Report: Assaults increase on rangers, park police

Report: Assaults and threats increase on park rangers and other land agency workers

Associated Press -

FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2012, file photo park rangers fold a flag over the casket bearing the remains of Mount Rainier National Park Ranger Margaret Anderson during a memorial service in Tacoma, Wash. Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of two, was shot and killed, when a car blew through the park visitor's checkpoint. Park rangers, wildlife refuge workers and U.S. Park Police suffered more attacks and threats in 2012 than in 2011, according to a group that represents federal resource workers. Reported incidents at six land and water agencies increased by about 38 percent in 2012, compared to 2011, the group says, including 43 percent jumps at wildlife refuges and areas patrolled by U.S. park police. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Park rangers, wildlife refuge workers and U.S. Park Police experienced more assaults and threats from visitors last year than in 2011, according to a group that represents federal resource workers.

A total of 591 incidents were reported by six land and water agencies in 2012, up 38 percent from the previous year, the group says. More than one-quarter of the incidents involved some sort of violence against the employee or officer, the report by the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says.

More than half of 100 reported incidents against U.S. Park Police involved violence, the report said, including an incident where a suspected drunk driver tried to run over a police officer.

The report is set to be released on Monday. The Associated Press obtained a copy in advance. The report is based on figures obtained from the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and other agencies.

The report says 2012 began violently, with the New Year's Day shooting death of a park ranger at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, the first ranger killed in the line of duty in a decade. That same month, a note was a left at a Texas wildlife refuge visitor center that included racist remarks and a threat to burn down the center. In September, someone took a shot at a land management worker driving an agency vehicle at an Arizona recreation area.

Other incidents include assaults on law enforcement officers, resisting arrest and threats of violence, including at least one that resulted in a court-imposed restraining order.

Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, said the report shows that incidents of violence and abuse directed against rangers and other federal employees are becoming more common.

"The saying 'it's not easy being green' is becoming truer with each passing year," said Ruch.

Employees cited a number of factors for assaults or threats, including conflicts over federal land-management policies, growing use of public lands for meth labs and marijuana plantations, and deeper penetration of remote backcountry areas by off-road vehicles.

The figures do not show a clear pattern reflecting rules allowing loaded firearms in national parks and refuges starting in 2010, Ruch said. PEER opposed the law that allowed loaded guns, saying it could increase dangers for park rangers and visitors.

The U.S. Park Police, which patrols national parkland in Washington, D.C., New York and San Francisco, experienced a 43 percent jump in assaults and threats.

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Crews battle hot spots in Colo. wildfire

Crews battle hot spots in Colorado's most destructive wildfire ever

Lara Stern, right, holds her daughter, Alana, 8, and husband Samuel Stern on Sunday, June 16, 2013 during a community prayer and praise worship service at First Baptist Church near Colorado Springs, Colo. The Stern family and at least ten other families at the church lost their homes to the Black Forest wildfire. (AP Photo/The Colorado Springs Gazette, Mark Reis)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Firefighters are getting a better handle on the most destructive wildfire ever in Colorado, but they're still struggling against hot spots that could threaten homes that have been spared by the massive blaze.

Teams got help Sunday from the weather as steady rain moved through the densely wooded Black Forest near Colorado Springs in the afternoon.

"Every bit of rain helps the crews mop up. It's just adding another nail in the coffin," fire spokesman Brandon Hampton said.

Nearly 500 homes have been burned by the 22-square-mile fire, which is 65 percent contained. Crews hope to have it fully under control by Thursday.

With evacuees anxious to return, crews are digging up and extinguishing hot spots, labor-intensive work that's needed because extremely dry grass and trees could quickly ignite.

Even though the fire was no longer active enough on Sunday to produce a large smoke plume, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said it wasn't safe for people to return home until roads and downed power lines were repaired.

Additionally, the death of two unidentified people trying to flee the fire was still being investigated. Maketa said he was in no rush to have people return to an area that, at least for now, was still being considered a crime scene.

"I'm not going to compromise the evidence by allowing people in too soon," he said.

Some evacuees outside the burn area have been allowed back home. Those with property in the burn area have returned with escorts to check on their property or to pick up items, but Maketa said some were then refusing to leave once they were done. He urged fire victims to cooperate or risk being arrested.

Trudy Dawson, 59, was at work when the fire broke out Tuesday and quickly spread in record-breaking heat and strong winds. Her 25-year-old daughter, Jordan, who was on her way from Denver to visit, spotted the smoke, called her mother and went to the house.

With only 30 minutes to evacuate, she only had time to find a family cat and to open a corral gate so the horses could flee.

Jordan and two adult siblings went to the property the next day with a sheriff's escort and found the horses, unhurt, standing in their corral.

"It was just skeletons of vehicles and ash everywhere. It's haunting. It looks like it's right out of a horror movie," Jordan Dawson said.

It's unknown what sparked the blaze, but investigators believe it was human-caused and have asked for help from the state and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as they sift through the ash.

It's only a few miles away from the state's second most destructive wildfire, the Waldo Canyon Fire, which burned last summer.

The memory of that fire may have made residents especially appreciative of firefighters. About 1,000 people turned out to line the road and cheer firefighters as they returned from lines Saturday night, fire spokesman Brandon Hampton said.

Some of the aircraft used to fight the Black Forest Fire and other Front Range fires have been moved to fight a nearly 500-acre wildfire near Rifle Falls State Park in western Colorado. That fire erupted Friday from a smoldering lightning strike the day before, spokesman Pat Thrasher said. The residents of 12 homes were ordered to leave along with campers in the park as well as Rifle Mountain Park and the nearby White River National Forest.

Crews were closer to containing other wildfires that broke out around the same time as Black Forest. In Canon City, 50 miles to the southwest, a fire that destroyed 48 buildings at Royal Gorge Bridge & Park was 85 percent contained and the park's scenic railroad was running again. A lightning-sparked fire in Rocky Mountain National Park had burned nearly 500 acres and was 60 percent contained.

In New Mexico, crews were trying to protect homes in a historic mining town from a 35-square mile wildfire that had prompted 26 people to leave their homes.

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Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin contributed to this report from Denver.

Iran court summons Ahmadinejad, ups pressure on outgoing leader

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was summoned on Monday to appear before a criminal court on unspecified charges leveled by a conservative rival, days after moderate cleric Hassan Rohani was elected his successor.

While Rohani's election on Friday showed a desire for change, it also highlighted divisions among Iran's establishment conservatives who, though united in their dislike of Ahmadinejad, were unable to rally behind a single candidate.

The summons was issued by a Tehran court and follows a complaint by Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. It did not elaborate on the complaint, saying only that Ahmadinejad would face the unnamed charges in November.

Ahmadinejad, who will leave office in August after Rohani's inauguration, was not immediately available for comment.

Larijani has used his position in parliament to lead a conservative campaign to undermine and block Ahmadinejad.

The court summons could be a taste of things to come for the outgoing leader who, after receiving the backing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to suppress protests against his re-election in 2009, later fell foul of the supreme leader for challenging his ultimate authority.

In February, Ahmadinejad tried to strike back and, addressing parliament, played a recorded conversation of Larijani's brother he said implicated the family in corruption.

The stunt backfired as the tape was not fully audible and Larijani dismissed the president from the chamber.

Ahmadinejad has hinted he has incriminating material on a number of prominent figures and has threatened to reveal it should his personal position or safety come under threat.

Rohani won some 51 percent of the vote in the election promising to increase civil rights and bring a measure of pragmatism to Iran's negotiations with world powers over a nuclear program the West says is a cover for making a bomb.

None of the five hardline and conservative candidates ranged against Rohani got more than 17 percent of the vote and Ahmadinejad's protege failed even to pass the state vetting process and make it onto the ballot.

Iran's economy is suffering from the effects of increasingly tight international sanctions due to the nuclear program which it says is peaceful.

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Jon Hemming; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Utah businessman known for good deeds accused of Internet fraud

A Utah businessman known locally for his good deeds is being accused of masterminding a massive Internet fraud.

According to a recent profile in The New York Times, heroic acts like rescuing lost hikers and piloting his own helicopter to deliver relief supplies to earthquake victims in Haiti may have been funded on the backs of defrauded customers from his business.

The Federal Trade Commission has accused Jeremy Johnson of “one of the largest and most intricate online marketing frauds ever perpetrated in the United States,” according to the Times.

The Times reports that the now-defunct company, I Works, promised to help members apply for government grants. The company allegedly lured in customers with the promise of easy money and risk-free guarantees, and it then would continue to charge the credit cards of “unwitting consumers” for pricey monthly subscription fees.

Through this scheme, charges the FTC, Johnson amassed a fortune of $275 million. While the system of ongoing fees is not necessarily illegal, the government has charged that Johnson’s company failed to disclose the monthly fees or give customers a window of time to opt out of the subscription services.

For his part, the 6-foot-tall, red-haired Johnson vigorously disputes the accusations.

"They are absolutely not true," Johnson said of the allegations to the Salt Lake Tribune in 2010. "I never charged any consumer for anything without their consent."

Meanwhile, according to the Times, the rolling fees helped fund a lavish lifestyle “of helicopters and houseboats, classic cars and poker at a Las Vegas casino."

The company first came under scrutiny after hundreds of thousands of customers began to seek credit for unauthorized charges. Visa and MasterCard ended many of the company’s accounts and fined I Works.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the company allegedly had to set up 80 “shell accounts” to accept payments without being detected.