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In this Sept. 13, 2018, file photo, Elizabeth Smart arrives for a news conference in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
In this Sept. 13, 2018, file photo, Elizabeth Smart arrives for a news conference in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Kidnapper quietly exits Utah prison

DRAPER, Utah -- A woman who helped kidnap Elizabeth Smart and stood by as the Utah girl was sexually assaulted was released from prison Wednesday after 15 years as concerns arose that she might still be a threat to other young people.

Wanda Barzee, 72, quietly left the state prison in the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper, avoiding a throng of reporters gathered outside.

Court documents say she will stay in unspecified emergency housing chosen by her probation officer until another home is approved.

Barzee's release followed a surprise announcement last week that Utah authorities had miscalculated her sentence and she would be freed earlier than expected.

Under the terms of her release, Barzee must undergo mental-health treatment and not contact Smart and her family.

Smart, now 30, recalled some of the horrors she experienced as a 14-year-old when she was snatched from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 by Barzee's then-husband, street preacher Brian David Mitchell.

Smart said last week that Barzee saw her as a slave during the nine months she was held by the couple and encouraged Mitchell to rape her.

Barzee's attorney Scott Williams said there's no reliable evidence that his client remains a threat to anyone.

Williams told reporters that Barzee wants to be left alone and will comply with the conditions of her supervised release.

$100M oil cleanup done after 5 years

BISMARCK, N.D. -- Five years and almost $100 million later, cleanup is complete on an oil pipeline leak in North Dakota that has been called one of the biggest onshore spills in U.S. history, industry and state officials said Wednesday.

The spill by Tesoro, now known as Andeavor, was found by a Tioga farmer in September 2013.

Farmer Steve Jenkins had smelled the crude oil for days before discovering the spill in his wheat field after his combine's tires were covered in it.

Patty Jensen, Jenkins' wife, said the cleanup's finish has "lifted a weight off our shoulders."

She said her husband began planting a mixture of sweet clover, grass, and winter rye last week as a cover crop to keep the soil in place on the affected area that she estimated at about 70 acres.

The Texas company and regulators have said a lightning strike may have caused the rupture in the 6-inch diameter steel pipeline, which runs from Tioga to a rail facility outside Columbus, near the Canadian border.

Health Department environmental scientist Bill Suess said less than a third of the 840,000 gallons that spilled was recovered. The remaining oil was cooked from the soil in a process called thermal desorption.

Suess said about 1.4 million tons was excavated from the site and treated. Crews had to dig as deep as 60 feet to remove oil-tainted soil. No water sources or wildlife were affected, he said.

Record California wildfire contained

LAKEPORT, Calif. -- The U.S. Forest Service says the largest wildfire on record in California is 100 percent contained.

The agency made the announcement Wednesday about the so-called Mendocino Complex of twin fires that broke out in July.

The fires north of San Francisco killed a firefighter, destroyed 157 homes and scorched 720 square miles.

Officials say 460 firefighters remain in the area, working to prevent erosion and monitoring spots that are still burning.

The blazes forced the evacuation of thousands of people in Mendocino, Lake, Colusa and Glenn counties.

Authorities are still investigating the causes of the fires.

A Section on 09/20/2018

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