National Roundup

California
FBI removes file redactions for Marilyn Monroe
LOS ANGELES (AP) — FBI files on Marilyn Monroe that could not be located earlier this year have been found and re-issued, revealing the names of some of the movie star’s acquaintances who drew concern from government officials and her own entourage.
The files had previously been heavily redacted, but more details are now public in a version of the file recently obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. The updated files reveal that some in Monroe’s inner circle were concerned about her association with Frederick Vanderbilt Field, who was disinherited from his wealthy family over his leftist views.
The FBI’s files on Monroe show the extent the agency was monitoring the actress for ties to communism in the years before her death in August 1962. A trip to Mexico earlier that year to shop for furniture brought her in contact with Field, who was living in the country with his wife in self-imposed exile. Informants reported to the FBI that a “mutual infatuation” had developed between Field and Monroe, which caused concern among some in her inner circle, including her therapist, the files state.
“This situation caused considerable dismay among Miss Monroe’s entourage and also among the (American Communist Group in Mexico),” the file states. It includes references to an interior decorator who worked with Monroe’s analyst reporting her connection to Field to the doctor.
Field’s autobiography devotes an entire chapter to Monroe’s Mexico trip, “An Indian Summer Interlude.” He mentions that he and his wife accompanied Monroe on shopping trips and meals and he only mentions politics once in a passage on their dinnertime conversations.
“She talked mostly about herself and some of the people who had been or still were important to her,” Field wrote in “From Right to Left.” “She told us about her strong feelings for civil rights, for black equality, as well as her admiration for what was being done in China, her anger at red-baiting and McCarthyism and her hatred of (FBI director) J. Edgar Hoover.”
The AP had sought the removal of redactions from Monroe’s FBI files earlier this year as part of a series of stories on the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death. The FBI had reported that it had transferred the files to a National Archives facility in Maryland, but archivists said the documents had not been received. A few months after requesting details on the transfer, the FBI released an updated version of the files that eliminate dozens of redactions.
For years, the files have intrigued investigators, biographers and those who don’t believe Monroe’s death at her Los Angeles area home was a suicide.

Nevada
Law students charged in bird beheading case
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Prosecutors filed charges Thursday against two University of California, Berkeley, law school students accused of decapitating an exotic bird at a Las Vegas casino earlier this year.
The charges against Justin Teixeira, 24, include felony killing and felony torturing of an animal, while Eric Cuellar, 24, faces a misdemeanor charge of instigating, engaging in or furthering an act of animal cruelty.
“This was a pretty horrendous act,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told The Associated Press, adding that an investigation is ongoing and could result in criminal charges against one or two other people.
Wolfson said that in a tourist town where people can watch dolphins and tigers at play and stroll through a flamingo habitat, “I’m hoping we can send a message to people who visit that this is totally unacceptable.”
Police said the two men were seen Oct. 12 laughing and throwing around the body of a dead, 14-year-old helmeted guineafowl at the Flamingo resort-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The large bird named Turk was part of the Flamingo’s Wildlife Habitat, a garden area with ponds and streams that houses many types of birds.
Surveillance video captured the men chasing the bird into some trees, authorities said, and witnesses told police the two emerged carrying the bird’s body and severed head.
Richard Schonfeld, an attorney representing Cuellar, said he was pleased prosecutors opted for a lesser charge for his client.
“Eric has an exemplary background and I’m pleased the DA chose to proceed with a misdemeanor,” said Schonfeld, whose client faces up to six months in jail if convicted. “It’s an acknowledgement that he did not physically harm the bird.”
If convicted on all charges, Teixeira could be sentenced to prison time. His attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday afternoon.
Criminal charges — especially felonies — can affect a person’s future in the legal field. The State Bar of California, for example, requires applicants to demonstrate good moral character.

Mississippi
School asks judge to toss racial bias lawsuit by janitor
GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi school district wants a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a black custodian who claims he was wrongly accused of stealing a teacher’s cellphone and fired because of his race.
The Senatobia Municipal School District said in a court filing last week that George Edwards wasn’t fired because he’s black. The school says he was fired because “video footage placed him at the scene” when the phone disappeared on Aug. 1, 2011.
Edwards, 63, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Greenville in March. He claims he was wrongly accused of stealing the white teacher’s phone. He also alleges that only black employees were questioned about the missing phone.
The school district says, among other arguments, the fact that Edwards was replaced by another black man discredits his claim of racial discrimination.
Edwards had also claimed discrimination based on age and gender, but the federal judge in the case already has ruled against him on those claims.
Edwards claims in court filings that the video shows another school employee enter the classroom where the phone was left and that it could have been that woman who took it. He also claims the same school employee was captured on video near the room when the phone reappeared on Aug. 17, 2011.
The school district argues that the other employee was near the room before the phone was left there.