for two years. It is no longer in business because the owner retired after 30 years.
"I learned how to raise animals, make cheese and how to run a business," Ray said.
He and his wife made the move to the Tetons in 2009. After working in a kitchen for so long he knew he wanted to own his own business.
"We were going to start a bowling alley, but that seemed more expensive," he said.
So they bought 8 acres between Victor and Driggs on the north end of a field. The property holds the cheese-making facility, their quaint home, three goat pens and barns, all built by the couple and their family.
"We can do all the things we love right from our house," Ray said. "I don't have to travel on vacation to do the things I like. I can do them right from my doorstep.
"I don't always feel bad that I can't leave the house because I can go mountain biking from here, spend the day boating, ski every day."
His cheese can be found during the summers at the Teton Valley Farmers Market in Driggs, the Jackson Hole People's Market and the Jackson Hole Farmers Market. You can also find his cheese in the Aspens Market, Local Butcher, Pearl Street Market. In Idaho it's at Victor Valley Market and Driggs' Barrels and Bins.
The cheeses are also used at the restaurants Trio and Local.
VAIL, Colo. (AP) — A Lakewood man has died after striking a deer while riding his motorcycle in Vail.
The Vail Daily reported emergency personnel had responded to the early morning crash to find Gary George Stock breathing but unresponsive. The 54-year-old man was taken to a hospital and later died.
He had struck the deer near the East Vail interchange and sustained major injuries to his head and torso. The animal did not survive.
Stock had not been wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.
MISSOULA, Mont. — A Missoula woman will be behind bars for at least one month after cursing and shouting insults at a judge.
KGVO-AM reported that 30-year-old Tiffany Ortega had appeared in court via video from the Missoula County jail on DUI and careless driving charges.
Judge Karen Orzech had started asking questions when Ortega became verbally abusive toward her.
Orzech had initially given Ortega a two-day jail sentence and set her bail at $5,000, but she added more time after Ortega continued cursing and made an obscene gesture.
Ortega was found in contempt of court and sentenced to a total of 30 days in jail for "calling me that word," Orzech said.
Ortega is scheduled to appear before Orzech again in August.
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