Threat of jail helps boost vaccinations
Upper Marlboro, Md.
The threat of jail time injected a little motivation into scores of parents who lined up around the Upper Marlboro courthouse Saturday to get their children vaccinated on the spot or prove they already had the shots.
It was one of the strongest efforts yet by a U.S. school system to ensure that youngsters are immunized, upsetting some parents who grumbled that Prince George’s County officials went too far.
Two months into the school year, officials in the suburban Washington county realized that more than 2,000 students didn’t have the vaccinations required to attend class. So Circuit Court Judge C. Philip Nichols ordered parents in a letter to appear at the courthouse Saturday or risk up to 10 days in jail.
Washington
Prosecutors bolster lawmaker case
Federal prosecutors on Friday accused Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., of soliciting bribes in two alleged schemes that had not been disclosed previously.
The allegations, detailed in a seven-page document filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., will not result in new charges, prosecutors said, but they plan to present them during Jefferson’s federal bribery trial as evidence of a pattern of intentional wrongdoing.
In June, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson, 60, on charges he used his official position to solicit hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes for himself and his family, falsely reported trips to Africa as official business and sought to bribe the former Nigerian vice president. He has denied wrongdoing.
San Diego
Man’s firebug past lands him in prison
A volunteer firefighter who helped battle one of last month’s wildfires was sent to prison after it surfaced that he pleaded guilty years ago to setting several wildfires.
Steven Santos Robles Jr. violated parole by failing to tell his parole officer he had joined the Ranchita Volunteer Fire Department, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Saturday. He was sent back to prison Oct. 29.
Robles, 30, is not suspected of setting any of last month’s fires in Southern California, state fire officials said.
Seattle Times news services