SHERIFF: IOWA MAN LOCKED 5 KIDS IN BEDROOM ALL DAY: IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man is charged with locking his girlfriend’s five children in a bedroom for more than 24 hours at a time without food or a bathroom, authorities said Monday.
Deputies who responded to a domestic disturbance at a Westgate home Friday found several children crying and yelling through a window for help, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office said.
The children, ranging in age from 3 to 9, told investigators they had been locked inside a bedroom by their mother’s boyfriend, Joshua Steinbronn, 28. They said Steinbronn locked them up several times — sometimes for longer than 24 hours, deputies said.
The children reported that they weren’t able to eat or use the restroom. One girl told investigators she injured her leg trying to escape.
“The children stated they had to urinate into cups, clothing and baby diapers due to not being allowed to leave the locked room,” deputy James Davis wrote in a criminal complaint.
HATE CRIME ALLEGED IN ASSAULT ON DISABLED MAN: NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) — Delaware’s Attorney General has brought new charges against three teens in an assault on a man with a mental disability. A video of the incident had been posted online.
Attorney General Beau Biden said in a news release Monday that the three have been charged with hate crime, crime against a vulnerable adult and other offenses. One is 13 and two are 14.
New Castle County police say the three were arrested earlier this month when two of the teens and their parents went to police on Sept. 6 to complain they had received threatening phone calls after the video was posted on social media.
Investigators believe the 27-year-old victim was assaulted more than once. Police say he was treated for an injury after one of the attacks.
Toddler dies after SUV’s window closes on his neck
ZWOLLE, La. (AP) — Authorities say a toddler has died of asphyxiation after a window in a sport utility vehicle closed around his neck as his mother drove to a relative’s home.
Sabine Parish Deputy Coroner Ron Rivers tells The Times (http://bit.ly/1B1CXV8 ) that the child, 19-month-old Robert E. Lynch, was taken off life support Sunday.
Police in northwest Louisiana say the child’s mother told them she had been at a family gathering Saturday night and when she left, she put her son unrestrained in the back seat. As she drove to another relative’s house, she says she did not notice what her son was doing in the back of the Oldsmobile Bravado.
Zwolle Police Chief Marvin Frazier says it is too early to say whether she would face charges.
60 ARRESTED AT MOUNTAIN VIEW RAVE CONCERT: MOUNTAIN VIEW (AP) — Authorities say more than 60 people were arrested at weekend rave in Mountain View, mostly for drug offenses.
KNTV reports (http://bit.ly/1wFwE9a) unlike last year, police received only a few noise complaints about the Beyond Wonderland concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre.
In 2013, many neighbors said the music was so loud that it rattled their homes.
Concert organizers changed the placement of speakers for this year’s event.
Beyond Wonderland has drawn tens of thousands of electronic music fans at various venues on the west coast since 2010.
PROSECUTORS: METH WAS SOLD FROM DENVER TACO WAGON: DENVER (AP) — Authorities say a Colorado drug ring was selling methamphetamine out of a taco wagon after importing it from Mexico through California.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office said Monday 15 people were arrested and two others are being sought on charges including racketeering, drug possession, money laundering, tax evasion and conspiracy.
The ring was allegedly selling meth out of a trailer serving tacos and other food in southwest Denver as well as distributing it elsewhere in the Denver metro area.
Attorney General John Suthers says buyers could “order a side of meth with their taco.”
Authorities say they seized 55 pounds of meth in the investigation, some of which was hidden in the floor of a red Mini Cooper.
ALASKA TV REPORTER QUITS ON AIR TO PROMOTE POT: ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A television reporter quit her job on live TV with a big four-letter flourish after revealing she owns a medical marijuana business and intends to press for legalization of recreational pot in Alaska.
After reporting on the Alaska Cannabis Club on Sunday night’s broadcast, KTVA’s Charlo Greene identified herself as the business’s owner.
“Everything you’ve heard is why I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all my energy toward fighting for freedom and for fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska,” she said during the late Sunday evening newscast. “And as for this job, well not that I have a choice, but f--- it, I quit.”
She then walked off camera.
KTVA News Director Bert Rudman apologized for Greene’s “inappropriate language” and said she was terminated in statements Sunday. He apologized again Monday, this time for Greene’s ethical lapses.
“She had a personal and business stake in the issue she was reporting, but did not disclose that interest to us,” Rudman said in a statement.
