Harvey yields new friendship
Las Vegas paramedic adopts stray dog
As people sought shelter from Hurricane Harvey on Aug. 29, the dark gray puppy with white patches greeted them, tail wagging.
The collie mix, with a makeshift leash made out of gauze, had followed humans walking nearly 3 miles from the Greater Third Ward to seek shelter at George R. Brown Emergency Center in Houston.
Lester Hernandez was immediately taken when he met the dog on his fourth day in Houston, where he was accompanied by the other 20 American Medical Response paramedics from Las Vegas assisting the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“I knew she needed a home,” he said.
All it took was a brief text exchange with his wife. She agreed.
The puppy was coming back to
Las Vegas — in the front seat of the ambulance. Hernandez named her Houston.
DOG
Quan, also from California, pleaded guilty in August 2015 to violating the Lacey Act and was sentenced to a year behind bars.
Prosecutors said the two men were in San Francisco and acted as brokers for the ailing owner of the rhino horns. Prosecutors showed jurors video and played recorded conversations in which Quan delivered the horns and collected a bag of cash from an undercover agent inside a hotel room at the South Point while Levine waited at a lobby bar.
The owner of the horns has since died.
The black rhinoceros, native to eastern and central Africa, is critically endangered.
Levine, who remains free on his own recognizance, faces up to five years in prison at a December sentencing.
Prosecutors are expected to ask for the maximum sentence. After Thursday’s conviction, Connors pointed to Levine’s 1989 indictment on federal drug trafficking charges.
At the time, authorities said Levine had obtained cocaine in 1978 from a Medellin-cartel conspirator and flew to California.
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.