Jurors have ruled that an 86-year-old former southwest Missouri minister is a sexually violent predator who should remain confined even though he has completed a 15-year prison sentence for sodomizing teenage boys.The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that jurors reached the verdict last month in the case against Donald Peckham, but the case records weren’t publicized until Tuesday. Prosecutors say Peckham, who is from Sarcoxie, sexually abused at least 14 boys between 12 and 16 years old over the course of 30 years and continued to victimize young boys until he was 67 years old.Defense attorney Amy Clay says the decision to indefinitely commit Peckham to a treatment program run by the Missouri Department of Mental Health amounts to a “life sentence” because few people get through it.___ Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com … [Read more...] about 86-year-old former Missouri minister deemed sexually violent
16 month old is how old
Hanford Police: 4-month-old kidnapped by homeless found safe
Police in central California say they have located a 4-month old baby boy who was allegedly kidnapped by a homeless man.The Hanford Police Department says the baby was found safe in Lemoore about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Hanford, where the child was abducted. The suspect identified as 42-year-old Wesley Williams was taken into custody.Investigators tell the Fresno television station Williams called police stating that he had the child and asked about his rights. They say officers directed him to return the baby, but he did not do so and turned off his phone.Police initially believed this was a child custody dispute but have since confirmed it was a kidnapping … [Read more...] about Hanford Police: 4-month-old kidnapped by homeless found safe
Under the spell of Highclere Castle and ‘Downton Abbey’
NEWBURY, England — He is a farmer, she says, and she is a farmer’s wife. They are active in their community. She writes a bit on the side, her writing room only recently having been wired for electricity.On my recent visit to her home, she was warm and welcoming. Her yellow Lab, Bella, followed her closely as her mistress ushered visitors into the house.And oh my. What a house. Two hundred rooms. Forty bedrooms. Silk wallcoverings in one room, 16th century Spanish leather wallcoverings in another. An original Van Dyck. A display on Egyptology, in honor of one of the previous occupants who just happened to have discovered King Tut’s tomb.Hundreds of other treasures make it abundantly clear that you are not in Kansas anymore. You are, instead, on the set of “Downton Abbey,” but it’s not a set at all. It is Highclere Castle, and when Season 4 begins Sunday for American viewers of the wildly popular PBS show, it is this magnificent home they will see, … [Read more...] about Under the spell of Highclere Castle and ‘Downton Abbey’
Heading south in Steinbeck’s footsteps, with a Prius and a plan
Soon the beauty of fall will be gone, the festive holidays a memory. The snow will have outstayed its welcome, and the world outside will be pale and cold. For those of us in the Mountain West, February, the shortest month, can be 28 long days of despair.That’s when the road south calls.I heard the call while reading “The Log from the Sea of Cortez,” John Steinbeck’s account of cruising the sea in a sardine boat, dropping anchor in Mexican villages and collecting marine specimens along the way.I didn’t have a boat, but I did have a Prius. And a plan. I would set out from my home near Denver, steering a course south into Arizona to investigate a strangely lush canyon, then head into Mexico to explore the driest place in North America and finally alight on the Sea of Cortez. It all seemed a world away as I motored down icy Interstate 25, hugging the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains through sprawling Colorado Springs, gritty Pueblo and charming Trinidad, … [Read more...] about Heading south in Steinbeck’s footsteps, with a Prius and a plan
Rescue Mission reserves housing for graduates of ‘academy’
The San Diego Rescue Mission no longer has clients in its program.Starting this month, it has students in its academy, and everyone living in the facility will be either enrolled in — or will have graduated from — its courses designed to create sober, stable self-sufficient lives.“The key to the homeless issue is rehabilitation,” said Donnie Dee, president and CEO of the San Diego Rescue Mission in downtown San Diego.Dee said the new approach is intended to better address the needs of homeless people. Shortly after arriving as new head of the nonprofit in August 2017, Dee rewrote what he thought was a too-wordy mission statement to one that now reads: “To lovingly address the needs of men, women and children experiencing homelessness by sharing the good news of salvation and providing a holistic approach to rehabilitation and recovery.” He also made staffing changes, moving Jeremy Dawsey-Richardson from director of the mission’s recuperative … [Read more...] about Rescue Mission reserves housing for graduates of ‘academy’
