Calif. governor blocks killer’s parole

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California’s governor blocked the parole of Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel on Friday, more than five decades after she scrawled “Helter Skelter”on a wall using the blood of one of their victims.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Krenwinkel, now 74, is still too much of a public safety risk to be freed.

“Ms. Krenwinkel fully accepted Mr. Manson’s racist, apocalyptical ideologies,” Newsom said. “Ms. Krenwinkel was not only a victim of Mr. Manson’s abuse. She was also a significant contributor to the violence and tragedy that became the Manson Family’s legacy.”

A two-member parole panel for the first time in May recommended that Krenwinkel be released, after she previously had been denied parole 14 times. Newsom has previously rejected parole recommendations for other followers of Manson, who died in prison in 2017.

Krenwinkel became the state’s longest-serving female inmate when fellow Manson follower Susan Atkins died of cancer in prison in 2009. Her attorney, Keith Wattley, said he understands Krenwinkel is the longest-serving woman in the United States.

She and other followers of the cult leader terrorized the state in the late 1960s, committing crimes that Newsom said “were among the most fear-inducing in California’s history.”

She was convicted in the slayings of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four other people in1969. She helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the next night in what prosecutors say was an attempt by Manson to start a race war.

Newsom agreed that she has been well-behaved in prison, has completed many rehabilitation and education programs and has “demonstrated effusive remorse.”But he concluded that “her efforts have not sufficiently reduced her risk for future dangerousness.”

She still doesn’t have sufficient in-

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Four astronautsreturnedtoEarthinaSpaceXcapsule Friday, ending their nearly sixmonth International Space Station mission. The capsule parachuted into the ocean,justoffJacksonville,Florida,carrying NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, the first Black woman to complete a long-term spaceflight, and the European Space Agency’s Samantha Cristoforetti. Remaining aboard the space station are three Americans, three Russians and one Japanese.

SAN DIEGO – Two years ago, California banned flavored tobacco products such as menthol cigarettes and cotton candy vaping juice. But the law never took effect. Californians now will decide on the Nov.8 statewide ballot whether to toss out the law or keep it. The ban, which passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, would also prohibit the sale of pods for vape pens, tank-based systems and chewing tobacco, with exceptions made for hookahs, some cigars and loose-leaf tobacco.

sight into what caused her to commit the crimes or her “triggers for antisocial thinking and conduct” during bad relationships, Newsom said.

“Beyond the brutal murders she committed, she played a leadership role in the cult, and an enforcer of Mr. Manson’s tyranny. She forced the other women in the cult to obey Mr. Manson, and prevented them from escaping when they tried to leave,” he said.

Wattley did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment on Newsom’s decision.

But Anthony DiMaria, nephew of Jay Sebring, one of Krenwinkel’s victims, had urged Newsom to block her release “due to the rare, severe, egregious nature of her crimes.”He said her actions incited “the entire Helter Skelter legacy that has caused permanent historical scars” and inspired at least two ritualized killings years later.

New laws since Krenwinkel was last denied parole in 2017 required the parole panel to consider that she committed the murders at a young age and is now elderly.

Also, for the first time, Los Angeles County prosecutors weren’t at the parole hearing to object, under District Attorney George Gascón’s policy that prosecutors should not be involved in deciding whether prisoners are ready for release.

BERLIN – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called for reforms of the European Union to make it fit for the admission of new countries as well as more military autonomy of the 27-country bloc. Speaking at the Congress of the Party of European Socialists in Berlin, Scholz advocated for gradually abolishing the principle of unanimity for decisions in foreign policy, but also in other areas such as tax policy. “If a geopolitical Europe is our aspiration, then majority decisions are a gain and not a loss of sovereignty,” the he said.

The first one was slightly offshore and south of the town of Pahala, followed by the larger quake just south of Pahala beneath a highway, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said in a statement.

Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth said there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries. He said later there was some minor damage in Pahala

“Shaking from the larger earthquakes may have been strong enough to do minor local damage, especially to older buildings,” the observatory’s statement said. “The two earthquakes occurred within 24 seconds of each other creating shaking of longer duration and possibly greater intensity than either of the earthquakes would have created on their own.”

The aftershocks could continue for several days to possibly weeks, the observatory said.

Mauna Loa is not erupting and there are no signs of an imminent eruption at this time.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN ANTONIO – A Texas sheriff has certified 49 migrants flown from San Antonio to Massachusetts last month to be crime victims, a move that allows them to apply for special visas to remain in the United States.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar’s certifications allow the mostly Venezuelan migrants to apply for special U-visas pending his department’s investigation of the Sept. 14 flight to Martha’s Vineyard, according to an ACLU Massachusetts statement. Uvisas would allow the migrants to remain in the U.S. lawfully as the criminal investigation by Salazar’s department and the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office proceeds.

In another statement, Salazar said “based upon the claims of migrants being transported from Bexar County under false pretenses, we are investigating this case as possible unlawful restraint,” a misdemeanor.

The flight has been criticized as a political stunt carried out by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis A message seeking comment from DeSantis was not immediately returned. The Treasury Department is investigating whether he improperly used federal pandemic aid.

SANTIAGO, Chile – Shane Cienfuegos became the first person in Chile’s history to receive a nonbinary national identity document Friday. Cienfuegos, 29, obtained the document after a nineyear bureaucratic and legal battle. “This isn’t my victory; it’s a collective victory,” Cinefuegos told reporters in showing off the identity card, which has an “X” for the Sex entry rather than male or female. Several countries recognize nonbinary people in identity documents, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand and the U.S.