“Governor gets an earful on Billy the Kid - Los Angeles Times” plus 1 more |
| Governor gets an earful on Billy the Kid - Los Angeles Times Posted: 28 Dec 2010 11:07 PM PST With his tenure as New Mexico governor running out this week, Bill Richardson says he is still mulling a pardon for Billy the Kid, with public sentiment leaning in favor of the pardon, according to an aide. Billy the Kid, who also went by the name William H. Bonney, was convicted of murdering Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady in 1878. Lew Wallace, the governor of territorial New Mexico in the late 1870s, purportedly offered the Kid a pardon if he testified against other members of Billy Campbell's posse in a separate murder case. The Kid testified, but no pardon was granted. In April 1881, shortly before the Kid was to be hanged, he escaped from jail and killed two deputies. Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked him down and killed him on July 14, 1881. Richardson set up a website this month and asked New Mexicans if they believed the Kid should be pardoned for the Brady murder. In the process, he incited a debate in a place where frontier history still resonates with many. Slightly more than half of the roughly 800 respondents said the pact should be honored and the pardon granted, said Eric Witt, deputy chief of staff for Richardson. Others, including descendants of Wallace and Garrett, argued that pardoning a criminal like the Kid would sully the reputations of the territorial governor and the lawmen who chased the Kid down. "The Kid seems to be winning when it comes to public opinion," Witt said. "It's been a very intriguing historic review at an academic level, and it's just trying to set the record straight." (A third camp responded by asking: Why are you wasting your time with this, anyway? That group includes Richardson's incoming successor, Republican Susana Martinez.) Richardson, a Democrat and an Old West history buff, began considering the pardon after Albuquerque attorney Randi McGinn filed a petition this month. McGinn sought absolution for the Brady murder, but not to wipe the slate clean of the Kid's every crime. "It's only to enforce one promise the governor made," she said. She said historians were finding that Wallace did indeed make a genuine offer, but that he balked under political pressure. William N. Wallace, the great-grandson of Lew Wallace and a retired New York Times reporter, said the pardon would reduce the governor from an American hero to a "dishonorable liar." "This is not a petition," Wallace wrote in a letter to Richardson. "It is a deceit." A pardon for Billy the Kid, he added, would "desecrate, defile, debase and dishonor an American hero in favor of a convicted murderer." Witt said the governor had yet to make up his mind. Richardson has a narrow window: His term ends Friday when the clock strikes midnight. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Hospital: 5 adults, 3 kids injured on ski lift - Atlanta Journal Constitution Posted: 28 Dec 2010 05:44 PM PST The Associated Press CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine — A 35-year-old chair lift due to be replaced failed Tuesday in high winds at a Maine resort, sending skiers — some of them children — plummeting into ungroomed snow far below that fell with the Northeast's recent blizzard and softened the landing. At least eight were injured. This photo provided by Betsy Twombly shows a skier being helped down from a lift chair, center, after a lift derailed on the state's tallest ski mountain at the Sugarloaf resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Betsy Twombly) NO SALES This photo provided by Al Noyes shows skiers and lift chairs on the slope after a lift derailed on the state's tallest ski mountain at the Sugarloaf resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Al Noyes) NO SALES Skiers ride a chairlift with a view of Spillway East chair lift, background, where six people were injured when five chairs fell to the ground on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010 at Sugarloaf mountain at Carrabasett Valley, Maine. The skiers are on a different chair lift than Spillway East. (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach) This photo provided by Al Noyes shows skiers and lift chairs on the slope, lower right, after a lift derailed on the state's tallest ski mountain at the Sugarloaf resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Al Noyes) NO SALES Five adults and three children were taken to hospitals after the double-chair lift at Sugarloaf derailed during a busy vacation week at the resort 120 miles north of Portland. Dozens of skiers remained on the crippled lift for more than an hour until the ski patrol could get them down. It's unclear whether the accident was wind-related or mechanical, officials said. The ski resort was being buffeted by winds gusting up to 40 mph a day after the blizzard blew through. A witness said he saw someone working on the lift before the derailment. The resort said the lift, which recently passed an inspection, was due to be replaced — possibly as early as this coming summer — partly because of vulnerability to wind. Five chairs fell 25 to 30 feet onto a ski trail below, Sugarloaf spokesman Ethan Austin said. Rebecca London, one of the skiers who tumbled to the snow, told The Associated Press that her face hit a retaining bar but her goggles spared her from serious injury. She credited new snow underneath the lift with a soft landing; the resort said it got 20 to 22 inches in Monday's storm. "Thankfully, they didn't groom it last night, so they left it like it was," London said. "So the snow was all soft." Most of the skiers who fell appeared to be stunned but OK, she said, and the ski patrol was on the scene within minutes to treat the injured. London, 20, of Carrabassett Valley, said she wasn't hurt badly enough to go to a hospital. Jay Marshall, who was on a lift that was parallel to the one that broke, said his lift was moving but the other was not. There was a "loud snapping noise" after the lift restarted, he said, then some screams. "The next thing I know, it was bouncing up and down like a yo-yo," said Marshall, of Carrabassett Valley. He said it was too difficult to watch, so he looked away. "It was terrifying," he said. Marshall said there was a worker atop the tower where the lift's cable derailed but noted that could have been a coincidence. It's not uncommon to see workers on the lift towers, he said. All told, there were about 150 skiers on the lift at the time, according to Sugarloaf, operated by Boyne Falls, Mich.-based Boyne Resorts. Sugarloaf workers used a pulley-like system to lower skiers to safety. Eight people were taken 35 miles to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, said Gerald Cayer, the hospital's executive vice president. Two of them were transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland, Cayer said. The failed lift and two others started the day on a "wind hold" because of the blustery weather, but Sugarloaf officials later deemed it safe to operate before the accident at 10:30 a.m., Austin said. Guidelines for "wind holds" include wind speed and other factors, but sometimes it's as simple as noting whether chairs are swinging in the wind, he said. The failed East Spillway lift is 4,013 feet long, gains 1,454 feet of elevation and nearly reaches the summit of 4,327-foot Sugarloaf, the state's second-tallest mountain. It went into service in 1975 and was modified in 1983, according to Sugarloaf officials. Betsy Twombly of Falmouth said the resort notified season pass holders like herself that the lift would be the first to be replaced under a 10-year improvement plan. Austin told reporters it was on a list of those to be upgraded but declined to say when that was due to happen. A website dedicated to Sugarloaf's master plan said the first priority for lifts was to replace the twin east and west spillway lifts with a larger quad lift, partly because of vulnerability to the wind. The Bangor Daily News previously quoted John Diller, Sugarloaf's general manager, as saying he hoped this would be the last winter for the lift. "A fixed-grip quad will provide faster and more reliable transportation for skiers and, due to its additional weight, will be significantly less prone to wind holds than the current lift," the website said. Twombly witnessed the aftermath of the accident and praised the quick work of Sugarloaf workers, who she said worked calmly and efficiently to get people down from the lift and off the mountain. "I expected to see hysteria, but there was none," she said. Sugarloaf assured visitors that its lifts are inspected each day. "We haven't had a derailment of this magnitude in the 60 years Sugarloaf has been in operation," said Richard Wilkinson, vice president for mountain operations. The lift was properly licensed and inspected for 2010, said Doug Dunbar of Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. Ski resort chair lifts fall under the jurisdiction of the department's Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety, and two inspectors were dispatched to Sugarloaf, Dunbar said. ___ Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland; Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H.; Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vt.; and Bob Salsberg and Jay Lindsay in Boston. ___ December 28, 2010 10:16 PM EST Copyright 2010, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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