Endangerment

The Obama administration has finalized a declaration that greenhouse gases endanger public health, a senior administration official said today, opening the door to broad new regulations that could affect the largest segments of the American economy. Under the so-called "endangerment finding," the Environmental Protection Agency asserts the power to regulate carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists blame for global warming. That authority comes from the Clean Air Act and has been recognized in a Supreme Court decision.

Reporting from San Francisco -- Five days after he was sworn in as San Francisco County sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi was charged Friday afternoon with misdemeanor domestic violence, child endangerment and dissuading a witness, the result of a New Year's Eve fight with his wife, a former Venezuelan telenovela star. In announcing the charges against Mirkarimi, 50 — a former county supervisor who is now one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in San Francisco — Dist.

Reporting from San Francisco -- Five days after he was sworn in as San Francisco County sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi was charged Friday afternoon with misdemeanor domestic violence, child endangerment and dissuading a witness, the result of a New Year's Eve fight with his wife, a former Venezuelan telenovela star. In announcing the charges against Mirkarimi, 50 — a former county supervisor who is now one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in San Francisco — Dist.

The stepmother of a 10-year-old Riverside boy accused of fatally shooting his father, a local neo-Nazi activist, was charged Tuesday with child endangerment and failure to properly store a firearm. Krista F. McCary and her husband, Jeffrey R. Hall, 32, whom the boy allegedly shot, recklessly stored the loaded handgun on a shelf in the house where their five children had easy access to the weapon, said Assistant Dist. Atty. Ambrosio E. Rodriguez. "There are going to be consequences for anyone who leaves a .357 magnum within easy reach of their small children, especially when that gun kills someone," said Rodriguez, the prosecutor in the case.

OHIO * A woman who was jailed for allegedly letting her three children get severely sunburned was released after the felony charges against her were dropped. In Steubenville, prosecutor Brian Felmet said the children were not as severely injured as officials had believed, prompting him to dismiss the three felony child-endangerment charges against Eve Hibbits, 31.

The mastermind behind a multimillion-dollar scheme to loot hundreds of corpses, including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, and sell bone and tissue for transplants was sentenced to 18 to 54 years in prison. Michael Mastromarino, 44, who owned New Jersey-based Biomedical Tissue Services, pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment.

Re the uproar over "America's Funniest Home Videos" and Howard Rosenberg's recent articles: I have been a screener of videos for the ABC show and feel that the impression given by the articles totally misrepresents the facts. As a screener, it was made very clear to me that tapes such as the ones described by "Smitty" in Rosenberg's April 9 column would never be acceptable. The producers have no control over what is mailed to them. I can appreciate "Smitty's" concern for child endangerment and animal cruelty.

A South Bay Municipal Court judge on Wednesday dismissed criminal child endangerment charges against a husband, wife and teen-age daughter who allegedly operated a Lomita day-care home where a 16-month-old girl strangled to death last year. Judge Thomas P. Allen Jr. ruled there was insufficient evidence to try Robert and Linda Zieger and their daughter, Laura, in connection with the death of Michele Heasley. Allen did order, however, that Linda Zieger, 47, and Laura Zieger, 19, stand trial June 19 on a lesser charge that they did not have a state license to operate a day-care business at their home.

A Southern California man faces five felony charges in connection with a high-speed chase during which a Mohave County sheriff's deputy was killed. Theodore Jones, 30, of Riverside appeared before a Bullhead City, Ariz., justice of the peace on charges of second-degree murder, felony flight, aggravated assault and two counts of felony endangerment. Bail was set at $150,000.

A lance corporal has been charged with setting a fire last year that burned hundreds of acres and threatened homes in Fallbrook and Oceanside, military officials said Wednesday. Lance Cpl. Nason G. Lamb was charged with making a false official statement, damage of military property and three specifications of reckless endangerment in connection with the so-called Juliett 2 fire that struck the base Oct. 13. Details of the allegations were not released, but officials said the fire was started during a land-navigation exercise in the Juliett Training Area.

The Obama administration on Monday declared that greenhouse gases produced by vehicles, power plants and factories were a danger to public health, clearing the way for broad federal limits on climate-warming emissions. The announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency is a key step in a legal process that would allow the agency to act, without Congress, to develop tough rules to control emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists blame for global warming. "The vast body of evidence not only remains unassailable, it's grown stronger, and it points to one conclusion," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in announcing the decision.

The Obama administration has finalized a declaration that greenhouse gases endanger public health, a senior administration official said today, opening the door to broad new regulations that could affect the largest segments of the American economy. Under the so-called "endangerment finding," the Environmental Protection Agency asserts the power to regulate carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists blame for global warming. That authority comes from the Clean Air Act and has been recognized in a Supreme Court decision.

A lance corporal has been charged with setting a fire last year that burned hundreds of acres and threatened homes in Fallbrook and Oceanside, military officials said Wednesday. Lance Cpl. Nason G. Lamb was charged with making a false official statement, damage of military property and three specifications of reckless endangerment in connection with the so-called Juliett 2 fire that struck the base Oct. 13. Details of the allegations were not released, but officials said the fire was started during a land-navigation exercise in the Juliett Training Area.

A Laguna Niguel woman who allegedly left her newborn in a trash bin was in court Tuesday facing charges of trying to kill the baby girl. Shawn Kelli Sepulveda, 38, appeared at the Harbor Justice Center, where the judge signed an order barring her from seeing her three children. Her arraignment was delayed to Sept. 8. She faces charges of attempted murder, child abuse and endangerment. Sepulveda's neighbors at an upscale Hidden Hills apartment complex in Laguna Niguel have said the newborn's 11-year-old sister found the baby Saturday morning in a trash bin just steps from her family's front door.

The mastermind behind a multimillion-dollar scheme to loot hundreds of corpses, including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, and sell bone and tissue for transplants was sentenced to 18 to 54 years in prison. Michael Mastromarino, 44, who owned New Jersey-based Biomedical Tissue Services, pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment.

A woman having sex Monday didn't notice that her shower curtain had caught fire, having disabled her apartment's smoke alarm to smoke methamphetamine, which she stored in an adjacent room where a baby was sleeping, authorities said. Susan Ruth Charnitski, 43, was arrested on suspicion of drug possession and child endangerment, said Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. Nancy Gafner. A candle in the bathroom ignited the plastic curtain, Gafner said, triggering a sprinkler in the building in the 1000 block of Calle Del Cerro.

Harold and Candance Thorp have joined the line-up of families trying to get the government, the tobacco companies, the auto manufacturers, and so on into the night, to pay for their own bad judgment. Like the people who tried to stop smoking, but couldn't, Candy Thorp went to alcohol treatment programs, but couldn't, or wouldn't, stop drinking. Is it possible that two adults in this society thought that drinking a quart of bourbon a night was an OK prenatal diet? The Thorps should be charged with filing a frivolous lawsuit.

An Anaheim mother remained in custody Friday on suspicion of felony child endangerment after her 13-month-old son drowned in their unfenced backyard pool. Police said they also are reexamining a case in 2005 when another of the woman's young sons died. Anaheim Police Sgt. Tim Schmidt said the boy's 12-year-old sister placed the 911 call about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, saying that her brother was in the family's backyard pool. When police arrived at the residence on Melanie Drive, the children's mother, Paige Looney, had pulled her son out of the water and was giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Schmidt said.