New York
Judge: Stop using crushed eggshells as fertilizer
BETHEL, N.Y. (AP) - A judge has ordered an upstate New York farmer to stop using eggshells as fertilizer after neighboring businesses complained the smell and clouds of flies drove away customers.
The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reports Peter Hofstee has been applying crushed eggshells to his hay fields in the Sullivan County town of Bethel since his usual fertilizer of liquid duck manure was cut off by the supplier last summer.
The owners of a restaurant and a distilling company adjacent to the fields took Hofstee to court, saying the rotting eggshells caused an unbearable stench and served as a source of fly larvae.
A state Supreme Court judge ordered the farmer to remove his eggshell stockpiles and rid his fields of fly larvae.
Hofstee says the ruling will put him out of business.
Tennessee
Former TV judge Joe Brown can't practice law
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Former television judge Joe Brown cannot practice law in Tennessee under an order from the state Supreme Court.
According to The Commercial Appeal, the state's highest court has placed Brown on disability inactive status, which designates that a lawyer is temporarily disabled and incapacitated from practicing law. Lawyers can resume practice when they prove to the court that the disability has been removed.
Production company Celebritunity says Brown is suffering from complications from type II diabetes "and the effects of prescribed medication for the condition combined with hypertension and stress."
Brown unsuccessfully ran for Shelby County district attorney in 2014. He was jailed for five days last September for contempt of court stemming from an outburst in Juvenile Court in March 2014.
Arizona
Shooting outside of courthouse claims lives of 2 women
HOLBROOK, Ariz. (AP) - Two women were killed and suspect was taken into custody Tuesday evening following a shooting outside a courthouse in eastern Arizona, authorities said.
Navajo County sheriff's deputies and local law enforcement responded to the courthouse in Holbrook and found the two victims. Both died from their wounds.
Authorities said the shooting appears to have been prompted by a dispute that stemmed from a custody hearing earlier in the day. Investigators did not immediately release any details about the hearing or the dispute.
"We don't know the specifics of it," said county government spokesman Adam Wolfe. "It appears to be a personal motive. This is not a mass shooting attempt."
The names of the victims and the suspect were not immediately released.
The shooting happened near the end of the work day when the suspect met the two victims outside near the entrance of the courthouse. The incident forced the building to be locked down, but no employees were injured.
Deputies eventually allowed workers to leave Tuesday evening.
Members of the Navajo County homicide task force were at the courthouse late Tuesday combing over the crime scene.
Texas
911 calls capture moments around girls' shootings
FULSHEAR, Texas (AP) - Authorities on Tuesday released 911 calls that capture the panic in the home of a Houston-area mother before she killed her two daughters, as well as in the home of a neighbor after the shootings.
The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office released recordings of two 911 calls from Christy Sheats' home and one from a neighbor's home. Sheats fatally shot her two daughters before an officer killed her.
In the first call, a woman is heard crying, "Please! Forgive me! Please! Don't shoot!" After a scream, she cries, "Please! I'm sorry!" and "Please! Don't point that gun at her!" Another woman is heard saying, "I promise you, whatever you want," before the call is disconnected.
In the second call, a woman is heard saying, weakly, "She shot 'em."
In the third call, a neighbor describes 17-year-old Madison Sheats and 22-year-old Taylor Sheats, apparently still alive, lying in the street in front of their house. The neighbor describes Christy Sheats kneeling over her eldest daughter and shooting her dead. Madison Sheats later died at a hospital.
An officer killed Christy Sheats after she refused demands to drop her gun.
A Facebook profile consistent with Sheats' biographical details included a pro-gun post, alongside posts about how much she loved members of her family.
Rhode Island
Cops: Man, 80, killed 81-year-old over unpaid loan
TIVERTON, R.I. (AP) - Police say a dispute over an unpaid loan was the motive for an 80-year-old man to kill an 81-year-old man in a Rhode Island cemetery.
Tiverton Police Chief Thomas Blakey tells The Newport Daily News that Edward Acquisto had taken out a "significant" loan in 2011 from a church in Kingston, Massachusetts.
Police say parishioner John Cloud met him June 13 in Pocasset Hill Cemetery to discuss it, and Acquisto shot him to death among the gravestones. Acquisto later led police on a car chase before officers fatally shot him.
Blakey wouldn't say how much money Acquisto borrowed or what he did with it, but he did say Acquisto hadn't repaid any substantial amount.
Acquisto pleaded no contest to manslaughter in 1982 and was convicted of sexual assault in 1981.
Ohio
Man competent to stand trial in slaying of pastor
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio man charged with fatally shooting his pastor brother in a church office as Sunday services were ending has been found mentally competent to stand trial.
The Dayton Daily News reports a Montgomery County judge made the ruling Tuesday that 68-year-old Daniel Schooler is competent for trial, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 31. He has pleaded not guilty.
Dayton police say the Rev. William B. Schooler was shot on Feb. 28 at St. Peter's Missionary Baptist Church, and Daniel Schooler was arrested at the church.
A grand jury indicted him on charges that include aggravated murder. He's being held on $1 million bond.
Published: Thu, Jun 30, 2016
