Cowboy Poets; smartphone gluttons; lawmaker bio questioned

SAN DIEGO — A televangelist wants to build a Christian-themed resort in San Diego that includes fancy timeshare suites, a Biblical museum, high-tech attractions and a 20-foot-high replica of Jerusalem's wailing wall.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says Morris Cerullo is planning the $125 million project on the site of a foreclosed Mission Valley hotel he bought more than four years ago.

The project would include 127 suites, a spa and other amenities along with Cerullo's new ministry headquarters, a Biblical museum housing Judeo-Christian artifacts, hologram-filled catacombs and a theater offering an immersive through-the-Bible movie experience — including actual mist during the parting of the Red Sea.

Cerullo's ministry hopes to draw up to 400,000 annual visitors. The project still needs City Council approval but the ministry hopes to break ground this year.

PLACERVILLE, Calif. — A police pursuit of two men turned into a rescue mission after the men fled into a wooded area of El Dorado County and later called 911 for help, saying they were freezing, authorities said.

El Dorado County Sheriff's Office identified the men as Triston Crossland, a 30-year-old parolee from Eureka, and Derrick Dionno, a 32-year-old probationer from Hayfork, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The pursuit began when the men fled a car that had been stopped Friday by a California Department of Fish and Wildlife officer near the frigid American River.

Officials say a Forest Service officer spotted the men a few hours later and that despite shouted please from the officer that a storm was coming, the men again fled back across the river.

Crossland called 911 Friday night, saying they were "freezing to death and in fear of dying," according to James Byers with the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office.

Byers said the call prompted the Sheriff's Office to launch a search-and-rescue effort involving multiple agencies. Byers said the rescue crew crossed 7 miles of rocky, wooded terrain in rain and snow in the dark, eventually reaching Crossland and Dionno Saturday morning.

Officials said both men were suffering from severe hypothermia. They were evacuated via a river crossing and taken by ambulance to a hospital.

The men were turned over to state Fish and Wildlife officers and face charges.

DUBLIN, Calif. — Authorities say they have charged a jail inmate with solicitation of murder after he asked an undercover officer posing as a hit man to kill two women he had allegedly been tormenting for years.

The Contra Costa Times reports that the women, who had each dated and separately sued 53-year-old Anthony Carvavalho, say he physically and mentally abused them and swindled them out of millions.

The real estate investor was charged Dec. 15 with several felonies, including solicitation of murder.

Carvavalho was charged in August with raping one of the women, an on-gain, off-again girlfriend.

Alameda County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Ray Kelly says jail officials heard about the alleged plot in November, when they heard Carvavalho inquiring whether any inmates could arrange a murder.

Kelly says the undercover officer offered to cancel the murders several times, but Carvavalho was committed.

SEATTLE — A Washington state lawmaker who served in the Arizona Air National Guard has altered his official online biography after a newspaper raised questions about medals he claimed to have won.

Until recently, Republican Rep. Graham Hunt of Orting listed three medals that a military personnel center has no record of him receiving, The Seattle Times reported. A military spokeswoman cautioned that the center's records are sometimes incomplete, but Hunt nevertheless deleted references to the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal.

He also deleted a reference to having been a "combat veteran" of Iraq and Afghanistan. Hunt has described himself as having been "wounded in combat" but grows vague when asked for details. He said he was knocked down by explosions but cannot remember where. He also says he cannot remember the names of units he deployed with to Iraq and Afghanistan, and he declined to elaborate on service-related injuries for which he said he is receiving disability benefits.

Hunt, 36, heads U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign in the state. He told the newspaper he did not mean to list medals he had not received and took down the references until he could find documentation, which he said might be lost in boxes or at a relative's house. He agreed he had made a mistake in listing the Iraq medal — mixing it up with a similarly named award he did earn. He said he never intended to mislead anyone about his military record.

"Honestly, I don't even care to list any honors or awards I have received, because frankly I don't think they are that important to the public in the first place," he said.

Hunt said he's frustrated he has been unable to locate documents proving he was awarded the Afghanistan medal and the commendation medal, but he declined requests from The Seattle Times to sign a waiver allowing fuller disclosure of his military records, including a complete copy of his discharge papers.

Whether he earned the medals aren't the only questions to have been raised about his military record. In May 2014, a dramatic Iraq war photo was posted to his Facebook page, showing two kneeling U.S. soldiers, one man consoling the other.

The post said, "This picture of me was taken after a mortar attack in 2005," and added: "Background has been modified, but I think combat camera captured the moment pretty well. I surely have not forgotten that moment."

But Hunt wasn't in the picture, which was a doctored version of a 2003 Associated Press photograph of two military policemen from Ohio. The photo was later removed from his account.

Hunt told the newspaper a campaign volunteer had posted it without his knowledge.

Military records show Hunt served in the Air National Guard from 1998 to 2005, assigned to Sky Harbor Air National Guard Base in Phoenix, according to Lt. Col. Belinda Petersen, a spokeswoman with the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Colorado. After 2005, Hunt was a nonparticipating reservist until 2010, when he separated from the military.

Hunt achieved the rank of staff sergeant. His awards include a small-arms marksmanship ribbon, the Air Force Expeditionary Medal and the Air Force Achievement Medal, according to the personnel center. The achievement medal was earned while Hunt was at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in late 2002 and early 2003 as part of the 363rd Air Expeditionary Wing, according to a copy of the medal citation supplied by Hunt.

But the Air Reserve Personnel Center said Hunt's service record does not indicate he earned the Air Force Commendation Medal — a more prestigious award — or the Iraq or Afghanistan Campaign medals authorized for serving in the U.S. war in those countries.

Maj. Heather Newcomb, public-affairs director for the personnel center, said while medals and citations are normally a part of a veteran's service records, they are not always up to date if the veteran did not submit required paperwork.

Hunt's new online bio says he served "tours of duty in several countries, including multiple tours to the Middle East."

He was appointed to the Legislature in January 2014 to represent the 2nd Legislative District of south Pierce and Thurston counties. He won election to a full term in November 2014 and is up for re-election this fall.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a former Belfry school clerk who admitted filing a false tax return as part of a scheme to steal school money for personal use.

During a hearing on Friday in Billings, U.S. District Judge Susan Watters sentenced 58-year-old Patricia Ann Webb to six months of home confinement and five years of probation.

The Billings Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1Nsd06C ) that Webb also must pay about $36,000 restitution.

Webb apologized to the Belfry school district in a brief statement.

Webb worked as a clerk from July 2008 until August 2012, when she was placed on leave. She resigned in October 2012. She faced a maximum of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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Information from: The Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

PASADENA, Calif. — Pasadena police are searching for three burglars who shattered the glass front door of a store and snatched 90 smartphones.

Lt. John Mercado says surveillance cameras recorded the trio smashing their way in and ransacking the MetroPCS store before dawn Sunday.

Mercado says the male suspects wore sweatshirts with hoods pulled tightly around their faces.

City News Service said Sunday that a burglar alarm alerted authorities but the robbers were gone by the time officers arrived.

THREE FORKS, Mont. — The Three Forks School District is facing potential fines of nearly $50,000 following a federal audit.

District lawyer Megan Morris informed school trustees at the regular board meeting this past week about the IRS audit for the year 2013.

Morris says the audit found tax related issues with independent contractors, health insurance payouts, and how some people received their paychecks.

Three Forks School District Clerk Randi Strickland tells the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1K5rA94 ) that the audit was random.

Strickland says the mistakes occurred before she and Superintendent Robert DoBell took charge of the district's finances.

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Every academic program at the University of Wyoming Board will be reviewed to see if it needs restructuring or elimination.

In search for possible budget reductions, the UW Board of Trustees this week assigned the task to David Jones, vice president for academic affairs.

The Laramie Boomerang reports (http://bit.ly/1WCaGkr) that UW students have 118 degrees to choose. In comparison, Colorado State University offers 72.

As the only public four-year institution in the state, Jones says UW has offered as many different options as possible instead of focusing on a specific area, such as engineering.

UW President Dick McGinity says the review is one of the most significant things he's experienced during his term as president.

Jones says the review could take the rest of the semester.

RENO, Nev. — The state's highest court is ordering a former Washoe County school principal and the district that fired her to try and settle their dispute.

Kara White and district representatives will meet with a Nevada Supreme Court-appointed mediator Thursday, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

White is seeking three years of backpay and benefits totaling more than $400,000.

White, who oversaw Lemmon Valley Elementary, was suspended in February 2013 and fired months later.

Lawyers for the district filed court documents that say a counselor complained to the district about inappropriate expenses.

Using student activities funds, the counselor said White bought her a $149 necklace and lunch for the school's entire staff. Superintendent Doug Parry investigated and determined White had "authorized excessive and inappropriate expenditures."

White says she was always accountable for any spent school funds.

"I have never denied that I used funds this way or that way," White told the Gazette-Journal. "I was always very accountable, turning in receipts for everything."

An arbitrator's upholding of her firing was struck down in White's appeal in Reno District Court.

"The record does not turn up substantial evidence of dishonesty," Judge Scott Freeman said in his ruling.

The district then appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court because, as officials wrote in an email, it "believes its decision to dismiss the principal is supported by the law."

District representatives declined to comment, saying they would not discuss pending litigation.

The case could go to the Supreme Court or it could be sent back to arbitration if both sides cannot reach an agreement.

SALT LAKE CITY — The organizers of Salt Lake Comic Con and San Diego Comic-Con may be on the verge of resolving an ongoing name-trademark dispute.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1NtpXNu) that attorneys for the two pop-culture conventions asked a federal judge to give them more time to work on a possible agreement on name rights.

Both parties will meet with the magistrate judge on Wednesday in San Diego.

San Diego Comic-Con, considered the flagship of the popular convention circuit, filed a trademark violation lawsuit against the Salt Lake convention in August 2014.

San Diego's organizers say they have legal ownership of the term "comic con" in all its forms.

However, the convention only owns the rights to "comic-con" with a hyphen.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark office is currently withholding judgment.

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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Bernalillo County firefighters are trying to help two groups of hikers who became stranded in the Sandia Mountains.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department says one group became stuck near the Crest and another got lost on the La Luz Trail on Saturday.

The department's search-and-rescue team was able to relay the coordinates of each group to the county fire department and the New Mexico State Police.

Sheriff's spokesman Josh Kingsbury says search teams have been trying to reach them.

KOB-TV in Albuquerque reports (http://bit.ly/1PMjPBD) New Mexico Search and Rescue is attempting to get both to the Tram to get them down safely.

BOISE, Idaho — Rows of slot-like gambling machines sit in empty betting parlors at Idaho's horse racing tracks. Employees once in charge of serving cocktails to bettors are gone, leaving hundreds of others who work in the industry fearful that they'll be laid off too.

Once a glamorous sport in Idaho, the horse racing industry seems on track for a slow death. Last year, lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to repeal instant horse racing or pari-mutuel betting terminals. But some horsemen groups say the fight's not over.

"We think we can change lawmakers' minds," said Clayton Russell with the Idaho Quarter Horse Association. "I don't think some of them realize what they did to us last year."

Russell says he and other horsemen groups are drafting legislation that includes a key to saving their faltering industry and preventing horse tracks from closing down live races. The goal is to finalize a bill in the upcoming weeks.

While supporters aren't disclosing the full details of the bill, they say it includes language regarding slot-like machines known as instant horse racing that would be overseen and regulated by a state gaming commission. The commission would replace Idaho's current lottery and horse racing boards and regulate all forms of gambling.

However, the bill's biggest challenge will be securing a hearing at the Idaho Statehouse this legislative session.

"If there isn't something to help support the horsemen then it's going to be devastating," Russell said.

Pari-mutuel betting terminals have spinning wheels, sounds and animations that mimic slot machines. Unlike the one-armed bandits, pari-mutuel betting is legal in Idaho because it pits bettors against each other and the house takes a percentage of the winnings.

Idaho lawmakers legalized the machines in 2013. But two years later, lawmakers repealed the law after many said they had been duped into approving cleverly designed slot-machines. Supporters argued that the machines were vital to sustaining the horse industry because a portion of the profits went to racing owners and breeding groups.

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter vetoed the legislation in March, but the Coeur d'Alene Tribe sued the state arguing he failed to do so on time. In September, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled in the tribe's favor, and the machines were turned off for good.

Otter said in October that he wanted the terminals reinstated but with tighter regulations. However, when Otter kicked off this year's legislative session nearly two weeks ago, there was no mention of horse racing in his list of what he wanted addressed this year.

Otter told The Associated Press shortly after his address that his State of the State speech is for items he believes can be won.

"We haven't got our arms around of what's doable," Otter said, reiterating like he did in his veto message that he wants a gaming commission that oversees, among other things, some form of instant horse racing.

Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, says he's waiting to see the bill before deciding if it will receive a hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

McKenzie is the chairman, but the panel includes Senate leaders such as Pro Tem President Brent Hill, Majority Leader Bart Davis and Majority Caucus Chair Todd Lakey.

In instant horse racing, bettors place wages on prior races with no identifiable information.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — As troubadours, fiddlers and scribes head to northeast Nevada for a national gathering to celebrate cowboy poetry and culture, the topic of the sometimes tenuous relationship between the Old West and the realities of the New West will be more than campfire conversation.

The 32nd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering opens Monday in Elko, a rural community halfway between Reno and Salt Lake City that is similar in its turbulent history to the place about 200 miles away in Oregon where a national wildlife refuge has been seized by armed men protesting federal ownership of land.

The weeklong festival features a slate of speeches and discussion panels about many of the wide-open spaces where conservation is a good word, but environmentalism sometimes is not; where patriotism is revered, but the U.S. government is often despised.

The keynote speech will be given Thursday by a world-renowned cultural and environmental historian who thinks government ownership of land can be a good thing, and it may be the only way to save some of the last great wild places where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains.

Dan Flores' latest book, "American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains," examines the similarity between the wildlife that still exists in the African grasslands and the American bison, antelope, wolves and grizzly bears that roamed the great expanse from the Missouri River to the Rockies when American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark entered the wilderness in the early 1800s.

"Until we destroyed it, there was this other historic version of the Serengeti on the plains," Flores says in remarks prepared for the Elko gathering. "'Between 1820 and 1920, in the largest destruction of animal life discoverable anywhere in the world history, we almost entirely wiped the Great Plains clear of its wildlife. The 19th century Great Plains was a slaughterhouse."

Flores said he isn't sure what to expect in Elko after talking with event organizers who requested he "leave the politics at the door as you go in."

"They engaged me in a conference call that, as I read it, was kind of a warning about the audience and about what you can say, and what is going to be controversial ," said Flores, who was the chairman of Western History at the University of Montana from 1992 to 2014 and now lives outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. "The truth is, given the politics of modern America, almost everything you say about the West is controversial. I may be occupied by the militia by the end of the event, but I guess we'll find out."

Dave Roche, executive director of the Western Folklife Center in charge of the event, said they wanted a keynote speaker who could offer a cultural, social and environmental perspective on the Northern Plains and the American West.

"We don't take a political side, but at the same time, we don't step away from the real issues that are working their way in one way or another through the community, and the Western community in general," Roche said.

The ongoing standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, was organized by the sons of Cliven Bundy, a southern Nevada rancher who staged a similar show of force in 2014 at his ranch where he continues to graze cattle on federal land without a permit. They urged Oregon ranchers to renounce U.S. ownership of public land at a ceremony over the weekend and plan to open up the 300-square-mile refuge for cattle this spring.

Such conflict is nothing new to the people of Elko County, or as the leaders of the "Shovel Brigade" called it nearly two decades ago, the "Republic of Elko." In January 2000, the same week as the 16th annual Cowboy Poetry gathering, more than 1,000 people marched through town with parade floats and pickups filled with 10,000 shovels in a protest against the Forest Service in a battle over who should control a remote grave road in a national forest — a legal fight that continues 16 years later in federal court in Reno.

Charlie Seemann, who directed the folklife center for 16 years before he retired in 2014, said at the time "the shovel thing" put him in an awkward position, but that he understood the frustrations of cowboys, miners and others who work the land.

"Just living in this open space, doing the job they do, they have to be self-reliant," he said back then. "They don't like to be told what to do."

Seemann doesn't anticipate any tension at this year's gathering as a result of "the Oregon occupation situation."

"There will probably be private conversations among folks," he said, but "the gathering is a place that is so much about camaraderie and friendship that it tends to defuse these things."

FARMINGTON, N.M. — A sobering center to help people with alcohol addiction in San Juan County is on track to open in less than two months.

The Daily Times in Farmington reports that the facility is scheduled to begin operations March 1.

County officials say the sobering center is being built to fill a gap left by the Four Winds Recovery Center.

The center is closing a detox center and will offer residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment.

Four Winds Recovery has long been the only detox center in the county.

Center officials say they will keep the detox facility open until the sobering center launches.

San Juan Regional Medical Center, the city of Farmington and Presbyterian Medical Services all worked with the county to open the sobering center.

By JAKOB RODGERS

The Gazette

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Laura Cameron already knows how to transform old wine bottles into ornate candles.

Now, she wants to help homeless people mold new lives by making those same wax decorations.

Cameron, a former handbag saleswoman-turned-entrepreneur, is leading a fast-growing company that aims to employ homeless people using a social enterprise-based business model.

Her for-profit company, Made With A Mission LLC, recently partnered with the nonprofit Springs Rescue Mission to make money molding and selling candles for high-end hotels and ski resorts. In the process, she plans to employ people seeking help at the nonprofit's campus on Las Vegas Street.

Her company has grown fast, making roughly 3,000 candles that have been sold in several gift shops, including at The Broadmoor and at Vail Resorts properties. "We've spent so much time creating our product and making sure it's great," Cameron said. "We wanted to be competitive."

The idea came in 2013 when Cameron saw drinking glasses made from wine bottles. She wondered if she could do the same thing - but she had three requirements before creating her own business.

Whatever she made had to be cool. It had to be something people would buy. And it had to tell a story.

"It has to have a cool factor," she said, laughing.

That's when she settled on candles.

She approached the Springs Rescue Mission and found a quick partner - one that allowed her to own 51 percent of the company while the nonprofit controlled the rest.

A foundation that wished to remain anonymous donated $20,000 toward capital expenses, as did the Springs Rescue Mission. The nonprofit also promised to fund operations during Made With A Mission's first year in business.

Nonprofits increasingly are exploring social enterprise arrangements, said Dave Somers, executive director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence.

Consumers appear to favor companies that give back to their surrounding communities, making such partnerships a business-savvy decision, he said. Meanwhile, nonprofits have been looking for creative ways to fund their missions.

"It's truly a blend of your traditional business models," Somers said. "It won't replace the traditional ways in which they (nonprofits) raise money, but it will help supplement the ways in which nonprofits are able to raise the revenue they need for operations."

The Springs Rescue Mission already has experience with social enterprise programs. Its Mission Catering program employs the nonprofit's clients to make food for weddings, business events and other functions. It's on pace to be a top-20 donor for the nonprofit, raking in $40,000 two years ago and $160,000 in the last fiscal year ending June 30. This year, it's on track to make $250,000 by June 30.

As of late November, Made With A Mission had yet to employ any homeless people as Cameron had made all the candles. But that was expected to change, she said.

The work of homeless people seeking services at the Springs Rescue Mission will be to transform each glass into something people will buy.

Wine Punts, a business located across the street from the Springs Rescue Mission, cuts the top off each glass bottle donated to Made With A Mission from restaurants or other businesses. It smooths the edges and tempers the glass with heat, improving durability.

Cameron then pours cosmetic-grade, slow-burning wax that burns up to 90 hours, she said.

The scents vary - her Christmas Spirit candle includes notes of Italian blood orange oil, balsam fir and cinnamon. The Colorado variety includes warm, woody notes of fir needle and peppermint, and the Barber Shop candle has bergamot and spicy Tahitian vanilla, according to its website. Each is available for $17.95.

But the real money may come in a few more sizable contracts that are not finalized, Cameron said, including one with a national retail department store (she declined to name the prospective buyer).

Even without that contract, the business is on track to turn a profit in the coming months, Cameron said.

It's an accomplishment of which Cameron is proud. But it's not the only reason she created Made With A Mission.

"I feel like it tells the story of what the mission does in a very real way - taking things that are discarded and forgotten about and re-purposing it," Cameron said.

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Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com

By BRETT CALLWOOD

The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT, Colo. — The Colorado Horse Rescue is nearly full to capacity. The shelter can care for up to 60 horses at any one time, and there are currently 55 at the facility. That's 55 horses that might still be suffering from neglect or sent to slaughter if this organization hadn't been started 30 years ago by friends Sharon Jackson and Jill Pratt.

Back then, local area stables and farms donated vacancies at their facilities to help shelter the horses. The year 1988 saw the group found a stable home in Arvada, before moving to the bigger, 50-acre operation in Longmont in 2001 where they've been ever since.

CHR Director Carol Brice has been working there for six years and is passionate about her work, as is director of development Shawna English who has been there for two years and has adopted a horse, Lil' Bit. Both previously volunteered at the shelter.

A handful of the 55 volunteers that work at the shelter were working on various tasks on a recent chilly morning, tackling tasks such as feeding the horses and scraping manure off of the icy grass.

Operations manager Rachel Corbman was mixing beet pulp with water to create feed that the older horses can easily chew while still getting the required fiber and nutrition.

There is a full-time trainer on staff, which Brice said makes a big difference when trying to get the horses adopted. There are also highly skilled volunteer riders on hand who, Brice said, "keep the horses tuned up."

"There are 6,000 disadvantaged, starving and neglected horses in Colorado," English said.

"It's important to educate people about horse ownership. We're very picky before we re-home a horse. Horses are living to be 35-40, so that's quite a commitment. We get people in their 60's wanting to adopt a six-year-old horse, and we have to have a conversation."

About 70-to-75 percent of the horses at the shelter are there as a result of a crisis, be it the previous owners losing a job, getting divorced or even dying. The other 25-to-30 percent came in because animal control officials had to remove the horse from a dangerous situation — including cases of physical cruelty.

Colorado Horse Shelter relies on donations, with 60 percent of the funding coming from individual donors, 20 percent from grants and the rest provided through funds raised by the staff.

Those wanting to contribute to the Colorado Horse Rescue can go to chr.org.

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Information from: Daily Times-Call, http://timescall.com/

PARK CITY, Utah — A Utah county reached an agreement Saturday with ride-sharing company Uber to stop operating helicopter flights at the Sundance Film Festival.

Summit County said helicopter companies agreed as of 1 p.m. to cease operating in connection with the festival. The companies have also agreed not to conduct the flights without getting the required land use approval.

County spokeswoman Katie Mullaly said she did not know if Uber or the helicopter companies might be able to conduct flights in the area in the future.

"Going forward, we'll be addressing this issue," Mullaly said. "Whether that means it's possible or not, I don't know."

Uber representatives confirmed the company is dropping the helicopter service. The company had said Friday that it would resume flights to Park City despite a cease-and-desist order from a Utah sheriff.

Sheriff Justin Martinez said that he would consider ticketing or arresting pilots because the companies didn't get the proper permits to land in a field not far from homes in the mountain town.

Uber and the helicopter companies say they tried to work with local authorities, but they argued that zoning laws don't apply to air travel and there was no permit to apply for.

Uber spokeswoman Taylor Patterson could not say if the company planned to talk with the county about offering chopper rides at the festival in the future.

"As far as future conversations, we just want to make the remainder of the festival go as well as possible in terms of our partnership with Sundance," Patterson said.

A judge decided that prosecutors didn't have enough evidence for a restraining order. She was set to take up the case again Monday, after Uber had planned to end the service. Mullaly said she believes that case will now be dropped.

On Thursday, Uber began offering to ferry visitors by helicopter about 40 miles from the Salt Lake City airport to the Robert Redford-founded festival in Park City. The company was charging $200 one-way during the day and $300 at night, with lower prices for customers who book ahead.

Summit County moved to block the choppers the next day, after getting hundreds of complaints about the landings in a rural field beloved by sandhill cranes not far from homes, prosecutor Robert Hilder said.

While some people in Summit County have private aircraft they land within the county occasionally, the Uber flights are commercial and bring more health and safety concerns, from noise to accessibility if there's an accident, according to Hilder. Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft have run into regulatory troubles before, but it's less common with the fledgling Uber Chopper service.

"This is an interesting case. It deals with a lot that's happened in the world and happened very quickly," Hilder said. "You essentially have a revolution in transportation."

MISSOULA, Mont. — Research in Montana finds that aggressively dealing with wolves that kill livestock works better than a gradual approach.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Liz Bradley says her research found that since killing livestock is a learned behavior for wolves it's more effective for wildlife managers to remove more of the wolves earlier if that's the best option available.

Bradley tells the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/1QmBvGX) that in the long run the strategy of removing a pack of wolves earlier actually ends up killing fewer wolves.

She says that's because removing just a few wolves from a pack at a time over five or six years adds up.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When the California Legislature passed the state's first comprehensive medical marijuana regulations in September, pot advocates hoped the move heralded a new era of trust in their often-tumultuous relationship with wary local officials and police.

So far, it hasn't turned out that way.

Facing what appears to be a rapidly closing window for action, dozens of cities and counties from across California are racing to enact new bans on marijuana-growing. Some apply only to commercial cultivation, both indoor and outdoor, but many would also prohibit personal pot gardens that have been legal — or at least overlooked — for 19 years.

"Any other industry that created four months of seasonal labor and hundreds of thousands of jobs...we would be giving tax breaks to those businesses," medical marijuana dispensary owner Robert Jacob, a member of the Sebastopol City Council who has been fighting pot-growing bans proposed in Sonoma County.

At issue is a paragraph in the 70-page framework approved in the closing hours of the legislative session that would give the state alone authority to license growers in jurisdictions that do not have laws on the books by March 1 specifically authorizing or outlawing cultivation.

Lawmakers involved in crafting the package say the deadline ended up by mistake in the final compromise regulations. Assemblyman Jim Wood, a Democrat who represents California's prime pot-growing region, included it in earlier versions as a way to free local governments from a responsibility they might not want, spokeswoman Liz Snow said.

"It was a way to try to make it clearer in terms of, 'OK, local jurisdictions. If you want to act, you should be thinking about it, working on it now. Otherwise, we will all defer to the state,'" Snow said.

Even before Gov. Jerry Brown signed the regulations, which create the first statewide licensing and operating rules for California's sprawling medical marijuana industry, Wood announced he would introduce an emergency bill this month deleting the March 1 deadline.

The League of California Cities and the California Association of Police Chiefs, while supporting the fix, nonetheless have advised their members to enact cultivation bans ahead of the original cutoff date as a precaution to preserve local control.

The two groups fought hard last year for provisions stating that to be eligible for licenses the state expects to start issuing in about two years, anyone involved in the commercial medical marijuana trade must first obtain a local operating permit.

Tim Cromartie, a lobbyist with the League of California Cities, said the guidance to ban all medical marijuana growing outright stemmed from the conclusion that the short time frame did not give local officials enough time to draft, debate and refine their own cultivation rules.

"Most cities, their staff have no clue how to begin writing one of these ordinances. Their first thought is, 'Don't the feds prohibit this? How can we do this?'" Cromartie said. "We know of jurisdictions that didn't want to have to ban, but they did it under the point of a gun."

With new proposals being introduced and voted on almost daily, no one knows yet how many of California's 58 counties and 482 cities have taken the league's advice.

The California branch of the National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, which has been monitoring what it's termed "the banapalooza," said more than 160 jurisdictions either have passed or introduced legislation to outlaw only commercial cultivation or both commercial and personal growing.

The crackdown has been a source of frustration for veteran pot farmers who hoped the new state regulations would bring clarity to their gray corner of the medical marijuana industry and instead find themselves "recriminalized," said Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the newly formed California Growers Association.

Unless the local bans are lifted or modified, they would make medical marijuana growers in those areas automatically ineligible for the potentially lucrative and limited number of agriculture licenses the state expects to start issuing in 2018.

"Certainly we have been disappointed with the League of Cities, how they have chosen to proceed," Allen said. "A lot of the jurisdictions had a predisposition to ban, and the March 1 deadline unfortunately gave them cover to ban."