Thursday, March 25, 2010

R.I.P. McKenzie...


I followed this baby's ups and downs through the facebook group page "Pray for McKenzie".
She is now in
heaven, a real angel...

From the Tallahassee Newspaper:

2-year-old McKenzie Bailey dies after long battle with illness

McKenzie Bailey touched everyone that she met.

She was a 2-year-old that meant more to her family, friends, and doctors than she would she ever know.

McKenzie had neonatal Marfan syndrome, a disorder of the connective tissue. Her tissue was very flexible, which made her heart and lungs much larger than average. Her chest cavity was so large that her lungs have moved her heart to her lower right abdomen.

McKenzie died Wednesday afternoon at Shands Hospital in Gainesville after a rough few weeks of another hospital admittance.

She might have lost her battle, but those that knew the little girl that loved to play and give kisses will always have her in their heart.

"She has taught me to cherish every moment you have," said McKenzie's mother, Jennifer Bailey. "I have no regrets, I would do it all over again if I could."

"I am going to miss her smile and her kisses. She loved to give kisses," Jennifer said, who is now home with her family.

Jennifer and her husband, Ashley fought hard for their only child.

In January, the Baileys asked the Tallahassee community for help to find adequate transportation that would get McKenzie to Johns Hopkins, where there was a doctor willing to do the surgery she needed.

But McKenzie was never able to get to Baltimore. Her health was just too risky for transportation.

Since January, her health had its ups and downs with constant doctor and hospital visits.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Pictures From Storm

This is the shopping center I work at.. My salon is on the other side of shopping center.
At about 5:40 PM on Saturday I was working when that part of the roof fell- one of our stylists was inside at the time shopping with her daughter, but they were safely evacuated.



This is around the corner from work..



This is a home on Post Road just before Hillside Avenue (the road Greenwich High School is on)..


...And this is Hillside Road itself. No school today!

North Street, flooded..


Governer Jodi Rell declaring state of emergency, with our First Selectman Peter Tesei to her right.

Woman Killed by Falling Trees ID'd; Remembered by Church

[ARTICLE 2]

Greenwich Time- A Greenwich woman who was killed Saturday after being struck by falling trees was remembered Monday as a "wonderful person" who was active in her church and loved music.

Police identified the woman Monday as 61-year-old June Einhorn, of 19 Boulder Brook Road.

Einhorn was killed Saturday evening during the height of a fierce storm that ripped through Greenwich and caused major destruction in the backcountry, where Einhorn lived.

Police said Einhorn was out walking with her husband, Eric Einhorn, in their northeast Greenwich neighborhood when several trees struck her, causing a severe head injury.

It is believed the Einhorns were walking to a neighbor's house for dinner at the time of the incident. Officials believe she was killed instantly.

On Monday, news of Einhorn's passing shook the members of Christ Church Greenwich, where she had been an involved member for several years.

"She was always very active in a lot of our programs and our music department," said Susan Marks, communications director for the church.

"She was an amazing lady. Very talented. She could do everything, and this is such a loss, not just to Christ Church but to the whole community."

Marks, who described Einhorn as a good friend, said Einhorn was South African and had two children who both recently graduated from college. Her children were in the church choir, Marks said.

"They actually had just moved back to Greenwich," said Marks, noting that the Einhorns had moved out of town for a period. "She was just a wonderful person."

As of Monday afternoon, Marks believed there would be a memorial service at the church, but plans had not been discussed, she said. Einhorn's family could not be reached for comment at their home Monday.

According to online records, the Einhorns were one of numerous donors to a program called the Sekolo Project Inc., which works to help prevent HIV infection in Namibia. Marks said she was familiar with the project and the couple's involvement.

On Sunday, one of the Einhorns' neighbors described how the ordeal unfolded. Neighbor Gary Silberberg said he was outside checking on damage when he was approached by the woman's husband, asking him to help search for his wife.

After grabbing a flashlight from his home, Silberberg returned to find the woman had been lying on the road close to a tree.

"She was lying face down and we turned her over and I couldn't get a pulse and she had a gray pallor on her face," Silberberg said Sunday.

With the assistance of a neighbor, they used a tarpaulin to carry her to a nearby home where a doctor lived. However, Silberberg said there was nothing the doctor could do.

It took medics and police nearly two hours to get to the scene and even longer to get the woman to a hospital due to the damage in the area from falling trees and power lines. Police said the Einhorns arrived at Greenwich Hospital at approximately 11 p.m. Saturday. June Einhorn was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Ingrid McMenamin, president of the Northwest Greenwich Association, said the tragedy demonstrates how residents need to be wary of falling trees and stay indoors if they can.

"Our heart reaches out to the family," said McMenamin. "It is just tragic. It reinforces the need to stay in shelter when the weather is like this."

Falling Tree Kills Backcountry Woman on Way to Dinner

[ARTICLE 1]

This article reflects my uncle (Sgt. Mike O'Connor)'s account of nearly losing his life as well.


Greenwich Time- A 61-year-old woman was killed after a tree struck her on the head as she and her husband walked in their northeast Greenwich neighborhood during the storm Saturday night.

Police did not release the woman's name pending notification of additional family members. Her husband, who was slightly injured, was treated and released from Greenwich Hospital, and could not be reached by telephone Sunday.

The woman and her husband lived on Boulder Brook Road, and were believed to be walking to a neighbor's home for dinner, police said.

Neighbor Gary Silberberg said he was outside checking on damage when he was approached by the woman's husband, asking him to help search for his wife.

"He was upset, he was agitated," Silberberg said. Darkness and extensive tree damage made the search difficult, Silberberg said.

"It was just awful there were so many trees down," he said.

Silberberg returned to his home to find a flashlight. When he returned a few minutes later the woman had been found lying on the road close to a tree.

"She was lying face down and we turned her over and I couldn't get a pulse and she had a gray pallor on her face," said Silberberg, 65, who had been a medic in the Army about 40 years ago.

A neighbor found a tarpaulin and Silberberg and other neighbors carried her to a nearby home where a doctor lived.

The doctor looked at her but there was nothing he could do, Silberberg said.

Police believed one white pine tree knocked two others down, and that one of the those trees fell on the woman's head.

"We think she died instantly," said Chief David Ridberg.

It took almost two hours for police and paramedics to arrive because of the storm damage that blocked roads leading to the scene, said Sgt. Michael O'Connor.

At one point he feared for his life on Stanwich Road.

"We were outside trying to move a tree when we heard a loud crack -- the gust of wind must have been 70 miles per hour easily -- and we jumped back into the truck," he said. "The tree just stopped above the hood, it was the (telephone) wires that stopped it. If I had moved that truck about four feet (before the tree came down) I think it would have crushed the truck."

The tree's trunk, which O'Connor estimated to be about three feet in diameter, stopped just inches above the hood of the police department pickup he was in with two other officers and two paramedics.

"It was right in the windshield, right in our faces," he said. "There were some expletives said and I said let's get out of here."

They parked the vehicle in a driveway and waited for a tree crew to cut the tree to let them through. But another tree was in their way preventing them from responding to Boulder Brook Road.

They got out and walked but in the meantime two detectives had reached the scene, said O'Connor. Instead they responded to other calls including one where a family had been trapped in a car for hours because trees had come down on either side of the car.

"It was like something out of a movie," O'Connor said about the damage wrought by the storm and the danger they were in. "I was scared. I have been a police officer for almost 26 years and I was a volunteer firefighter before that. This was the worst I have ever seen it. I do consider myself lucky."

It wasn't until about 11 p.m. that the woman and her husband were brought to the hospital, police said.

The woman's body will be taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Monday. Police did not know if an autopsy will be performed Monday.

A Third of the U.S. Faces Above-Average Flood Risk

MSNBC-More than a third of the contiguous United States faces a high or above average flood risk this spring, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday.

"We are looking at potentially historic flooding in some parts of the country this spring," Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a news briefing while presenting the government's spring outlook. NOAA oversees the weather service.

The highest threat is in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa. Those areas have already seen some flooding and rivers are rising quickly, especially the Red River between North Dakota and Minnesota.

"Crests could approach the record levels set just last year" along the Red, the service stated. In 2009, about 100 homes in the area were damaged and thousands of people were evacuated after the Red River rose above the flood stage for a record 61 days and crested twice.

"It’s a terrible case of deja vu, but this time the flooding will likely be more widespread" across the Midwest, Lubchenco said.

"As the spring thaw melts the snowpack, saturated and frozen ground in the Midwest will exacerbate the flooding of the flat terrain and feed rising rivers and streams," she added.

Rell Probes Complaints That CL&P Delayed Storm Response

Greenwich Time- The governor is calling for a probe into Connecticut Light & Power's response to the weekend's major storm, saying municipal leaders have complained about the utility's slow response after thousands were left without power.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell's response also comes after union officials claimed that CL&P delayed their response to keep costs down.

Rell said she heard from many municipal leaders, fire and police chiefs and emergency management officials, who said they had trouble reaching utility officials -- often getting voice mail or no answer -- and said that they saw relatively few utility crews on the job in the first two days of the storm.

Rell has asked the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and the state Department of Public Utility Control to pull individual work crew records for Saturday and Sunday.

"Thousands of Connecticut residents remain without power even now -- three days after the storm, with nighttime lows still dipping into the 30s," Rell said in a statement. "And it is flatly unacceptable for a fire or police official to be unable to reach a `real person' at a utility company in the middle of an emergency. We need to know what went wrong, why it happened and how to keep it from happening again."

CL&P spokesman Frank Poirot Tuesday morning declined to comment on the allegations by labor union officials that the utility didn't want to pay crews double time for working longer shifts.

"We're focus our efforts on restoration," Poirot said. "Anything else is a distraction."

Daughter Charged in December Stabbing

STAMFORD -- A Greenwich woman was arraigned in state Superior Court Tuesday after police said she stabbed her mother during a domestic violence incident that occurred in December 2009.

Gail Stechel, 20, of Dingletown Road, was charged with first-degree assault and interfering with an emergency 911 call after turning herself in on an arrest warrant Monday night.

Police said officers responded to Stechel's Dingletown Road residence on Dec. 26, 2009, for a report of a possible overdose on pills. When officers arrived, however, they discovered there had been an altercation the night before that left the mother with "numerous facial contusions," police said. Upon further investigation, officers at the scene learned Stechel's mother had been stabbed several times in the face, back, hands arms and legs, according to Lt. Daniel Allen.

Allen said it was not clear if the wounds were superficial or deep, penetrating wounds. Police said if the victim had received treatment at a hospital, police would have been notified to investigate a possible crime. However, they were never notified about the altercation the night of the alleged stabbing.

Allen said the victim and Stechel were taken to Greenwich Hospital on Dec. 26, 2009. The victim's wounds did not appear to be life-threatening then, police said.

Stechel was treated for a possible overdose on pills, according to police reports.

Allen said in the months after responding to the incident, detectives decided to pursue an arrest warrant to charge her with the crimes.

Police said officers found a knife and other evidence at the scene of the home.

Allen said Stechel posted a $100,000 bond and was released Monday night.

Her attorney, Mark Sherman, said Stechel appeared in state Superior Court for her arraignment Tuesday afternoon, where a judge held her bond at $100,000 and issued a partial protective order allowing Stechel to have contact with her mother, but barring her from any further physical altercations.

Sherman declined to comment on the circumstances behind the incident, as did police.

"This is a delicate, sensitive family situation," said Sherman following the hearing. "The family has begun the healing process and put mechanisms in place so that this does not happen again."

The Storm of the Century..

Yes, our area had the biggest storm that I will always remember. One woman in our town died, as I will post an article on, and my house only received electricity today after being without since Saturday.

It's sad to have lost a life in our community from the storm- and my uncle, a responding officer to the incident, almost lost his life due to a tree that had crushed where he and his fellow officer sat in the vehicle just moments before.

I will never forget this storm, or the other news I received yesterday- my maternal grandfather has lung cancer.


..Good news is that it's at an operable stage and there is great hope.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Falling Tree Kills Backcountry Greenwich Woman on Way to Dinner

Greenwich Time- A 61-year-old woman was killed after a tree struck her on the head as she and her husband walked in their northeast Greenwich neighborhood during the storm Saturday night.

Police did not release the woman's name pending notification of additional family members. Her husband, who was slightly injured, was treated and released from Greenwich Hospital, and could not be reached by telephone Sunday.

The woman and her husband lived on Boulder Brook Road, and were believed to be walking to a neighbor's home for dinner, police said.

Neighbor Gary Silberberg said he was outside checking on damage when he was approached by the woman's husband, asking him to help search for his wife.

"He was upset, he was agitated," Silberberg said. Darkness and extensive tree damage made the search difficult, Silberberg said.

"It was just awful there were so many trees down," he said.

Silberberg returned to his home to find a flashlight. When he returned a few minutes later the woman had been found lying on the road close to a tree.

"She was lying face down and we turned her over and I couldn't get a pulse and she had a gray pallor on her face," said Silberberg, 65, who had been a medic in the Army about 40 years ago.

A neighbor found a tarpaulin and Silberberg and other neighbors carried her to a nearby home where a doctor lived.

The doctor looked at her but there was nothing he could do, Silberberg said.

Police believed one white pine tree knocked two others down, and that one of the those trees fell on the woman's head.

"We think she died instantly," said Chief David Ridberg.

It took almost two hours for police and paramedics to arrive because of the storm damage that blocked roads leading to the scene, said Sgt. Michael O'Connor.

At one point he feared for his life on Stanwich Road.

"We were outside trying to move a tree when we heard a loud crack -- the gust of wind must have been 70 miles per hour easily -- and we jumped back into the truck," he said. "The tree just stopped above the hood, it was the (telephone) wires that stopped it. If I had moved that truck about four feet (before the tree came down) I think it would have crushed the truck."

The tree's trunk, which O'Connor estimated to be about three feet in diameter, stopped just inches above the hood of the police department pickup he was in with two other officers and two paramedics.

"It was right in the windshield, right in our faces," he said. "There were some expletives said and I said let's get out of here."

They parked the vehicle in a driveway and waited for a tree crew to cut the tree to let them through. But another tree was in their way preventing them from responding to Boulder Brook Road.

They got out and walked but in the meantime two detectives had reached the scene, said O'Connor. Instead they responded to other calls including one where a family had been trapped in a car for hours because trees had come down on either side of the car.

"It was like something out of a movie," O'Connor said about the damage wrought by the storm and the danger they were in. "I was scared. I have been a police officer for almost 26 years and I was a volunteer firefighter before that. This was the worst I have ever seen it. I do consider myself lucky."

It wasn't until about 11 p.m. that the woman and her husband were brought to the hospital, police said.

The woman's body will be taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Monday. Police did not know if an autopsy will be performed Monday.

Staff Writer Frank MacEachern can be reached at frank.maceachern@scni.com or 203-625-4434.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Schwarzenegger Orders Review of Sex Offender Case

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a review Friday of the way the state handled a molestation case involving a man who is now charged with murdering one California teenager and under investigation in another killing.

The order came a day after The Associated Press disclosed John Albert Gardner III could have been sent back to prison in 2007 for parole violations and evaluated for possible commitment to a state mental hospital as a sexually violent predator.

"We must learn from what happened in this case to make sure the public is protected from sexual predators," Schwarzenegger said in a statement detailing his order to the state Sex Offender Management Board.

Gardner, 30, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King in San Diego County. He also is a suspect but has not been charged in the killing of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who disappeared as she walked to school in Escondido in early 2009.

The 17-member board includes law enforcement officials, crime victims, treatment experts and others who advise the governor and Legislature on sex offender policies.

Gardner pleaded guilty in 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old neighbor. He spent five years in prison and three years on parole before being released from supervision in September 2008.

Parole records independently obtained by the AP showed Gardner could have been sent back to prison in 2007 and 2008 for violations that included living too close to a college daycare center.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has said it was trying to determine if actions regarding Gardner's parole were consistent with policy and law.

"We are taking every appropriate step to review these case factors to determine if these potential infractions warranted a return to prison on their merits," Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said in a statement.

Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the department, previously said Gardner was considered to be a low- or moderate-risk sex offender, based on the assessment in use at the time.

He wasn't sent back to prison in September 2007 because he corrected the residency violation by moving away from the daycare center, Hidalgo said.

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, called for an investigation of the department and intends to hold public hearings before proposing legislation to increase penalties and oversight of sex offenders.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, said he would amend one of his existing bills now in the state Senate to increase the penalty for a first offense of raping a minor to a mandatory 25 years to life in prison.

The current punishment is 15 years to life and also depends on the age of the victim. Nava is a former prosecutor who is running for attorney general.

Nava's bill also proposes creating a system to call the cell phones of residents in a specific area letting them know when a sex crime has been committed in their neighborhood.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Mother Whose Milk Was Made Into Cheese Insists She's Better Than a Cow

NY Post- No matter what the city says, Lori Mason insists the breast milk she supplied her cheese-making husband is more wholesome than anything on the shelves at Whole Foods.

Her milk is 100 percent organic, free range, and foie gras-fed, she told The Post.

"I eat healthier than your average cow and I'm not pumped full of steroids!" Mason said.

When Mason's husband, Daniel Angerer, blogged about making some of his wife's excess breast milk into cheese, customers at his restaurant, Klee Brasserie on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea, began demanding to have a taste.

But as The Post reported yesterday, even though expressed mother's-milk cheese is not against health codes, city officials strongly advised Angerer to desist.

The cheese could pose a potential health hazard, the officials said.

That did not stop diners eager to sample the human dairy from showing up at the restaurant yesterday.

"We had some people who ordered the cheese plate and I had to tell them we don't serve the breast-milk cheese in the restaurant," maitre d' Bari Musacchio said. "I told them if they wanted to try it, there is a recipe on the [Klee Brasserie] Web site."

According to Liz Thorpe, a vice president of Murray's Cheese shops in Manhattan, who reviewed Angerer's cheese for The Post, they aren't missing much.

"It was slippery, slightly crunchy and tasted like pickles," she said. "I give it a thumbs down."

But breast-milk cheese isn't just a matter of bad taste, it's potentially unsafe, city officials said.

"It's not intended for adults, or for wide public consumption," a Health Department spokeswoman said.

Risks would "depend on the health of the lactating woman," she said. "If the restaurant was found distributing the cheese in the establishment for public consumption, the Health Department could issue a violation."

Angerer said he has no intention of selling his wife's cheese in the restaurant, but he insisted it's actually a healthy food.

"I tried it and I'm still alive. The baby eats it all day long and she's fine too," he said.

Even though they're barred from distributing it to customers, Mason said the couple may hold private tasting parties "at our apartment or in the park in the spring with wine."

Mason, who has been propositioned by several creepy customers eager to sample her breast milk, offered one caveat.

"We may need security to stop the weird fetish people from coming in."

The Health Department nixed the cheese-party idea, too.

"He can't do that either," the spokeswoman said.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Corey Haim Update

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Former 1980s teen movie actor and heartthrob Corey Haim died early Wednesday, authorities said.

Haim, 38, was taken to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, where he was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m. PT (5:15 a.m. ET), Los Angeles County Deputy Coroner Ed Winter said. The hospital is a mile from Haim's apartment.

Corey Feldman, Haim's longtime friend and frequent co-star, said Haim was "a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul."

Haim was in the apartment he shared with his mother, Judy, early Wednesday when he "became a little dizzy, he kind of went to his knees in the bedroom," Winter said. "His mom assisted him in the bed. He became unresponsive."

His mother called paramedics to the apartment, which is between Hollywood Hills and Burbank, he said.


A 911 call came in just before 1 a.m. PT (4 a.m. ET), said police Sgt. William Mann.

Los Angeles police Sgt. Frank Albarran said earlier that Haim's death appeared to be accidental and may have been due to an overdose.

But "the cause of death at this time is unknown," Mann said later. "He had flulike symptoms before the incident. His mother was giving him various over-the-counter medications."

The deputy coroner said Haim's flulike symptoms had been present for two days.

"We found no illicit drugs; however, we did recover four of his prescription meds at the location," Winter said, adding he does not know what those drugs were.

Haim's agent, Mark Heaslip, also told CNN's sister network HLN, "We do not think this is a drug overdose. Corey was actually going very clean in his life."

An autopsy, including toxicology tests, will be conducted Wednesday, Winter said. It is likely to be weeks before any conclusions are made public.

Haim had struggled with drug abuse in recent years, but Heaslip said he was attempting to make a comeback and had signed several contracts, including one for a reality show.

Haim was not feeling well Tuesday night and was running a low-grade fever, he said. The actor went into his mother's bedroom and asked her to lie down by him, Heaslip said. He told his mother he was having trouble breathing, and his mother told him to roll on his side, he said. He began to feel better, but at midnight he woke his mother by walking around the bedroom and then collapsed.

Asked if news of Haim's death comes as a surprise, Heaslip said, "100 percent." He said the death could have come as a reaction to medication Haim was taking as part of his sobriety program.

The actor was under the care of his doctor, who visited him Tuesday night, as well as an addictionologist, Heaslip said. An addictionologist is a doctor who specializes in treating addictions.

Haim's mother's condition was "horrible," he told HLN. "She's a wreck."

Haim's most famous role was in the 1987 movie "The Lost Boys" in which he appeared with Feldman. Haim played the role of a fresh-faced teenager whose brother becomes a vampire.

In later years, the two friends -- who appeared in eight movies together -- both struggled with drug abuse and went their separate ways. They reunited for a reality show, "The Two Coreys," in 2007, but A&E Network canceled the program after slightly more than a year.

In a statement issued through his publicist, Feldman described his sadness when he was awakened Wednesday morning with word of Haim's death:

"My eyes weren't even open all the way when the tears started streaming down my face," Feldman said. "I am so sorry for Corey, his mother, Judy, his family, my family, all of our fans, and of course my son, who I will have to find a way to explain this to when he gets home from school.

"This is a tragic loss of a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul, who will always be my brother, family, and best friend.

"We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference. Please respect our families as we struggle and grieve through this difficult time. I hope the art Corey has left behind will be remembered as the passion of that for which he truly lived," Feldman's statement said.

In a 2007 interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Haim and Feldman both discussed their battle with drugs. Feldman told King that he had gotten clean, but it took Haim a while longer.

Haim called himself "a chronic relapser for the rest of my life."

"I think I have an addiction to pretty much everything," he said. "I mean, I have to be very careful with myself as far as that goes, which is why I have a support group around me consistently."

He told King that he also had lost more than 150 pounds while getting sober.

"I didn't like looking in the mirror anymore," Haim said. "I couldn't do it ... See, I hit about, my peak, about 302 [pounds]. ... And now I'm back to 150."

In 2008, Feldman told People magazine that he would no longer speak to Haim until his former co-star got sober. In a clip from "The Two Coreys," Feldman and his wife, along with two other former teen stars, called on Haim in an effort to get him to admit he needed help, the magazine said.

The meeting followed an incident in which Haim -- scheduled to film a cameo appearance in a direct-to-DVD sequel to "The Lost Boys" -- appeared on the set "clearly under the influence," People reported.

"I don't feel that he's a safe person to have around my wife and child at the moment, for a multitude of reasons," Feldman told People. Haim told the magazine in the August 2008 article that he was currently sober and said, "I will always love Corey Feldman, but I lost 105 percent respect for him and his wife."

Christopher Ameruoso, a photographer who lives in the Oakwood Apartments complex, said Wednesday that Haim had been his neighbor for at least a year. He said he last saw Haim two days ago getting into a taxi.

"He looked good," he said. "He's putting on a lot of weight."

He said Haim sometimes could be seen wandering around the complex, "looking for companionship, looking for friends."

Haim was born December 23, 1971, in Toronto, Ontario, according to a biography on his Web site. He made his first television appearance in 1982 on the Canadian series "The Edison Twins." His first film role was in the 1984 American movie "First Born."

Haim also won rave reviews for his title role in the 1986 film "Lucas." Film critic Roger Ebert said of him at the time, "If he continues to act this well, he will never become a half-forgotten child star, but will continue to grow into an important actor."

Following "The Lost Boys," both Haim and Feldman appeared in "License to Drive" and "Dream a Little Dream."

'Lost Boys' Actor Corey Haim Dead in Burbank at 38

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) -- The Los Angeles coroner's office says ''The Lost Boys'' actor Corey Haim is dead at 38.

Coroner's Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said Wednesday that Haim died at 2:15 a.m. at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. She said an autopsy will determine the cause of death and there are no other details.

Canadian-born Haim became a teen heartthrob with the 1986 film ''Lucas'' and 1987's ''The Lost Boys.''

His first role was in the 1984 hit ''Firstborn,'' in which he played a young child caught up in a family war. He then appeared in the 1985 television movie ''A Time to Live.''

In recent years, he appeared in the A&E reality TV show ''The Two Coreys'' with his friend Corey Feldman. It was canceled in 2008 after two seasons.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

DA: Mother Forced Mentally Disabled Daughter Laura Cummings to Eat Feces and Die

BUFFALO, N.Y. (CBS/AP) Laura Cummings lived a short, tortured life filled with unspeakable abuse at the hands of her mother and half-brother, Eva Cummings and Luke Wright, according to a grand jury indictment returned Feb. 26.

Eva Cummings, 51, and her son face a total of 15 charges in the January 2010 suffocation death of 23-year-old Laura Cummings. The indictment reads like a macabre list of torture and abuse.

Police allege that over the last few months of Laura's life, Eva Cummings and her son Wright, 31, shackled Laura to a metal chair with a sack over her head, brutally sodomized her with a broomstick and at times shoved her face in her own feces.

"Starting in November, there’s a significant escalation of her debasement as a human being," Senior Trial Counsel Thomas M. Finnerty of the DA’s Office said. "It was happening on a daily or nightly basis."

Finnerty, who has prosecuted a number of heinous crimes in his 17 years in the DA’s office, called it "the worst case I’ve ever seen."

"It’s sadistic, and it’s allegedly sustained over a long period of time," he said.

The Cummings household, in North Collins, N.Y., and prior to that in Olean, both just outside of Buffalo, was well-known to Child Protective Services, Patricia Wright, 27, Laura's half sister, told the Buffalo News.

She said she reported abuse to Erie County Child Protective Services and Erie County Family Court more than a decade ago. Patricia Wright said she, herself, was physically abused for years, resulting in a broken ankle and cracked vertebrae in her back.

"Chaos. Almost like a living hell. No child should ever have to go through what we went through," Patricia Wright, told CBS affiliate WIBV when asked what the apartment was like.

Mother and son also are accused of unlawfully imprisoning Laura Cummings because of her mental disability — an elevated hate crime charge.

Eva Cummings could face a possible sentence of 83 years to life on five charges, while her son could face 142 years to life on 10 charges, prosecutors said.