|
|
|
|
| Friday, July 03, 2009 |
| Psychedelic mushrooms grow off radar |
When Waynesboro police were tipped Wednesday to hallucinogenic mushrooms growing in a local apartment, they organized a seizure in a matter of hours and arrested a man who could be sent to prison if convicted of dealing the psychedelic drug.
But psychedelic mushrooms rarely make their way onto police radar, despite online communities that openly offer tips on growing mushrooms and first-hand accounts of drug use.
Mushrooms, which include the psilocybin hallucinogen, are most often found along with other drugs, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which rarely targets mushroom growers. Local authorities spoke similarly.
“If we’ve run across these in the past, it’s been possession cases,” Waynesboro police Sgt. Brian Edwards said Thursday.
City police Wednesday seized 107 Mason jars, each containing several psychedelic mushrooms, a record haul, from a New Hope Road apartment. Police arrested Felix Christopher Gutierrez, 31, on charges of possession of a Schedule I controlled substance with intent to distribute and possession of marijuana.
“Very few people actually complain about the police arresting them,” said Alan Rockefeller, 27, of California, who helps moderate online discussions at Shroomery.org, one of a handful of sites dedicated to discussion of illegal psychedelic mushrooms.
“It’s a very vibrant community,” Rockefeller said ...
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com. Read reactions at Shroomery forums.Labels: crime, drugs, The News Virginian, Waynesboro
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
|
| Friday, June 26, 2009 |
| Hitman bargain hunting |
STAUNTON — A Stuarts Draft man asked an undercover police agent to kill his ex-wife and her boyfriend for $700, then talked the price down to $400 before being arrested, according to testimony during a preliminary hearing Thursday.
...
He paid in $20 bills and Sholes told him the murders would happen the next day.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Tomorrow? I’m impressed,’” Sholes testified.
Prosecutor Phil Figura asked about Laguardia’s tone: “So not laughter … but adulation?”
“Absolutely,” Sholes said.
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: courtroom, crime, murder for hire
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
|
| Tuesday, June 23, 2009 |
| 260 North Commerce |
 | | Rosanne Weber |
WAYNESBORO - Inside 260 N. Commerce Ave., sticky and crumbling apartment walls are divided only by dark doors with coarse, glassless peepholes. Outside, a toy-strewn yard hosts drunken, drug-induced fights.
Yet despite almost daily police visits and frequent arrests, many tenants see recent policy changes bringing peace and quiet.
Others are just getting away from the place that’s OK for living, “if you’re strong enough,” a six-year tenant said.
Those on the move are avoiding a new landlord who introduced an aggressive eviction mentality and code of conduct early this year, just after a spurt of violence.
Due in court today are three men: David Sanchez, 20; Isaias Rojas, 22; and Jose Sanchez-Aregin, 20, charged with robbing a fourth man of beer and beating him with a baseball bat Dec. 19.
Read the full story at NewsVirgnian.com.:: The attack (Piku's rip-roaring account)
:: Piku charged
:: Birthday stabbing
:: Sentencing Labels: crime, location-based reporting, narrative, The News Virginian
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
|
| Saturday, June 20, 2009 |
| Pilot bruised but home |
With bumps and bruises, a Tennessee helicopter pilot has returned home, two weeks after plummeting to the ground in a Greenville cornfield while flying a helicopter equipped to trim trees near electrical lines.
His return to a Memphis suburb came as the National Transportation Safety Board published a preliminary crash report with new details about the engine failure that made for his hard landing just after 11 a.m. June 2.
“I’ll be back in the air in a few more months,” pilot Brian K. Lacks, 41, said by phone Friday, a day after getting home. “I want to thank all the local people ... for their thoughts and their prayers ... the EMS workers for their quick and timely response."
Lacks, working for Aerial Solutions Inc., was flying a helicopter carrying a unique 10-blade dangling saw to trim trees for Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative.
After about 55 minutes, Lacks was preparing to land to refuel in an open cornfield near two homes on Cold Springs Road when he “heard a loud sound from the engine ...
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: front page, helicopter crash, locator map, recovery, The News Virginian
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
|
| Tuesday, June 16, 2009 |
| Getting up |
FISHERSVILLE - The leap carried him two meters through the air before he landed with one foot and one prosthetic leg planted in the pit of sand. His arms pinwheeled.
To fall back would shorten the measurement of Desmond Jackson’s long jump effort.
“Fall forward! Fall forward! Fall forward!” his mother shouted.
Jackson teetered ...
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: feature, The News Virginian
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 1
|
| Friday, June 12, 2009 |
| Hard-luck brothers suspected in church burglaries |
Stephen Bakaitis offers advice to those who struggle, as he says he and his brother do, against poverty and joblessness.
“Don’t revert back to a criminal lifestyle just to make money,” he said. “Stick through it.”
DNA matches have linked Stephen P. Bakaitis, 23, and his brother, Joshua T. Bakaitis, 21, to a string of church break-ins that rattled Waynesboro earlier this year, city police said Wednesday.
After learning of the lab results, police searched Joshua Bakaitis’ Waynesboro apartment and his brother’s tent, turning up items stolen from area churches, according to court documents.
...
Their story, marred by tragedy, has made its way into news pages before. The Bakaitises’ stepbrother was killed in 2007 when he was burned by a foundry wire while trying to steal copper in Radford, according to The Roanoke Times. Their father was also severely burned in the incident.
Their mother was serving a yearlong jail sentence at the time.
Work was hard to find in Radford, the brothers told The Roanoke Times, spurring a move to Waynesboro, where trouble followed.
:: Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com. Follow-up.Labels: burglary, crime, interview, The News Virginian
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
|
| Failed robbery prefaced six stickups |
STAUNTON — When Brian Brubaker attempted to rob Ladd Convenience store last June, his unarmed, towel-covered hand didn’t intimidate a pistol-wielding employee.
The Crimora man fled, cashless but undeterred, authorities said. Within the month, he would rob, at knifepoint, six store clerks in three counties before his arrest in the bathroom of a Harrisonburg car dealership.
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: crime, robbery, The News Virginian
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
|
| Saturday, June 06, 2009 |
| Bear struck at night, amid storm |
CHURCHVILLE — Facing a black bear population still surging despite a record-setting season by Virginia bear hunters last year, state wildlife officials this week voted to extend bear hunting season in the 11-county region including Augusta County.
Bear hunters last year broke their own 2006 record, taking in more than 2,200 bears.
"Despite that, our population is still growing," said David Kocka, district wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
...
But in Churchville, two attacks on pet goats left their owner with bears on the brain.
"Every noise I heard I thought, 'Oh my God, it's back'," said Jan Harman, who found bear tracks surrounding her chicken coop and goat pen Sunday morning, shortly after her goats disappeared.
"We bottle-fed them," Harman said, remembering Noah and Belle, her 110-pound Nigerian dwarf goats.
A black bear, previously spotted by neighbors, first struck under stealth of night Tuesday — amid a storm — nabbing Noah without leaving a trace. Belle disappeared overnight Saturday.
FULL STORY.Labels: bear, hunting, The News Virginian, wildlife
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
|
|
Get awesome blog templates like this one from BlogSkins.com |
