NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

INCIDENTS

Grand Teton NP

Concession Employee Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement

J.H., an employee of Signal Mountain Lodge, an authorized park concessioner, pled guilty to embezzlement (18 USC 661) in federal court this past November. During an investigation conducted by a Grand Teton ranger and an Investigative Services Branch special agent, J.H. was found to have embezzled $17,714.72 during her shifts as a cashier between May 27 and August 1, 2010. Coordination with the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Wyoming also resulted in the recovery of additional evidence and led to successful prosecution. While awaiting trial, J.H. violated her pretrial release, fled Wyoming, committed additional thefts, and was subsequently arrested in Pennsylvania by US marshals in September. J.H. was extradited back to Wyoming for her appearance and is currently being held pending her sentencing date. [NPS Investigative Service Branch]

Chiricahua NM

Lost Hiker Found After Intensive Evening Search

With National Park Service employees taking the lead, 30 searchers from four agencies and the crew of an infrared-equipped helicopter searched for four-and-a-half hours on the evening of Monday, January 3rd, before rescuing an unprepared woman from below freezing temperatures and a night out in the wilderness. The 57-year-old woman left her van for a short day hike a little before noon that day. A protection ranger conducting a trailhead sweep found her van still at the trailhead at 5:30 p.m. He looked through the van's windows and determined that it belonged to a solo hiker who would want to be back before dark. When she did not return by dark, the park launched a search. Teams of searchers from all divisions of Chiricahua began the operation and were joined by searchers from Fort Bowie, Coronado, the Cochise County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Border Patrol and by a SAR helicopter from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. NPS employees found the woman around 10 p.m. She was exhausted and in the early stages of hypothermia. She told her rescuers she knew she would not have survived had they taken much longer to find her. [Field Operations Supervisor, Southeast Arizona Group]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):

National Capital Region - On January 13th, about 100 students from an elementary school in Washington, D.C., recited the entirety of  Dr. Martin Luther King's “I Have A Dream” speech from the precise location where Dr. King delivered his now world famous remarks on August 28, 1963.

Stones River NB - Nine Southeast Region parks have joined together to encourage young visitors and their families to visit Civil War sites, by establishing a special Junior Civil War Historian program.

Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings and the status of legislation pertinent to the NPS. Included in today's summary are three new bills (a proposed new unit, a renaming, and a boundary expansion) and an upcoming hearing on the Gulf oil spill.

Northeast Region - Charles Tracy has been selected as the trail administrator for the newly-designated New England National Scenic Trail in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Photo.

Intermountain Region - Natural resources professionals at six Intermountain Region national parks have been named winners of the region's annual Natural Resource Stewardship Awards for 2010.

* * * *

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

--- ### ---