Beyond New York: Angler in Maine drowns while checking ice thickness

Millinocket, Maine (AP) — A man who was checking the thickness of ice on a lake in the Maine wilderness crashed into the icy water and drowned, game wardens said.

Walter Demmons, 62 of Milford, was drilling holes with a friend to check the ice thickness while preparing to fish in Quakish Lake when they heard the ice crack, wardens said. Both men ended up in the frigid water, about 75 yards from shore on the lake about 8 miles southwest of Millinocket, wardens said.

The two ice fishermen were communicating with each other as they tried to get back on the ice before Demmons told his friend he wasn’t going to make it and slid under the surface, wardens said. The friend, who eventually got back onto the ice and dialed 911, was treated for hypothermia while Demmons’ body was recovered an hour later with an ice rescue raft brought to the scene.

Game wardens warned people to be especially vigilant about ice thickness, noting that early season ice conditions can be treacherous.

MORE COVERAGE FROM OUTDOOR NEWS:

Fishing woes continue in New York this winter as warming trend hinders ice formation

Poor ice not so nice for Minnesota’s fishing retailers

Minnesota

Become A Cop, Get A Free Lightweight Canoe

Ely, Minn.(AP) — The police department in the remote north woods Minnesota town of Ely faces the same challenges of recruiting and keeping new officers as countless other law enforcement agencies across the country. So it’s offering a unique incentive: canoes.

Ely, a former mining and logging community that’s best known as a gateway to the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area, will provide free Kevlar canoes worth $3,800 to the next officers it hires – and to current employees.

The department – consisting of the chief, an assistant chief, and five slots for patrol officers – has one opening now with another coming soon. Police Chief Chad Houde said police departments offer hiring bonuses, so he was looking for a way to stand out.

The catch: New recruits or current employees who take the canoes must commit to staying for three years, or they’ll have to pay back a third of the canoe’s value for each year they leave early.

New Mexico

Legislation Would Require Fixed Rifle Magazines

Santa Fe, N.M. — New Mexico could become an early political testing ground for a proposal to make assault-style weapons less deadly. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she`ll encourage the state’s Democratic-led Legislature to consider statewide restrictions that mirror an unconventional proposal from U.S. senators aimed at reducing a shooter’s ability to fire off dozens of rounds a second and attach new magazines to keep firing.

The proposed federal Go Safe Act was named after the internal cycling of high- pressure gas in the firearms in question and comes from such senators as New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, a Democrat. If approved, it would mean semi-automatic modern sporting weapons would have permanently fixed magazines, limited to 10 rounds for rifles and 15 rounds for some heavy-format pistols.

Lujan Grisham had suspended the right to carry guns at public parks and playgrounds in New Mexico`s largest metro area under an emergency public health order. The restriction on carrying guns has been scaled back from the initial order, which the sheriff and Albuquerque’s police chief had refused to enforce.