The Daily Spectrum from Saint George, Utah • B6

6B dvtonline.comDesert Valley Times STATE REGION SU-0000215391 programs ForMoreInfo CallYourLocalCulliganManToday! ThayneWilliams435-531-3117 SU-0000215578 YourlocalVeteransareworkingonaprojecttoimprove ourVeteransMemorialPark.Wehavepurchasedalarge BronzeEagleandweasellingmemorialbrickstooffset thecost.Thebrickswillbeplacedatthebaseofthe Eagle.Wearesellingthemfor$50withengravingof organizationsandbusinessareencouragedtohonor alllocalVeterans.Over150arecurrentlyinplacefor viewing.BricksareavailableattheMesquiteRec.Ctr. ortheMesquiteVeteransCenter orbycalling702-346-1286. LOS ANGELES Family members said Monday they were disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear acase involving their former foster daughter, a girl with Native American ancestry who was ordered removed from their California home and reunited with relatives in Utah. Rusty and Summer Page said in a statement that the high decision was a Lexi, who is part Choctaw, was 6 years old when she was taken from her foster home near Los Angeles in a tearful parting last March.

She was placed with extended family in Utah under a decades-old federal law designed to keep Native American families together. ACalifornia appeals court affirmed in July a lower decision to remove the girl. The Pages said Monday they will keep fighting for changes to the law the rights of other children unnecessarily hurt by the Indian Child Welfare Lexi was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her mother, who had drug-abuse problems, and placed in foster care. Her father has a criminal history, according to court records. Although foster care is supposed to be temporary, the Pages wanted to adopt Lexi and for years fought efforts under the federal act to place the girl with relatives of her father, who is part Choctaw.

Lexi is now living with relatives of her father who are not Native Americans. The case was one of dozens brought by foster families since the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the late 1970s. Lawmakers found that Native American families were broken up at disproportionately high rates, and that cultural ignorance and biases within the child welfare system were largely to blame. SCOTUS hear custody case DAVID ANGELES DAILY NEWS VIA AP Rusty Page carries Lexi while Summer Page, in the background, cries as members of family services, left, arrive to take Lexi away from her foster family March 21, 2016, in Santa Clarita, Calif. ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS A Nevada woman who was convicted and imprisoned at age 19 in the 2001 killing and sexual mutilation of a homeless man in Las Vegas has new lawyers and a national criminal defense advocacy group backing her bid to prove she was 165 miles away when the murder took place.

Kirstin Blaise Lobato, now 34, got a chance for a new hearing after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in December that there was alibi that she was in her hometown, Panaca, on the day Duran Bailey died. Lobato family members and several other people testified they saw Lobato in Panaca at various times on July 8, the day a medical examiner testified that Bailey died between about 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. His body was found the next day. The drive between Panaca and Las Vegas can take almost 3 hours.

Lobato was seen riding a four- wheel vehicle near her house about mid-day July 8, and friends testified they were with her at her home that evening. The state high court also faulted a decision by trial lawyers not to hire an expert witness to pinpoint time of death. It said an evidence hearing might bolster alibi defense; let her defense demonstrate that someone else might have killed Bailey; allow the court to hear new alibi witnesses; and undermine the theory of the case. conclude that further consideration of these claims is the justices said. Attorney David Chesnoff said this week he agreed to represent Lobato for free with Barry Scheck, co-founder of the New York-based Innocence Project.

Scheck is well-known nationally and was a member of the criminal defense that won acquittal of former NFL star O.J. Simpson at his 1995 murder trial in Los Angeles. think the resources the Innocence Project and our office can bring can be very helpful to the pursuit of the Chesnoff said. hope is to present expert forensic testimony that will validate her Clark County District Court Judge Stefany Miley on Wednesday scheduled a Feb. 22 date to set an evidence hearing.

Establishing a time of death is crucial for defense that she have killed Bailey, 44, cut off his genitals with a pocket knife, stabbed him and left his body in a trash bin in Las Vegas. No physical evidence or witnesses connected Lobato to the murder, but Las Vegas police and Clark County prosecutors said Lobato confessed that she killed Bailey during a three-day methamphetamine binge. Jurors were told that Bailey tried to rape Lobato after she refused his attempts to trade sex for drugs. Lobato maintained that although she told people that she used a knife to defend herself during a sexual assault in Las Vegas, she was referring to an incident that happened outside a motel months before and across town from where Bailey was killed. Her lawyers contended she never met Bailey.

Ajury convicted Lobato in 2002 of the killing. But the state Supreme Court in 2004 threw out the verdict after Lobato argued that her attorneys been able to cross-examine a prosecution witness who said she confessed to the slaying while in jail awaiting trial. Lobato was tried and convicted again in 2006 and was sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison. She becomes eligible for parole in August 2018. Woman seeking freedom in killing to get new hearing KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS ing a great achievement.

entities in both the U.S. and Mexico have worked tirelessly toward recovery and this announcement stands as testimony that dedicated efforts and sound management practices can lead to recovery of endangered he said in a statement. The flying mammal ranges from Mexico to southern Arizona and New Mexico. It depends on the nectar of agaves, cactuses and other flowering plants in the desert region. In Mexico, tequila producers who rely on agaves are integrating more harvest and cultivation practices in recognition that the bats are key pollinators.

Some are even marketing In southern Arizona, residents have for a decade monitored nighttime bat use of hummingbird feeders. This provided biologists with a clearer understanding of migration timing and allowed for the opportunity to capture bats and affix radio transmitters that aided in find- ing roost sites. Federal land managers in New Mexico and Arizona, including at the U.S. Fort Huachuca, are including forage plants such as agaves, saguaros and other cactuses in their resource management plans to help the species. Limiting human access to caves and abandoned mines in the U.S.

with roost sites has also benefited bat populations, officials said. Recovery efforts also have included education aimed at changing attitudes about bats and improving identification of different species. Historically, the lesser long-nosed bat was a victim of early campaigns to control vampire bats amid concerns about rabies and their effects on livestock. According to a recent assessment, the Fish and Wildlife Service says the threats to the lesser long-nosed bat have been eliminated or reduced to the point that the bat has recovered and no longer meets the definition of an endangered or threatened species. Biologists also considered the potential effects climate change might have on the that the bats follow as they migrate.

They say the bat is flexible and adaptive enough to remain viable under changing conditions. The Fish and Wildlife Service is taking comments on the proposal through March7. A final decision will follow. Bat Continued from Page 5B RICHARD FISH AND WILDLIFE VIA AP Lesser long-nosed bats guzzle nectar from a hummingbird feeder during a citizen science bat migration monitoring project in southern Arizona in 2013. Puzzle Page Answers for January 6 th Beginner December and31 farewell Shelters Prejudice Resound flavoredice prone Curling device companion Scrape goods 11.Moist,asa lawn 17.Foretelling sign 19.Income follower 22.Soggy 23.Oncearound thetrack 24.Brewery specialty 25.Tedious 26.Kindergartner 28.Sister 29.Undercover man 31.Position 32.Candied 34.Meaning 35.Mister 37.Parkingtimer 38.Garbage 39.Uptothejob 40.Doin,asa dragon 41.Hunter’s quarry 42.Collect 43.Cakecooker 44.Without 46.Easeoff PennyPress ANSWERTOPUZZLENO.794 9.Mane 10.Aswell 11.Singer Campbell 17.Gamebird 19.Headsetpart 22.Piles 23.Irritate 24.Patchofgrass 25.Diver’s necessity 26.Gobyplane 28.Fellows 33.Chunkof eternity 38.Kindoftype 39.Old-fashioned 40.Roadway hazards 41.Bullorbuck 42.Parched 43.Haze 45.Disrespectful 46.Fishstory 47.Takestocourt CROSSWORDPUZZLEANSWERS USEAMERICANSPELLING.