Mad-cow disease confirmed in carcass

Vancouver, B.C.

Mad-cow disease confirmed in carcass

Canada has confirmed a new case of mad-cow disease, its 15th since 2003.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday that no part of the 7-year-old cow's carcass from British Columbia entered the human food or animal feed systems.

Canada banned the use of animal products in cattle feed in 1997 because the products were considered the source of mad-cow infections. But the agency says some cases predating the new rules will continue to surface.

Medically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, mad-cow disease causes spongy holes in the brain. In people, a rare but fatal form of the disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has been linked to eating infected tissue from cows.

Sea-Tac

ID-theft suspects arrested at airport

Port of Seattle police and the FBI have arrested a pair of convicted forgers who were about to board a plane to Los Angeles, allegedly carrying dozens of phony driver's licenses, credit cards and other documents.

The couple were arrested Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after they drew attention to themselves by paying cash for one-way tickets to Los Angeles and not checking any luggage.

An inspection of their carry-on bags at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint reportedly turned up dozens of identity documents, many bearing their photographs, from several different states.

Some of the documents bore photos of other, unidentified individuals, according to federal charging papers filed this morning. A check of driver's-license databases showed those individuals were not the people the licenses were issued to, said FBI Special Agent Kathleen Moran.

Lamos Wayne Sturgis and Jodi Lynn Waller each was charged with a single count of possession with intent to use or transfer five or more false identification documents.

National crime-computer records show Waller has used several aliases and has a 1997 conviction for forgery. Sturgis also has used several other identities. Moran said he was convicted in April of forgery of a financial transaction card in Georgia.

Pacific, King County

Police: Dirty looks led to fatal gunfire

A Kent man who was arrested for investigation of first-degree murder allegedly fired numerous gunshots into a community center on Friday because he believed two men inside had been "mean mugging," or giving him dirty looks, according to a Pacific police report.

The 22-year-old man shot eight rounds into the community center, next to Pacific City Hall, around 9 p.m., killing Shiloh Drott, according to a police report filed in King County Superior Court. Pacific police arrested the Kent man, a 20-year-old Pacific man and a 19-year-old Auburn man for investigation of first-degree murder.

While police said that only the Kent man fired, the Pacific man is believed to have been with him when the shooting happened. The Auburn man allegedly drove the getaway car, police said.

The Kent man and the Pacific man are being held at the King County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail. The Auburn man is being held on $500,000.

About 30 people were with Drott at the time of the shooting, police said. Other young people were playing basketball in an adjoining gym.

Portland

Child-porn offender sheds monitor, flees

The U.S. Department of Justice says a man "sexually fixated on children" has cut off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet and fled his Portland home.

Paul Eric Presley, who is 47, faced up to 71 months in prison but failed to show up Monday for sentencing in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.

Vancouver, Wash., police and the FBI said the evidence against Presley included more than 7,000 child-pornography images and several hundred movie files of children engaged in explicit sexual conduct.

In 2006, Vancouver police responded to a 911 call at Presley's home. His wife told officers Presley had child pornography stored on his desktop and laptop computers.

Officers seized the desktop computer. The next day Presley's daughter and her boyfriend delivered the laptop to police.

Bellevue

Water-main break floods basements

Bellevue utilities crews were on the scene of a water-main break in the Somerset Woods neighborhood early Monday morning that flooded the basements of about a half-dozen homes.

At 4 a.m., workers went to 14704 S.E. 46th St., where a 10-inch pipe had released 569,500 gallons of water onto 147th Avenue Southeast.

Temporary water service was established by 10:30 a.m. for nine homes served by the water main. Southeast 46th Street was closed Monday to through traffic between 147th and 150 avenues Southeast for repairs.

Crews were digging up the pipe and pumping out water to determine the cause of the break, the extent of damage and to begin repairs.

There was some damage to landscaping and asphalt.

Seattle

Suspect arrested in series of holdups

Police arrested a 28-year-old man Sunday in connection with a string of armed robberies in the Seattle area.

Since Oct. 28, police have been searching for the person who robbed small businesses, usually operated by just one female employee, police said today.

Most of the incidents occurred downtown, except for one on Capitol Hill and one at Northgate Mall, said police spokesman Sean Whitcomb.

The first robbery victim was a taxicab driver. A photograph was captured from the cab camera, Whitcomb said. All the female victims in subsequent robberies identified that suspect as the man who robbed them. A bulletin was sent out to the Downtown Business Association and the Aurora Corridor Businesses group to alert business owners to the suspect.

On Sunday at around 11:30 p.m., a witness recognized the man at 12th Avenue and East Jefferson Street. The witness called 911, Whitcomb said, and police arrested the man without incident.

The suspect has been booked into King County Jail for investigation of robbery.

Times staff and news services