National Roundup

Oregon
Judge orders crowing rooster must leave town

CORNELIUS, Ore. (AP) - It was just the first of Mr. Rooster's problems that he was first believed to be a Ms.

His crowing has given him away, though, and his owner in Cornelius has been dinged six times in five months for violating city ordinances.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered Megan Keller to find the bird a new home - within a week, KPTV reported. She could also be facing some hefty fines. Three of the noise citations could cost Keller as much as $3,000, although the judge indicated the fines could be reduced if Mr. Rooster finds a new abode.

Keller said she thought she was buying two females at Easter time in 2012 for her granddaughters to show at 4-H. But one proved to be a male.

Keller told The Oregonian that the birds had arrived during a tough patch in her life, and "those two brought me a lot of comfort."

Cornelius is a western Portland suburb of about 12,000 people and is proclaimed on its website as "an agricultural paradise, where rolling hillsides, vineyards and farms abound."

The town doesn't, as other cities do, ban roosters outright. But it has an ordinance against animals that annoy or disturb neighbors.

In June, a neighbor complained about Mr. Rooster. In August, a judge handed down a $250 fine and ordered that the bird get a new home.

Keller sent Mr. Rooster to a farm owned by friends. Along went the other bird from the 2012 shipment, known as Mrs. Rooster.

Keller said that didn't go well: The birds lost their feathers, and then a hawk attack left Mrs. Rooster dead and Mr. Rooster injured.

So she retrieved Mr. Rooster.

As the injured bird rested his head calmly on her shoulder recently, Keller said she's sure she did the right thing: "Who would I be if I would have left him up there?"

Keller outfitted the bird with a rooster collar, a snug-fitting band that restricts vocal cord movement and turns his crow into an elongated belch. Mr. Rooster has been exiled to an upstairs bathroom during prime crowing time. But he still crows outside a few times a day.

Neighbor Rose Iverson has been keeping tabs on the crowing, KATU reported. Iverson showed her log to the judge in court Wednesday, and that seemed to be the deciding factor.

"It's not about her, it's about the ordinance," Iverson told KPTV. "I feel bad. It's not that I don't like chickens, hens, and roosters and stuff. I just don't like them in the city; they don't belong in the city."

New Jersey
Judge taking arguments on sports books

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A lawyer for the NCAA and four sports leagues says New Jersey's move to drop a prohibition on sports betting violates federal law and the state's own constitution.

Lawyer Jeffrey Mishkin made his arguments Thursday before a federal judge who is considering whether legal sports betting can begin in the state.

Gov. Chris Christie has signed a law that would allow sports betting at casinos and horse tracks. One track is preparing to open a sports book. Theodore Olson, a lawyer for the state, says it is not seeking to authorize, establish or regulate sports gambling, but rather ending a ban.

But Mishkin says the state does want to authorize sports betting because it would restrict it to the casinos and tracks, bar those under 21 from participating and continue to ban betting on games involving New Jersey college teams.

Pennsylvania
Lawsuit: Black dispa­tchers told they talk 'ghetto'

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Three minority women who worked at a western Pennsylvania 911 center have filed lawsuits, with one of them saying black dispatchers were made to take calls from inner city residents because they knew how to "speak ghetto."

Two of the Allegheny County dispatchers are black and one is Hispanic. They say they were subjected to ethnic slurs.

Ruby Helvy, who is black, says her bosses targeted her for discipline while letting other employees slide. Kelli Rodriguez, a Hispanic woman, says she was subjected to harassment. Dapree Thompson, who is also black, says she was forced to work overtime while others got to go home.

A county spokeswoman did not immediately respond to the lawsuits, which were filed late Wednesday. The county's solicitor is also declining comment.

Arkansas
Boxer Jermain Taylor charged in shooting at home

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas prosecutors have charged champion middleweight boxer Jermain Taylor in a shooting at his home.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports the 36-year-old Little Rock native was charged Wednesday with first-degree battery and first-degree terroristic threatening. If convicted, he faces up to 26 years in prison.

Pulaski County sheriff's deputies say Taylor shot his 41-year-old cousin, Tyrone DaWayne Hinton of Jacksonville, at Taylor's home in Maumelle on August 26. Deputies say Hinton was wounded on his "lower extremities."

Taylor won the International Boxing Federation middleweight title in a Biloxi, Mississippi, bout on Oct. 8.

His attorneys have filed a motion challenging the legality of Taylor's arrest and asked that evidence collected from that arrest be barred from use in court.

South Dakota
Judge limits suspect in death of Peterson's son

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A judge has ordered that a man charged in the killing of the 2-year-old son of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson in South Dakota last fall must have no unsupervised contact with children and no contact with the victim's family.

The judge imposed additional bond conditions Wednesday for Joseph Patterson, 28, whose trial has been indefinitely delayed from its planned October start date.

Patterson was released on $2 million bond in September and faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and aggravated assault in the October 2013 death of Tyrese Ruffin. Patterson also has pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault and kidnapping charges in an alleged attack on the boy's mother last June.

Patterson was living with the child's mother in Sioux Falls when he called 911 to report that the boy had stopped breathing. Doctors determined that the boy's injuries could not have been accidental. Prosecutors allege Patterson beat Tyrese. Patterson maintains the child choked on a snack.

Lincoln County State's Attorney Tom Wollman asked Judge Stuart Tiede to impose additional bond conditions. Defense attorney Tim Rensch of Rapid City objected, saying the requested restrictions were unnecessary to insure his client's appearance in court. Patterson has made all of his court appearances and has behaved well since his release, Wollman said.

Published: Fri, Nov 21, 2014