Big bucks child care; Golden Gate suicide watch; Boy Scouts sued in tree death
- Updated
Odd and interesting news from around the West.
- Updated
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A small-engine plane returning to the Sacramento area from Idaho is missing in a rugged area of the Sierra Nevada, and stormy weather is hampering the search for the pilot and aircraft.
The El Dorado County Sheriff's office says Cessna plane was reported missing Saturday evening, its last known position in a rugged area of the mountain range, southwest of Lake Tahoe.
Sheriff's Sgt. Tasha Thompson says ground and aircraft searches were called off Sunday because of inclement weather.
The Sierra and much of Northern California has been hit with heavy rain and gusty winds the last few days. Snow fell on mountain passes and flash flood warnings were in effect in areas burned by recent wildfires.
Thompson said crews plan to resume the search on Monday.
- Updated
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Big game licenses are sold out for hunters who live outside Montana.
Factors like the economic downturn and a new law left some nonresident licenses unsold in recent years, the Independent Record reported (http://bit.ly/2e9P5B0).
But Fish, Wildlife and Parks administrator Ron Aasheim says licenses sold out this year as deer and elk numbers improve along with the economy.
Officials were surprised when the state ran out of nonresident elk and deer licenses before Montana's big game season opens Oct. 22, he said. Hunters may be attracted to Montana because of its two-elk limit, Aasheim said.
"It's certainly good as far as revenue," he said.
Licenses were awarded through a competitive lottery before voters approved an initiative in 2010 that replaced outfitter-sponsored licenses with more nonresident general licenses.
License prices increased and have continued climbing with inflation.
"It's taken a full five years to recover from the actions of (the initiative)," said Mac Minard, executive director of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association. "It increased nonresident licenses substantially, and you saw a market response to that."
Out-of-state hunters can still get a license if any are turned in early or if they were former Montana residents, Aasheim said.
A few licenses remain in the Come Home to Hunt program.
___
Information from: Independent Record, http://www.helenair.com
- Updated
PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — The historic Yavapai County Courthouse is 100 years old, a milestone marked by a celebration, the unveiling of a 40-foot timeline and photos from the Old West era.
People could tour the building Saturday and see such out-of-date features as hat racks built into the courtroom's original audience chairs, reported The Daily Courier (http://bit.ly/2elcBKS).
Panels hung on the first floor near a historic photo of the building listed significant courthouse visitors and sculptures that were installed.
The timeline referenced infamous inmates like James Fleming Parker, who was executed by hanging in 1898 after robbing a train, escaping from Prescott's jail and killing an attorney.
Permanent displays house artifacts as old as the original courthouse, including stenography machines, handcuffs and campaign buttons. The floor of a case holding the 40-pound county seal had to be reinforced.
Court Administrator Rolf Eckel is a fourth-generation Prescott resident whose grandfather was responsible for designing and installing outside restrooms on the ground floor. "We love this old building," Eckel said.
Yavapai County Supervisor Rowle Simmons said the county took $20,000 out of the Courthouse Capital fund for the centennial celebration.
___
Information from: The Daily Courier, http://www.dcourier.com
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A family is seeking unspecified damages from the Boy Scouts and others after two teenagers in a church-sponsored troop cut down a tree that killed a Colorado motorcyclist.
The lawsuit says a 14-year-old and 17-year-old were unsupervised and not permitted to remove live trees when they felled an aspen along State Route 12. The boys were in a troop permitted to collect fallen firewood in Dixie National Forest.
Edgar Riecke died Oct. 11, 2014, when the tree fell on him.
The lawsuit from Riecke's son and two daughters names the Boy Scouts, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Trapper Trails Council, five Scout leaders, the two Boy Scouts and the 14-year-old's parents.
The lawsuit says a reasonable person of the same age, experience and intelligence as the boys "would have foreseen that a tree falling near any roadway was highly dangerous and capable of causing injury to a nearby motorist."
Garfield County Attorney Barry Huntington said in a memo to the Utah attorney general's office in March 2015 that there wasn't enough evidence to show the boys had the "required mental state, intent or recklessness necessary to reasonably convince a judge or jury they committed a crime."
Allen Endicott of the Boy Scouts' Trapper Trails Council said on behalf of the defendants that they extend sympathy to those affected by the tragic incident but cannot comment on active litigation. "Safety is integral to everything we do, and the Boy Scouts of America continues to place great importance on providing a safe environment for all involved, including Scouts, leaders and the public," he said.
American Standard Insurance Co. filed a lawsuit in Utah against the Boy Scouts of America to recover over $9,500 plus interest for the motorcycle.
- Updated
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Actress and longtime New Mexico resident Ali MacGraw will be recognized for her advocacy work in the community.
The "Love Story" star is being honored Sunday as one of four new "Santa Fe Living Treasures."
The 77-year-old, who has lived in Tesuque in Santa Fe County since 1994, is being singled out for her charity work.
MacGraw tells the Santa Fe New Mexican (http://bit.ly/2dthRNJ) that she is just "an ant" in a network of people who volunteer around Santa Fe.
She says her past fame can sometimes help draw more attention to an issue.
MacGraw advocates for several causes — many of them involving animals.
She supported legislation that would ban cockfighting and was present in 2007 when it was signed into law.
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Police have made an arrest in the assault of a man at a University of Utah football tailgate party.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/2eGwq2v) Saturday that police booked a 23-year-old man on a charge of aggravated assault.
His name was not immediately released.
Sgt. Garth Smith says the incident happened Oct. 8 in a campus lot.
He says the victim was waiting to use a portable restroom when two men tried to cut in line.
The victim told them to go to the back.
Smith says one of the men punched the victim in the head as soon as he exited the restroom.
The victim suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding.
He is expected to recover.
___
Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
- Updated
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Air Force wants to extend a training area onto a portion of the 1.6 million acres that make up a massive wildlife refuge north of Las Vegas.
Defense Department plans announced in August that would expand the Nevada Test and Training Range by more than 300,000 acres.
About 278,000 acres are on part of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, the biggest wildlife refuge in the Lower 48 and Hawaii. About half the 1.6 million acres of the refuge are blocked from the public and controlled by the military.
A 5 p.m. public hearing in North Lags Vegas on Oct. 20 wraps up a series of meetings to get input from residents, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/2d7wbYY).
Refuge manager Amy Sprunger and her boss Christy Smith are worried about the proposal's impact on wildlife and public access.
"In the desert, once you damage it, it's done," Smith said. "You're going to wait eons and eons for it to recover."
Sprunger said the refuge is home to as many as 700 bighorn sheep and is one of the few places near the Las Vegas Valley where people can find seclusion.
"It's rare to see other vehicles. It's rare to see other people," she said. "Even if you only come here once, you might experience something you'd never experience anywhere else."
Air Force civilian project manager Mike Ackerman says the expansion would allow faster, higher-altitude training exercises that more closely resemble real life.
"There's not a whole lot of ground disturbance associated with what the Air Force wants to do," he said. "Less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the ground would be disturbed."
Ackerman said the Air Force is partnering with wildlife officials on the state and federal level to track bighorns in the Sheep Mountains.
He said people will be able to provide more input after the Air Force releases a draft environmental impact statement, likely later this year. A final version is expected early in 2018.
Smith said she wants pilots to get training as much as anyone.
"We all share those values," Smith said. "But can't we do it and maintain this as well? Can't we do it together?"
Congress isn't expected to vote on the proposal before 2018.
___
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
- By MARISSA HARSHMAN The Columbian
- Updated
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Parents with young children in day care are taking a hit to their wallet as big as those putting young adult children through college.
A recent national report by New America, a think tank in Washington, D.C., found that the average annual cost of full-time, center-based child care — $9,589 per child 4 years and younger — now exceeds the average annual cost of in-state tuition.
The same is true in Clark County, reported The Columbian (http://bit.ly/2dOjmWx).
The median annual cost of child care at Clark County centers is highest for those with infants: $12,744. For toddlers, the median cost of one year of care is $10,716, and the median cost for preschool is $9,360 per year, according to data provided by Child Care Aware of Washington, a statewide organization that operates a database of licensed child care centers.
Compare that with one year of full-time, resident tuition at Washington State University Vancouver: $9,883.
"It's simply amazing to me the cost of child care, as a parent looking at that," said Lori Oberheide, assistant superintendent for communications at Educational Service District 112, which operates 29 child care centers in Clark County. "On the other hand, I can also see how expensive it is to run a child care center and cover costs."
ESD 112 runs the Clark County Child Care Consortium, a collection of centers serving 1,800 children, infant through grade-school age. For the centers, the largest expense is staff salaries and benefits, Oberheide said.
Other expenses include facility costs, utilities, furniture and meals; the centers supply breakfast, lunch and snacks. In addition, the centers need to purchase supplies and materials for curriculum and toys — things necessary to provide a high-quality care environment, said Jodi Wall, executive director for early care and education at ESD 112.
In addition, the state has requirements on staffing, space, curriculum and more that must be met by licensed centers. Meeting those mandates comes at a cost, as well, Wall said.
"There's a lot of work that goes into running a high-quality child care program," she said. "In order to run a high-quality program, it's expensive, and it's expensive for families."
For many local families, child care consumes a sizable amount of the household income.
Infant care in Clark County costs about 21 percent of the median family income, based on the median cost of care and median household income of $61,711. Toddler care is slightly less, at 17 percent, and preschool is equal to about 15 percent of the median household income, according to the Child Care Aware data.
More than 'sitting'
Oftentimes, when people hear "child care," they think of baby sitters, said Jane Lanigan, director of human development at WSUV. Instead, she said, they should consider the programs for what they truly are: early education.
"Thinking that a high-quality higher education experience should be any different in terms of costs than high-quality early education costs might be the wrong way to think about this," Lanigan said. "Early education is learning."
WSUV offers a preschool program, which costs $950 per month or $11,400 per year. Through student fees, however, WSUV has established scholarships for the program, Lanigan said.
The WSUV program not only offers a learning environment indoors but also an enriching outdoor space. That's because research has shown that natural play scape areas help kids connect to nature, promote more vigorous physical activity and challenge their gross motor and decision making skills, Lanigan said.
Providing those kinds of environments, however, comes at a cost, she said. And unless the family is low income and receives state assistance for child care, the family is left to cover the cost of quality education, Lanigan said.
"I think the bigger question is, 'Should parents be bearing 100 percent of those costs?'" she said.
Tuition at WSUV has gone down; it's 15 percent less than tuition in fall 2014. And the state is beginning to devote resources to early and primary education, such as investing in quality initiatives for early education and allocating funds for full-day kindergarten, Lanigan said.
But as the cost of early education rivals that of higher education, Lanigan and Wall want to see efforts to make high-quality early education affordable for all families.
"I think education at that point in the life span is absolutely as critical as education for emerging adults," Lanigan said. "Does it concern me as far as access for quality education for everyone? Absolutely."
"We need to figure out how to make education accessible across the entire lifespan," she added.
___
Information from: The Columbian, http://www.columbian.com
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A small-engine plane returning to the Sacramento area from Idaho is missing in a rugged area of the Sierra Nevada, and stormy weather is hampering the search for the pilot and aircraft.
The El Dorado County Sheriff's office says Cessna plane was reported missing Saturday evening, its last known position in a rugged area of the mountain range, southwest of Lake Tahoe.
Sheriff's Sgt. Tasha Thompson says ground and aircraft searches were called off Sunday because of inclement weather.
The Sierra and much of Northern California has been hit with heavy rain and gusty winds the last few days. Snow fell on mountain passes and flash flood warnings were in effect in areas burned by recent wildfires.
Thompson said crews plan to resume the search on Monday.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Big game licenses are sold out for hunters who live outside Montana.
Factors like the economic downturn and a new law left some nonresident licenses unsold in recent years, the Independent Record reported (http://bit.ly/2e9P5B0).
But Fish, Wildlife and Parks administrator Ron Aasheim says licenses sold out this year as deer and elk numbers improve along with the economy.
Officials were surprised when the state ran out of nonresident elk and deer licenses before Montana's big game season opens Oct. 22, he said. Hunters may be attracted to Montana because of its two-elk limit, Aasheim said.
"It's certainly good as far as revenue," he said.
Licenses were awarded through a competitive lottery before voters approved an initiative in 2010 that replaced outfitter-sponsored licenses with more nonresident general licenses.
License prices increased and have continued climbing with inflation.
"It's taken a full five years to recover from the actions of (the initiative)," said Mac Minard, executive director of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association. "It increased nonresident licenses substantially, and you saw a market response to that."
Out-of-state hunters can still get a license if any are turned in early or if they were former Montana residents, Aasheim said.
A few licenses remain in the Come Home to Hunt program.
___
Information from: Independent Record, http://www.helenair.com
PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — The historic Yavapai County Courthouse is 100 years old, a milestone marked by a celebration, the unveiling of a 40-foot timeline and photos from the Old West era.
People could tour the building Saturday and see such out-of-date features as hat racks built into the courtroom's original audience chairs, reported The Daily Courier (http://bit.ly/2elcBKS).
Panels hung on the first floor near a historic photo of the building listed significant courthouse visitors and sculptures that were installed.
The timeline referenced infamous inmates like James Fleming Parker, who was executed by hanging in 1898 after robbing a train, escaping from Prescott's jail and killing an attorney.
Permanent displays house artifacts as old as the original courthouse, including stenography machines, handcuffs and campaign buttons. The floor of a case holding the 40-pound county seal had to be reinforced.
Court Administrator Rolf Eckel is a fourth-generation Prescott resident whose grandfather was responsible for designing and installing outside restrooms on the ground floor. "We love this old building," Eckel said.
Yavapai County Supervisor Rowle Simmons said the county took $20,000 out of the Courthouse Capital fund for the centennial celebration.
___
Information from: The Daily Courier, http://www.dcourier.com
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A family is seeking unspecified damages from the Boy Scouts and others after two teenagers in a church-sponsored troop cut down a tree that killed a Colorado motorcyclist.
The lawsuit says a 14-year-old and 17-year-old were unsupervised and not permitted to remove live trees when they felled an aspen along State Route 12. The boys were in a troop permitted to collect fallen firewood in Dixie National Forest.
Edgar Riecke died Oct. 11, 2014, when the tree fell on him.
The lawsuit from Riecke's son and two daughters names the Boy Scouts, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Trapper Trails Council, five Scout leaders, the two Boy Scouts and the 14-year-old's parents.
The lawsuit says a reasonable person of the same age, experience and intelligence as the boys "would have foreseen that a tree falling near any roadway was highly dangerous and capable of causing injury to a nearby motorist."
Garfield County Attorney Barry Huntington said in a memo to the Utah attorney general's office in March 2015 that there wasn't enough evidence to show the boys had the "required mental state, intent or recklessness necessary to reasonably convince a judge or jury they committed a crime."
Allen Endicott of the Boy Scouts' Trapper Trails Council said on behalf of the defendants that they extend sympathy to those affected by the tragic incident but cannot comment on active litigation. "Safety is integral to everything we do, and the Boy Scouts of America continues to place great importance on providing a safe environment for all involved, including Scouts, leaders and the public," he said.
American Standard Insurance Co. filed a lawsuit in Utah against the Boy Scouts of America to recover over $9,500 plus interest for the motorcycle.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Actress and longtime New Mexico resident Ali MacGraw will be recognized for her advocacy work in the community.
The "Love Story" star is being honored Sunday as one of four new "Santa Fe Living Treasures."
The 77-year-old, who has lived in Tesuque in Santa Fe County since 1994, is being singled out for her charity work.
MacGraw tells the Santa Fe New Mexican (http://bit.ly/2dthRNJ) that she is just "an ant" in a network of people who volunteer around Santa Fe.
She says her past fame can sometimes help draw more attention to an issue.
MacGraw advocates for several causes — many of them involving animals.
She supported legislation that would ban cockfighting and was present in 2007 when it was signed into law.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Police have made an arrest in the assault of a man at a University of Utah football tailgate party.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/2eGwq2v) Saturday that police booked a 23-year-old man on a charge of aggravated assault.
His name was not immediately released.
Sgt. Garth Smith says the incident happened Oct. 8 in a campus lot.
He says the victim was waiting to use a portable restroom when two men tried to cut in line.
The victim told them to go to the back.
Smith says one of the men punched the victim in the head as soon as he exited the restroom.
The victim suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding.
He is expected to recover.
___
Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Air Force wants to extend a training area onto a portion of the 1.6 million acres that make up a massive wildlife refuge north of Las Vegas.
Defense Department plans announced in August that would expand the Nevada Test and Training Range by more than 300,000 acres.
About 278,000 acres are on part of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, the biggest wildlife refuge in the Lower 48 and Hawaii. About half the 1.6 million acres of the refuge are blocked from the public and controlled by the military.
A 5 p.m. public hearing in North Lags Vegas on Oct. 20 wraps up a series of meetings to get input from residents, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/2d7wbYY).
Refuge manager Amy Sprunger and her boss Christy Smith are worried about the proposal's impact on wildlife and public access.
"In the desert, once you damage it, it's done," Smith said. "You're going to wait eons and eons for it to recover."
Sprunger said the refuge is home to as many as 700 bighorn sheep and is one of the few places near the Las Vegas Valley where people can find seclusion.
"It's rare to see other vehicles. It's rare to see other people," she said. "Even if you only come here once, you might experience something you'd never experience anywhere else."
Air Force civilian project manager Mike Ackerman says the expansion would allow faster, higher-altitude training exercises that more closely resemble real life.
"There's not a whole lot of ground disturbance associated with what the Air Force wants to do," he said. "Less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the ground would be disturbed."
Ackerman said the Air Force is partnering with wildlife officials on the state and federal level to track bighorns in the Sheep Mountains.
He said people will be able to provide more input after the Air Force releases a draft environmental impact statement, likely later this year. A final version is expected early in 2018.
Smith said she wants pilots to get training as much as anyone.
"We all share those values," Smith said. "But can't we do it and maintain this as well? Can't we do it together?"
Congress isn't expected to vote on the proposal before 2018.
___
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
- By MARISSA HARSHMAN The Columbian
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Parents with young children in day care are taking a hit to their wallet as big as those putting young adult children through college.
A recent national report by New America, a think tank in Washington, D.C., found that the average annual cost of full-time, center-based child care — $9,589 per child 4 years and younger — now exceeds the average annual cost of in-state tuition.
The same is true in Clark County, reported The Columbian (http://bit.ly/2dOjmWx).
The median annual cost of child care at Clark County centers is highest for those with infants: $12,744. For toddlers, the median cost of one year of care is $10,716, and the median cost for preschool is $9,360 per year, according to data provided by Child Care Aware of Washington, a statewide organization that operates a database of licensed child care centers.
Compare that with one year of full-time, resident tuition at Washington State University Vancouver: $9,883.
"It's simply amazing to me the cost of child care, as a parent looking at that," said Lori Oberheide, assistant superintendent for communications at Educational Service District 112, which operates 29 child care centers in Clark County. "On the other hand, I can also see how expensive it is to run a child care center and cover costs."
ESD 112 runs the Clark County Child Care Consortium, a collection of centers serving 1,800 children, infant through grade-school age. For the centers, the largest expense is staff salaries and benefits, Oberheide said.
Other expenses include facility costs, utilities, furniture and meals; the centers supply breakfast, lunch and snacks. In addition, the centers need to purchase supplies and materials for curriculum and toys — things necessary to provide a high-quality care environment, said Jodi Wall, executive director for early care and education at ESD 112.
In addition, the state has requirements on staffing, space, curriculum and more that must be met by licensed centers. Meeting those mandates comes at a cost, as well, Wall said.
"There's a lot of work that goes into running a high-quality child care program," she said. "In order to run a high-quality program, it's expensive, and it's expensive for families."
For many local families, child care consumes a sizable amount of the household income.
Infant care in Clark County costs about 21 percent of the median family income, based on the median cost of care and median household income of $61,711. Toddler care is slightly less, at 17 percent, and preschool is equal to about 15 percent of the median household income, according to the Child Care Aware data.
More than 'sitting'
Oftentimes, when people hear "child care," they think of baby sitters, said Jane Lanigan, director of human development at WSUV. Instead, she said, they should consider the programs for what they truly are: early education.
"Thinking that a high-quality higher education experience should be any different in terms of costs than high-quality early education costs might be the wrong way to think about this," Lanigan said. "Early education is learning."
WSUV offers a preschool program, which costs $950 per month or $11,400 per year. Through student fees, however, WSUV has established scholarships for the program, Lanigan said.
The WSUV program not only offers a learning environment indoors but also an enriching outdoor space. That's because research has shown that natural play scape areas help kids connect to nature, promote more vigorous physical activity and challenge their gross motor and decision making skills, Lanigan said.
Providing those kinds of environments, however, comes at a cost, she said. And unless the family is low income and receives state assistance for child care, the family is left to cover the cost of quality education, Lanigan said.
"I think the bigger question is, 'Should parents be bearing 100 percent of those costs?'" she said.
Tuition at WSUV has gone down; it's 15 percent less than tuition in fall 2014. And the state is beginning to devote resources to early and primary education, such as investing in quality initiatives for early education and allocating funds for full-day kindergarten, Lanigan said.
But as the cost of early education rivals that of higher education, Lanigan and Wall want to see efforts to make high-quality early education affordable for all families.
"I think education at that point in the life span is absolutely as critical as education for emerging adults," Lanigan said. "Does it concern me as far as access for quality education for everyone? Absolutely."
"We need to figure out how to make education accessible across the entire lifespan," she added.
___
Information from: The Columbian, http://www.columbian.com
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