12 Year Old Kills Sleeping Father

KATY, Texas -- A 12-year-old girl is in custody after allegedly shooting her father inside their Katy home.

Police found the man in a bedroom of the home in the 3300 block of Jan Court. He had a gunshot wound to the head and later died in the hospital.

The girl was apparently waiting for police in a front room.

“The father works night shift, so I guess he was going to try to get some rest. At which time, it looks like the suspect may have went up behind him and fired one gunshot into the back of his head," said Katy Asst. Police Chief Tim Tyler.

According to police, the girl used a .38 caliber pistol.

She's in custody and could face murder charges.

Officers say she's given no explanation for why she shot her father.
---->VIDEO

This Woman Needs To Fry..

Mother charged in killing of 18-month-old daughter

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Emma Leigh Barker's body was found in Sylmar. Authorities think it is likely she was suffocated.

Stacy Barker told authorities she was knocked out and her daughter abducted from a park in Lancaster. The girl had been suffocated hours before Barker contacted authorities, detectives say.

An Antelope Valley mother who alleged that an attacker knocked her out and abducted her 18-month-old daughter is believed to have suffocated the girl hours earlier and dumped her body in Sylmar, detectives said Monday.

Stacey Barker, 24, was charged with one count each of murder, assault on a child causing death, and child abuse in the death of Emma Leigh Barker, authorities said.


"At this point, as best as we can determine, the infant died through suffocation at the hands of the mother," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Pat Nelson. "After her third or fourth version of events, we knew she wasn't telling the truth, and we were able to determine what happened. At this point, we believe she acted alone."

Detectives arrested Barker last Thursday because of "indications she might flee or disappear," Nelson said. Barker had been staying with relatives since the March 18 disappearance of her daughter and discovery of the child's body near Roxford Street and El Dorado Avenue in deep brush along a fence.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the Los Angeles County coroner's office has yet to determine the cause of death, but based on the information available at this point it is likely the girl suffocated.


Detectives believe that the girl was already dead four or five hours before Stacey Barker contacted authorities to report the child missing and tell of her mysterious abduction.

"Our belief is the child died in the early evening of March 18," Nelson said.

Barker initially told detectives that she was at a Lancaster park near the 14 Freeway and had just placed Emma in her car seat when she was struck from behind by an unknown assailant. She told them that she awoke about 10:30 p.m. five hours later and several miles away at a Palmdale park-and-ride lot, and that her daughter was missing.

But the next day, Barker recanted the tale of assault and abduction that had launched a massive manhunt, Nelson said. She eventually helped sheriff's detectives find her daughter's body and told them she had died in an accident. Detectives then discovered the toddler's body in Sylmar near Interstate 5.

Prosecutors allege that Barker willfully caused and permitted her daughter to be harmed and that the injury resulted in death. Barker, of Quartz Hill, was arrested last week at her grandparents' home in Lancaster.

Barker's arraignment hearing was postponed Monday until May 11. She remains in custody in lieu of $1-million bail.

Missing 17-Year-Old Sighting?

Missing 17-year-old sighting? 2:13
Police are investigating the possible sighting of Brittanee Drexel, last seen Saturday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Chrysler To file For Bankruptcy

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Chrysler LLC is going to file for bankruptcy, an administration official confirmed to CNN Thursday.

The filing comes after some of the company's smaller lenders refused a Treasury Department demand to reduce the amount of money the troubled automaker owed them.

Chrysler officials had no comment on the bankruptcy report. The company faces a Thursday deadline from the Treasury Department to reach deals with creditors who had loaned the company about $7 billion.

But the filing will not mean the halt of operations or liquidation for the troubled 85-year old automaker. Instead, the administration expects to use the bankruptcy process to join Chrysler with Italian automaker Fiat.

In addition, the United Auto Workers union announced late Wednesday night that its membership at Chrysler had overwhelmingly ratified a concession contract reached between the company and union leadership on Sunday night.

President Obama said during a press conference Wednesday night that he was more confident than he had been 30 days ago that Chrysler would be able to emerge from the process as a healthy, competitive company. He is set to comment on the state of the auto industry at noon on Thursday.

The administration said Wednesday evening that talks with the smaller lenders broke down when they refused to meet a deadline set by the Treasury Department to accept pennies on the dollars they had loaned the company.

"After a month of tireless negotiations, the Administration went into yesterday afternoon with the full support of Chrysler's key stakeholders, including the [United Auto Workers union] and the largest creditors. That support remains," said an administration official.
[rest here]

Police: Vegas Mother Denied Medicine To Dying Son

Teen Suffered From Chronic Kidney Disease

LAS VEGAS -- A Las Vegas woman is accused of killing her son by denying him medical treatment for a chronic kidney disease.

Metro police told FOX5 Lena Marie Anderson was charged with murder and child abuse and neglect following the death of 15-year-old Patrick Atkins.

The teen died Feb. 6 after being brought to University Medical Center with a bloody nose.

Police said Anderson told them her son had been sick for three weeks and, despite being treated with antibiotics, Atkins was not fully recovering. The antibiotics were prescribed by a doctor at Southwest Medical Center, but police said Anderson never told them about her son’s condition.

Atkins underwent Urethal Valve surgery when he was a boy, and his mother had been treating him with medication and catheterization several times a day. Police said when the boy was 12, Anderson refused to take him back to the doctor, thinking the condition would change on its own. She also told police she discontinued Atkins' medication because he didn't like it and she was tired of “fighting her son.”

Detectives interviewed doctors and a nurse who had treated Atkins. All of them said they had warned Anderson about continued treatment for her son. A police review of medical records found that Anderson had once denied the teen suffered from renal failure.

Anderson refused FOX5's requests for an interview.

Aimee Michael Charged With Five Homicides for Easter Hit-and-Run

A 22-year-old woman was charged with five counts of homicide for an alleged hit-and-run car accident on Easter Sunday.

Aimee Michael was driving her BMW on April 12 when police believe she changed lanes and got in a chain-reaction wreck that claimed the lives of a couple, Robert and Delisia Carter, and their children: a newborn son and nine-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, another woman, Tracy Johnson, survived the accident in another vehicle — but her six-year-old daughter, Morgan, did not.

According to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, the Carters’ Mercedes and the BMW supposedly collided when Michael veered out of her lane. The impact sent the Mercedes through the divider and it slammed head-on into Johnson’s Volkswagen as Michael drove away.
Michael’s bond hearing has been set for Friday.

[OLDER BLOG: Bond Denied For Hit-And-Run Suspect]

[OLDER BLOG:Police Close In On Easter Hit-and-Run Car ]

Previous Stories: April 16, 2009: Hit And Run Survivor Improving

April 13, 2009: Five Die In Accident, Driver Sought

Sad Thing To Have Happen..

N.J. Trooper Pleads 'Not Guilty' In Deadly Crash

Since the night her two daughters died in a horrific crash when a state trooper's cruiser plowed into them, Maria Caifa has wanted to meet the man behind the wheel, to see him, to speak with him.

Thursday morning, she got her wish.

Trooper Robert Higbee asked Caifa's lawyer if he could have a brief word with the woman moments after the hearing ended. The two embraced for about 15 seconds and exchanged a few words.

Neither Higbee's lawyer nor Caifa's lawyer would say what was discussed. Higbee did not speak during the arraignment, which lasted approximately three minutes. His lawyer entered a plea of not guilty to two counts of death by auto.

Lewis April, Caifa's lawyer, said she had long wanted to speak to Higbee and was appreciative of the trooper's gesture.

She was too upset to speak to reporters on Thursday, he added.

"She had never seen trooper Higbee. He was the individual who changed her life," April said. "She had always said she wanted to talk to trooper Higbee. This was something she wanted all along -- some kind of response."

The head of the state trooper's union said Higbee is extremely upset over the deaths.

"From Day One, his heart is broken," said David Jones, president of the State Troopers Fraternal Association. "He couldn't be any more remorseful."

The charges stem from a crash that killed two teenage sisters as they drove to get a gallon of milk in Upper Township in September.

Authorities said Higbee ran a stop sign and struck the front driver's side of the teens' Dodge Caravan, killing 17-year-old Jacqueline Becker and her 19-year-old sister, Christina.

The van and patrol car skidded across the road, smashing into another minivan that was stopped at the intersection.

Higbee was issued summonses in October for failure to stop or yield right of way and careless driving. He was indicted on the death by auto charge last month and remains suspended without pay pending the resolution of the case.

If convicted, the trooper could face a prison term of five to 10 years.

David Meyer, Cape May County's first assistant prosecutor, said his office had offered a plea deal to Higbee, but the offer has not yet been accepted or rejected. Meyer, April, and Higbee's lawyer, D. William Subin, all declined to say what the offer was.

But Subin said Higbee is not interested in pleading guilty to anything.

"This was a tragic accident," he said. "Trooper Higbee is innocent of any criminal wrongdoing. I do not believe this case belongs in criminal court. Unless a motion is granted to dispose of this matter, he will absolutely go to trial."

Jones said Higbee was chasing a speeder who was going at least 30 mph faster than the speed limit. But several witnesses have told authorities and Caifa's lawyer that they saw no other vehicle on the road just before the crash.

"He was attempting to stop that violator, and he missed a stop sign in an area that was not familiar to him," Jones said. "We are allowed to chase speeders. That's what we do."

Oh, Shit!

Driver holds on as hijacked semi leads police on chase
---->[Video]

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A hijacked tractor-trailer, its driver clinging to the outside, led police on a wild chase Tuesday on Interstate 75 just south of Atlanta, Georgia, officials said.

When the chase was over, the truck driver was safe and the hijacking suspect was in custody. Aerial footage of the chase showed truck driver Torrey Lang, 32, seated behind his truck's cab and holding on as it hurtled down Interstate 75 with Georgia State Patrol in pursuit, and the suspected hijacker behind the wheel.

Lang, apparently was in a parking lot when he saw the truck being stolen, said Greg Thompson, spokesman for Chattanooga, Tennessee-based U.S. Xpress, the company Lang works for.

Lang jumped on the side of the truck, then made his way to the back of the truck when it started moving, Thompson said.

As the truck was moving, Lang called 9-1-1. He stayed on the line describing the situation and his location until his phone was either dropped or lost, said George Louth, a spokesman for the police department in Union City, Georgia, where the chase began about 15 miles south of Atlanta.

The hour-long police pursuit started on surface streets and continued onto the interstate, eventually covering nearly 70 miles and passing through seven counties before it ended in Forsyth, Georgia, according to Louth.

Footage shows officers deploying spike strips to deflate the truck's tires, which then peeled away from the truck. Running on at least one rim, the truck slowed and began to stop, and Lang leaped onto the roadway and fell briefly before running to safety.

Once the truck came to a complete stop, more than a dozen officers surrounded it, guns drawn. Officers broke the drivers' side window, opened the cab door and pulled the suspect from the vehicle. He struggled briefly, but was tackled by numerous officers and forced to the ground. The suspect was later shown in police custody walking to a vehicle.

Milo Banks, 27, will be charged with fleeing and attempting to elude, kidnapping and theft by taking, according to Georgia State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright. He also faces a felony theft charge in Union City, according to Louth.

A Georgia State Patrol officer was shot in the arm, but his injuries were superficial, a dispatcher said. Circumstances surrounding the shooting were unclear.

(CNN) -- Edo Berger got an alert early last Thursday morning when a satellite detected a 10-second blast of energy known as a gamma ray burst coming from outer space.

Telescopes around the world swiveled to focus on the explosion, soon picking up infrared radiation, which travels more slowly than gamma rays. Berger waited for the visible light which he expected to come next.

It never arrived.

"We were kind of blown away. We immediately knew what that meant," Berger said.

What it meant was that he was looking at the oldest thing ever spotted -- an enormous star exploding 13 billion years ago.

"At that point the age of the universe was only 600 million years," he said. In other words, Berger said, he was looking "95 percent of the way back to the beginning of time."

The star which exploded was 30 to 100 times larger than our own sun, and when it died, it gave off "about million times the amount of energy the sun will release in its entire lifetime," Berger told CNN by phone from Harvard University, where he is an assistant professor of astronomy.

Its death throes produced so much energy that "momentarily, we can essentially see it anywhere in the universe," Berger said.

The object, known as GRB 090423, is about 200 million years older than the previous record-holder for oldest object ever seen.

Berger isn't just interested in the record books, though -- the gamma ray burst extended the frontiers of human knowledge about the history of the universe.

"We learn that already massive stars were around 600 million years after the universe formed," Berger said. "We suspected that, but now we have proof. Now that we know these objects are so bright, in the next few years we should be able to pinpoint exactly at what stage in the evolution of the universe stars and galaxies formed."

"There are theories" about when that happened, Berger said, "But they are all over the place. People let their imaginations run wild."

Given the discovery last week -- which was announced Tuesday -- Berger thinks it is possible that he will soon have a clear answer.

"If we talk in a few years, hopefully I would be able to tell you exactly when that happened," he said.

The gamma radiation from GRB 090423, which took 13 billion years to reach earth, was detected by a NASA satellite called Swift. The infrared radiation was detected by the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.

Craigslist Killer's Fiance: "I Still Love Him"

Craigslist fiancee in denial? 3:37

HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell has the latest on the Philip Markoff case.

U.S. Swine Flu Cases Grow To 91 - One Infant Death

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States has risen to 91 and is spread across 10 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

One of those cases was fatal, but the majority are not severe, said Dr. Richard Besser, acting CDC chief. Five patients have been hospitalized, including the 22-month-old child who died Monday in Texas, he said.

The toddler was a Mexican citizen who had gone to Houston, Texas, for treatment, said Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services.

At a news conference unrelated to the health issue, President Obama said, "My thoughts and prayers and deepest condolences go out to the family as well as [to] those who are ill and recovering from this flu."

Obama said, "This is obviously a serious situation -- serious enough to take the utmost precautions."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius are closely monitoring the swine flu outbreak, Obama said.

The president urged local health officials to be vigilant about identifying and reporting suspected cases.

Places such as schools should consider closing temporarily if any illness surfaces there, he said, and parents should consider in advance how children at home will be cared for. Sending a child to a day-care facility may not be the best solution, he said.

Obama said he requested $1.5 billion in emergency funding from Congress on Tuesday if the outbreak becomes more widespread.

The government is releasing nearly 13 million doses of antiviral medications to stem the spread of swine flu, Napolitano said Wednesday.

"The national stockpile has 50 million courses, and we are releasing 25 percent of the state portion already," Napolitano told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which convened to discuss the federal response to the swine flu outbreak.

A U.S. Marine stationed in Southern California has been tested to see if he has swine flu, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The Marine and his roommate, who isn't ill, have been quarantined at the Marine base in Twentynine Palms while awaiting test results, expected within 48 hours, said Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant.

An official at the World Health Organization said Wednesday that his agency has confirmed 114 cases of swine flu worldwide.

However, that number does not include the additional U.S. cases. The WHO was still listing 64 swine flu cases for the United States.

"It's clear that the virus is spreading, and we don't see it slowing down at this point," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of WHO, at a news conference. He said the most severe cases are in Mexico; other countries have milder cases so far. iReport.com: "Regular life" in Mexico with masks

Earlier Wednesday, the CDC's Besser confirmed the child's death.

"A child has died from the H1N1 virus," he said. "As a parent and a pediatrician, my heart goes out to the family."

He added, "We have expected that over time we would see deaths from this infection, and that's what we're finding."

Sixteen of the confirmed swine flu cases in the United States have been reported in Texas, and 51 in New York, according to the CDC. California has 14 confirmed cases, the agency said.

The CDC is "taking aggressive action to try and limit the impact of this on our communities" but isn't changing its recommendations as a result of the confirmed swine flu death, Besser said.

"I expect we'll see more cases," he said. "And as we do, we'll learn more about this, and if there needs to be more stringent or less stringent recommendations, we'll be making those."

Of the confirmed cases worldwide, there have been seven other confirmed swine flu deaths, all in Mexico.

"Given what we've seen in Mexico, we have expected that we would see more severe infections and would see deaths," Besser said.

However, he stressed that people should maintain their perspective on the swine flu outbreak.

"Seasonal flu each year causes tens of thousands of deaths in this country -- on average, about 36,000 deaths," Besser said. "And so this flu virus in the United States, as we're looking at it, is not acting very differently from what we saw during the flu season."

Oregon’s oldest cold case solved

Cold Case investigators never give up. No matter the date, no matter the details, they are always searching for clues that will solve a crime.

Mike Stahlman is assigned that mission by the Portland, Oregon Police Department. A former Detective, he works now with the force’s Cold Case Unit. A federal grant gives him a salary for his part-time job. And his tireless work is paying off.

The victim’s name was Rosa Cinnamon. She was in her apartment on the morning of April 24, 1976, when an intruder entered the home and strangled her. Rosa Cinnamon was 80 years-old.


The case went cold for decades. But that all changed recently with Stahlman leading a team that would help crack the oldest murder solved by Portland’s finest.

An investigator with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office resubmitted forensic evidence from the crime scene. The Oregon State Police crime lab analyzed the sample and isolated the DNA of Rosa’s killer.

The lab then searched the databank looking for a possible match. It got one. The profile belonged to Edward Delon Warren. He was a notorious inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary. In 1979, Warren had murdered two people.

Scientific evidence concluded he also strangled Rosa Cinnamon three years earlier. Detective Stahlman and the Cold Case squad learned that Warren resided in the victim’s neighborhood in 1976.They know what he did. But they may never understand why he took Rosa’s life.
You can read more about the investigation by going to the department’s web site.
[article source]

Nancy Grace Blog: Anthony Defense Strategy Revealed!

From Episode: Tuesday, April 28, 2009
5:30 PM ET - Do Casey Anthony's lawyers have an explanation for those disturbing photos of tot mom partying after Caylee goes missing, her shopping sprees allegedly using her friend's checking account and the chloroform found in tot mom's car? Reports are Jose Baez is comparing tot mom to a military widow accused of poisoning her Marine husband then going out on sex and shopping sprees using her dead husband's insurance money. The widow, Cynthia Sommer, would go on to be released from jail after it's determined her husband was not poisoned after all. Does Baez plan to use the Sommer's case as an example of how someone's erratic behavior after the death of a loved one does not prove they committed murder? (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer)

1:30 PM ET - Taxpayers are still shelling out money and will continue to do so in the Caylee Anthony murder case. This time, tax dollars are funding a lawyer for the utility meter reader who discovered Caylee's remains. Already costing $10,000, Roy Kronk reportedly needs more even more money to get ready for the murder case. Kronk undergoing multiple police interviews and fighting tot mom's lawyers who want his personal cell phone records. Kronk is asking Orange County for another $2,500 and that number could keep growing. (From Stacey Newman, Nancy Grace Producer)

Missing Teen Didn't Have Mom's OK For Trip

(CNN) -- The mother of a 17-year-old Rochester, New York, high school student who vanished over the weekend on spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, says she did not give her daughter permission to go on the trip.

In an appearance on HLN's Nancy Grace, Dawn Drexel said her daughter, Brittanee Marie Drexel, has never run away.

Drexel said the high school junior stayed in touch with her by phone, and she last spoke with Brittanee on Saturday afternoon.

"I asked her what she was doing and she says 'Oh, mom, I'm at the beach.' And it was an 80-degree day in Rochester so, of course, I thought maybe she was at the beach in Rochester with one of her girlfriends that she had said she was staying overnight," Drexel said.

Drexel said she asked Brittanee to call her later and the girl agreed. "I said, 'I love you, Brittanee' and she says, 'I love you, mom.' And then we hung up the phone."

Brittanee is believed to have last been seen Saturday evening, though an unconfirmed sighting may have placed her at a restaurant on Sunday.

She was staying with friends at the Bar Harbor Hotel on North Ocean Boulevard, according to police reports.

911 Calls Show Plane Terror

Video: 911 calls show plane terror 0:47
As a White House plane flew low over Manhattan, 911 operators fielded calls.

Law & Order SVU / Caylee Anthony Case

Last nights Law & Order SVU had some pretty glaring similarities with the Caylee Anthony case as was being reported prior to airing.

1. A grandma (Gail O'Grady of "NYPD Blue") goes to detectives about her missing granddaughter and complains, "The car smells like a dead body."

2. The child's mother (Hilary Duff of "Lizzie McGuire") alleges that a babysitter took the little girl. And that babysitter is named Maria Hernandez or Fernandez. (We meet the young mom as she cleans out her car trunk and blames the stench on spoiled meat.)


3. The detectives' boss asks what kind of mother goes off to party and leaves her kid with a woman she barely knows.

4. The young mother steals and buys a shovel.

5. The young mother has been lying since the day she could talk, and she won't grow up, her mother complains. Grandma O'Grady announces that he has demanded that lazy Duffy find a job -- and even cracked the young woman in the mouth.

6. Pictures of the young mom partying surface. "I'm young. I'm allowed to have fun," Duff says.

Then this "SVU" goes off on a tangent far removed from anything in the Anthony case. The plot shift allows the series to weigh in on a serious issue -- one that has nothing to do with the Anthony case.

But then the episode circles back to the Anthony case in a shocking way that echoes the headlines.

It's an ending that sticks with you -- and one that George and Cindy would do well to miss.

The episode can be seen at 10 p.m. Tuesday on WESH-Channel 2.

R.I.P. Always, Lucy..

It was twenty years ago today my idol and love, Lucille Ball, passed away.

We'll forever love you, Lucy. R.I.P.

Google Search Logo Image

Happy Birthday, Samuel Morse!

Drew Peterson's Son: He's "Greatest Dad"

(yeah, cause I guess it's normal for a child to have numerous mothers dissapear on them one after another while evidence builds AGAINST your father)

(CBS/ AP) Despite assertions in a wrongful death lawsuit filed this week that Drew Peterson killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio, their son says he "highly" doesn't believe Peterson killed his mother.

Thomas Peterson, 16, also says Drew is the "greatest dad in the world."

Thomas, his 14-year-old brother, Kristopher, and Drew appeared on The Early Show Friday, along with the lawyer representing Savio's family, John Q. Kelly.

The suit, filed on behalf of Savio's estate, claims Peterson, a former Bolingbrook, Ill. police sergeant, drowned Savio in her bathtub in 2004.

Savio's family has long voiced suspicions about the circumstances surrounding her 2004 death, especially following the disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, in October 2007.

Peterson has been named a suspect in Stacy's disappearance, but hasn't been charged. Authorities haven't identified him as a suspect in Savio's death.

Peterson has denied any involvement in either case, and his attorney, Joel Brodsky, this week reiterated Peterson's innocence.

Savio's death, initially classified as an accidental drowning, was reclassified as a homicide after her body was exhumed and another autopsy conducted following Stacy Peterson's disappearance.

The lawsuit, filed by Savio's father and sister, was widely expected. Many of the allegations in it have been reported in the media since Stacy Peterson vanished.

The suit, filed in Will County, Ill., seeks more than $100,000 and alleges Peterson killed Savio before a scheduled trial over the divorced couple's property.

But Kelly told Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Savio's father, Henry Savio, and sister, Anna Doman, don't stand to gain "one penny from the suit. "They have no financial interest in the lawsuit whatsoever. It's only for the estate and Kathleen's two minor children."

If the suit succeeds, Kelly explained, "All the assets that should have gone to the children originally, all the marital assets and things like that, would be properly segregated for the children. And Mr. Peterson would be taken to task and labeled for what he had done, causing (Savio's) death."

Peterson was given control over various assets "to use at his discretion, rather than segregate it to his children," Kelly noted.

Thomas Peterson told Chen he thinks the suit is "ridiculous. Because what they're trying to do, they're trying to take money from my dad and basically give it back to us. Now, do the math. He's got everything put into us as it is. So it just doesn't make sense to me."

Thomas says he doesn't remember ever even meeting his grandfather, Henry Savio, and hasn't seen his aunt, Doman, in six years, adding, "They've made no attempt of contacting me. So I haven't really seen them."

He also came to the defense of his father, saying, "Accidents happen all the time" and "I highly do not believe that my dad had murdered my mom. Because, first off, he wasn't there, he was with us during that period of time. I don't know what else to say. I don't believe it."

Thomas and Kristopher live with Drew, and Thomas says the intense media focus on Drew has been difficult to deal with: "It's been crazy, like, with the news media in front of my house all the time. And like, there really hasn't been much of an impact ever since my mom died, because nothing could be worse than that. But it's just made my childhood much harder."

As are, he said, suggestions that Drew killed Savio. "That's just making it even worse," Thomas remarked. "I'm seeing a lot of the world and a lot of the people's true motives."

What does he want to say to the public about his father?

"I would say that he's the greatest dad in the world. Not a lot of people know that. People see the news all the time and what everyone has portrayed him to be. But to our family -- no one could ask for a better dad."

Drew Peterson told Chen a woman who claimed at one point to be engaged to become his fifth wife no longer lives with him.

And Kelly, the lawyer for the Savios, added, "By all accounts these young men loved their mother. Their mother loved them. To see them thrust on national television to talk about her untimely death right now is unsettling, too."

He also noted that the family will probably wait for the results of a grand jury probe of Savio's death before pursuing the suit any further.

Pajama-Clad Toddlers Ransack Neighbor's Home

"Boys Eat Snacks, Empty Drawers, Mess Up House"

Kind of a lame article, but I thought it was cute and funny, none-the-less. I can see Kaitlyn doing this- but we never let her out of our sight.

ANDERSON, S.C. -- Two young brothers caused an uproar in Anderson Friday morning when they wandered away from their home and into a neighbor’s home.

Neighbors and public safety officers launched an intense search after John and Matthew Farrar disappeared from their home.

The boy’s mother called to report the 2- and 3-year-olds missing at about 9:45 a.m.

About 100 city and county emergency workers scrambled into the neighborhood to search for the boys. Little did they know that the toddlers were next door in the home of a sleeping neighbor, playing out their own version of Goldilocks gone bad.

Angie Lovorn was sound asleep on the other side of the house after working a third shift and said she had no idea the boys were in her house.

"I would have right away looked through my house if I’d known they were missing," Lovorn said.

But she didn’t know. And while she slept, the toddlers ransacked her cupboards, munching on Teddy Grahams, marshmallows and chips.

Lovorn finally awoke and saw the emergency workers outside her home at about the same time searchers spotted the boys coming out her back door.

One of the brothers was wearing a Clemson University football helmet that belongs to Lovorn’s son.

“They even got on the top bunk," Lovorn said. "These items -- stuffed animals -- were on the top bunk."

From the looks of the house, the boys enjoyed their visit.

"They played for a while, I think," Lovorn said.

The wandering toddlers are the youngest of four brothers in their family.

Three Wounded In Hampton University Shooting

(CNN) -- The campus of Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, was locked down for several hours Sunday morning after a former student shot two people in a dormitory and then shot himself, university and police officials said.

The former student entered Harkness Hall shortly before 1 a.m. by following a pizza deliveryman, said the university's president, Dr. William Harvey, at an afternoon news conference.

The former student shot the deliveryman and the night manager of the dorm, who came into the hall after he heard shots, Harvey explained. The man then shot himself.

No one was killed in the incident, which prompted the evacuation of the dorm and a lockdown of the campus, the president said.

The three wounded were taken to area hospitals, Harvey said. The dormitory night manager was treated and released, he said.

Hampton city police said they had the shooter in custody.

The motive for the shootings is not clear, university and law enforcement officials said.

Harvey praised the first-responders to the incident, saying their quick action likely averted further tragedy. He also lauded the school's system of text messages, e-mails and phone messages that warned students about the situation and the campus lockdown.

Hampton is about 70 miles southeast of Richmond, Virginia.

Woman Shot Through Skull, Makes Officer Tea

"When the officer got there she said, 'What's going on?' She was holding a rag on her head and talking.


She was conscious, but she was confused about what had happened. She had made herself some tea and offered the officer something to drink... She is expected to make a full recovery, while her husband shot himself dead after the attack on his wife."


Read article...

And MORE Flu: U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency As Swine Flu Spreads

(CNN) -- The United States government declared a public health emergency Sunday as the number of identified cases of swine flu in the nation rose to 20.

The declaration is part of a "standard operating procedure" that will make available additional government resources to combat the virus, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said at the White House.

Additional cases of swine flu are expected to be reported in the coming days, added Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

No one has died in the U.S. from swine flu, officials said Sunday.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said eight students at St. Francis Prepatory School in Queens have tested positive for swine flu. More than 100 students at the school were absent with flu-like symptoms last week, he said.

State public health officials in Ohio confirmed one case of swine flu on Sunday. There have been seven confirmed cases in California, two in Kansas, and two in Texas, Besser said.

The World Health Organization advised all countries to be on the lookout for "unusual" outbreaks of flu, after an emergency meeting Saturday as the seriousness of the outbreak became clear.

Three Factory Workers 'Shot Dead,' Mayor Says

(CNN) -- Police are investigating the suspicious deaths of three women who were found dead at a windshield factory in Pennsylvania.

Saltsburg Mayor Ron Wagner said the three women, all relatives of the factory's owner, "were shot dead" Thursday, near the end of the work day, at Ferguson Glass.

The Westmoreland County Coroner's Office said the three bodies were found "by a family member in a garage within the business."

The victims' cause of death will not be released pending further investigation, the coroner's office said Friday.

The victims were identified as Edith Cora Tietge, 81; Kris Lynn Murphy, 43; and Doris Lee Murphy, 69.

Report: Wife Made Children Move Husband's Dead Body

OCALA, Fla. -- Gruesome new details were released on Friday in the case of Delores Laster.

Orange County detectives said Laster shot her husband in the back of the head and then recruited his children to drag his body out to the garage.

The public school teacher is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her husband in 1988.

The document released on Friday is more than 900 pages, but right off the top there are chilling statements from Laster's two children about what happened in the house 21 years ago.

The children, now adults, told detectives what they said their mother asked them to do.

Delores Laster, 61, has always maintained that she did not kill her husband, Clarence. But a newly released report not only suggested that she shot her husband in the back of the head, but it also showed she asked her children -- ages 10 and 12 at the time -- to help her move his body.

"I always felt in my heart that she done it, but now we know," said the victim's son, Juan Laster. "It's going to be a closure to the family. We're very upset about it."

Juan Laster is the victim's oldest son. He said, at one point, though they didn't live together, all the children were close.

"For some reason, when this did happen, she just the took kids away from us," he said.

On the morning of March 19, 1988, Laster's daughter told investigators that her mother woke her up to ask for help moving her dad into the garage.

Kristy Dandridge stated that her father was too heavy, so she was told to wake her brother, Clyde, to help.

Clyde Laster, who is now 32, told detectives that his sister woke him and told him his dad was hurt and they needed his help. He said that when he walked into his parents' bedroom, he saw his father lying on the floor with blood on the back of his head.

The document said Clyde Laster's mother told him that his father had been drinking, fell down and struck his head on the night stand.

Clyde Laster said that his father was semi-coherent and was left in the garage covered in plastic when they left for a trip to visit his grandparents in Gainesville, the report said.

The victim's eldest son said he just wants to know why this happened.

"She was still a teacher and being in front of those kids, acting like it was nothing," Juan Laster said.

The newly released documents also said that the children were told to take off their clothes and put them in a plastic bag. They then left for their grandparents' home.

The report said that they stopped at a shopping plaza just off Interstate 75 in Ocala, where Laster's daughter said she saw her mother pull behind the stores and throw the bag containing their bloody clothes into the Dumpster.

The state said Delores Laster applied for retirement earlier this month -- a week before the school board was scheduled to vote on firing her.

Starting May 1, she is eligible for a state teacher's pension of $2,983 a month for her 40 years of service in the Orange County School System. But the state said there's a chance that pension could be forfeited if she is convicted of murder.

Delores Laster's trial is set for July.

CDC: 8 New York Students Have Swine Flu

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed cases of swine flu in eight students at a New York preparatory school, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday.

The students have had only mild symptoms and none have been hospitalized, he said. Some of the students have already recovered.

More than 100 students were absent from school due to flu-like symptoms last week. New York health officials tested samples for eight students Saturday and determined the students were probably suffering from swine flu, and the CDC confirmed the diagnosis on Sunday, Bloomberg said.

The announcement brings the number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States to 20. Bloomberg and New York Health Commissioner Tom Frieden said there is no sign of a citywide outbreak of the flu, and no sign of a potential outbreak of swine flu at other schools.

Some students at the school spent spring break in Mexico, Bloomberg said, but authorities have not determined whether any of the students with a confirmed case of swine flu was in Mexico. Someone who traveled to Mexico may not have had any flu symptoms but passed on the flu to someone else, he noted.

Frieden called on students who are home sick to stay home for 48 hours after their symptoms subside.

If symptoms are normal for a regular kind of flu, there is no need to go to a hospital, said Bloomberg. If symptoms become severe, as with any illness, people should go to the hospital, he said.

St. Francis, which has 2,700 students, announced it will remain closed for two days. Asked whether the students' illnesses have been minor because they're young and healthy or because it is a minor strain of the virus, Frieden responded, "We don't know."


It has been a "relatively mild" flu season, Frieden said.

"We don't know whether this strain has been circulating more widely."

Kaitlyn Going Ape Over The Talking Heads

My sister absolutely LOVES "Thank You For Sending Me An Angel" by the Talking Heads. She listens to the live version on the Stop Making Sense DVD, and calls it the "Drum Song", lol.

Captain Blood Radio @ The Space

My best friend Kyle's band played last night at a round of Battle of the Bands and won!! YEAH, they're GOLD!

Look for Kyle- she is the keyboardist on the right. Her boyfriend Jesse is vocals.

Deputies, Suspect Dead After Shootouts

(CNN) -- Two Florida deputies trying to arrest a man wanted in a domestic violence case were shot and killed Saturday by the suspect, who died in a shootout after a car chase into the next county.

Deputies Burt Lopez and Warren York traded gunshots with the suspect at about 1 p.m. at the Shoal River Gun Club in Crestview, Florida, said Okaloosa County Sheriff's office spokeswoman Nicole Wagner.

Joshua Cartwright, 28, had been involved in a domestic violence incident earlier in the day in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. It wasn't his first run-in with the law.

"I know we'd dealt with him in the past," said Wagner, who did not immediately have details of the earlier dealings.

Lopez and York were airlifted to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, about 50 miles southwest. Both were pronounced dead at the hospital, Wagner said.

Cartwright then was chased in his car into neighboring Walton County. He flipped his car at the end of the chase, then began shooting at deputies who returned fire and killed him, according to Wagner.

81 Dead In Mexico As Flu Emergency Goes Global

(CNN) -- Mexican officials are asking citizens to avoid large crowds, refrain from kissing as a greeting and maintain a distance of at least 1.8 meters (six feet) from each other amid growing concern in the country and elsewhere over new cases of suspected and confirmed swine flu infection.

Several countries issued travel notices and tightened restrictions to brace against the virus the World Health Organization is calling "a public health emergency of international concern."

By Sunday, 81 deaths had been deemed "likely linked" to a deadly new strain of the virus by health authorities in Mexico. Viral testing has confirmed 20 cases, said Dr. Jose A. Cordova Villalobos, Mexico's health secretary. In the United States, the number of confirmed swine flu cases stood at 11.

In New Zealand, officials said 22 students and three teachers, who returned from a three-week-long language trip to Mexico, may have been infected with the virus.

The 25 students and teachers at Auckland's Rangitoto College returned to New Zealand via Los Angeles on Saturday.

Fourteen have shown flu-like symptoms, with four "more unwell than others," said Dr. Julia Peters, clinical director of Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said 10 students tested positive for influenza A. The specimens will be sent to WHO to determine whether it is H1N1 swine influenza. H1N1 influenza is a subset of influenza A.

The WHO results are expected back by midweek. The group remains quarantined at home.

"It's certainly has not been confirmed that they have swine flu," said Dr. Craig Thornley, medical officer of health in influenza. "We already have provisional information that some of the group have influenza A. We won't know if they have the type of influenza A that is swine flu."

In England, authorities stressed that a crew member who developed flu-like symptoms during a flight from Mexico City to Heathrow did not test positive for swine flu.

"I can confirm that the patient doesn't have swine flu," said Jonathan Street, a spokesman for Northwick Park Hospital in London.

"We have done all test, and they all came back negative."

In Israel, doctors are running tests on a man who recently returned from Mexico with light flu symptoms.

U.S. health officials said Friday that some cases of the virus in the United States matched samples of the deadly Mexican virus. All the patients have recovered or are expected to.

The panic over the virus prompted Canada to issue a travel health notice, saying the public health agency was "tracking clusters of severe respiratory illness with deaths in Mexico."

South Korea said it will test airline passengers arriving from the United States. And Japan will convene a Cabinet meeting Monday to come up with measures to block the entry of the virus into the country.

The United States had not issued any travel warnings or quarantines.

But US Airways said Saturday night it would allow passengers to change plans if they wanted to because of the outbreak.

Airline spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said it was not asking people not to travel to Mexico, but wanted to "give them that flexibility" if "they don't feel comfortable."

Gregory Hartl, of the World Health Organization, said the strain of the virus seen in Mexico is worrisome because it has mutated from older strains.

"Any time that there is a virus which changes ... it means perhaps the immunities the human body has built up to dealing with influenza might not be adjusted well enough to dealing with this new virus," Hartl said.

He said that, in Mexico, otherwise young, healthy people have been hit by the virus -- "one of the pieces of the puzzle that is worrying us," he said.

Mexico City has closed all of its schools and universities until further notice because of the virus.

More than 1,300 people with flu-like symptoms have been admitted to hospitals in Mexico, and officials are trying to determine how many of them have swine flu, said Jose Cordova Villalobos, the country's health minister.

The H1N1 strain of swine flu is usually associated with pigs. When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it a tougher strain that is harder to treat or fight off.

Symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the CDC said.

President Barack Obama, who visited Mexico last week en route to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, is not sick.

"The president's trip to Mexico has not put his health in any danger," spokesman Robert Gibbs said.