SHERIFF: Charges Pending In Balloon Boy Saga

ASSOCIATED PRESS: The sheriff of Larimer County, Colo., said late Saturday that charges will be filed in the case of the 6-year-old boy who vanished into the rafters of his garage for five hours while the world thought he was zooming through the sky in a flying-saucer-like helium balloon. The boy’s father, Richard Heene, met with sheriff’s officials earlier in the day amid lingering questions about whether he perpetrated a hoax. Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden didn’t say Saturday night what the charges would be, but he did say the parents, Richard and his wife, Mayumi Heene, aren’t under arrest. MORE

UPDATE: “It has been determined that this is a hoax, that it was a publicity stunt,” the Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said at a news conference in Fort Collins, Colo., one day after re-interviewing members of the now-famous Heene family about the case. “We have evidence to indicate it was a publicity stunt done with the hope of marketing themselves to a reality television show sometime in the future.” Richard Heene and his wife Mayumi have not yet been arrested, but the sheriff said that among the charges being considered are three felonies: conspiracy between the husband and the wife to commit a crime, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and an attempt to influence a public servant., the last of which carries a prison term of six years. The charges could also include a misdemeanor, filing a false report.

PREVIOUSLY: Was Balloon Boy A Fraud?

PREVIOUSLY: SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW: 6-Year-Old Boy Climbs Into Flying Saucer Balloon And Floats Away

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WIKIPEDIA: According to her record label, Liberty Records, Yuro moved with her family to Los Angeles. There, she sang in her parents’ Italian restaurant and in local clubs before catching the eye and ear of record executives. Signed to Liberty, she had a U.S. Billboard No. 4 single in 1961 with “Hurt”, an R&B ballad that had been an early success for Roy Hamilton. On “Hurt” and on her Billboard No. 12 follow-up in 1962, “What’s a Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You?)”, Yuro showed an emotional but elegant vocal style that owed a debt to Dinah Washington and other black jazz singers. Many listeners in the early 1960s thought Yuro was black. She opened for Frank Sinatra on his 1961 tour of Australia. By the late 1960s, Yuro had performed in venues from London to Las Vegas. However, her career soon lost its early momentum, and she quit the music business altogether after her marriage in 1969. When Yuro began to sing again in the 1980s, her doctors detected throat cancer. Her larynx was eventually removed and in 2004 she died of cancer. MORE

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SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Seeing how the beasts echo Max’s inner turmoil is perhaps the cleverest aspect of “The Wild Things.” It’s not a heavy-handed mirroring. Indeed, it’s so deftly done a young reader might miss it. But there are moments when one suspects Max is gaining insight into his own behavior. And the close relationships Max has with Carol, the biggest and strongest male Wild Thing, and Katherine, a melancholy female one “who alone seemed capable of really listening to” Max, are tender and complicated. Eggers remains in Max’s head throughout. As he showed in “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” and “What Is the What,” Eggers is brilliant at portraying the exuberance and chaos of a young boy’s heart and mind. “There were so many things he’d done, so many things he’d broken or torn or said, and always knew he’d done them, but could only half-understand why.” Max ponders dilemmas, plots strategies and hatches schemes at a fast-changing pace, just like any little boy with time and space on his hands: Hey, let’s have a parade! Hey, let’s build a fort! Hey, let’s have a war and my team is the Good Guys and you are the Bad Guys! But he soon finds it’s not easy being in charge. Those in your care may disagree with you and challenge your authority. And you may make bad decisions that hurt those you love and have pledged to protect. Again, echoes of home. MORE