QUOTE OF THE DAY “I checked myself out because I had no idea what this was going to cost.They didn’t want me to go, but they didn’t stop me.” Glenn Nishimura, a 64-year-old nonprofit consultant in Little Rock, on delaying gallbladder surgery because he lacked insurance Article, this page Police: Killing in Wal-Mart self-defense
PHOENIX - A man who shot and killed another man inside a suburban Phoenix Wal-Mart opened fire in self-defense, Chandler police said Monday.
According to Chandler police, Kyle Wayne Quadlin, 25, shot Kriston Charles Belinte Chee, 36, after a fight at a service counter Sunday afternoon.
Detectives reviewing surveillance video report the two men fought in the store before the shooting Sunday afternoon.
Quadlin told police he pulled his gun in self-defense.
“Mr. Quadlin was losing the fight and indicated he ‘was in fear for his life,’ so he pulled his gun and shot Mr. Belinte Chee,” police said in a statement.
Belinte Chee was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. Investigators said the two did not know each other before the shooting.
Authorities said Quadlin remained at the store for a little while after the shooting and then fled. Police found him after a family member called authorities to report his whereabouts.
Quadlin was not booked in the case, and Chandler police said they will submit their investigation for review to the Maricopa County attorney’s office.
N.C. governor was briefed on spill suit
RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina’s top environmental official said Monday that he had briefed Gov. Pat McCrory about filing a lawsuit against Duke Energy that resulted in a proposed settlement fining the $50 billion corporation $99,000 to resolve violations for pollution leaching from two huge coal ash dumps.
State Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary John Skvarla told lawmakers at an oversight hearing Monday that the Republican governor’s only directions were to protect the environment and do the right thing.
The state agency put its deal with Duke on hold regarding a Feb. 2 spill into the Dan River.
McCrory worked for Duke for 28 years before running for governor in 2008. Environmentalists criticized the proposed settlement with modest fines as a sweetheart deal to the nation’s largest electricity provider.
Costume creator found dead in NYC river
NEW YORK - A designer who did costumes for such Broadway shows as Swing, Evita and Promises, Promises died after he apparently fell into the Hudson River while trying to board his boat in Manhattan, police said.
The New York City medical examiner’s office said Monday that more tests are needed to pinpoint the cause of 55-year-old Michele Savoia’s death.
Police divers recovered his body in the icy waters off Chelsea Piers on Sunday afternoon. He was last seen leaving the Marquee nightclub around 4 a.m. Thursday, police said.
The New York Times reported that Savoia - though not widely known in the fashion world - enjoyed a following among fellow aficionados of the stylish 1930s and ’40s.
The Daily News reported that Savoia’s client list included Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke and Chris Noth. He designed costumes for the Evita revival starring Ricky Martin.
Bid-to-con-Iraqis penalty called extreme
INDIANAPOLIS - A lawyer for a former Indiana truck driver convicted of trying to sell U.S. secrets to Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government said Monday that the 13-year sentence the man received is too harsh and he shouldn’t be serving it in a federal supermax prison.
Federal prosecutors said Shaaban Shaaban traveled to Baghdad in late 2002 to sell Saddam’s government the names of CIA operatives in Iraq for $3 million and to coordinate human shields once the U.S. invaded but couldn’t seal the deal.
When federal agents searched Shaaban’s house in Greenfield, 20 miles east of Indianapolis, they found no evidence he possessed such information, court documents said.
“He really had nothing to sell,” Shaaban’s attorney, Bernard Kleinman of White Plains, N.Y., said. “He was convicted of trying to fool the Iraqi government.”
Shaaban, who was born in Jordan, was indicted in 2005 on charges he had acted as a foreign agent. The next year, he was convicted, sentenced to prison and stripped of his citizenship.
In court documents filed Thursday, Kleinman argues Shaaban’s sentence was “grossly disproportionate” to the crime and amounted to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.
But the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement Monday that it stood by the sentence.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/18/2014