Los Angeles
Jackson doctor jailed: Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray, was sentenced to four years in jail this week for his role in the pop superstar’s 2009 drug-overdose death. As he handed down the maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor expressed shock over the doctor’s lack of remorse and criticized him for suggesting in a recent documentary that the singer had “entrapped” him. “Yipes! Talk about blaming the victim,” said Pastor. He added that Murray’s use of a surgical anesthetic to treat Jackson’s insomnia was “horrible medicine” practiced by someone more concerned about collecting a $150,000-a-month salary than about upholding the Hippocratic oath. Jackson’s family welcomed the sentence. “Four years is not enough for someone’s life—it won’t bring [Michael] back,” said Jackson’s mother, Katherine. “But at least he got the maximum.”
Los Angeles
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Occupy protesters evicted: Police in Los Angeles cleared out an Occupy L.A. encampment outside City Hall this week, but managed to avoid the violent clashes that had accompanied similar operations in New York and Oakland. Around 1,400 law-enforcement officials swarmed the camp shortly after midnight and surrounded the protesters in a matter of minutes. Most of the Occupy demonstrators confronted the police without resorting to violence, though 200 were arrested for resisting the forced eviction. “It went as well as we could have expected,” said Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck. The closure of what had been the largest remaining Occupy camp in the U.S., and the eviction the same night of an encampment in Philadelphia marks an end to the movement’s large campsites.
Aurora, Colo.
‘Sheriff of the Year’ busted: The former sheriff of Arapahoe County has been arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs and attempting to trade methamphetamine for sex with a man of his acquaintance. Patrick Sullivan, 68, who was the National Sheriffs’ Association’s “Sheriff of the Year” in 2001, was held in the county jail that bears his name pending the posting of a $500,000 bail bond. Sullivan, whose distinguished career stretched from 1984 to his retirement in 2002, has been charged with unlawful distribution, manufacturing, dispensing, or sale of a controlled substance. Former Arapahoe County District Attorney Jim Peters, who had worked with Sullivan, said the allegations against the former sheriff are “totally out of character” with the man he knew. “He just oozed honesty and integrity.” According to police more arrests are expected.
Southeast
Early snows hit South: A rare November snowstorm blanketed parts of six Southeastern states this week, dropping as much as eight inches on one Arkansas town and forcing school closings in Tennessee. The unseasonably early storm puzzled weather watchers around the nation as it moved into parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, northern Arkansas, Mississippi, and northern Alabama. The heaviest snow fell at night, which allowed a steady accumulation of 2 to 4 inches in most places and up to 8 inches in others. The storm whipped up winds in Tennessee and chilled temperatures in the Deep South to near freezing, on the same day Northeastern cities topped 70 degrees. “It’s not like Alabama never gets snow,” said one reporter. “It’s that it’s the earliest snow that has fallen in that part of Alabama since 1976—35 years ago.”
Atlanta
Cain reassesses campaign: Amid new revelations that he carried on a 13-year affair with an Atlanta woman, presidential candidate Herman Cain told staffers this week that he is “reassessing” his campaign. Ginger White, 46, said this week that her “casual” romance with Cain ended not long before the former businessman from Georgia announced that he was running for president. “It was fun,” said White, who alleged that Cain flew her to rendezvous all over the country and lavished her with gifts. “It was something that took me away from my sort of humdrum life at the time.” To support her claims, White provided cellphone records showing scores of cellphone calls and texts from Cain over a two-and-a-half-year period, with some calls made as early as 4:26 a.m. Cain, who previously faced charges of sexual harassment from several women, acknowledged that White was “a friend,” but flatly denied any affair.
Syracuse, N.Y.
Basketball coach fired: Syracuse University this week fired longtime assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine amid accusations from at least three men that he sexually molested them when they were boys. The university acted after ESPN aired a recording of a purported 2002 phone conversation between Fine’s wife, Laurie, and one of the accusers, Bobby Davis. “Bernie has issues,” she says in the recording. “You trusted somebody you shouldn’t have.” Davis and his stepbrother, Mike Lang, both claim that Fine molested them for years. A third man, Zach Tomaselli, who is himself facing sexual-assault charges in Maine, has claimed that Fine abused him, too, and there are reports that a fourth man will emerge. A grand jury is investigating the accusations, which Fine says are “patently false in every aspect.” No formal charges have yet been made.
