F-16 crash in Arizona kills Iraqi pilot
SAFFORD, Ariz. — An Iraqi student jet fighter pilot was killed when an F-16 jet crashed during a training mission in southeastern Arizona, authorities said Wednesday.
The Iraqi air force identified the pilot as Capt. Noor Faleh Rassan Al-Khazali, but it didn’t list an age or hometown.
Al-Khazali was killed Tuesday when his Fighting Falcon jet went down in the southern Arizona desert during what an Arizona Air National Guard official called a routine training mission. The U.S. Air Force has activated a team to investigate the crash about 80 miles northwest of Tucson, the Air Guard’s 1st Lt. Lacey Roberts of the 162nd Wing said.
The Iraqi defense ministry said it will join in the investigation.
Al-Khazali’s death was the second involving an Iraqi pilot flying an F-16 in Arizona in recent years.
The U.S. military is training Iraqi pilots to fly F-16s at the request of Iraq’s government, Roberts said. The plane belonged to the Iraqi air force.
Texas issues first medical pot license
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas has issued its first medical marijuana license, and two more companies are expected to be awarded licenses soon.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that Cansortium Texas, which is a part of Florida-based Cansortium Holdings, received its license Friday. The company will be allowed to grow, process and sell medical marijuana for patients who have a rare form of epilepsy.
The state Department of Public Safety is still reviewing license applications from Compassionate Cultivation and Surterra Texas.
Licenses are being issued under the Texas Compassionate Use Act, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in 2015.
Manson follower gets parole panel nod
CHINO, Calif. — Leslie Van Houten, the youngest of Charles Manson’s murderous followers, was recommended for parole by a state panel Wednesday, 40 years after she was imprisoned for two brutal murders she helped commit 48 years ago.
The two-member panel’s ruling that Van Houten is no longer a threat to society still must be approved by the state Parole Board and Gov. Jerry Brown, who reversed another panel’s ruling last year.
In blocking her release then, Brown said Van Houten had failed to adequately explain to the panel how a model teenager from a privileged Southern California family could have turned into a killer by age 19.
On Wednesday, the panel grilled her for two hours on how she could address those concerns.
“I’ve had a lot of therapy trying to answer that question myself,” said Van Houten, now 68, who appeared before the panel on crutches, her gray hair pulled back in a bun.
As she did at her parole hearing last year, Van Houten candidly described how she joined several other members of the “Manson Family” in killing Los Angeles grocer Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, in their home on Aug. 9, 1969, carving up La Bianca’s body and smearing the couple’s blood on the walls.
In reaching their decision, parole commissioners said they took into account Van Houten’s entire time of incarceration. During those years she has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in counseling, has been certified as a counselor and headed numerous programs to help inmates.
Quizzing of Price lawful; reporter cleared
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia journalist who was arrested after repeatedly questioning U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price broke no law and no longer faces any charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
A joint news release from the independent Public News Service and the Kanawha County prosecutor’s office said a review cleared Daniel Heyman of any lawbreaking.
“The State has determined, after a careful review of the facts, that Mr. Heyman’s conduct, while it may have been aggressive journalism, was not unlawful and did not violate the law,” the joint statement said.
The Charleston-based reporter for Public News Service was initially charged with willful disruption of governmental processes at the state Capitol in Charleston during Price’s May 9 visit. Heyman had wanted to ask Price whether domestic violence is a pre-existing condition under the Republican health care proposal.
A criminal complaint by Capitol police said Heyman caused a disturbance with his persistent questions and “was aggressively breaching” Secret Service agents.
“I’m very relieved,” Heyman said in the statement. “I don’t want my arrest to have a chilling effect on other reporters because we all need to keep asking the tough questions of elected officials.”