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Foul play suspected in deaths of missing California couple found at bottom of well in MexicoThe bodies of a retired California couple who vanished in northern Mexico last month have been found at the bottom of a well there, authorities say.
Ian Hirschsohn, 78, and Kathy Harvey, 73, both of San Diego, had been staying at his second home near El Socorrito in the western Mexican state of Baja California when they were last heard from Aug. 28, reported CBS-TV affiliate KFMB.
Harvey’s son, Robert Harvey, said that day, his mom texted him to say the pair was planning to visit a gold mine or the beach.
Hirschsohn, a former aerospace engineer and Princeton University grad, and Harvey, who had worked as a physical therapist, were supposed to return to California three days later.
They never made it home — and their dark blue Toyota Land Cruiser was found abandoned in a remote area of Ensenada, about 3 hours north of El Socorrito, earlier this week, the son said.
Human remains were soon discovered in a nearby well Thursday — and authorities have now positively confirmed that they are the couple’s.
The pair’s deaths are considered foul play, the TV station said.
Robert Harvey said his mom and Hirschsohn loved Mexico and were part of a vibrant ex-pat community there.
“She was really enjoying retirement,’’ he told CBS. “She loved walking and traveling. She had a huge bucket list of where she wanted to go.’’
Hirschsohn’s daughter, Ava Setzer, had posted a desperate message on Facebook last week, before the couple’s bodies were found, urging anyone who may have seen the pair to reach out to her.
“Any information on their whereabouts, please contact me immediately,” she wrote. “My dad Ian has a house in El Socorrito and is a seasoned veteran of Baja travel since purchasing the house in ‘85.
“He was staying at the house and the community is the first to report him missing. … he typically windsurfs at the spots shown in the map below at the bay south of San Quintin.”
Mexican authorities confirmed the identities of the dead couple Monday — two days after a man, a dual South African and Canadian citizen living in Mexico, was found dead on the Baja Peninsula. Hirschsohn was originally from South Africa.
The body of the second deaad man, Craig Harris, 65, was found on the beach in Cabo Pulmo, authorities said. He had been stabbed in the chest and had on a backpack filled with rocks before being tossed in the ocean and then washing ashore, they said.
Harris, who was last seen Aug. 29, ran a vacation rental business in Cabo, reports said.
Meanwhile, a Los Angeles firefighter is still missing after vanishing from his condo in the Baja California resort town of Rosarito late last month.
Francisco Aguilar, 48, who is currently on medical leave from the LA Fire Department and has been living part-time in Mexico,may have been the victim of a “violent kidnapping,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said last week, citing Mexican authorities.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/foul-play-suspected-in-deaths-of-missing-california-couple-found-at-bottom-of-well-in-mexico
US reaches milestone in destroying mustard agent in Colorado
PUEBLO, Colo. — The Army says it has reached a milestone at a Colorado chemical weapons depot by destroying nearly 300,000 decades-old artillery shells containing mustard agent.
Walton Levi, site project manager of the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot, made the announcement in a depot publication on Tuesday.
Depot workers destroyed the last of the 155mm World War II-era shells on Saturday. Each shell contained nearly 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms) of mustard agent, which can maim or kill, blistering skin, scarring eyes and inflaming airways.
The plant started operating in 2016 with more than 780,000 munitions in its original stockpile containing 2,500 U.S. tons (2,270 metric tons) of mustard agent. It is eradicating shells under an international treaty banning chemical weapons with a 2023 projected completion date.
Plant technicians will retrofit robots and other systems used to handle and destroy munitions before beginning work to eliminate 105mm projectiles with 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) each of mustard agent.
https://www.startribune.com/us-reaches-milestone-in-destroying-mustard-agent-in-colorado/572353112/
Colorado mail-in voting: What to know
As the United States prepares to hold a presidential election in the midst of a deadly pandemic, many states are relying on voting by mail to reduce in-person contact at the polls, including Colorado.
Colorado has, since 2013, been a universal vote-by-mail state, meaning that it sends ballots directly to all active voters whether they request one or not. As other states have moved to the system during the coronavirus pandemic including New Jersey and Nevada, both of which have been sued by the Trump campaign there have been concerns of fraud and difficulty verifying ballots, especially in states just now adopting universal vote by mail. But Colorado's system has been successful, especially during the pandemic, according to Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat.
"In midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Colorado just set a record turnout for a state primary. A total of 99.3% of voters cast a mail ballot, and there were not lengthy lines or wait times reported at in-person voting centers,” Griswold said in early July. “Despite misleading attacks, disinformation and attempts to make vote by mail a partisan issue, Colorado’s election proves that mail ballots are the key to accessible voting during this health crisis.”
Counties will begin sending voters their mail-in ballots on Oct. 9, according to Griswold's office. Voters can return their mail-in ballots via the post office, or they can use one of the state-provided drop boxes. Griswold announced that there will be 368 such drop boxes in Colorado – a 33% increase from the number that was available in 2018.
The drop boxes, according to Griswold, are emptied at least once per day "by a team of bipartisan election judges who maintain a detailed chain of custody log."
Colorado also provides in-person voting options until 7 p.m. on Election Day. Voters can turn in their unused mail-in ballots to a polling place and vote on an in-person ballot, but it is also possible to vote in person without turning in a mail ballot.
"Once you vote in person your county clerk will not accept for counting any ballot that was mailed to you," the Colorado secretary of state's website says.
Voters choosing to vote in person in Colorado must bring identification
However mail in ballots are color coded envelopes red, blue and orange = independent. Let that sink in.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/colorado-mail-in-voting-what-to-know
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3871405/posts
With 7 dead, California pot ranch is tied to organized crimeAGUANGA, Calif. (AP) — An illegal marijuana growing operation where seven people were fatally shot in a small, rural Southern California town had the markings of organized crime, authorities said Tuesday.
More than 20 people lived on the property, which had several makeshift dwellings, a nursery and vehicles used in production, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said. Marijuana was processed to honey oil, a highly potent concentrate made by extracting the high-inducing chemical THC from cannabis.
All seven victims and witnesses were Laotian, Bianco said. Six people were found dead on the property, and a woman who was shot there died later at a hospital.
“This was not a small operation," Bianco said.“This is a very organized-crime type of an operation.”
Illegal grows are common in and around Aguanga, a single stop-sign town of about 2,000 people north of San Diego with horse ranches along dirt roads. Still, the scale of the Labor Day massacre stunned residents and showed how violence permeates California's illegal marijuana market.
The state broadly legalized recreational marijuana sales in January 2018. But the illicit market is thriving — in part because hefty legal marijuana taxes send consumers looking for better deals in the illegal economy.
Before dawn Monday, Riverside County sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call of an assault with a deadly weapon and shots fired at the Aguanga home.
Investigators seized more than 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of marijuana and several hundred marijuana plants.
Despite there being no arrests or identified suspects, the sheriff's statement called the deaths “an isolated incident” that did not threaten people in Aguanga.
Partially eaten pizza sat in boxes in a circular dirt driveway of the dilapidated two-bedroom house where the shootings occurred. Three cars were parked outside — one with its front doors open.
Cases of bottled water were stacked on the front porch, which was strewn with clothing and plastic bags. A black tarp was stretched atop poles in the fenced backyard, indicating a small growing operation. Unlike many neighboring homes, it had neither a gate nor a “no trespassing” sign at the entrance.
Reached by phone, property owner Ronald McKay expressed surprise, saying he didn't know a shooting had taken place at either of the rentals, a mobile home and the house.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/7-fatally-shot-at-marijuana-operation-in-rural-15549865.php