Oregon’s first bisexual governor to serve
NEW YORK – “LGBT” has become a household term amid sweeping advances for gay rights, and yet the “B” sometimes seems like an awkward fit. The sudden advent of America’s first openly bisexual governor may provide a chance to ease the awkwardness and broaden understanding of the bi community.
Kate Brown, Oregon’s secretary of state, is in line to replace Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber when he steps down Wednesday amid an ethics scandal. Brown, serving her second term after many years in the legislature, lives in Portland with her husband and two stepchildren and has been open throughout her political career about being bisexual.
Her progress has been followed closely by bisexual activists across the country, including Ellyn Ruthstrom, who now serves on the board of Boston-based Bisexual Resource Center after 10 years as its president.
“There are so few bi political leaders out there, so we pay attention to them,” said Ruthstrom, citing U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona as the other prominent example.
Beyond elective politics, the bi community continues to struggle to establish its appropriate place in the broader civil rights campaigns being waged on behalf of lesbians, gays and transgender people.
Man agreed to buy snakes, shoots dealer
MEDIA, Pa. – A Pennsylvania man who shot a snake dealer at a suburban Philadelphia shopping center was convicted of attempted murder and robbery.
The Delaware County Daily Times reported 35-year-old Rasheem Dowdy, of Allentown, was also convicted in Delaware County of aggravated assault, robbery of a motor vehicle and a firearms count.
Ridley Township police said Dowdy arranged to buy $12,600 worth of snakes but then robbed the breeder in the Woodlyn Shopping Center parking lot in January 2012. The robber shot the dealer and fled in his SUV but crashed it in nearby Folsom.
Police later recovered a handgun and a jacket containing another gun.
Prosecutors said DNA tests of the weapons and clothing matched a sample taken from Dowdy.
Man made fake twin to get out of tickets
ROCHELLE PARK, N.J. – A New Jersey man posed as his fictitious, blind twin brother in a bid to delay court hearings on several motor vehicle summonses, according to authorities.
Olawale Agoro, of Hackensack, now faces charges of hindering apprehension, false swearing and resisting arrest.
Agoro received five summonses during a July 31 traffic stop, Rochelle Park police told The Record. But during a September court appearance, authorities said the 58-year-old Agoro claimed to be his twin brother “Tony.”
Suspicious of the claims, the officer who issued the tickets saw Agoro driving later that day and issued him three more tickets.
Agoro then allegedly twice got adjournments after “Tony” sought them from court clerks, claiming that Agoro was in Nigeria mourning the death of their father. But a warrant was issued for his arrest this week after he failed to appear at court hearing.
Agoro came to court the next day and once again claimed he was “Tony.” The court clerks became suspicious and contacted authorities, who determined that “Tony” really was Agoro. “Tony” was unable to produce any identification, and police matched a birth mark under his lip to the photo on Agoro’s driver’s license, authorities said.
A telephone number for Agoro could not be located Saturday, and it wasn’t known if he has retained an attorney.
Autopsy shows Carr died of lung cancer
NEW YORK – New York Times media columnist David Carr died of complications from metastatic lung cancer, according to autopsy results released Saturday.
Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office, said the autopsy shows heart disease also contributed to his death.
Carr, 58, collapsed at the newspaper’s headquarters and died Thursday.
He wrote the newspaper’s Media Equation column and penned a memoir about his fight with drug addiction. He was lauded as “the finest media reporter of his generation” by Times’ Executive Editor Dean Baquet.
Carr’s 2008 memoir The Night of the Gun traces his rise from cocaine addict to single dad raising twin girls to sobered-up media columnist for the Times. The book also detailed his life as a cancer patient as he battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
A spokeswoman for the Times declined to comment on whether Carr’s illness was known at the newspaper.
Associated Press
