Sedona, Ariz.
New Age death: Two people died and 19 fell ill in a sauna-like “sweat lodge” at a New Age retreat. Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee, were among 64 people who had crowded into the lodge as part of a “purification ceremony.” Crudely built with tarps, blankets, and plastic, the lodge was constructed for self-help expert James Arthur Ray’s “Spiritual Warrior” meditation program at the 70-acre Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat Center. Participants paid about $9,000 apiece for the five-day experience, which promised to “absolutely change your life.” Authorities have not determined the cause of the illnesses and deaths, but are investigating possible criminal negligence.
Phoenix
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‘Toughest’ sheriff reined in: The Department of Homeland Security has stripped Joe Arpaio, the controversial sheriff of Maricopa County, of his federal authority to make street arrests of suspected illegal immigrants. In 2007, Arpaio, often dubbed “America’s toughest sheriff,” was authorized to enforce immigration laws under a special federal program. But following complaints that his office had embarked on a campaign of racial profiling aimed at harassing Latinos, the federal government has barred Arpaio from making arrests based on suspicions about a person’s immigration status. “It’s all politics,” said Arpaio, who is known for making inmates wear pink underwear and boasts of feeding them on less than a dollar a day. “It’s garbage.”
Lebanon, Pa.
Armed soccer mom killed: Meleanie Hain, a suburban mom who made national headlines when she openly carried a loaded pistol to her 5-year-old daughter’s soccer game, was found shot dead in her home alongside her husband in an apparent murder-suicide. Hain had holstered a Glock 26 to her hip at a game in September 2008, upsetting many parents; the local sheriff revoked her permit, but a county judge later reinstated it, and pro-gun groups touted Hain as a champion of Second Amendment rights. Her attorney said Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, had separated several months ago; reports suggested that Scott was the suspected shooter. They leave three young children.
Hampton, Va.
Campus conflict: A historically black university crowned its first non-black beauty-contest winner last week, prompting several students to leave the ceremony and stirring racial tension on campus. Nikole Churchill, a senior nursing student whose father is from Guam and whose mother is Italian, won the 15th annual Miss Hampton University pageant, beating nine black competitors. Churchill said she was subjected to racial taunts, and she invited President Obama to visit and speak about tolerance, so that students “stop focusing so much on the color of my skin.” But after meeting with student leaders this week, she said many students have been “genuinely supportive” and that she had blown a few insensitive comments “out of proportion.”
New York City
Fugitive no more: A Puerto Rican man accused of hijacking a planeload of terrified passengers to Havana in 1968 has surrendered to authorities after four decades of poverty in Cuba. Wielding pistols and knives, Luis Armando Peña Soltren and three others allegedly commandeered Pan Am Flight 281 from New York to Puerto Rico on Nov. 24, 1968. Soltren received a hero’s welcome from Fidel Castro, but then spent the next four decades working as a field laborer. Soltren voluntarily flew to New York last week, and his lawyer said he wanted to rejoin his wife, who’d already come to the U.S. His accomplices were caught years ago; one was acquitted and the other two served prison terms.
Washington, D.C.
Cross in court: The Supreme Court this week heard arguments in the case of the controversial display of a 6½-foot cross in California’s Mojave National Preserve in honor of World War I dead. Justices appeared to want to avoid a major ruling on the separation of church and state by exploring whether Congress should transfer part of the preserve to private hands. Only conservative Justice Antonin Scalia seemed eager to use the case to confront the issue of religious displays on public property, commenting that a cross could double as a secular marker, as it “is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead.” Lawyer Peter Eliasberg, representing the plaintiff who wants the cross removed, responded: “There is never a cross on the tombstone of a Jew.” An irritated Scalia said it was “outrageous’’ to suggest that a cross couldn’t honor all veterans. A ruling is expected by spring.
