Pacific NW-News Service Since 1992

If James Holmes is found not guilty by reason of insanity in the Colorado theater massacre, he would be committed indefinitely to the state mental hospital and could - in theory, at least - be released someday.
But psychiatrists and attorneys say that's highly unlikely, given the enormity of the shootings and the notoriety they have generated.
"He doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of ever walking off the grounds of the Colorado state hospital," said Dr. Steven Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist based in Scottsdale, Arizona, who works on criminal cases but is not involved in the Holmes case.

A Malaysian defense contractor pleaded guilty Thursday to a bribery scandal of epic proportions, admitting that he bribed “scores” of U.S. Navy officials with $500,000 in cash, six figures worth of sex from prostitutes, lavish hotel stays, spa treatments, Cuban cigars, Kobe beef, Spanish suckling pigs and an array of other luxury goods. Leonard Glenn Francis, a businessman who charmed a generation of Navy officers while re-supplying their ships in Asia, admitted in federal court in San Diego to presiding over a decade-long corruption scheme involving his Singapore-based firm, Glenn Defense Marine Asia. The world's oceans are now rising far faster than they did in the past, a new study says. The study found that for much of the 20th century - until about 1990 - sea level was about 30 percent less than earlier research had figured. But that's not good news, scientists say, because about 25 years ago the seas started rising faster and the acceleration in 1990 turns out to be more dramatic than previously calculated. The current sea level rise rate - which started in 1990 - is 2.5 times faster than it was from 1900 to 1990, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Scientists say that faster pace of sea level rise is from melting ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica and shrinking glaciers, triggered by man-made global warming.  A federal judge has ruled that a large industrial dairy in eastern Washington has polluted drinking water through its application, storage and management of manure, in a case that could set precedents across the nation. U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice of Spokane ruled Wednesday that the pollution posed an "imminent and substantial endangerment" to the environment and to people who drink the water. Rice wrote that he "could come to no other conclusion than that the Dairy's operations are contributing to the high levels of nitrate that are currently contaminating — and will continue to contaminate ... the underlying groundwater." "Any attempt to diminish the Dairy's contribution to the nitrate contamination is disingenuous, at best," Rice wrote in the 111-page opinion, in which he granted partial summary judgment in favor of environmental groups that sued the dairy. A trial has been scheduled for March 23 in Yakima to decide how much pollution the Cow Palace dairy of Granger was causing and what steps should be taken as a remedy.  BEN JUST WANTED TO SAY HI! Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without evidence that a crime occurred. Holder’s action represents the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal property since the seizures began three decades ago as part of the war on drugs. Since 2008, thousands of local and state police agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a civil asset forfeiture program at the Justice Department called Equitable Sharing. RLBeach The December rain was but a cruel tease for California. The storms that brought some of the biggest downpours of the decade have given way to a dry January and renewed fears that California will languish in yet another parched year. “Californians should brace themselves for a fourth year of drought,” said Mark Cowin, director of the state Department of Water Resources. “We need a lot more rain and snow to pull us out of this drought, and unfortunately very little is on the horizon.” "We must necessarily plan for the worst but hope for the best," said Jeanine Jones, deputy drought manager with the California Department of Water Resources. "We are only now entering the normally wettest part of our winter season, and what happens -- or doesn't -- in the next six weeks or so will tell us a lot about the likely outcome of the water year."  bobshannon.org On Thursday, state and federal water officials gathered in the capital to sound the alarm, noting that they’ve taken steps to combat three dry years — through emergency conservation mandates and money for new water projects, for example — but that more action will be needed. Ferry County Unihabited  Supreme Court agrees to hear same-sex marriage case The Supreme Court said it will make a historic decision this term about whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry. The court will hear arguments in April and make a decision before adjourning at the end of June.  Page 10, 979 (partial) out of 49,456 (full) Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/01/15/3643378_judge-dairy-pollution-threatens.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy