O.J. Simpson Makes Bid for New Trial, in First Public Appearance in Four Years

Wearing a blue prison jumpsuit, O.J. Simpson arrived at a Las Vegas courthouse today looking heavier and grayer than the handsome sports hero who once dominated the football field and became an avid golfer in his retirement.

Simpson, 65, was in court today to request a new trial on the grounds that his former attorney mishandled the armed robbery-kidnapping case that landed him a nine-to-33 year prison sentence.
The former National Football League star smiled and joked with his legal team as an officer shackled his hands during the lunch recess. The 6-foot-2-inch former athlete, who was once at the top of his game as a Heisman winner, then limped out of the courtroom.
Simpson, known as Nevada inmate No. 1027820, was convicted in 2008 of leading a sports memorabilia heist at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. His attorneys contend he was trying to recover personal photographs he believed had been stolen.
A hidden audio recorder in the room captured the altercation and was a key piece of evidence used to convict the ex-NFL player.
Simpson's appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court was denied in 2010. As his current sentence stands, he won't be eligible for parole until 2017, when he will be 70 years old.

Simpson, who never testified at his 1995 trial in which he was acquitted of the murder of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, or in his 2008 memorabilia-heist trial in which he was found guilty, is expected to take the stand this time.
Much of Simpson's testimony is expected to point fingers at his former attorney, Yale Galanter, who Simpson said fumbled the handling of his case.
In a sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press, Simpson said he told Galanter he'd planned to confront two sports memorabilia dealers to retrieve personal items he believed had been stolen from him.
"I fully disclosed my plan to Yale Galanter, and he advised me that I was within my legal rights," Simpson wrote. He added that Galanter told him it was acceptable as long as he did not trespass or use physical force.
Simpson also claimed in the statement that Galanter failed to tell him of a plea deal that would have gotten him two years in prison.
"Had I understood that there was an actual chance of conviction, I would have accepted such an offer," Simpson wrote in the statement.
Galanter did not immediately return ABCNews.com's request for an interview.
Simpson became an infamous and polarizing character when he stood trial for the 1994 murders of his former wife and her friend. He was acquitted on Oct. 3, 1995, and walked out of court a free man.
Thirteen years later, on Oct. 3, 2008, he was convicted on armed robbery and kidnapping charges.

Police ID suspect in New Orleans mass shootingPolice late Monday identified a 19-year-old man as a suspect in the shooting of about 20 people during a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, saying several people had identified him as the gunman captured by surveillance camera videos.

Superintendent Ronal Serpas said officers were looking for Akein Scott of New Orleans. He said it was too early to say whether he was the only shooter.

"We would like to remind the community and Akein Scott that the time has come for him to turn himself in," Serpas said at a news conference outside of police headquarters.

A photo of Scott hung from a podium in front of the police chief. "We know more about you than you think we know," he said.
The mass shooting showed again how far the city has to go to shake a persistent culture of violence that belies the city's festive image. Earlier, police announced a $10,000 reward and released blurry surveillance camera images, which led to several tips from the community.
"The people today chose to be on the side of the young innocent children who were shot and not on the side of a coward who shot into the crowd," Serpas said.
The superintendent said SWAT team members and U.S. marshals served a searched warrant at one location looking for Scott, but didn't locate him.
He vowed that police would be "looking for Akein Scott for the rest of the night and tomorrow... and I would strongly recommend that Akeim turn himself in."
Angry residents said gun violence — which has flared at two other city celebrations this year — goes hand-in-hand with the city's other deeply rooted problems such as poverty and urban blight. The investigators tasked with solving Sunday's shooting work within an agency that's had its own troubles rebounding from years of corruption while trying to halt violent crime.
"The old people are scared to walk the streets. The children can't even play outside," Ronald Lewis, 61, said Monday as he sat on the front stoop of his house, about a half block from the shooting site. His window sill has a hole from a bullet that hit it last year. Across the street sits a house marked by bullets that he said were fired two weeks ago.
"The youngsters are doing all this," said Jones, who was away from home when the latest shooting broke out.
Video released early Monday shows a crowd gathered for a boisterous second-line parade suddenly scattering in all directions, with some falling to the ground. They appear to be running from a man in a white T-shirt and dark pants who turns and runs out of the picture.
Police were working to determine whether there was more than one gunman, though they initially said three people were spotted fleeing from the scene. Whoever was responsible escaped despite the presence of officers who were interspersed through the crowd as part of routine precautions for such an event.
Police said in a news release Scott has previously been arrested for illegal carrying of a weapon, illegal possession of a stolen firearm, resisting an officer, contraband to jail, illegal carrying of a weapon while in possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of heroin.
It was not immediately clear whether he had been convicted on any of those charges.
"Akeim is no stranger to the criminal justice system," Serpas said.
Serpas said that ballistic evidence gathered at the scene was giving them "very good leads to work on."

Witness Jarrat Pytell said he was walking with friends near the parade route when the crowd suddenly began to break up.

"I saw the guy on the corner, his arm extended, firing into the crowd," said Pytell, a medical student.
"He was obviously pointing in a specific direction; he wasn't swinging the gun wildly," Pytell said.
Pytell said he tended to one woman with a severe arm fracture — he wasn't sure if it was from a bullet or a fall — and to others including an apparent shooting victim who was bleeding badly.
Three gunshot victims remained in critical condition Monday, though their wounds didn't appear to be life-threatening. Most of the wounded had been released from the hospital.
It's not the first time gunfire has shattered a festive mood in the city this year. Five people were wounded in a drive-by shooting in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting after an argument in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. Two teens were arrested in connection with the MLK Day shootings; three men were arrested and charged in the Mardi Gras shootings.
The shootings are bloody reminders of the persistence of violence in the city, despite some recent progress.
Last week, law enforcement officials touted the indictment of 15 people in gang-related crimes, including the death of a 5-year-old girl killed by stray gunfire at a birthday party a year ago.
The city's 193 homicides in 2012 are seven fewer than the previous year, while the first three months of 2013 represented an even slower pace of killing.
On Monday night, 100 to 150 people gathered for a unity rally and peace vigil in the wake of Sunday's shootings. Some residents stood in their doorways or on their steps. At one point, trumpeter Kenneth Terry played, "O For a Closer Walk With Thee."
Robin Bevins, president of the ladies group of the Original Four Social Aid and Pleasure Club, said she and members of her organization came to the rally to show solidarity.
"This code of silence has to end," said Bevins, who's also a member of the city's Social Aid Task Force. "If we stand up and speak out, maybe this kind of thing will stop."
Amy Storper, who lives in a neighborhood near where the shooting happened, brought her 7-year-old son William to the rally.
"I felt the need to come out and show my support, to let people in this neighborhood know that people care," she said. "Perhaps if the whole city showed up, all 300,000, then maybe we can make a difference."

Mayor Mitch Landrieu walked into the area, greeting people, shaking hands and stopping to talk with some residents before addressing the crowd.

"We came back out here as a community to stand on what we call sacred ground," Landrieu said. "We came here to reclaim this spot. This shooting doesn't reflect who we are as a community or what we're about."
Leading efforts to lower the homicide rate is a police force that's faced its own internal problems and staffing issues. At about 1,200 members, the department is 300 short of its peak level.
Serpas, the chief since 2010, has been working to overcome the effects of decades of scandal and community mistrust arising from what the U.S. Justice Department says has been questionable use of force and biased policing. Landrieu and Serpas have instituted numerous reforms, but the city is at odds with the Justice Department over the cost and scope of more extensive changes.

Landrieu's administration initially agreed to a reform plan expected to cost tens of millions over the next several years. But Landrieu says he wants out now because Justice lawyers entered a separate agreement with Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman over the violent and unsanitary New Orleans jail — funded by the city but operated by Gusman.

The site of the Sunday shooting — about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter — showcases other problems facing the city. Stubborn poverty and blight are evident in the area of middle-class and low-income homes. Like other areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the area has been slower to repopulate than wealthier areas. And Landrieu's stepped up efforts to demolish or renovate blighted properties — a pre-Katrina problem made worse by the storm — remain too slow for some.
Frank Jones, 71, whose house is a few doors down from the shooting site, said the house across from him has been abandoned since Katrina. Squatters and drug dealers sometimes take shelter there, he said.
A city code inspector, who declined to be interviewed, was there Monday
"It's too late," Jones said. "Should have fixed it from the very beginning. A lot of people are getting fed up with the system."

2 hurt in explosions, fire at W.Va. gas plant 

Highly flammable gas acetylene explodes at W.Va. distributor; 2 workers injuredTwo workers were injured Monday when highly flammable gas used in welding exploded at a West Virginia industrial site, officials said.

Fire crews were sent at about 3:20 p.m. to Airgas, a distributor of specialty gases in Poca, outside of Charleston. Putnam County emergency management director Frank Chapman said the explosion involved about 50 tanks of acetylene that were at Airgas waiting to be refilled. What caused the tanks to explode wasn't known.

Chad Jones, a firefighter with the Bancroft Volunteer Fire Department, said four cylinders continued to burn Monday evening and that crews were letting them "burn out." They were dousing other tanks with water to keep them from exploding, said Jones, whose station was one of several to respond to the scene.

The tanks were being stored in a bay behind the facility. Jones said after the first tank exploded, "it was like a chain reaction," with fireballs shooting 100 to 150 feet in the air. A nearby business was evacuated, and windows were shattered in the back of the Airgas plant, Jones said.

Doug Barker, chief financial officer at nearby Clark Truck Parts, told The Associated Press over the phone that "we felt our building shake like it's never come close to shaking before from a storm or anything. It was enough to make us run."

Barker said he and another company official bolted from their offices, and he ran to the road and saw dark smoke in the air. Soon afterward, they heard several smaller explosions and saw fire, he said. Barker also saw three or four ambulances speed by and heard a lot of sirens.
Clark Truck Parts is about half-mile from Airgas, Barker said. He said there are some homes between the two industrial sites.
Dave Castro, manager of the TransWood trucking company about a quarter-mile from Airgas, said he also felt his building shake.
"It felt like a truck ran into the building," he said.
He said he drove toward Airgas to check on his wife, who works at another company nearby, and could see the back of the plant on fire. He said the burning area was about the size of a house, and every 15 seconds or so a black ball of smoke would rise from a tank or drum "and explode like a firework."
Acetylene is used in welding canisters. Airgas calls itself the largest U.S. supplier of industrial, medical and special gases. The company also lists on its website propane, often used in backyard grills; hydrogen, helium; and nitrous oxide, or the "laughing gas" used during some dental procedures.
Company spokesman Doug Sherman said the explosions occurred in a concrete-enclosed storage area located outside of the main plant. He said the injuries were not life-threatening, and the fire had been extinguished.
Jones said the company was sending a hazmat crew from Kentucky.
"It's a hazardous job they do every day," Jones said. "Something went wrong today."
A U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration crew was at the scene.
Chapman said the explosion involved residue of the gas left in the tanks. He said the blast would have been much worse if the tanks were filled. He said both workers suffered second and third-degree burns.
Chapman said the cause of the explosion was being investigated and that the blasts and fire were the first problem he knows to be reported at Airgas.
The injured workers were taken to Cabell Huntington Hospital for treatment. A hospital official did not know their conditions.
Airgas Inc. is based in Radnor, Pa., and has more than 15,000 employees at 1,110 locations including retail stores, gas fill plants and distribution centers, according to Hoover's database on companies. It is the largest distributor of packaged gases in the US, with a 25 percent market share and with sales of nearly $5 billion in fiscal 2012.

‘Mystery fish’ turns out to be 125-pound opah, a rare catch aboard Southern California half-day boat

Species prized for its tender flesh is more commonly caught off Hawaii

  

Western Pride crew members pose with 125-pound opah landed off Newport Beach. Bottom image shows Capt. Jeff Patrick (left), who made the catch. Photos courtesy of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing.

Anglers and crew aboard a Southern California half-day boat were astonished last week to see what the captain had reeled from the depths: a stunningly gorgeous moon-shaped denizen with a speckled body and bright-red fins.
It was an opah, a species more commonly found in tropical and sub-tropical waters much farther offshore. Opah catches are rare off California, and extremely rare in coastal waters. To have landed one of these pelagic beauties from a half-day boat, within view of the shore, might be unprecedented.
Capt. Jeff Patrick of the Western Pride hooked the 125-pound opah on a sardine at a depth of about 250 feet, while on a rockfish excursion out of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach.
The “mystery fish” was so feisty that he thought he had hooked a shark. The fight lasted 45 minutes and at one point the captain contemplated cutting the line because the rockfish had stopped biting and he wanted to relocate to a more productive area.
“I couldn’t get any line [back on] this fish,” Patrick told Phil Friedman Outdoors. “I tried to pass the rod off to a deckhand because I was getting tired, but he walked away and said do it yourself.”
When the fish finally came to within view, Patrick realized that he had something special on the line. The opah’s tender white flesh is considered a delicacy in Hawaiian seafood restaurants.

There is no commercial fishery for opah, largely because the fish do not travel in schools. But they’re occasionally caught by longline fishermen targeting tuna, billfish,  and sharks in tropical and temperate waters. Most U.S. catches are in Hawaiian waters.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program advises consumers to avoid opah caught internationally because of the indiscriminate and destructive nature of longline fishing.
But Seafood Watch lists U.S.-caught opah as a good alternative to imported opah because U.S. longliners “have made great strides in reducing interactions in recent years through changes in regulations and modifications to longline fishing gear.”
Said Patrick: “I’ve been doing this for 30 years and it’s the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. It’s the fish of a lifetime, a real blessing.”

Woman eaten by vultures after fall off cliff

The population of Griffon vultures, normally scavengers, have begun to go after live animals because of new regulations requiring farmers to burn dead animals.

 

The body of a woman who died after falling off a cliff in France was devoured by vultures in just 45 minutes, before rescue workers were able to reach the body.
The 52-year-old woman was hiking with two friends in the French Pyrenees on April 14 when she fell off a cliff and plunged more than 980 feet to her death, according to France's TF1. The woman's body was eaten by vultures in minutes.
“There were only bones, clothes and shoes left on the ground,” Major Didier Pericou told The Times of London. "They took 45 to 50 minutes to eat the body." Adding, "When we first went out in the helicopter looking for the body, we saw numerous vultures without realizing what they were doing."
The Times notes this incident may ignite the cries of area farmers who want permission to shoot the griffon vultures, a protected species. Farmers claim the ban has led to a swell in the vulture population and their livestock is being threatened. The birds have been deprived of animal carcasses due to a European law that requires farmers to burn the bodies of dead animals.
Approximately 42 claims have been been made to local authorities for compensation for animals lost to vultures, according to Metro. Farmer Alain Larraide claimed he has seen vultures carry off live animals.
“You can’t imagine what it is like to see an animal eaten alive,” he said.
A 2011 report published in the science journal Nature revealed that the griffon vulture had turned from scavenger to predator in regions of southern France and Spain. Between 2006 and 2010 there were 1,165 reports of the bird of prey killing domestic livestock.