PHOENIX – Travis Edmonson, a folk music singer and songwriter of the 1950s and ’60s who was considered a pioneer by artists such as the Kingston Trio, has died. He was 76.

Edmonson died Saturday at a Mesa hospital, said longtime friend Mike Bartlett. Although Bartlett did not know the cause of death, he said Edmonson, who had a stroke in 1982, had suffered from numerous health problems.

Bob Shane, founding member of the Kingston Trio, was in college when he first saw Edmonson perform in San Francisco. Edmonson became his idol.

“He was probably the finest solo entertainer I’d ever seen,” Shane told The Associated Press from his Phoenix home. “He had a command of the stage that was just unbelievable.”

Shane said he and fellow band member Nick Reynolds were inspired watching Edmonson, who at the time was a member of the Gateway Singers.

“When we were seniors, we used to drive up and catch the Gateway Singers quite often. I’d say he definitely had an influence on the Kingston Trio because we enjoyed watching what they did as a group. But we decided not to use a girl which they had. So we cut it down to the trio.”

Edmonson was born in Long Beach, Calif., and spent his childhood in the border town of Nogales. His family’s proximity to Mexico helped to shape his passion for Latin music.

Bartlett said as a boy, Edmonson would sleep outside by the border. After dark, he would go to Mexican restaurants to watch mariachi musicians.

While studying at the University of Arizona, Edmonson won an amateur performing contest and decided to pursue a career as an entertainer. He formed a folk music duo with Bud Dashiell called Bud & Travis. The two recorded eight albums between 1959 and 1965. After they split, Edmonson sang solo and then joined Shane, who had split from the Trio.

Their act, Shane & Travis, lasted only four weeks before Shane opted to start the New Kingston Trio.

“We had a lot of fun but, as I said, things were happening quite quickly from the singing. . . . We had some differences but not things we were upset about,” Shane said. “He wanted to go one way, and I wanted to go another. So, we said, ‘See you later.’ ”

Some of Edmonson’s signature songs included “I’m a Drifter” and “Malaguena Salerosa.”

In the 1970s, Edmonson moved back to Tucson where he continued to perform and advise younger musicians such as Linda Ronstadt. Shane said Edmonson was often thought of as an ambassador of music in the Tucson area.

The stroke left Edmonson paralyzed on his left side. He was unable to perform, but he still liked to write songs and meet with other musicians. Bartlett said Edmonson always cared about helping struggling, younger artists.

“Big people didn’t necessarily impress him, but the little guy was the one he always had his eye on,” Bartlett said.

He is survived by his wife, Rose Marie Heidrick, and one son and five daughters from previous relationships.

Funeral services will be private with a public memorial planned for a later date.

WASHINGTON – President Obama intends to use $5 billion to prod local officials to close failing schools and reopen them with new teachers and principals.

The goal is to turn around 5,000 failing schools in the next five years, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday, by beefing up funding for the federal school turnaround program created by the No Child Left Behind law.

Obama doesn’t have authority to close and reopen schools himself. That power rests with local school districts and states. But he has an incentive in the economic stimulus law, which requires states to help failing schools improve.

Duncan said that might mean firing an entire staff and bringing in a new one, replacing a principal or turning a school over to a charter school operator. The point, he said, is to take bold action in persistently low-achieving schools.

“Our students have one chance – one chance – to get a quality education,” Duncan said in a speech Monday to the Brookings Institution think tank.

“If we turn around just the bottom 1 percent, the bottom thousand schools per year for the next five years, we could really move the needle, lift the bottom and change the lives of tens of millions of underserved children,” Duncan said.

In particular, the administration wants to fix middle schools and high schools, focusing on “dropout factories” where 2 in 5 kids don’t make it to graduation.

Duncan, a former Chicago schools chief, has plenty of experience with school turnarounds. Chicago targeted several public schools for turnaround, eight of them last year, while Duncan was still in charge. It’s too soon to know how the eight fared.

What happens to teachers when an entire staff is replaced depends on local contracts with teachers’ unions. In Chicago, some lost their jobs, while some reapplied and were hired.

But in New York, many whose jobs were eliminated by school closings wound up in a reserve pool of about 1,100 teachers who have continued to receive paychecks while working mostly as substitutes.

Looming budget cuts recently prompted New York schools chief Joel Klein to tell principals they must stop hiring from outside and look within the teacher reserve pool.

The administration’s focus on failing schools is part of an effort by Obama to fundamentally change the perception of what works in education. It comes as the administration prepares to rewrite the No Child Left Behind education law championed by former President George W. Bush.

Obama already has channeled an unprecedented amount of money into traditional federal funding for elementary, middle and high schools in his economic stimulus law, doubling the education budget under George W. Bush.

But Obama also plans big boosts for newer and, some argue, untested ideas, plowing more dollars into school turnarounds as well as merit pay for teachers.

“Here’s a chance to do something dramatically different,” Duncan told The Associated Press after his speech. “I don’t want to lose that opportunity.”

Combined with the budget plan released last week, Obama may have as much as $5 billion to facilitate the initiative, which could translate to $1 million for every school targeted for turnaround.

The turnaround program currently receives about $500 million a year. The stimulus legislation boosted funding to $3.5 billion. Obama’s budget would add another $1.5 billion by shifting dollars away from traditionally funded programs.

Yet school districts and education groups are unhappy with the administration’s plan, because it would mean less money for everyone else.

The Title I program, the biggest source of federal dollars for schools, will rise from $13.4 billion this year to $22 billion next year. But funding would drop to just under $13 billion in 2010, a reduction to help pay for the school turnaround fund.

District officials had already planned their budgets and may have to use stimulus dollars to make up the difference, said Mary Kusler, a lobbyist for the American Association of School Administrators.

Compiled by Jared Juan. For information, call 573-4561.

Roy L. Austin, 76, April 29, automobile porter. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

Mabel J. Bronk, 91, May 9, manager. Heather Mortuary

Irwin L. Collum, 91, May 2, supervisor. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

Thelma E. Delbridge, 97, April 29, teacher. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

John Fleming, 55, April 25, laborer. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Concepcion O. Fox, 65, April 18, housekeeper. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

Donald Dean Fuller, 75, April 21, business owner. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Henry Joseph Gellerman, 94, April 30, radio operator. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Paul R. Govafn, 55, April 25, truck driver. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

David Carl Gunderson, 63, April 14, bus driver. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Benjamin Monroe Hamilton, 83, of Oro Valley, May 8, merchant. Adair Funeral Homes Avalon Chapel

Jose R. Jimenez, 64, May 3, miner. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

Robert “Bob” Marshall Lawton, 80, May 6, architect. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Beatrice Theresa Liebesman, 90, May 6, teacher. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Dorothy E. Orton, 92, April 3, clerical. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Marjorie Semon Pake, 84, April 25, homemaker. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Jennifer Lazano Pineda, 36, May 2, homemaker. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Luis Lee Anthony Reynoso Jr., infant, April 30. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Matthew T. Scott, 13, May 2, student. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

Jose Luis Soto, 69, May 2, construction. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

Douglas Ernst Thomson, 79, May 4, electrical engineer. Desert Rose Cremation & Burial

Wayne Walter Vannoy, 69, of Oro Valley, May 9, business owner. Adair Funeral Homes Avalon Chapel

Ida B. Winning, 93, April 29, bookkeeper. South Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery

WHITINSVILLE, Mass. – Twenty years after he met the love of his life, nearly five years after their wedding helped make history, it took a nasty bout of pneumonia for Gary Chalmers to fully appreciate the blessings of marriage.

“I was out of work for eight weeks, spent a week in the hospital,” Chalmers said. “That was the first time I really felt thankful for the sense of the security we had, with Rich there, talking with the physicians, helping make decisions. . . . It really made a difference.”

At stake was the most basic recognition of marital bonds – something most spouses take for granted. But until May 17, 2004, when Chalmers and Richard Linnell were among a surge of same-sex couples marrying in Massachusetts, it was legally unavailable to gays and lesbians in the United States.

Since that day, four other states – Connecticut in 2008, and Iowa, Vermont and Maine this year – have legalized same-sex marriage, and more may follow soon. A measure just approved by New Hampshire’s legislature awaits the governor’s decision on whether to sign. But Massachusetts was the first, providing a five-year record with which to gauge the consequences.

At the time of those first weddings, the debate was red-hot – protests were frequent, expectations ran high that legislators would allow a referendum on whether to overturn the court ruling ordering same-sex marriage. Now, although Roman Catholic leaders and some conservative activists remain vocally opposed, there is overwhelming political support for same-sex marriage and no prospect for a referendum.

According to the latest state figures, through September 2008, there had been 12,167 same-sex marriages in Massachusetts – 64 percent of them between women – out of 170,209 marriages in all. Some consequences have been tangible – a boom for gay-friendly wedding businesses, the exit of a Roman Catholic charity from the adoption business – and some almost defy description.

Mary Bonauto, lead lawyer in the landmark lawsuit, said, “I know people who’d been together 20 years who say, ‘Getting married – it knocked my socks off.’ ”

Partners since 1988

Chalmers and Linnell were among seven gay and lesbian couples recruited by Bonauto’s team to be plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

They had been partners since meeting in Worcester in 1988, and now live nearby in Linnell’s childhood house in Whitinsville with their 16-year-old daughter, Paige, whom they adopted as an infant.

The town of 6,300 is relatively far from cosmopolitan Boston and the gay vacation mecca of Provincetown, but the family feels thoroughly comfortable.

Paige is helping form a gay-straight alliance at her high school. When her fathers got married, she said, “all my friends were saying they wanted to come to the wedding.”

Chalmers, an elementary school curriculum coordinator, and Linnell, a nurse manager at a medical center, say they didn’t need the wedding to prove their commitment, but they appreciate the added legal stability and the recognition they get from others.

“Before, we had wills, we had power of attorney,” Chalmers said. “But the fact of the matter was, you can’t make up for the thousand or so rights that are given to married couples.”

Another plus: Explanations about family ties are easier now that “husband” is an option.

“More than once,” Chalmers recalled, “I was introducing Rich and said, ‘This is my partner’ and they’d say, ‘Oh, what kind of company do you own? What business are you in?’ ”

Two moms, two sons

Another of the lawsuit couples – Gina and Heidi Nortonsmith – live in the college town of Northampton in western Massachusetts with their two sons – Quinn, 9, and Avery 12. Like their fellow plaintiffs, they married as soon as legally possible, on May 17, 2004.

Heidi runs an emergency food pantry; Gina is an elementary school classroom aide. Heidi gave birth to both sons, who are biracial, and the family name merges the moms’ maiden names.

“When we were getting ready to have the kids, we wanted to cross all our T’s and dot all our I’s, feeling there were so many protections for heterosexual married families that just weren’t available to us,” Heidi said.

“When marriage finally happened, there was that emotional sigh of relief – just knowing there would be a legal framework, and a court of law would understand our family.”

Heidi and Gina bridle at the contention of some gay-marriage opponents that children such as theirs will suffer from not being raised by both a mother and father.

“We have really great kids,” says Gina. “It’s been fun to have people see who we are.”

Opposition fading

One of the striking developments, since 2004, is the fading of opposition to gay marriage among elected officials in Massachusetts.

When the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, there seemed to be sufficient support in the Legislature for a ballot measure that would overturn the decision. But a gay-marriage supporter, Deval Patrick, was elected governor; and in 2007 lawmakers rejected, 151-45, a push for a referendum.

The view now contrasts with 2003-04, when the debate was wrenching for legislators such as Sen. Marian Walsh. Her district, including parts of Boston and some close-in suburbs, is heavily Catholic and socially conservative. Many supported overturning the high court’s ruling.

“I had hundreds of requests to meet with people on both sides,” Walsh said. “Everyone wanted to know how was I going to vote.”

She read up on the law, wrestled with her conscience, and finally decided the court was correct – and there should be no referendum.

“I came to the decision that it really is a civil right – that the constitution was there to protect rights, not to diminish rights,” she said.

The reaction? Embittered constituents, hate mail and death threats, rebukes from Catholic clergy, she said. But she won re-election in 2004 and again in 2006.

Unions unrecognized

Neither the federal government nor the vast majority of other states recognize Massachusetts’ same-sex unions. Partly as a backlash to Massachusetts, 26 states have passed constitutional amendments since May 2004 explicitly limiting marriage to male/female unions.

Even the 2010 census, under the Defense of Marriage Act, likely won’t record legally wed couples in Massachusetts and elsewhere as married.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston legal firm which won the same-sex marriage case, filed a new lawsuit in March challenging the portion of the act that bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. But for now, non-recognition can be stinging.

After Michael and Rick McManus of Charlton married in 2006, they honeymooned in Panama, and on return to the United States were told at the immigration booth that they had to go through separately because U.S. law didn’t consider them married.

Michael and Rick have subsequently adopted a son, who turned 2 on May 7, and a daughter, almost 1. They plan to limit international travel until the federal policy changes.

“I don’t want our kids to be coming through customs and having to explain that their dads aren’t married there,” Michael said.

They are frustrated at having to file two sets of tax returns – as a married couple in Massachusetts and as single men for the Internal Revenue Service. And they were dismayed when Arkansas voters last fall approved a ballot measure that bans gay couples from adopting.

“There’s a sense of security for our family here,” Michael said. “But when we leave this state, it’s a very different world.”

Is the sky falling?

“Holy cow, the sky hasn’t fallen.”

That assessment of five years of same-sex marriage came from Jennifer Chrisler, who advocates for gay and lesbian parents as head of the Boston-based Family Equality Council. But that message can be grating for those with opposing views.

“We absolutely believe the sky is falling,” said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. “But we believe it would be a generational downfall, not an overnight downfall.”

Mineau and his allies say their primary concern is the welfare of children raised by same-sex couples – even though establishment groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics say such children fare just as well as those with heterosexual parents,

“No matter how loving and how caring two women are, there’s no way they can replace the role of the father,” Mineau said.

Mineau also said religious liberty is at risk in Massachusetts, and cited the example of Catholic Charities of Boston, which stopped providing adoption services in 2006 because state law required it to consider same-sex parents when looking for adoptive homes.

Public schools are another venue in the dispute over gay marriage.

David Parker of Lexington objected when his youngest son brought home a book from kindergarten that depicted a gay family. He was later arrested for refusing to leave the school after officials wouldn’t agree to notify him when homosexuality was discussed in his son’s class.

Parker filed an unsuccessful lawsuit contending that school administrators violated a state law requiring that parents get a chance to exempt their children from sex-education curriculum. School officials said the books didn’t focus on sex education, and merely depicted various families.

“Parental rights lost out in a big way – the right of parents to oversee the moral upbringing of their own children,” said Parker. He and his wife, Tonia, now homeschool their two sons.

Opposition to same-sex marriage remains strong in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Disappointment in the legislature for blocking a referendum is still deep.

“Why was it squelched?” asked Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester. He complained that “a well-heeled, organized political action group” got more attention from legislators than average people.

He added: “The proponents of same-sex marriage argue that if you’re opposed, you are exercising bigotry. No one who’s proud of being an American wants to be accused of being a bigot, so some people retreat into a live-and-let-live situation.”

McManus insists the church’s views, over time, can still prevail.

Bonauto, the lead lawyer in the lawsuit, sees a different outcome as more states consider same-sex marriage or extend other recognition to gay couples.

The Massachusetts ruling “was a game changer,” she said. “Even our opponents know it’s only matter of time before there’s marriage equality nationwide.”

———

GAY MARRIAGE:

KEY DATES

Some important dates relating to gay marriage in Massachusetts and nationally:

July 1, 2000 – Acting under a state Supreme Court order, Vermont becomes the first state with civil unions that provide same-sex couples with the same legal rights and responsibilities as marriage.

April 11, 2001 – Seven same-sex couples in Massachusetts, denied marriage licenses, sue in Superior Court in Boston to challenge the state’s gay marriage ban.

Nov. 18, 2003 – Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court rules it is unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marriage.

May 17, 2004 – Marriages of gay couples begin in Massachusetts.

June 14, 2007 – Massachusetts lawmakers vote to block a proposed referendum seeking to ban same-sex marriage.

July 31, 2008 – Massachusetts repeals a 1913 law that barred most of-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in the state.

Oct. 10, 2008 – The Connecticut Supreme Court strikes down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Nov. 4, 2008 – California voters pass Proposition 8, a ballot measure overturning a state Supreme Court decision that had legalized same-sex marriage earlier in the year. The issue remains in legal limbo.

April 3, 2009 – The Iowa Supreme Court orders the legalization of same-sex marriage.

April 7, 2009 – Overriding the governor’s veto, lawmakers in Vermont make their state the first to legalize same-sex marriage by a legislative vote.

May 6, 2009 – Maine’s governor signs a gay marriage bill passed by legislators. Opponents immediately file papers seeking a repeal referendum.

The nation’s rough roads are leading to higher driving costs for American motorists – $400 on average, and $750 for drivers in urban areas, according to a new report released Friday morning.

A third of major U.S. interstates and major highways are in poor or mediocre condition, but it’s a particular problem in urban areas with populations of 250,000 or more, said the report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the road advocacy group TRIP.

“The American people are paying for rough roads multiple times,” said Michigan Department of Transportation Director Kirk Steudle. “Rough roads lead to diminished safety, higher vehicle operating costs, and more expensive road repairs.”

Among the report’s other findings:

In many urban areas nationwide, 30 percent to 60 percent of roads are in poor shape.

Nationwide, 72 percent of federal interstate highways are in good shape, but that could decline quickly because the roads are aging and carrying more traffic.

Frank Moretti, director of policy and research for TRIP, said President Obama’s federal stimulus program to spend billions to upgrade the nation’s highways is a “helpful down payment” but additional investment will be necessary to ensure better roads that are capable of handling higher traffic volumes.

AMMAN, Jordan – Pope Benedict XVI began his first trip to the Middle East on Friday, expressing his “deep respect” for Islam and hopes that the Catholic Church would be a force for peace in the region as he trod carefully following past missteps with Muslims and Jews.

The pope was given a red-carpet welcome at the airport by Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Queen Rania and praised the moderate Arab country as a leader in efforts to promote peace and dialogue between Christians and Muslims. An honor guard wearing traditional red- and white-checkered headscarfs played bagpipes and waved Jordanian and Vatican flags.

The trip to the Holy Land is the first for Benedict, who will travel on Monday for a much-anticipated four days in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Despite the lavish welcome ceremony, the pope has faced sharp criticism in the Middle East.

Benedict angered many in the Muslim world three years ago when he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman,” particularly “his command to spread by the sword the faith.”

Earlier this year, he sparked outrage among Jews when he revoked the excommunication of an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.

“My visit to Jordan gives me a welcome opportunity to speak of my deep respect for the Muslim community, and to pay tribute to the leadership shown by his majesty the king in promoting a better understanding of the virtues proclaimed by Islam,” Benedict said shortly after landing in Jordan, a mostly desert country where Moses is said to have viewed the Promised Land.

Later at a Catholic center for the handicapped, he said his only agenda was to bring hope and prayers “for the precious gift of unity and peace, most specifically for the Middle East.”

But past comments continue to fuel criticism by some Muslims, even though the pope said he was sorry and that the quotes did not reflect his personal views.

Jordan’s hard-line Muslim Brotherhood said before the pope’s arrival that its members would boycott his visit because he did not issue a public apology as they demanded. Brotherhood spokesman Jamil Abu-Bakr said the absence of a public apology meant “obstacles and boundaries will remain and will overshadow any possible understanding between the pope and the Muslim world.”

Research shows therapy may cure at least 10 percent

CHICAGO – Leo Lytel was diagnosed with autism as a toddler. But by age 9 he had overcome the disorder.

His progress is part of a growing body of research that suggests at least 10 percent of children with autism can “recover” from it – most of them after undergoing years of intensive behavioral therapy.

Skeptics question the phenomenon, but University of Connecticut psychology professor Deborah Fein is among those convinced it’s real.

She presented research this week at an autism conference in Chicago that included 20 children who, according to rigorous analysis, got a correct diagnosis but years later were no longer considered autistic.

Among them was Leo, a boy in Washington, D.C., who once made no eye contact, who echoed words said to him and often spun around in circles – all classic autism symptoms. Now he is an articulate, social third-grader. His mother, Jayne Lytel, says his teachers call Leo a leader.

The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, involves children ages 9 to 18.

Autism researcher Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, called Fein’s research a breakthrough.

“Even though a number of us out in the clinical field have seen kids who appear to recover,” it has never been documented as thoroughly as Fein’s work, Dawson said.

“We’re at a very early stage in terms of understanding” the phenomenon, Dawson said.

Previous studies have suggested between 3 percent and 25 percent of autistic kids recover. Fein says her studies have shown the range is 10 percent to 20 percent.

But even after lots of therapy – often carefully designed educational and social activities with rewards – most autistic children remain autistic.

Recovery is “not a realistic expectation for the majority of kids,” but parents should know it can happen, Fein said.

Doubters say “either they really weren’t autistic to begin with . . . or they’re still socially odd and obsessive, but they don’t exactly meet criteria” for autism, she said.

Fein said the children in her study “really were” autistic and now they’re “really not.”

University of Michigan autism expert Catherine Lord said she also has seen autistic patients who recover. Most had parents who spent long hours working with them on behavior improvement.

But, Lord added, “I don’t think we can predict who this will happen for.” And she does not think it’s possible to make it happen.

The children in Fein’s study, which is still ongoing, were diagnosed by an autism specialist before age 5 but no longer meet diagnostic criteria for autism. The initial diagnoses were verified through early medical records.

Because the phenomenon is so rare, Fein is still seeking children to help bolster evidence on what traits formerly autistic kids may have in common. Her team is also comparing these children with autistic and non-autistic kids.

So far, the “recovered” kids “are turning out very normal” on neuropsychological exams and verbal and nonverbal tests, she said.

The researchers are also doing imaging tests to see if the recovered kids’ brains look more like those of autistic or nonautistic children. Autistic children’s brains tend to be slightly larger than normal.

Imaging scans also are being done to examine brain function in formerly autistic kids. Researchers want to know if their “normal” behavior is a result of “normal” brain activity, or if their brains process information in a nontypical way to compensate for any deficits.

Results from those tests are still being analyzed.

Most of the formerly autistic kids got long-term behavior treatment soon after diagnosis, in some cases for 30 or 40 hours weekly.

Many also have above-average IQs and had been diagnosed with relatively mild cases of autism. At age 2, many were within the normal range for motor development, able to walk, climb and hold a pencil.

Significant improvement suggesting recovery was evident by around age 7 in most cases, Fein said.

None of the children has shown any sign of relapse. But nearly three-fourths of the formerly autistic kids have had other disorders, including attention-deficit problems, tics and phobias; eight still are affected.

Jayne Lytel says Leo sometimes still gets upset easily but is much more flexible than before.

A local church will hold a 10-mile walk/run Saturday to raise money for a mobile health clinic to serve the area’s needy population.

The event, organized by the Victory Worship Center and its student ministry, Elevate Youth Church, will take place on the University of Arizona Mall. Registration begins at 6 a.m. The run begins at 7 a.m.

The church’s aim is to raise $250,000 to buy the clinic and diagnostic equipment. The clinic would provide services at the church, 2561 W. Ruthrauff Road, and at other sites throughout town, according to a news release.

For more information about the fundraiser, go to www.elevate10mile.org or call the Victory Worship Center at 293-6386.

A medical malpractice lawsuit filed by the mother of a mentally ill man who stabbed his grandparents to death on April 10, 2005, is being heard this week in Pima County Superior Court.

The suit was filed by Lisa Lambeth and her sister, Karen McCollum, daughters of the late Carl Gremmler, 76, and Patricia Gremmler, 72, against a publicly funded behavioral health agency and the psychiatrist who treated Christopher Lambeth for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Filed in March 2007, the suit alleges medical malpractice by the psychiatrist, negligence by the behavioral agency and asks for punitive damages from all defendants for the loss of their parents.

However, COPE Behavioral Services Inc. says in court documents that it “believes” Lambeth, now 24, “was wholly and/or partially at fault in causing” damages to the Gremmler family.

Lambeth pleaded guilty but insane to two counts of first-degree murder in March 2007.

His attorney, Ryan Metcalf, said then that Lambeth was in a psychotic state when he stabbed the couple multiple times in their bed. The bodies were found two days after the stabbings.

Lambeth, who had been living with them, was found lying in his bed at their home.

In April 2007, Lambeth was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences at the Arizona State Hospital in Phoenix.

According to documents in the civil suit, Dr. Virgil Hancock was a contract psychiatric provider for COPE.

He began treating Christopher Lambeth in late 2003 and was his psychiatrist until Lambeth killed his grandparents.

On Sept. 22, 2004, Hancock saw Lambeth “in the presence of his mother” and the youth reported he was taking his medications.

His mother said he wasn’t taking the medication and on Oct. 19, 2004, she called Hancock, asking that her son be admitted to a psychiatric hospital without going to an emergency room, but the psychiatrist refused.

On Oct. 26, 2004, she told Hancock her son “would not be medication compliant in the future and would become violent.”

On Nov. 16, 2004, he was admitted to Sonora Behavioral Health Hospital “after physically menacing his mother and punching holes in the walls at her home.”

“A COPE note prepared at or about this date signed by Dr. Hancock states that Christopher Lambeth was unable to control his anger and was homicidal and had a target and a plan,” the lawsuit states.

“This homicidal ideation was not disclosed to the family before, during or at any time after his hospitalization,” according to the lawsuit.

Lambeth was discharged from Sonora and then spent 24 hours at COPE’s Ocotillo drug treatment facility.

He was discharged on Nov. 19, 2004, and taken to his grandparents’ home.

A COPE case manager had called Lambeth’s mother and sister and asked them to take him into their homes. They refused, saying they feared having him in their homes.

His mother said he was “dangerous and violent” when he didn’t take his medications.

“No day program or other supportive behavioral health services were offered,” the suit states.

“The case manager then persuaded Christopher’s sister to transport Christopher directly from Ocotillo to his aging grandparents’ home.”

According to the suit, Lambeth’s mother repeatedly asked for residential behavioral health services for him in 2004 and was told none was available.

On April 7, 2005, Hancock saw Lambeth for a regularly scheduled appointment, along with his mother and his case manager.

“Lisa again asked COPE to get Christopher out of her parents’ home. No residential or other behavioral services were offered,” the suit states.

“(Lisa) expressed fear and concern about Christopher’s history of violence toward her and his grandparents when he was not taking his medicine.”

Lambeth said he wasn’t happy living in the rural community of Rillito with his grandparents.

Lambeth was incarcerated as a juvenile in 2001 for nearly 10 months in a domestic violence case. His parole in that case ended in October 2002.

In 2003, he was court-ordered to receive services from COPE after he was arrested for marijuana possession.

Spikedace, loach minnow may get larger set-aside

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A federal judge has ruled the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service can reconsider the critical habitat designation of two threatened fish species in New Mexico and Arizona after a probe found political interference likely affected scientists’ findings.

Senior U.S. District Judge John Conway ruled Tuesday that the agency’s original habitat designation for the spikedace and loach minnow would remain in place while federal biologists determine whether the fish need more habitat.

Conway said that it would be “least disruptive” to allow the existing designation to remain in effect pending a review.

A coalition of counties in the two states and the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association had sued over the original designation, saying the Fish & Wildlife Service overstepped its bounds and failed to adhere to requirements of the Endangered Species Act in setting aside the critical habitat.

They argued that the original designation should be vacated while the agency reconsiders the matter.

In his ruling, Conway said the original designation was likely “not expansive enough.”

He referred to a report by the Department of Interior inspector general that found potential political interference by Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant Interior secretary. Among other findings of interference, the report said MacDonald selected one of several potential critical habitat designations for the two fish and wanted to make the area set aside for the species “as small as possible.”

The agency filed a motion earlier this year seeking to take a new look at the species’ habitat needs.

The Fish & Wildlife Service planned to review the designation and have a draft proposal in October 2010, agency spokeswoman Charna Lefton said Wednesday. It would then be another year before the agency makes a final decision.

The spikedace and loach minnow have been eliminated from more than 80 percent of their ranges in the two states. The fish were once common in the Verde, Salt, San Pedro and Gila rivers.

The parents of a Tucson man killed by a police sharpshooter May 12 have sued the city, the former police chief and the officer who shot Christopher Burdon after police said he “did not heed oral commands to put down his weapon.”

Burdon, 39, a lifelong insulin-dependent diabetic, was suffering from hypoglycemia, his family said at the time, and was unable to respond to police commands.

The symptoms can make a diabetic appear drunk or under the influence of drugs. The family learned of his death watching local TV news.

Burdon had only nicotine and caffeine in his system, an autopsy by the Pima County medical examiner revealed.

Burdon was shot in the head, arm and chest and had multiple skull fractures from bullets fired by Officer Luis Campos, an eight-year veteran of the Police Department. The department’s internal review of the shooting has not been made public.

In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court this week, former police chief Richard Miranda, now an assistant city manager, is named because he was the supervisory officer “responsible for the conduct, training and supervision of police officers under his charge.”

He is also named for “his failure to properly train police officers in the appropriate methods of detaining and arresting citizens who are temporarily disoriented and confused as a result of physical illness,” according to the lawsuit.

The city was sued as “the ultimate policymaker for the city of Tucson Police Department.”

City Attorney Mike Rankin was attending a seminar Wednesday and did not return a call for comment.

Attorney Robert L. Murray, who is handling the civil case for Thomas and Janet Burdon, said the Police Department “has long been aware that there is a high probability that their officers may come into contact with citizens who are displaying actions demonstrating that they are either mentally ill, delusional and disoriented or are otherwise incapacitated as a result of some disease or physical ailment.”

The suit says the Police Department “did not adequately train or staff the department with any qualified officers to respond to mental health encounters or encounters with citizens experiencing delusional episodes or those who were confused or disoriented as a result of physical illness.”

The suit also says police were “not armed with sufficient non-lethal use of force equipment to deal with Chris Burdon.”

The suit cites violations of Burdon’s Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable seizure of his person and of his 14th Amendment right “to be free of excessive and unjustified force” and to be provided substantive due process.

Burdon was suffering from a lack of sleep and low glucose level, and his family believes he fired a handgun three times into the air as a signal for help.

No one was hit by the shots.

Campos shot Burdon after he didn’t follow orders to put down the gun.

Police didn’t know he had removed the clip from his gun and laid it on the floor of his sandrail before falling to the ground nearby, in a dirt lot near Grant Road and Oracle Road.

Police were responding to a 911 call about a man firing a gun in the area.

No files permanently lost on the 200 terminals affected

Police Officer Larry Lopez had read 18 e-mails before he opened one instructing him not to turn on his computer: A computer virus was spreading through the department.

That was almost two weeks ago. Tuesday, Lopez was allowed to boot up for the first time since then. He generally uses a computer daily.

About 200 Tucson Police Department computers were affected by the virus, but all were taken out of service and checked out, said Ann Strine, the city’s chief information officer.

About 25 computers are still down, undergoing a slow reconstruction, Strine said.

Patrol car laptops and communications systems weren’t affected because they are on separate networks, she said.

But for days, at least some officers were unable to write reports, input evidence or access records. It left many officers wondering how they did their job before computers became commonplace.

“We did more by cell phone,” Lopez said of the past two weeks. “You had to think of things to do that don’t involve computers.”

Officer Mike Gurr responded to questions about what he did by gesturing pulling his hair out.

Newly installed police Chief Roberto ViIlaseñor had a more positive spin on the episode.

He said it represented a healthy reality check, a test of bureaucratic reorganization and an indicator of social change.

“Two years ago, officers would complain about typing up their reports,” he said. “In a way, (officers’ dismay at losing computer access) is a measure of success.”

The influx of information technology experts into TPD also demonstrated the benefit of the recent consolidation of city department IT sections, Villaseñor said.

Having so many computers out of service at one time tested how TPD would function if there were a more serious emergency, he said.

“We’ve got to be flexible,” he said. “I think it was a good exercise.”

Strine anticipated no lingering problems from the virus and said no files were permanently lost. Officers were notified of the virus by phone and through messengers, as well as through e-mail, she said.

Lopez said he was glad to be able to just log back on.