Connecticut
Death row inmate on food strike over kosher diet
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut inmate awaiting execution for his role in the killings of a woman and her two daughters says he is refusing to eat prison food that he believes is not kosher.
Steven Hayes sued the Department of Correction in August, alleging it would not serve him a kosher diet. He says the system is forcing him to “starve or go against God.”
Hayes and another man were sentenced to die for the killings during a July 2007 home invasion in Cheshire.
In a handwritten amended complaint made public Wednesday, Hayes says he hasn’t eaten any nonkosher food since Aug. 24, and now weighs less than 120 pounds. State prison documents show the 5-foot-7 Hayes weighed 170 pounds in 2007.
The department offers kosher food, but Hayes contends it isn’t kosher because of cross-contamination.
Ohio
Man says wife’s remains were lost in the mail
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The cremated remains of an Ohio woman that were supposed to be delivered to her husband didn’t arrive as scheduled or in time for her funeral, and now the U.S. Postal Service is trying to figure out what happened to the package.
Eighty-year-old Barbara Kirkendall died Nov. 5 at a Cleveland hospital, apparently because of a blood infection, and her remains were sent to her Columbus-area home after the autopsy and cremation, The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1xkF49q ) reported.
Norman Kirkendall was supposed to receive his wife’s ashes by noon Saturday under a money-back, Priority Mail Express 1-Day guarantee. He told the newspaper he waited for hours, but the package never showed up.
“I feel like I’ve lost her,” he said of his wife of 61 years, whom he met at an Air Force base in Mississippi when he was an instructor and she was among his students.
Her remains had been shipped to Columbus and signed out for local delivery, the newspaper reported. What happened after that is a mystery.
A Postal Service spokesman, David Van Allen, said a “vigilant search” is being conducted.
Kirkendall’s family attended a memorial service Thursday without the remains, but her husband said the planned military burial in Dayton is postponed until the ashes are found.
Pennsylvania
Man conned woman of $15K with cancer tale
CHICORA, Pa. (AP) — State police say a Pennsylvania man who befriended a woman at a harness racing track two years ago conned her out of $15,000 by pretending he had cancer.
Police say 59-year-old David Lancos, of Baden, told them he used the money to fee his gambling habit.
Police say Lancos met the woman at The Meadows Racetrack and Casino in southwestern Pennsylvania in December 2012.
Lancos told the woman he needed $300 to cover his monthly medications, money for two trips to a Philadelphia cancer center and, finally, $9,000 to help him liquidate his fictional share of a business so he could pay medical bills.
Lancos is jailed on an unrelated theft charge. A message was left for his public defender Thursday.
Connecticut
Principal who made slasher movies resigns
GRANBY, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut middle school principal has resigned amid questions about his role in making violent movies featuring scantily clad women.
Officials announced Mark Foley’s resignation as Granby Memorial Middle School principal Wednesday.
Superintendent Alan Addley says Foley did nothing illegal. But he says Foley acknowledged that his movies became a “distraction” and he didn’t want continuing media coverage to distract students, parents or staff from academic work.
School officials say Foley and Aaron Vnuk, a seventh-grade guidance counselor in Windsor, ran a movie production company called Moongoyle Entertainment, which had a motto of “fresh blood, hot babes, cool flicks.”
Foley and Vnuk were placed on administrative leave last month while school officials looked into their moviemaking. Vnuk has since returned to his job.
Tennessee
Sheriff pays ransom to unlock digital case files
DICKSON, Tenn. (AP) — The Dickson County Sheriff’s Office in Middle Tennessee ended up paying a ransom after a malicious computer program blocked access to their files.
Detective Jeff McCliss told WTVF-TV that malware on a computer locked the agency’s case files, which included autopsy reports, witness statements and crime scene photos. He says the malware, called “Cryptowall,” doesn’t tamper with files on a computer, but keeps them locked until a ransom is paid.
After consulting with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, McCliss said the agency determined the only way to get their files back was to pay the asking price: $500 in bitcoins.
Officials think the malware came from an ad someone in the department clicked on. McCliss says it doesn’t appear that the office was targeted.
Pennsylvania
AG’s employees disciplined over email porn
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s attorney general says four of her employees have been fired and 11 suspended without pay for involvement in a pornographic emails scandal that also prompted a state Supreme Court justice to step down.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Wednesday two others face possible termination.
Kane has said emails containing explicit material and pornographic photos and videos surfaced during an examination of how prosecutors handled the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case. She promised the review while running for office in 2012.
She had previously disclosed the participation of several former employees of the office, leading at least four to leave public jobs elsewhere in state and local government.
Justice Seamus McCaffery retired last month after his role in receiving and sending the emails was made public.
