Police Shoot, Kill Woman In Brooklyn .

It is unfortuanate that things had turned lethal, but I am SO SICK of hearing people saying she was "unarmed"... She had just flew through two red lights, smashing into a minivan that very well could have been carrying babies/children. She almost killed the officer while she went into reverse (while he was hanging out of her STOLEN CAR).

In my opinion, she used deadly force first.

She was arrested EIGHT TIMES in the past, and was out on bail for attempted kidnapping and murder. You play with serious fire, like that woman did, and you get burned. Simple as that. One less idiot in this world.

Wall St. Journal- A New York City police detective shot and killed a woman in Brooklyn Thursday as they grappled in her car after it ran through a red light and collided with a minivan, a police spokesman said.

The 23-year-old woman, who wasn't immediately identified, was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital Center not long after the 5:40 p.m. incident.

She was the fifth person to be shot and killed this year by New York City police, who have averaged 10 fatal shootings annually in recent years.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said the woman was behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry that was driving erratically. It caught the attention of two members of the Brooklyn South Narcotics unit, a detective and an officer.

The car went through two red lights in the Flatbush section and crossed the double line in the center of Church Avenue before smashing into the Toyota minivan at East 38th Street, Mr. Browne said.

The detective approached the car on the driver's side, while the officer went to the passenger side, the spokesman said. Both were plain-clothed.


Inside, the woman scrambled to the passenger side as both officers attempted to enter the Camry, the spokesman said.

Mr. Browne said the 44-year-old detective, who has been on the force since 2000, began struggling with the woman over the gear shift, his gun drawn. She was able to put the car in reverse, knocking the 27-year-old officer back out of the car.

The car backed up 18-20 feet, with the detective inside it. The gun fired, hitting the woman once in the chest.

"He has his gun out with one hand, attempting with the other hand to shift the car into park," Mr. Browne said. "She puts it into reverse and guns it, and a single round is discharged, hitting the woman in the chest."

It was unknown if the discharge was accidental or intentional.

The officer was taken to New York Methodist Hospital, the official said.
The driver of the minivan had minor injuries.


The woman had been arrested eight times, including for kidnapping and attempted murder in connection with a May 2011 home invasion, a law-enforcement official said. She was out on $25,000 bail in that case and due in court on Friday, the official said.


The Camry had been stolen at gunpoint on June 5, and its passenger seat had been removed, Mr. Browne said.

He said the woman wasn't carrying identification and police determined her name through fingerprints.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene.

"They shot her and pulled her out of the car. Then she started screaming," said Ayanna Blackman, 38, who watched from her apartment on the same corner.

Witnesses said the woman was covered in blood when she was pulled from the car.


Two elected officials from the area, Assemblyman Nick Perry and Councilmember Jumaane Williams, appeared on the scene and called for an investigation into the shooting.

A crowd gathered in the tense hour after the incident, and shouts of "murderers" were directed at police officials on the scene. But the simmering tension quieted later in the evening.

The shooting comes at a time of heightened public scrutiny of the NYPD's tactics, particularly in some of the city's minority communities.

A narcotics-enforcement officer pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges Wednesday in the fatal shooting in February of an unarmed African-American teenager in the Bronx. Officer Richard Haste was the first officer to be charged criminally in an on-duty shooting since three officers were indicted in the 2006 death of Sean Bell.

Mr. Haste was indicted in the February death of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham, who was shot at close range in his apartment after he tried to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. Police had chased him into his home on the belief that he was carrying a gun, Mr. Haste's defense attorney, Stuart London, said Wednesday.


Recent months also have seen increasing backlash by many African-American and Hispanic New Yorkers against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy, including new legal challenges against the tactic. A record 685,000 stops were made in 2011, the majority involving black and Latino men in low-income neighborhoods.

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Update: The woman is now identified as Shantel Davis.


Military Drone Mistaken for UFO on D.C.’s Capital Beltway

Yahoo- Some folks in the Washington, D.C., area are buzzing about what they thought was a UFO atop a flatbed truck on the Capitol Beltway.


Turns out the disc-shaped object was just a run-of-the-mill military drone.


MyFoxDC reports that what drivers saw—and some photographed—around 11 p.m. Wednesday on Interstate 270, and then later on Interstate 495, was an X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System being transported from Edwards Air Force Base in California to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland for testing.

During its travels through the D.C. area, local station WTOP reported a flurry of activity on Twitter about the strange-looking object.

This not the first time a drone was mistaken for something alien. Last year, a drone being transported by flatbed to Pax River for practicing aircraft carrier takeoffs and landings was also mistaken for a UFO, the Daily Caller reported.

Trauma Cited in Mysterious Ark. Bird Kill

USA Today - A mysterious event that caused thousands of red-wing blackbirds to rain down from the sky New Year's Eve in the Arkansas town of Beebe may have occurred when loud noises or fireworks frightened a flock that roosts in a neighborhood, causing them to fly into buildings and other obstacles, a state ornithologist said.

But others still think weather could have played a role.

Preliminary necropsies on the dead birds by the state Livestock and Poultry Commission "showed trauma," said Karen Rowe, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist. "The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages." Beyond that, all the birds were healthy.

The state is also performing chemical and disease testing, but the results will take a week.

Neighbors reported five to 12 booming noises in the eastern part of Beebe, a community of 5,000 northeast of Little Rock. "They reported it sounding like a cannon or transformer exploding," but officials are still investigating to find out what the noises were, Rowe said.

The flock then rose from its roost and tried to fly away, but possibly because of fireworks in the sky "they naturally wouldn't want to go up high," she said. "They were below the roof line, so they were hitting houses, mail boxes, chimneys and walls."

Blackbirds have very poor night vision.

The first calls about the incident came in at about 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve, according to Keith Stephens, with the Game and Fish Commission.

"They told us there were birds falling out of the sky. After we verified that this wasn't some kind of prank, one of our wildlife officers went over there and sure enough, there were birds falling," he said.

The Department of Emergency Management tested the air and found nothing amiss, so the state isn't putting out any health warnings, he said.

Many theories being floated about causes of the die off can be discounted, said Dan Cristol, a professor of biology at the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. The birds couldn't have eaten a fast-acting pesticide because they would have eaten it during the day and died long before they began to roost at night, he said. A slower-acting pesticide wouldn't have affected them all at the same time. A hail storm is unlikely because they would have had to be flying for that to happen, and at that hour red-wing blackbirds are asleep.

Rough weather had hit the state earlier Friday, but the worst of it was well east of Beebe by the time the birds started falling, said Chris Buonanno, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

But one expert said he can't discount weather as a cause.

"Thousands of birds encountered something, whether it was a lighting strike or hail or something, and that caused the trauma and death," said Robert Meese, an avian ecologist at the University of California-Davis. "I don't see any way that they could have flown into obstructions, because then the birds should have been at the base of the objects. ... This was a scattering."

The number of dead blackbirds is more than 3,000, Rowe said. "Environmental Services says they picked up approximately 2,000 birds." There were others they couldn't reach, she said, and "scavengers probably carried off quite a bit — if you're a cat, it's Christmas dinner."

Red-wing blackbirds are native to North America and gather in large flocks in the winter, generally settling near food sources for weeks at a time, said Mike Parr of the American Bird Conservancy in Washington, D.C.

The number of birds that died Friday is high, he noted, but "to put the number in perspective, windows, communication towers, power lines and wind turbines kill tens of millions of birds each year, probably hundreds of millions."

In an unrelated event, a major fish kill was reported on the Arkansas River last week, Stephens said. Approximately 80,000 to 100,000 dead freshwater drum were found along a 17-mile stretch of the river, about 100 miles from Beebe, between the Ozark Lock and Dam and a point due south of Hartman.

State officials believe the fish kill was disease related. Specimens have been sent to state labs for testing.

The incidents — coming during a traditionally slow news period — made for a wild weekend for state Game and Fish staffers.

"It's the craziest thing I've ever experienced and I've been doing this for 25 years," Stephens said. "I'll bet you I've had 100 calls today, I've done 25 interviews. I did Al-Jazeera live last night."

Is Amazon Peddling Pedophilia?

NEW YORK (WPIX) — It's an e-book with a subject so heinous, it's hard to believe it exists, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover's Code of Conduct"

The how-to guide was available on Amazon.com Wednesday, but by Thursday, it was taken down. We did find a sample, however. The self-published author writes he'd "rather see pedosexuals conquer the world than hear of even one more child being killed because another pedosexual-pedophile is driven into a state of pedocidal-psychosis or a paranoid-panic attack, due to the constant hate-mongering which can be heard from every corner of the Earth, demonizing every juvephile regardless of the quality or character of their sexual relations with minors." Who would write this and why? Phillip R Greaves II of Colorado and here's his reason, "Every time you see them on television they're either murderers, rapists or kidnappers, and that's just not an accurate presentation of that particular sexuality.

So, is it free speech, or just foul and sickening? We asked Jason Boog, the editor of eBookNewser. He says the power of Twitter helped whip the world into a frenzy, "All this anger swelled up, you had a huge crowd saying this was distasteful and dangerous, we have to get this book off the shelf and we had this whole other side saying this is book burning."

At the same time, Amazon users commented on the site, expressing their disgust and talking of a boycott. Facebook pages popped up to condemn Amazon. The book e-tailer didn't get back to our questions but said this yesterday: "...it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable. Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts..."

Before it was taken down, 300 copies have been sold. Greaves reportedly says he thinks the book'll be back up on the site soon.

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If someone wrote in a book on how they wanted to commit acts of murder on children, would we sit there and say "OH hey, that's freedom of speech, let him go on!" NO. So why should we sit there and let him write such criminal material, trying to conjur up a following of sick, drooling psychos to come molest and abuse our children?

Damn right they're always rapists and murderers! They're screwed up weirdos in the first place! To desire a child in that way is purely sick and evil. I bet my whole life savings this guy is no father himself. People like him should have children and see what it's like when other men seek them, looking for sex- then see how he feels.. He's sick, twisted, and in his own world.

They should lock him up for what he's doing- he'll go out and have what he thinks is an "appropriate sexual relationship" with your own daughter. Or son. Does he not realize the psychological impact is has on children when there are grown adults molesting/raping them??
Enough for now, I feel like throwing up at the moment.. I just hope someone finds him and puts him out of his misery. >__>

Parent: Homework Assignment Crosses the Line

Greenwich Citizen- Greenwich's top educator is defending the use of a handout sheet of literary passages containing racial, ethnic and gender slurs that was part of a homework assignment on free speech and censorship in the middle schools.

An "appetizer" to a project coinciding with the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, which took place in early October and celebrated the First Amendment, the handout was intended to get students to think about why certain literary classics are considered taboo, said Sidney Freund, the superintendent of schools.

Among the works quoted in the controversial hand-out, which did not say which books the racy passages came from but appeared to list their page numbers, were "The Pearl," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Sounder."

"They're all books that are in our library that any child can read," Freund told Greenwich Time. "The quotes are being read by kids out of context on purpose. What we try to do always in school is we present things with opposing viewpoints."

The father of an 11-year-old Central Middle School accelerated learning program student who received the hand-out believes that educators crossed the line with the assignment, however.

"I feel as a parent of a seventh-grader that words that start with the letter `F' and are four letters in duration and that words that start with letter `N' and are six letters in duration are inappropriate," Gary Cella said. "Like many parents, I said, `Let's go over your homework.' When I saw this, I literally stopped in my tracks and did the classic double-take. It's not something you expect from any school."

A recurring theme among the passages, which also contain a series of expletives, is slavery and racism.

" `There are two things I can smell a mile,' the first man said in a loud voice. `One's a ham cookin' and the other's a thievin' n------,' " read one of the passages lifted from "Sounder," a William H. Armstrongnovel about the struggles of a black sharecropper family.

Freund said the hand-out was part of a broader project in which the students were expected to read from one of the works on the ALA's banned book list and do a persuasive essay or PowerPoint presentation on the subject of censorship.

Never before has the school district received any complaints about the exercise, according to Freund, who said it has been part of the accelerated learning curriculum for a number of years. Freund did open the door to changes in light of the controversy, however.

"My caution would be in the future, if we're doing this and prior to doing it, is a letter to parents letting them know what we're doing and explaining the lessons since there was some obvious concern related to this," Freund said. "Some tempering of the quotes could be made, and we would not lose the essence of the message that we're trying to deliver to the kids about censorship. But overall, the lesson in the unit is a good one."

One of the controversial passages included in the hand-out came from "House Divided," part of collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury.

It read: "Small fifteen-year-old fingers plucked at the buttons' on Chris' trousers like a moth drawn to an open flame."

Cella said he was so incensed by the racy content of the material that he called Freund's office and was referred to Shelley Somers, the Central Middle School principal.

"My goodness, they grow up so fast to begin with. Do you have to expose them to these words?" Cella said. "I spoke to some parents in the PTA, and they were really taken aback by it."

Messages seeking comment from Somers and from Anthony Mangano, the teacher who gave the assignment to Cella's daughter, were left Tuesday at the school.

Sam Romeo, a child safety advocate, community leader and WGCH radio host, complained to school administrators about the assignment after hearing from parents.

"Where is the sensitivity?" Romeo said, adding that people in the television and radio industry have lost jobs for using similar words.

Just because the books are available in the library, Romeo said that doesn't justify lifting such inflammatory passages from them.

"Can they also get a copy of Playboy and Penthouse magazine under free speech?" Romeo said.

A message seeking comment from Steve Anderson, the school board chairman, was left at his home.

School board member Peter Sherr confirmed that the issue is on the radar of educators but said he didn't want to pass judgment until he received a full explanation of the assignment.

"I've become aware of the situation," Sherr said. "I don't know all the facts yet. I believe the administration is addressing it. I'm looking forward to hearing all of the details."

Freund said he didn't know how many students received the hand-out and whether the assignment was limited to seventh-graders.

The same subject matter was likely taught at Eastern and Western Middle schools, according to Freund, who said an argument could be made that abbreviating some of the slurs and expletives in the hand-out could be seen as window-dressing.

"I doubt there will be a kid who doesn't know what the word is," Freund said. "Again, they're going to read it in a book."

Cella argued that educators are sending a mixed message, however.

"When your teacher is using the `F' word and the `N' word, it kind of OKs their usage outside that particular assignment," Cella said. "You can't have it both ways."

Four Loko: Alcohol-Coffee Mix 'Dangerous'

Remember I wrote about a "spiked drink" party in Washington where they suspected date rape drugs to be thrown into drinks? The idiots were chugging this stuff! No wonder they were passing out in high numbers!

NEW YORK - Mixing alcohol and caffeine is hardly a new concept but a rash of cases involving students and others who landed in hospital after drinking beverages that combine the two has alarmed college and health officials in the United States.

The drinks are dangerous, doctors say, because the caffeine masks the effects of the alcohol, keeping consumers from realising how intoxicated they are.

A brand called Four Loko - a fruit-flavoured malt beverage that has an alcohol content of 12 per cent and as much caffeine as a cup of coffee - has come under scrutiny after students who drank it in New Jersey and Washington ended up in emergency rooms, some with high levels of alcohol poisoning. The drink is only sold in the US.

"This is one of the most dangerous new alcohol concoctions I have ever seen," said Dr Michael Reihart, who said he had treated more than a dozen teenagers and adults during the past three months after they drank Four Loko.

"It's a recipe for disaster because your body's natural defence is to get sleepy and not want to drink but in this case you're tricking the body with the caffeine."

The Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing whether the drinks are safe. THE NEW YORK TIMES

Norwalk Student Hospitalized After Smoking 'Herbal Incense'

I heard about this stuff killing a few people who were unknowingly allergic to it- this needs to be stopped!

(10/26/10) NORWALK - School officials in Norwalk are warning parents about a dangerous substance they say students are smoking as an alternative to marijuana.

Briggs High School Principal Alaine Lane says a student was hospitalized after smoking "herbal incense."

Experts say the drug is not only more potent than marijuana, but when teens see it on store shelves, they think, "it can't be that bad." They say the substance is marketed as "incense" under names like "K2" and "Mr. Nice Guy," and carries a warning that it should not be consumed or inhaled.

Some states have banned the substance altogether, and after seeing the effects first hand, Lane says Connecticut should follow suit.

Conservatives Call for Ground Zero Mosque Protest

(CNN) -- Conservative bloggers called for a protest Sunday against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.

"Building the Ground Zero mosque is not an issue of religious freedom, but of resisting an effort to insult the victims of 9/11 and to establish a beachhead for political Islam and Islamic supremacism in New York," the group "Stop the Islamicization of America" says on its website.

"Ground Zero is a war memorial, a burial ground. Respect it," says the group, which is run by conservative blogger Pamela Geller.

"No one's telling them they can't. We're asking them not to," Geller told CNN's Joy Behar recently.

"We feel it would be more appropriate maybe to build a center dedicated to expunging the Quranic texts of the violent ideology that inspired jihad, or perhaps a center to the victims of hundreds of millions of years of jihadi wars, land enslavements, cultural annihilation and mass slaughter," Geller said.

She's anticipating about 1,000 people will show up, she told CNN by e-mail Sunday.

The project calls for a 13-story community center including a mosque, performing art center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces.

It is a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

The Cordoba Initiative aims to improve relations between Muslims and the West.

"The Cordoba Initiative hopes to build a $100 million, 13-story community center with Islamic, interfaith and secular programming, similar to the 92nd Street Y," its website says, referring to the cultural institution on the upper East side of Manhattan.

Daisy Khan of the American Society for Muslim Advancement told CNN it was a "community center with a prayer space inside."

She said the project was an opportunity for American Muslims living in New York to "give back" to the community.

"There is a lot of ignorance about who Muslims are. A center like this will be dedicated to removing that ignoranceand it will also counter the extremists because moderate Muslims need a voice," she told CNN. "Their voices need to be amplified."

Local political leaders turned out in support of the community last month after Mark Williams of the conservative Tea Party Express reportedly said the mosque was for "the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god."

"To make room for peace there can be no room for hatred, bigotry or prejudice," council member Robert Jackson said at the May 20 demonstration.

The project has the backing of the Community Board of lower Manhattan. It does not require city permission to go ahead.

The plan has split people touched by the September 11 attacks.

"Lower Manhattan should be made into a shrine for the people who died there," said Michael Valentin, a retired city detective who worked at ground zero. "It breaks my heart for the families who have to put up with this. I understand they're [building] it in a respectful way, but it just shouldn't be down there."

Others such as Barry Zelman said the site's location will be a painful reminder.

"(The 9/11 terrorists) did this in the name of Islam," Zelman said. "It's a sacred ground where these people died, where my brother was murdered, and to be in the shadows of that religion, it's just hypocritical and sacrilegious. "

But Marvin Bethea, who was a paramedic at ground zero, said it was "the right thing to do."

"I lost 16 friends down there. But Muslims also got killed on 9/11. It would be a good sign of faith that we're not condemning all Muslims and that the Muslims who did this happened to be extremists," he said. "As a black man, I know what it's like to be discriminated against when you haven't done anything."

Fury As U.S. Woman Adopts Russian Boy, 7, Then Sends Him Back Alone with Note

Russia reacted with horror today over the heartbreaking story of a seven-year-old Siberian boy adopted by an American family who was sent back to Moscow alone - because his U.S. mother didn't want him any more.

Little Artem Saveliev was last year taken from a grim orphanage and given a new life in Tennessee last year.

But his adoptive mother Torry-Ann Hansen, a 34-year-old nurse, yesterday put him on a ten-hour flight as an unaccompanied minor with a note 'to whom it may concern' saying: 'I no longer wish to parent this child'.

In his rucksack, she had placed sweets, biscuits and colouring pens for the journey.

She did not tell him she was rejecting him. Instead, she and a grandmother that he was going on an 'excursion' to Moscow.

In the typed note, which the blond boy was clutching when Moscow police picked him up, she said she wanted the adoption annulled.

She accused the Vladivostok orphanage of misleading her about the child's behavioural problems.

The Russians angrily denied this, saying he was stubborn but that his only disability was that he was 'flat-footed'.

Officials said they have never witnessed such cruelty to a child after promising a 'new life'.

Unwanted Artem, eight next week, looked confused and bewildered as he was taken into care by Moscow social services.


The Kremlin's children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov lambasted the U.S. mother, who is understood to be a nurse and a single parent with a natural son.

Russia's foreign minister is now demanding a freeze on adoptions between the U.S. and Russia.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the ministry would recommend that the U.S. and Russia hammer out an agreement before any new adoptions are allowed.

'We have taken the decision ... to suggest a freeze on any adoptions to American families until Russia and the USA sign an international agreement' on the conditions for adoptions and the obligations of host families, Lavrov was quoted as saying.

He also said he was 'indignant' at the way the child was treated 'as a parcel'.

Lavrov said the U.S. had refused to negotiate such an accord in the past but 'the recent event was the last straw'.

U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, said he was 'deeply shocked by the news' and 'very angry that any family would act so callously toward a child that they had legally adopted'.

Russian officials also refused the U.S. consul access to the child saying: 'If his American parent kicked out him from the country on a plane like a sack of potatoes, then we will look after the boy.

'Our care system will take up the case. After a full medical examination, he will be placed into one of our orphanages.'

Ashtakhov questioned how American immigration had let the child leave Washington, and why United Airlines had carried him alone to Moscow. Normally, stringent checks are applied on minors travelling without parents.

It appears the child was also alone when he flew from Tennessee to Washington before boarding the flight to Moscow.

'The adoptive mother broke all the rules and procedures by sending an adopted child back,' he said.

Ashtakhov, who said he played with the child and talked to him, said the mother had another son called Logan.

'Artem said he made good friends with Logan,' he said. 'He was talking quite calmly about the family, but when he started to talk about his mother he began to cry, showing how she dragged him by the hair.'

In a shocking typed letter she gave to her seven-year-old 'son' to take with him to Moscow, she revealed how she adopted the boy in September 2009.

She claimed he is 'mentally unstable' and that his problems were hidden from her by Russian orphanage officials before she adopted him.

'He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues/behaviour. I was lied to and misled by the Russian orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability,' she wrote.

'They chose to grossly misrepresent those problems in order to get him out of their orphanage.'

The letter - addressed 'to whom it may concern' at the Russian Ministry of Education in Moscow - said: 'After giving my best to this child I am sorry to say that for the sake of my family, friends and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child.

'As he is a Russian national, I am returning him to your guardianship and would like the adoption disannulled.'

Adoption officials in Partizansk, near Vladivostok were stunned, saying that the U.S. woman had made a good impression on them when she went through adoption procedures last year.

She spent four full days with Artem watched by adoption workers before she was allowed to become his mother.

'It was clear that there was mutual affection, and it was good,' said Vera Kuznetsova, chief adoption officer in the region.

'She seemed a nice, kind woman. Artem immediately reached out to her. She even learned a few Russian words to communicate with her future son,' said one official.

U.S. social workers also submitted reports on Hansen for the court which granted the adoption. 'They did not doubt Hansen's honesty and sense of responsibility,' she said.

Recent follow-up reports from America on the boy did not detect any strains in the family, it is claimed.

Russian officals deny Hansen's claims about Artem having severe behavioural problems and being mentally unstable.

'Artem is normal for his age,' said the official. 'He is a little stubborn child, but this is not a problem for loving parents.

'We are shocked by how the American family has treated our child. Artem grew up as a completely normal, relatively advanced child for his age, and healthy. Does she count being flatfooted as a disability?

'No other medical abnormalities were found. The child was completely ready for school (Russian pupils start school at seven years of age) and had learned to read when the American mother came to the orphanage.'

American psychotherapist Joe Soll told Russian media that the boy's rejection from his adopted family would have a serious impact.

'When you remove a child from a family, no matter what the circumstances are, it's a trauma,' he said.

'We don't look at children who have been adopted as tramuatised, but they are. I don't think people are educated at all to understand what adoption is really about.'

The child's real mother Ekaterina was deprived of her parental rights because she was an alcoholic, officials said yesterday.

She gave birth to the child at 19 and cared for him until he was six.

He was adopted by Hansen on 18 September 2009 in Russia and eleven days later she formally changed his name to Artem Justin Hansen.

Astakhov said the boy told him that neither he nor Logan went to school, but played at home in America. The boy spoke of a grandmother who shouted at him.

Russian officials believe it is this grandmother who actually organised the one-way trip to Moscow for Artem.

'Artem is a very nice kid. We drew pictures together and had nice chat,' said Astakhov.

Officials say they want action against the mother for child abuse. The Moscow media angrily denounced the 'cruelty' inflicted on the seven-year-old.

This shocking return of an unwanted child follows several appalling cases of Russian children being killed after being adopted to America.

In one case, a two-year-old boy died after his American father left him alone in a car in 30C temperatures.

The cases led to a public outcry and new curbs on adoption.

The case was highlighted on a day when U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev signed an historic nuclear arm reduction treaty in Prague.

Child Starves as Foster Home Banks Cash

This is an outrage. Why are these foster parents or facilities continually effing up? It's a disgrace to social workers as well when some can't simply follow up on these families and see that the child's being neglected! No one's watching over these angels when they're having thousands of dollars spent on helping them!

(WXYZ) - All she wanted was help caring for her wheel-chair bound son Johnny. The state’s answer was to put him in a foster care facility. Johnny’s mom would have preferred to have someone help her at home, but the state offers limited home-care services. A year after Johnny was in foster care, the 10-year-old boy starved to death.

We have all heard the horrendous cases of kids who were abused and some who died in Michigan’s foster care system. Our story exposes the state’s financial incentive to keep kids in the foster care system. Federal law sets it up that way—the more kids in the state system, the more money the federal government gives Michigan.

The foster care facilities contracted with the state cash-in too. In Johnny’s case, the foster care facility got $12,000 a month to care for him. It is a heart-wrenching case that illuminates problems in the system, including how difficult it is to get your children out of foster care. Johnny’s mom fought to get him out of the system, but he died before she succeeded.

For several months, the Action News Investigators dug deep into Michigan's tragically-flawed foster care system. Along with Johnny's story, we also met a father who fought all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court to get his boys out of the system. The state’s main reason for terminating his parental rights was his finances. We all know people who are struggling in this economy—and as one attorney said, if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

The state is making some changes as a result of a class action lawsuit. A court-appointed monitor now oversees the Department of Human Services. Progress is underway, but some critics say more needs to be done to help parents keep their children rather than put them in a flawed foster care system.

You’ll see the first piece of our investigation Thursday night at 11 on Channel 7 Action News. Watch and let us know what you think of state's foster system and it's ability to care for the children of Michigan.

My Tiger Woods Joke

I heard they're coming out with a new porno in light of the recent Tiger Woods controversy... And they're calling it

"Tiger's Wood"

Accused Drunk Driver Pleads Not Guilty To Mowing Down Two Brothers

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (WPIX) - An accused drunk driver, described by his lawyer as a decorated Marine staff sergeant who served time in Iraq, pleaded not guilty Monday on charges he mowed down two brothers as they crossed an East Meadow street this past weekend.

James Farr, 33, of Garden City pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree vehicular manslaughter and one count of DWI at his arraignment in Frist District Court in Hempstead.

According to authorities, a breathalyzer revealed that Farr had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21 - more than double the legal limit - when he got behind the wheel of his BMW and drove on the Hempstead Turnpike at around 4 a.m. Sunday. Farr stuck and killed Thomas Occhiogrosso, 27, and Joseph Occhiogrosso, 28, as they were attempting to cross the street near Conti Square Boulevard, police said.

Thomas Occhiogrosso, who was an inactive reservist with the U.S. Navy, was pronounced dead at the scene, while brother Joseph Occhiogrosso, who worked as a plumber, was transported to Nassau University Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries.

A lawyer for Farr claims the brothers "darted out of nowhere."

Far was ordered held without bail at his arraignment Monday. Prosecutors said charges against the defendant may be upgraded pending the results of an investigation.

12-Year-Old Boy Could Face Life in Prison After Alleged Robbery Attempt, Killing

AC 360- It is just after midnight on August 1 in Detroit. Trisha Babcock and a friend sit in a car on West Outer Drive. A figure approaches the vehicle.

A gun appears. A shot is fired. Babcock is mortally wounded. She dies a short time later.

For homicide detectives, the circumstances are sadly familiar. Except for one detail: the murder suspect is 12-years-old.

He is just a child, but authorities in Michigan believe the boy was old enough to kill. And if convicted of the crime, he could face a possible lifetime inside an adult prison. “As you can imagine, it’s a very sensitive case because of the nature of it,” Deputy Chief John Roach of the Detroit Police Department told CNN.

The situation is both sensitive and highly controversial. The boy is currently being held at a juvenile center in Wayne County. Authorities say they are awaiting a preliminary examination before releasing his name.

The office of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced the suspect will be tried as a minor. However, under Michigan law, if he is found guilty, he can be designated as an adult for sentencing.

“The judge would have three options at the time of sentencing,” Maria Miller, the spokeswoman for Worthy said to CNN in a phone interview. “To sentence him as a juvenile, sentence him as an adult, or a blended sentence.” A blended sentence gives the judge discretion of sending a juvenile offender to prison when he or she reaches the age of 19.

The suspect is charged with felony murder, armed robbery, felony firearms, and a curfew violation, according to Roach, who also provided a detailed description of the shooting:

“The 12-year-old approached the vehicle and pointed his gun at Babcock. After a brief struggle, he fired one shot, striking her in the chest. She was taken to Sinai-Grace hospital where she died a short time later.”

Witnesses told police the boy was attempting to rob Babcock, who ironically was 24-years-old, twice his age.

Roach said forensic evidence linked the boy to the homicide, who, accompanied by his father, turned himself in on August 14.

He is young, but he may appear older than he looks.

“He is 6′2″, Maria Miller said, “he’s a big kid for his age, a big kid.”

Roach, who said the suspect turns 13-years-old next month, can not recall a similar case to this one ever in Wayne County. He called it an “aberration.”

However, he added “the reality is that we do have a lot of juvenile shooting suspects which is a very serious issue. It’s at the center of what our new chief is trying to address.”

The judge assigned to the case was unavailable for comment. Attempts to determine if a defense attorney has been retained or appointed have been unsuccessful.

The child’s next court appearance will be August 26.