SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill to allow a death-row inmate to help authorities search for the remains of his long-dead victims, the governor's office announced Tuesday.
The governor signed AB2357 by Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Tracy, which gives California's corrections secretary the authority to let convicted serial killer Wesley Shermantine help investigators search for more bodies.
Shermantine and a friend were known as the "Speed Freak Killers" for their drug-induced killing spree in the 1980s and 1990s.
The other man, Loren Herzog, hanged himself earlier this year after learning that Shermantine provided crude maps to lead authorities to the remains of four of their victims.
Shermantine is awaiting execution in San Quentin prison for four murders.
The tightly drafted bill makes it clear that Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate has the authority to release Shermantine from death row to help find evidence and victims' remains under heavy guard. The bill withdraws that authority on Jan. 1.
Lawmakers say there could be as many as 72 other victims.
Galgiani became interested in the case in part because her cousin disappeared 31 years ago and could be a victim of the killers. Dena McHan was 19 when she went missing.
Earlier this year, authorities found parts of four bodies, two of which were identified as teenage girls who disappeared more than 25 years ago.
Authorities identified Cyndi Vanderheiden, 25, who disappeared in 1998, and Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, 16, who disappeared in 1985, when they searched a remote Calaveras County property once owned by Shermantine's family.
Shermantine was arrested in 1999 after his car was repossessed and investigators found Vanderheiden's blood in the trunk. He was convicted of both murders in 2001.
He also was convicted of robbing and killing two drifters near Stockton.
Herzog's three murder convictions and 78 years-to-life prison sentence were overturned by an appeals court, which ruled his confession was illegally coerced.
He later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Vanderheiden's death and was paroled in 2010.
Shermantine blames Herzog for the killing spree, while Herzog maintained Shermantine was responsible for the deaths.
The Senate and Assembly unanimously approved the bill earlier this month.
Source: www.contracostatimes.com
California: Climate Change Has Effect On Cow's Milk, Study Says - Huffington Post
From Climate Central's Michael D. Lemonick:
The California Milk Advisory Board has got to love this. The Board is the organization behind the “California cows are happy cows” TV ads, which say California milk and cheese are better because the Golden State livestock enjoys such balmy weather — way better than, say, frigid, snowy Wisconsin, where cheese is so much a part of the local identity that it’s the state hat (it could have been worse, considering Wisconsin’s love affair with bratwurst).
Now scientists at the University of Washington say that Californians have it right, or at least partly so. According to a new study presented at a conference on climate change (at the University of Wisconsin, no less), climate can have a big effect on milk production, and it turns out that Northern California has a nearly ideal mix of temperature and humidity to make cows as productive as they can be. The cows might not be happy (there’s no scientific evidence that pumping out milk in high volume makes for a blissful life), but the people behind the commercials undoubtedly are.
The worst place for productive cows isn’t Wisconsin, though, because it’s not the cold that makes milk production drop off: it’s hot, humid weather. You might not mind being a cow in Florida, for example, or other parts of the Southeast, but you don’t want to be a dairy farmer.
As the century progresses, moreover, and climate change makes pretty much every part of the country warmer, the problem will get worse: the scientists project a 6 percent drop in per-cow milk production overall by 2080.
It might not just be cows, either. The Washington researchers are now turning to other barnyard animals — pigs are due for evaluation next — to see what effect climate change might have on them. In Wisconsin, they’re undoubtedly waiting to see how hotter weather might mess with the bratwurst supply.
Also on HuffPost:
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
California man 'who molested girl, 4' and went on run for 18 YEARS arrested in Guatemala after police release image predicting how he would look - Daily Mail
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A California man who spent 18 years on the run from charges he had molested a four-year-old girl has been arrested in Guatemala after police released a picture predicting how he would look.
Jeffrey Reed Parish, 65, was taken into custody by Guatemalan police without incident on Thursday and has been returned to the United States.
Investigators had taken another look at his case in 2011 and created an age enhanced picture based on his 1994 mug shot. Tips then led them to the country.
Parish, originally from Santa Barbara, was found living in Panajachel, about 90 miles from Guatemala City, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
Caught: 'Child molester' Jeffrey Reed Parish was caught in Guatemala after 18 years on the run. Police used his 1994 mug shot (L) to create an aged enhanced image (C) that sparked information and led to his arrest (R)
She added that the fugitive, who was living under the name 'Blake', did not put up a fight and 'appeared to know why he was being arrested'.
He was deported back to the U.S. on Saturday, where he remains in custody, she said.
Parish had been scheduled to appear in court in 1994 on charges that he had molested the four-year-old girl in Carpenteria, California. But instead, the gardener jumped bail and left his wife a note saying he would never return.
Police believe he may have molested other victims before his arrest and have appealed to the public for more information.
Found: Parish, in a photo released by Guatemalan police, skipped bail and was on the run from charges that he molested a four-year-old girl in Santa Barbara, California in 1994
Investigators took another look at Parish's file in 2011 as part of a renewed attempt to solve cold cases, according to the Los Angeles Times.
They created an 'age-enhanced' picture based on his 1994 mug shot and new information led them to Guatemala. Detectives were helped by authorities in San Salvador and Guatemala.
FBI Special Agent Ingerd Sotelo, who was credited with finding Parish with a Santa Barbara County Sheriff's detective, said the man told her he had fled to Mexico before moving to Panajachel.
Parish said travelled to the small town after hearing it was home to many Westerners and he sought work as a gardener and called himself 'Blake'.
Justice: He was found at his home in Guatemala, where he went by the name 'Blake', and has been deported
'Nobody there knew whether it was first name or last,' Detective Ted Toedte of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department said. 'He was just Blake.'
Other people could still be charged on suspicion of helping Parish to remain at large, Toedte added.
He is in the Santa Barbara County Jail and no bail has been set.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
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