National Roundup

Florida
City’s old website used for porn
SPRINGFIELD, Fla. (AP) — Officials in a Florida Panhandle city say their former website has been taken over by someone hosting pornographic content.

The Panama City News Herald reports that the city of Springfield began receiving complaints last week from citizens who were visiting the city’s old website.

Mayor Ralph Hammond said the city apparently let the old domain name expire, and the site now contains pornography.

Springfield switched its website to a .gov domain about three years ago. The city’s information technology department is seeking to buy back the old domain and any domains names similar to the city’s current website, springfield.fl.gov.

Pennsylvania
Man guilty of not filing taxes over ‘mark of the beast’
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has been convicted of failing to file his income tax returns for 21 years because he considered using a Social Security number akin to using the “mark of the beast” spelled out in the Bible.

James Schlosser, who lives in the town of Bird-in-Hand, was convicted in federal court in Allentown on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say by failing to file the returns from 1994 to 2014 he didn’t report $2.3 million in income he earned as a salesman of medical equipment. Prosecutors say he funneled the money through foreign business trusts and corporations he registered in Nevada.

An attorney for the 59-year-old Schlosser didn’t immediately comment Wednesday. He’ll be sentenced June 10 when he faces a maximum of five years in prison and $450,000 in fines.

New York
Ex-civil rights lawyer dies days after terror client’s death
NEW YORK (AP) — An outspoken New York civil rights lawyer who represented clients ranging from small-time criminals to radicals and was released early from prison three years ago because she was expected to die of cancer has died. Lynne Feltham Stewart was 77.

Her husband, Ralph Poynter, says Stewart died Tuesday in the Brooklyn home where she lived after receiving a “compassionate release” from prison in January 2014.

Stewart was disbarred after she was convicted of helping a terrorist client communicate with followers.

The mother of seven was a schoolteacher in Harlem in the 1960s before launching a legal career that brought her into the public spotlight.

Her clients ranged from crooks to members of the Black Panthers, Weather Underground leaders and a former hit man.

Her most notorious client — a blind Egyptian sheik convicted in the terror case — died last month.
Stewart had battled cancer and several strokes.

Georgia
Police: 2 soldiers shot to death in double homicide
HINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Authorities say they’re investigating the deaths of two soldiers found outside a Georgia Army base as a double homicide.

Hinesville police tell The Telegraph of Macon that the soldiers were shot to death. Their bodies were found in an apartment outside Fort Stewart.

Hinesville police Capt. J.C. Reid told the newspaper that there had been a party at the apartment Saturday night, and that both men were seen alive by friends Sunday morning. They were found dead Sunday night.

Reid said the soldiers were identified as 23-year-old Spc. Marquez S. Brown and 21-year-old Pvt. Malika D. Jackson.

Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson confirmed the men were active-duty soldiers stationed at Fort Stewart, the largest Army post east of the Mississippi River. He said the Army is cooperating with local authorities.

Ohio
City: Death row inmate died by hanging himself
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio State Highway Patrol says a death row inmate who killed himself was found hanging in his cell.

The patrol says condemned killer Patrick Leonard was pronounced dead at Adena Hospital in Chillicothe on Sunday.

The Ross County coroner’s office said Wednesday that the preliminary cause of death was strangulation. Neither agency said what Leonard used to hang himself with.

Leonard was sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of his ex-girlfriend, 23-year-old Dawn Flick, in Hamilton County.

Court records say the 47-year-old Leonard was angry at Flick for ending their relationship and refusing to reconcile.

Leonard didn’t have a scheduled execution date.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, a critic of execution delays, said: “Finally someone on death row has died.”

Pennsylvania
3 teens send apology, $50 for library swastika
EXETER, Pa. (AP) — Three teenagers have delivered an anonymous apology note and $50 to the Pennsylvania library where they sprayed a swastika using shaving cream in a parking lot.

The teens left the envelope containing the note and the money in a book depository at the Exeter Community Library. Police and firefighters were called to wash away the graffiti on Friday. The envelope was found by library workers on Monday.

The teens’ note says they are “three stupid teenagers apologizing for our heinous acts.”

The teens go on to say that they didn’t intend to offend or hurt anyone.

The teens say they “all have religious roots and did not intentionally mean this as any form of hate speech or dislikeness towards any culture.”

The teens apologized and say they’ll never do anything like that again.

Maryland
Officer suspended for comment put on Facebook
LA PLATA, Md. (AP) — A law enforcement officer in Maryland has been suspended after he was accused of posting an insensitive comment on Facebook about two teenagers who were killed in a crash last week.

Authorities say Officer Robert Glover of the Charles County Sheriff Office used a profanity and wrote “shouldn’t have been driving that fast” on his personal Facebook page.

The post was referring to 17-year-olds Colin Bipat and Desmond Cook, who were killed in a crash in Waldorf, Maryland, on Friday after striking a light pole.

An 18-year-old passenger suffered serious injuries.

Charles County Sheriff Troy Berry said in a statement Monday that Glover has been suspended pending further administrative actions. Berry called the comment “disgusting” and says Glover has apologized on Facebook.