Death of boy at home for troubled youth prompts state investigation

BIRCH HOLLOW, East Deschire -- Calls for investigation and reform are coming from all corners of East Deschire's political community after a 12-year-old boy died at a home for troubled adolescents.

David Arguyle was under court-ordered custody at the Trumbull Boys Home in Birch Hollow last week when he went into a severe seizure episode during a confrontation with the home's staff.

He was taken by ambulance to Benevolence Hospital in Hansboro but died a few hours later.

It's unclear exactly what caused his death, doctors said.

The Selkford County Coroner will perform an autopsy later this week, since the boy died at the hospital located in Selkford County.

Meanwhile, police in neighboring Begoran County are investigating the incident.

They'll wait on the autopsy report before making a decision about charging any of the boys' home's staff, Begoran County Sheriff Dave Eisen said.

Records obtained from the state's Department of Children Services through a Freedom of Information request show the Trumbull Boys Home had major violations at its last two evaluations by state regulators.

On at least three separate occasions, Arguyle told a case worker the home's nursing staff did not give him medication prescribed for his epilepsy. Investigators determined in two of those incidents the nurse should have given him the medication.

Arguyle was also sedated multiple times by the home's behavioral staff, those incidents are also under review.

East Deschire Governor Val Hennemott called Arguyle's death "incredibly tragic," but cautioned that it's too early to know exactly what happened.

However, "the fact that this particular institution had two major violations and was allowed to continue operations with limited supervision from state regulators is inexcusable," she said.

"I won't comment on the specific incident that resulted in David's death, but I will say it appears this facility had other violations and had run-ins with him in the past that should have raised major red flags with the DCS," Hennemott said at a press conference.

She offered her condolences for Arguyle's family.

Arguyle's father is deceased and his mother is serving time in a prison in Marchenay.

But a family friend told the National Press Federation (NPF) that Heather Mollon, Arguyle's mother, is devastated.

"She wants justice for David and for the people who caused his death," the friend said about Mollon.

Leslie Hawkin, Director of the DCS, expressed grief and regret at a press conference and promised a thorough investigation.

"We take the job of protecting our children very seriously at the Department of Children Services, and David's death has profoundly impacted me and everyone that works in our agency. We are so very saddened by his death, we want answers, and we will get those answers. If there were mistakes made we will correct those mistakes and fix the system so a tragedy like this never happens again," said Hawkin.

Lincoln Behavioral Centers Corporation, the company that runs the Trumbull Boys Home, also expressed condolences in a written statement.

"Our sincerest condolences go out to the family of David Arguyle. We are cooperating fully with state investigators, we are conducting our own internal investigation to insure all procedures and protocols were followed properly."

"Our mission has always been to protect and help the children who come to our facilities, and we have always done and will always do everything possible to make sure every child is safe in our care."

Park ranger shot and killed in Blueshott Mountains

BRIGADEN GAP, March. -- Residents of a small, tight-knit community in southwestern Marchenay are reeling after a local park ranger was shot and killed in the line of duty Monday afternoon.

The shooting occurred at Clear Forest State Park in rural Carde County, nestled in the rolling Blueshott Mountains, near the Marchenay-Kensington state border.

Park Ranger James E. McEniff, 65, was about to clock off his shift for the day when he noticed a suspicious vehicle and approached the driver's side.

At that time, an unknown male assailant got out of the vehicle and opened fire, striking McEniff six times in the chest, neck and arm. The vehicle then fled the scene.

A group of hikers who saw the shooting happen called 911, but spotty cell phone reception at the heavily-wooded park delayed calls for help.

Police and medics arrived 20 minutes later, but McEniff was pronounced dead on the scene. The park is located about 10 miles from the nearest town, Brigaden Gap, population 1,200. The nearest large city is Necadia, Kensington, about 40 miles to the southeast.

McEniff's death is the first for the Marchenay State Parks Department in 24 years. McEniff was already retired and serving in an auxiliary role, the department said in a statement.

"We are tremendously saddened by today's tragedy in Carde County," State Parks Director John McLeod said at a press conference in Newcastle. "Ranger McEniff was a dedicated public servant who loved his community and loved the outdoors and most of all, loved his job of bringing nature to the citizens of Marchenay. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues at this very difficult time," McLeod said.

No suspects have been apprehended at this time. Witnesses were about 300 feet away when the shooting happened, so they could not give detailed descriptions of the suspect due to the long distance.

The suspect is loosely described as a tall, white male, approximately 40-50 years old, with long and curly black and a moustache. He was wearing a light colored shirt and shorts.

Carde County Sheriff Andy Weyrick warned there may be more than one suspect.

"Witnesses only saw one suspect but we don't know how many other people were in the vehicle, if any," Weyrick said.

The suspect's vehicle appeared to be an older 1990s or early 2000s dark green Chevrolet Suburban with Wilkonshire license plates.

A nationwide All-Points-Bulletin (APB) has been issued for vehicles fitting that description.

McEniff was well-known in the community, and local residents were mourning his killing.

"Ranger McEniff is someone who held a prominent standing in our community and we all feel his loss," Sheriff Weyrick said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Carde County Sheriff's Department or the Marchenay State Police.

Monomi Nationalists unload on Scott King

TRIETON -- Prominent Nationalists are not holding back against former governor Scott King (N) after his write-in campaign in the 2018 race split the centre-left vote and allowed an unpopular Conservative candidate to win the governorship.

King, 48, is no stranger to scandal. During his previous tenure as governor in the 2000's, he was narrowly recalled by voters following allegations of hiring prostitutes and corruption. He was never charged in that case, however.

Despite being abandoned by many prominent NAT allies, King stayed in the political limelight, going on to write books and host a TV news-comedy show on the STAR Network.

In 2018, the former governor decided to run for his old job. Still deeply popular among some working-class, blue-collar Monomians, King surprised his opponents and supporters alike when he secured the NAT gubernatorial nomination in a hard-fought race against Trieton businesswoman and Pro-Athletica CEO Beth Gowan.

King went on to choose Gowan as his running mate, and the two were riding high in the polls against Conservative Attorney General Will Huxton and his running mate Doug Aker, a former mayor of Trieton.

But then more allegations against King surfaced. New women came forward alleging prior incidents of sexual harassment, assault, and date rape.

King vehemently denied the allegations, calling them a smear campaign by old enemies within his party and within the Conservative party.

Many prominent voices called on him to resign from the NAT ticket and let Gowan take over as the NAT's nominee, but his supporters called the new allegations "fake news," a favorite expression used by US President Donald Trump.

After refusing to step down from the NAT ticket voluntarily, he was forcibly removed from the ballot by the state NAT party committee and replaced with Gowan, who made a solid effort to get the NAT campaign back on track.

But even with the best of luck, Gowan had little chance of winning after the new allegations against King came to light.

And whatever tiny chance she had of recovering the campaign was further doomed when King announced he would continue his run for governor as a write-in candidate.

In defiance of NAT party leadership, King decried the party's handling of the allegations against him, arguing the party leadership should have stood by him until an investigation could be completed.

"They totally abandoned me without even hearing me out," he told local media shortly after he was removed from the ticket. "I wasn't given an opportunity to defend myself, to explain why the accusations against me were untrue, there was no chance to ask for an investigation, it was just 'Scott you need to step aside.'"

The intra-party split between King and his supporters and those Nationalists who wanted him banished ended in a split centre-left vote, allowing Attorney General Will Huxton, a hardline Conservative, to win the governorship, taking 40 percent to Gowan's 33 percent. King's write-in campaign netted him just over 22 percent.

And now, months after the election and the inauguration of Huxton, Nationalists are coming out of the woodwork to blame Scott King and hopefully eradicate him from Monomi politics once and for all.

Over the past few months, multiple Nationalist politicians and operatives have criticized the former governor.

Nathan Lister, a federal senator who was up for re-election in 2018, had the unfortunate luck of sharing the ballot with King, and blamed his loss to Conservative Assemblyman Brooke Burnstein partially on King's scandal.

"Because of his scandal, whether or not the accusations against him are true, a lot of Nationalist voters stayed home and didn't go to the polls," Lister told the Trieton Sun. "A lot of people felt like Scott King is ruining our party's chance at winning, so what's the point? They were demoralized and expecting a loss, so they just stayed home, which was fine for Scott King, but sucked for Beth Gowan and for me," said Lister.

Gowan had similar sentiment in an interview with Monomi 9 News.

"No matter what happened afterwards, it would have been difficult for us to win this race following the accusations that came out against Scott," Gowan said. "It's very hard to recover from that type of a bombshell that hits your campaign. It's not impossible to recover from that, but it's very hard."

"But I can tell you that if Scott King had stepped aside and not ran his write-in campaign, Nationalists would have been more united and we would have had a better chance of beating Will Huxton. It would have been an uphill climb, but it would have been more achievable. But by choosing to run as a write-in candidate despite everyone in the leadership calling on him to drop out, despite many of his own advisors and supporters urging him to drop out, Scott King basically handed the election to Will Huxton. Any chance of the NAT winning this race just went out the window at that point," said Gowan.

More recently, Mark Gerring, who worked as the communications director on King's ill-fated campaign, said he advised King to step aside completely but was rebuffed.

"I thought it would be in the best interest of the party, in the best interest of all his campaign staff, and in his own best interest to just step aside, let Beth Gowan take up the mantle, and forget about this race. Sometimes you have to know when to fold your cards, and in my opinion, this was one of those times," Gerring told the Sun.

But not all of King's advisors agreed with Gerring's assessment. Gerring admits many campaign advisors urged King to stand firm.

"There were several members of the team who told the governor he should stand up to these allegations, call them out for what they were, which was 'fake news.' There were a lot of people who felt these allegations were just politically-motivated lies meant to smear Scott King and screw him of any chance of winning," said Gerring.

"Some members of the campaign staff thought the allegations were completely false, completely a sham, and others wanted to believe they were a sham but eventually arrived at the conclusion that they were likely true."

Gerring was one of those who initially doubted the veracity of the accusations against King, but later came to believe them. Once he arrived at that conclusion, he resigned from King's campaign.

Gerring has not spoken to King since he resigned.

"It's unfortunate, because Scott King was a great leader, he had so much potential, and he has done so much for Monomi, and a lot of his ideas are great ideas, but they never saw the light of day because the clouds of scandal just loomed over everything."

Meanwhile, some of the harshest criticism of King has come from outside his inner-circle.

Former federal Senator Hanna Gorbachy, who is highly revered in Monomi's state NAT party, said King's decision to launch a futile write-in campaign was "a dumb move" and "very unfortunate."

"You have to know Will Huxton and his team were just filled with glee and jubilation when they saw that Scott was going to run as a write-in candidate. It was the best gift we could give them," Gorbachy said of the NAT.

Another former senator, Brad Fiodora, said he too was dismayed by King's decision.

"I respect Scott King for what he's done and for the shared values we hold on things like labor, the economy, criminal justice reform, etc." Fiodora told the GBC. "But I cannot respect him for sabotaging Beth Gowan's chances and sabotaging the party's chances for his own selfish reasons."

"His scandal hurt a lot of people who really had nothing to do with it. Beth Gowan didn't play any part in Scott's troubles. Nate Lister didn't play any role in it. And yet they both suffered because of it and that's very sad," said Fiodora.

Bruce Gove, a senior fundraising strategist who works for the Nationalist Governors Association, also known by its acronym NATGA, called King's failed gubernatorial campaigns "a complete shit-show."

"What happened in Monomi with Scott King was a complete shit-show. The buffoonery and selfishness of one person caused the entire state party to implode. Scott King brought the tent down and it collapsed on everyone else that happened to be in it," Gove said in an interview on a Devanough radio station last week.

The Trieton Sun reached out to King for his reaction to the harsh words from his former allies.

Although used to being in the hot seat because of misconduct allegations, King declined to take part in a sit-down interview with the Sun.

But he did comment via email, in his typically colorful style, maintaining his innocence of the accusations leveled against him.

"This so-called 'scandal' that I've been brought into is fake, it's false, there is no truth to any of these claims of abuse or inappropriate conduct. I admit I made some poor dating choices and I drank too much alcohol. I'll admit that I have a weakness for beautiful women, as I've said in the past. But I do not and never have abuse women or treat them inappropriately. Period."

King told the Sun he is "truly sorry" for the adverse impact his scandal had on Beth Gowan and Nathan Lister, but he insisted the party leadership could have handled the situation better.

"Monomi politics are dirty. They always have been. There are a lot of shady tactics that go on by both parties. The people of Monomi know me, they know my past, they know all the foolish decisions I've legitimately made in my personal life and they know all the bogus "allegations" I've been accused of over the years. The voters are smart enough to see through this bullshit. And had the party given me a chance to defend myself, to explain the specifics of these allegations, to have my due process, we could have still won this race."

King acknowledged it would have been difficult to overcome the allegations against him, but he pointed to the unpopularity of Conservative Attorney General Will Huxton.

"Look, people know me. They know I'm not an angel. They know I was a party boy, a frat boy, a guy who loves the ladies. They know my dirty secrets. And while some people don't like the real me, there are also a lot of people who can't stand Will Huxton. He's extreme, he's a hardliner on women's choice, he's a hardliner on sex ed [education], he's a hardliner on immigration, he's a gun rights nut, and more than all that, he's a dweeb. He's a bozo. And people can't stand him because of that. There are a lot of voters who would have voted for me over Will Huxton any day, but the party didn't even consider that, they just threw me out the door and said 'don't ever come back.'"

"And that's why I had to continue my campaign as a write-in candidate. I couldn't let my supporters down, I couldn't let lies and falsehoods sink my campaign, and I couldn't let the party get away with its blatant disrespect and mistreatment of me and my supporters and my staff," said King.

King did agree with Bruce Gove that the whole situation surrounding his campaign was "a shit-show."

"Oh there's no doubt it was a shit-show, definitely. It was a crazy couple months dealing with all this bullshit, but it could have been way less dramatic and divisive if the party would have backed me up."

Since the election, the disgraced candidate has not officially gone into hiding - he's still living in Trieton and venturing out into public. However, he is currently unemployed and living off royalties from his book sales.

His news-comedy TV show on the STAR Network was canceled when he ran for governor. So far there are no plans to revive the show, but King would not rule out a return to television. He's also planning to get back on the speaking circuit and to become an adjunct political contributor to the STAR News Network.

Asked what he's learned over the past year during another divisive campaign:

"I've learned that you really find out who your true friends are when shit hits the fan. A lot of people I thought were friends abandoned me and walked away, and that was hard, it was painful. But also a lot of really great people stood by me and continue to support me through everything, and those people are even more special and precious. Those kinds of friends are priceless."

Laskie to run for Alieva County Prosecutor

RATHCLAN, S. Ceona -- The voters of South Ceona soundly rejected him for a second term last week, but that's not stopping former Gov. Greg Laskie (C) from jumping right back in to the political fray.

Laskie, who lost by four percentage points to Nationalist political new-comer Brett Ratenzy, announced Tuesday he will set his sights on a much smaller and less-prestigious prize: county prosecutor.

Despite his bruising defeat in the governor's race, Laskie said he will run for county prosecutor in Alieva County, which is home to the state capital of Rathclan.

With a population of 135,000, the county includes the eastern suburbs of Fairfield and leans Conservative.

It has served as home base for Laskie in all of his congressional and gubernatorial campaigns over the years.

At his announcement press conference, the obvious question reporters wanted to know was why Laskie was not retreating to private life after a humiliating defeat.

"Most candidates would quietly fade from public life after losing a high-profile political race," Wade Finley of the Fairfield Integrus newspaper asked Laskie. "Why are you choosing to not only stay in the spotlight, but to re-enter the political scene so quickly after a grueling campaign?"

Laskie responded by saying "the spirit of public service is still calling," and the former governor and assemblyman said serving as county prosecutor would be more amenable to his family situation.

"Right now my wife has cancer, I have small kids at home, I don't feel compelled to run for Congress again because that would take me back straight back to Mavocke. But working as county prosecutor in my hometown would allow me to continue to serve, to continue to make a living, and to be close to my family and my wife," Laskie, 46, said.

"And it would allow me to do what I love, to be a prosecutor," he added.

Before entering state politics, Laskie was a local and federal prosecutor.

His political career was built largely on his tough-on-crime record.

"Fighting crime is still my passion, protecting our community, protecting our state, protecting our children, holding criminal offenders accountable...those are all things that are very important to me."

It's unclear who Laskie may face in the prosecutor's race. The incumbent, Greg Estholm - also a Conservative - is retiring.

Laskie made clear his decision to seek a local position was not because he doubts his electability to statewide office.

"I was elected governor once before, I know I can win. I'm not doing this because I don't think I can win a higher office, I'm doing this because it's something I think I would be good at, it's right for me and my family, and it would allow me to give my talents to the local eastside community, which is very important to me since it's my hometown."

Brett Ratenzy, a first-time candidate, defeated Laskie in South Ceona's special gubernatorial election on March 26.

Ratenzy, 56, an auto union leader from Gallaghan, earned 51 percent of the vote to Laskie's 47 percent.

The moderate Nationalist campaigned on a message of building the economy and investing in social services, which had been gutted due to falling revenues thanks to deep tax cuts initiated during the Laskie administration.

Ratenzy is the second Nationalist to be elected to the governorship, and the first person from outside the Fairfield-Rathclan metro area to hold the position.

He's also the first governor since South Ceona's borders were reduced following the incorporation of the Kensington region in the eastern part of the state.

At his press conference, Greg Laskie wouldn't rule out another run for governor in the future, but said right now his focus is more localized.

Laskie's wife Cindy is battling aggressive breast cancer and has been receiving treatment at the Cramer Cancer Clinic at Fairfield Medical Center.