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A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 9 september 2020
Virginia official resigns amid controversy on statue charges

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — was held outside the Ports-
The Portsmouth city man- mouth City Hall on Sunday.
ager has resigned amid The felony charges levied
an ongoing dispute over against Lucas are based
charges filed against a on words police say she
Black state senator and spoke before protesters
several others who the ripped heads off Confed-
city's police department erate statues in Portsmouth
say were conspiring to and pulled one down,
damage a Confederate critically injuring a demon-
monument. strator. Lucas and several
Lydia Pettis Patton, who others face counts of con-
announced last month that spiracy to commit a felony
she would be retiring at the and injury to a monument
end of the year from her in excess of $1,000.
role, announced her de- In a statement posted last
parture in an email Tuesday month on Facebook by
morning, The Virginian-Pilot Portsmouth Vice Mayor Lisa
reported. Lucas-Burke, Lucas' daugh-
Pettis Patton wrote that her ter, Pettis Patton said she
decision to "step aside im- was "surprised and trou-
mediately" was in "the best bled" that the investigation
interest" of the city. "I have into the incident had con-
served this city with honor Portsmouth City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton is photographed in the Portsmouth City Council tinued despite there being
chambers on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020, in Portsmouth, Va.
and dedication and I want Associated Press a "conflict of interest" that
to leave the city as I came was reported by the police
in 1986 with honor," the nation came hours after ficials, Portsmouth Police Louise Lucas, members of chief.
newspaper quotes Pettis the city's mayor called for a Chief Angela Greene, was the local NAACP chapter "Chief Greene and mem-
Patton's email as saying. special meeting to discuss placed on administrative and the public defender's bers of the Police De-
Pettis Patton was the first "personnel matters." leave Friday, nearly three office with conspiring to partment continued to
Black woman appointed to Officials did not provide weeks after her depart- damage the monument in be engaged without my
the position, a role she had details on that meeting, ment charged several peo- June. knowledge," Pettis Patton
held since 2015. Her resig- but one of the city's top of- ple, including State Sen. A rally in support of Greene wrote.q

7 killings investigated at illegal pot grow in California

better deals in the illegal Pecoraro said. The sher- ple were arrested.
economy. Before dawn iff's department declined The law enforcement sei-
Monday, Riverside County to give additional details zures of the area's illegal
sheriff's deputies respond- about the case, but of- growing operations have
ed to a report of an assault ficials planned to hold a spawned nicknames for
with a deadly weapon at news conference in the af- the raids like "Marijuana
an Aguanga home. They ternoon. Mondays," "Weed Wednes-
found a woman suffering Aguanga is in the Temecu- days" and "THC Thursdays,"
from gunshot wounds who la Valley, dotted with vine- according to Mike Reed, a
later died at a hospital, yards and horse ranches real estate broker and 28-
according to a sheriff's de- that have given it some year Aguanga resident.
partment statement. traction as a weekend get- Reed said he does business
The deputies also discov- away for Southern Califor- with pot growers who op-
ered six more dead people nia residents. It's near the erate legally and illegally
at the house that "was be- small city of Temecula, a — some of whom live in his
ing used to manufacture bedroom community for gated community.
and harvest an illicit mari- San Diego and Los An- Residents move to Aguan-
Cases of bottled water are seen with other items left on the porch juana operation," the state- geles. Aguanga itself is a ga for "peace and soli-
of a house where killings occurred in Aguanga, Calif., Tuesday,
Sept. 8, 2020. ment said. one-stop-sign place with a tude," plus good camping,
Associated Press Investigators seized more post office, a general store Reed said.
than 1,000 pounds (454 ki- and a real estate broker- "People live here because
By ELLIOT SPAGAT and MI- The fatal shootings in lograms) of marijuana and age. Its few commercial it's not in the city," Reed
CHAEL R. BLOOD Aguanga, north of San Di- several hundred marijuana establishments give way to said.
Associated Press ego, represent the latest plants. horse ranches and nurser- Aguanga's isolation, how-
AGUANGA, Calif. (AP) — flashpoint in the violence While officials said they did ies along dirt roads, many ever, may have helped
Detectives on Tuesday in- that often permeates Cali- not immediately find any behind gates and "no tres- make it prone to illegal
vestigated what prompted fornia's illegal marijuana suspects, the sheriff's state- passing" signs. marijuana sales and culti-
the Labor Day killings of market. ment called the deaths Sheriff's deputies in Febru- vation. Adam Spiker, exec-
seven people at an illegal The state broadly legalized "an isolated incident" that ary seized more than 9,900 utive director of the South-
marijuana growing opera- recreational marijuana did not threaten people plants and collected 411 ern California Coalition, a
tion in a small, rural South- sales in January 2018 but in Aguanga, population pounds (186 kilograms) of cannabis industry group,
ern California community the illicit market is thriving about 2,000. processed marijuana and said the shootings were a
known for its horse ranches — in part because hefty "The area is safe and we firearms from suspected il- reminder that the sprawling
and nurseries along dirt legal marijuana taxes send don't have any other con- legal marijuana sites in the illegal marketplace remains
roads. consumers looking for cerns," sheriff's Sgt. Deanna Aguanga area. Four peo- largely unchecked.q