Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/628905
ByAudreyMcavoyand Jennifer Sinco Kelleher The Associated Press HONOLULU Teamssearch- ing the waters off Hawaii where two Marine helicop- ters crashed have had no luck so far in their hunt for 12 missing crew members. Three of the four life rafts aboard the heli- copters have been recov- ered and efforts were be- ing made to retrieve the fourth. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers said Monday that some of the rafts were inflated, but it was unclear how they got that way. There is no indication that anyone was aboard the rafts, based on their con- dition and the lack of any personal effects, she said. Monday was the fourth day of searching. Condi- tions have improved since the start of the search, with much smaller waves. Various agencies have been searching above wa- ter, below water and along the shoreline since the Coast Guard was notified late Thursday by a civilian who saw the aircraft flying and then saw a fireball. The Marines were alerted when the CH-53E helicopters carrying six crew members each failed to return to their base at Kaneohe Bay following a nighttime training mis- sion. Hours later, a Coast Guard helicopter and C-130 airplane spotted debris 2 miles off of Oahu. The crash was near the north shore, but the search area spans from the west- ern coast of Oahu to the northeast corner of the island. At this point, it's still a search for survivors, Mooers said. The Coast Guard as- sumes the best-case sce- nario when considering how long someone in the right equipment and right conditions could survive, she said. "We err on the side of caution because the last thing that anybody wants is to suspend the search when there's still a possi- bility of finding somebody," she said. Marine Capt. Timothy Irish said Monday that air- crews wear personal flo- tation devices with their flight suits and get addi- tional training on top of survival swimming train- ing. There are various ways that life rafts could be in- flated, including a cord be- ing pulled by debris, he said. Mooers said people have been founds days or even weeks after they've been at sea. Survival would entail overcoming many factors, including the crash and then dealing with possible dehydration, exposure and fatigue, said Mario Vittone, a retired Coast Guardsman who is an expert on sea survival. Vittone said sur- vival seems unlikely, but he noted that he doesn't know all the circumstances and there's nothing unusual in the length of the search so far. The transport helicop- ters were part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Known as Super Stallions, they are the U.S. military's largest helicopter, capable of carrying a light armored vehicle, 16 tons of cargo or a team of combat-equipped Marines, according to a Marine Corps website. A salvage ship from the Military Sealift Command arrived late Sunday from Pearl Harbor. It is support- ing a Navy unit's efforts to perform an underwater search of the aircrafts' last known position with sonar and a remotely operated ve- hicle, the Coast Guard said in a news release. Searches by the unit on Sunday did not find any debris, the re- lease said. HELICOPTERS St il l no l uc k in h un t fo r 12 Marines a er Hawaii crashes CPL.RICKYS.GOMEZ—U.S.MARINECORPS A Marine Officer attached to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463uses binoculars to search for debris of a helicopter mishap in Haliewa Beach Park, Hawaii. The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Califor- nians would be limited to buying a maximum of one rifle or shotgun each month under newly pro- posed legislation. It would be the same limit currently in place for handguns. Democratic Assem- blyman Miguel Santiago of Los Angeles says his AB1674 responds to Cali- fornians purchasing more long guns than handguns in the last decade. Cur- rently, anyone can buy as many rifles or shotguns as they want at any time. Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Richard Pan of Sacra- mento introduced SB877. It would require the De- partment of Public Health to collect data on violent deaths in the state, includ- ing gun deaths. Other lawmakers last week introduced two bills aimed at closing a legal loophole that allows fire- arms manufacturers to in- clude "bullet buttons" that let rifle owners rapidly ex- change empty ammunition magazines for full ones. PROPOSAL Bi ll l im it s ri fle , sh ot gu n sales to 1 per month The Associated Press NEW YORK Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are re- calling Darth Vader and Disneyland 60th anniver- sary infant onesies be- cause the snaps can de- tach and pose a choking hazard. No injuries have been reported. The recall in- volves about 10,000 one- sies. Consumers were ad- vised to stop using the items and contact Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for instructions on return- ing them for a full refund. The Darth Vader onesies were sold in five sizes in- cluding 3M, 6M, 12M, 18M and 24M. The artwork on the front of the bodysuit shows an infant Darth Va- der holding a light saber with the text: "If you only knew the power of THE DARK SIDE." The Disneyland 60th onesies were sold in four sizes including 6M, 12M, 18M and 24M. The art- work on the front of the bodysuit includes Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck and Pluto in front of the Disneyland Castle. The text on the front of the gar- ment reads "60th Disney- land Resort, Diamond Cel- ebration." The onesies were sold at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Flor- ida; Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California; and the Treasure Ketch Shop on the Disney Wonder and Mickey's Mainsail lo- cated on the Disney Magic, Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy cruise ships from February 2015 through No- vember 2015 for about $20. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts can be contacted at 844-722-1444 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET Mon- day through Friday, or on- line at www.disneyparks. com through the "Recall Notice" portal. CHOKING HAZARD Disney recalling Darth Vader onesies The Associated Press SANTA ANA As a county gravedigger, Andrew Trejo has helped numerous fam- ilies bury their loved ones. Neary 28 years after his mother disappeared, he will finally get to do the same. Last year, he and four other relatives gave DNA samples to be checked against unidentified hu- man remains recovered by law enforcement agencies in Orange County, Califor- nia, and elsewhere in the hopes of finding Kristyne Olivia Trejo, who left her family home in Santa Ana in 1988 and never returned. Their DNA turned out to be a match with a skull and arm bone found in 1989 in the desert of nearby San Bernardino County. "I'm sad that we're not bringing her home alive, but at least we have her, and can properly lay her to rest and we can start the pro- cess of healing," Trejo told reporters. It's the first success for Orange County's "Identify the Missing" Day held last October by the coroner's di- vision of the Orange County Sheriff' Department. Cheek swabs were collected from relatives of some 34 miss- ing people to be compared with the DNA of unidenti- fied human remains. Such events have also been held in Michigan, New York and elsewhere as in- vestigators turn to ever-im- proving DNA technology to forge connections between people reported missing and unidentified remains. One of the challenges is geography. Relatives might report a family member missing in one jurisdiction, with a match later found in another state or county. Bob Hunter, deputy cor- oner investigator for San Bernardino County, said a similar DNA gathering event held last year in his county might soon yield a similar match to remains found in another Califor- nia county. "There are so many un- identified people who need to be identified," Hunter said, adding that his county has remains of about 600 unidentified people. "This needs to be a national event annually for every county in the United States." There is an open homi- cide investigation in the death of Trejo, he said. Trejo, who worked as a waitress, was living with her parents and two chil- dren in Santa Ana when she disappeared after leav- ing for a group meeting for recovering addicts, Andrew Trejo said. He expected her back later in the day to attend a ceremony marking his com- pletion of the fifth grade, but she never made it. For years, he would wait for her after returning home from school. He re- membered how she loved oldies music and how pretty she was. Trejo said he knew how much she loved him and his younger sister. She would never have simply walked out, he said. After a while, he said he stopped believing she would return. "I always wondered what happened, how and who could have done this to her," he said. "If justice isn't served here, I know that the Lord will take care of it." ORANGE COUNTY Through DNA, family finds missing woman's remains, closure CHRIS CARLSON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tina Costa stands near a picture of her mother Kristyne Olivia Trejo a er a news conference at the Santa Ana Police Department, Tuesday. By Scott Sonner The Associated Press RENO,NEV. Siding with the governmentinadecades-old battle over grazing rights, a federal appeals court over- turned a lower-court ruling in favor of a Nevada rancher and strongly admonished a judge in Reno for abusing his power and exhibiting personal bias against U.S. land managers. In a pair of decisions is- sued on Friday, the 9th Cir- cuit Court of Appeals ruled the late Wayne Hage of To- nopah and his family were guilty of trespassing cat- tle on federal land illegally without a grazing permit and should be subject to fines. The appellate court based in San Francisco also determined that U.S. Dis- trict Judge Robert Clive Jones had no legal basis to find employees of the Bu- reau of Land Management and Forest Service in con- tempt of court for doing their jobs. In remanding the case back to the lower court in Reno, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit took the un- usual step of ordering a dif- ferent district judge to han- dle the case. Such a move is warranted "only in rare and extraordi- nary circumstances, such as when the district court has exhibited personal bias or when reassignment is ad- visable to maintain the ap- pearance of justice," Judge Susan Graber wrote in the 3-0 decision. "We regretfully conclude that the quoted standard is met here because a rea- sonable observer could con- clude that the judge's feel- ings against (the federal agencies) are both well-es- tablished and inappropri- ately strong," she wrote, noting that the appellate court has "expressed con- cern about Judge Jones' conduct in several other re- cent cases." The former bankruptcy judge from Las Vegas ap- pointed by President George W. Bush in 2003 has drawn attention in re- cent years with a number of high-profile rulings re- versed by the 9th Circuit. His rejection of same-sex marriage in Nevada in 2012 was overturned on appeal in 2014. Other reversals in- clude his dismissal last year of a suit against Nevada state officials accused of vi- olating federal voting laws, and his refusal in 2012 to pull "None of These Candi- dates" off Nevada's ballots. In a 104-page ruling in May 2013, Jones largely agreed with the Hages' ar- gumentthattheydidn'thave to have a grazing permit be- cause they had existing wa- ter rights that entitled them to run their cattle on the fed- eral land in north-central Nevada about 200 miles north of Las Vegas. The9thCircuitdisagreed. "Defendants openly tres- passed on federal land," Graber wrote. "The owner- ship of water rights has no effect on the requirement that rancher obtain a graz- ing permit ... before allow- ing cattle to graze on fed- eral lands." DECADES-OLD BATTLE Court sides with US agency in land-grazing case The Associated Press PAGE, ARIZ. The body of a California man who was wingsuit flying in north- ern Arizona and hit a wall has been recovered. Coconino County Sher- iff's Office spokesman Gerry Blair says the fam- ily of Mathew Kenney, of Santa Cruz, reached out to professional technical rescuers to help retrieve his body. Authorities say it was trapped in a crev- ice about 600 feet below where he jumped on Jan. 12 in a wilderness area near the Arizona-Utah border. Blair says the techni- cal rescuers were able to move Kenney's body to a slope where an Ari- zona Department of Pub- lic Safety helicopter could remove it. He says it was taken Sunday to the Coconino County Medical Examin- er's office. Friends of Kenney say he was an experienced skydiver and wingsuit flier who loved nature. NORTHERN ARIZONA Body of California man who died wingsuit flying recovered redbluffdailynews.com • Choice of ad sizes • Free ad design • Free link to your webpage Now Look Here... Get All This ➞ 6,000 guaranteed online ad impressions For $ 99 CallyourDailyNewsadvertisingreptoday! (530) 527-2151 advertise@redbluffdailynews.com WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B ★