NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Inmate death: Five sheriff ’s deputies are on paid leave and two investigations are under way after the killing of an inmate at Orange County’s Central Jail Complex, authorities said. Danny Pham, 27, died this month at the jail in Orange. He was serving 180 days for car theft and was sharing a cell with an accused double murderer. The district attorney’s office is conducting a homicide investigation. Meanwhile the Sheriff ’s Department is looking separately into whether deputies followed procedures. Authorities have not released Pham’s cause of death or said if his cellmate is a suspect.
2 Pump prices: The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose about a penny nationally over the past two weeks, to $2.32, according to industry analyst Trilby Lundberg. The slight increase comes after 11 weeks of decline. Gas in Reno was the most expensive among the cities surveyed at an average of $2.99 a gallon. The cheapest was in Jackson, Miss., at $1.97.
3 Rampage suspect: A man accused of killing five people in a shooting rampage in northern New Mexico last month has attempted to escape twice from the Rio Arriba County jail and also assaulted a guard, authorities said. Sheriff James Lujan said authorities are hoping to get Damian Herrera, 21, transferred to a state prison. Lujan called Herrera a danger and a menace to the county jail in Tierra Amarilla. Herrera remains held without bond as he faces five counts of murder.
4 Trash rescue: A man in Washington, D.C., looking for a dropped cell phone ended up tumbling into a building’s trash chute, where he had to be rescued. Fire spokesman Vito Maggiolo said the man was throwing out trash at an apartment building when he thought he dropped the cell phone in the chute. He leaned in to check and fell. The man was able to call 911 from inside the chute around 3 a.m. Sunday, though it wasn’t clear what phone he used. A video posted online shows firefighter rescue crews pumping fresh air down the chute through a hose. They eventually hauled him out using a harness. He was not hurt.
5 Severe storm: Almost 100,000 people woke up without power Sunday after severe storms swept through the Kansas City, Mo., area overnight, downing trees and power lines. Some blackouts are expected to stretch into Monday amid potentially dangerous heat. Winds from the storms reached 70 mph and produced heavy lightning.
6 Honorary mayor: Stubbs, the honorary feline mayor of the Alaska town of Talkeetna, has died at the age of 20. According to the cat’s owners, Mayor Stubbs, as the cat was most commonly known, went to bed Thursday and died overnight. Talkeetna, a town with a population of about 900, elected the yellow cat mayor in a write-in campaign in 1998. The town has no human mayor.