One person was seriously injured when a single-engine plane went down in Rockwall County.
It happened at about 8 a.m. Sunday near Airpark East Airport on Highway 205 at Dower Road.
The Sheriff's Department says the single-engine plane flipped as the pilot tried to take off.
The pilot was taken to the Baylor Unversity Medical Center at Dallas hospital by CareFlite.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
Several Occupy Fort Worth protesters were arrested after refusing to leave a tent that had been unlawfully erected at a park.
Police said four people were arrested Saturday. But Rick Griffin,a Fort Worth lawyer helping providing legal support for the group, tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that five protesters were arrested.
He says they were released Sunday after posting $750 bail each.
Griffin says they are expected to be charged with interfering with the duties of a public servant, a Class B misdemeanor.
A police report says officers allowed them to leave the tents up during a march with the understanding that they would bring them down after. A city ordinance prohibits tents in the park.
Anywhere from 10 to several dozen protestors have been at the park.
More: Occupy Fort Worth Website
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon died Sunday in a fiery 15-car wreck at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his car flew over another on Lap 13 and smashed into the wall just outside turn 2.
Wheldon was 33. Drivers were told of Wheldon's death in a meeting about two hours after the fiery, smoky crash that many drivers said was the worst they had ever seen.
The British driver won the Indianapolis 500 twice, including this year.
"IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries," IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race. In honor of Dan Wheldon, the drivers have decided to do a five-lap salute to in his honor."
Three other drivers, including championship contender Will Power, were hurt in the pileup in the Las Vegas Indy 300.
The wreck left Townsend Bell upside down and smoldering cars and debris littered the track nearly halfway up the straightaway of the 1.5-mile oval.
The track was red-flagged following the accidents while crews worked on fences and removed smashed cars.
Wheldon started in the back of the pack but quickly worked his way through the 34-car field before the wreck.
"It was like a movie scene which they try to make as gnarly as possible," said Danica Patrick, making her final IndyCar start. "It was debris everywhere across the whole track, you could smell the smoke, you could see the billowing smoke on the back straight from the car. There was a chunk of fire that we were driving around. You could see cars scattered.”
Drivers had been concerned about the high speeds at the track, where they were hitting nearly 225 mph during practice.
Their concerns became reality when contact on Turn 2 sent cars flying through the air, crashing into each other and into the outside wall and catch fence.
"I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it," Ryan Briscoe said. "The debris we all had to drive through the lap later, it looked like a war scene from ‘Terminator’ or something. I mean, there were just pieces of metal and car on fire in the middle of the track with no car attached to it and just debris everywhere. So it was scary, and your first thoughts are hoping that no one is hurt because there's just stuff everywhere. Crazy."
Copyright Associated Press
Dallas police are looking for a driver who hit a Dallas police officer and then drove away.
Investigators said the driver was going the wrong way on Forest Lane at Inwood Road just before 1 a.m.
The driver hit the squad car driven by Senior Corporal Charles Flemming then left the scene, according to Dallas Police.
Flemming was taken to Baylor Medical Center at Dallas in fair condition.
Police said the hit and run driver was in a solid navy blue full-size regular cab pickup truck that was either a Chevrolet or GMC model from the late 90s to early 2000.
Two of the three women killed in a boating collision at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park this weekend have been identified as Mari-Con Yeso, 34, of Escondido, and Aurora Yeso, 59.
The name of the third woman, believed to be a relative of the two others, had still not been released late Sunday, and officials said they were still attempting to notify her next of kin.
The three died Saturday, after their wave runner jet ski collided with a 20-ft power boat in Puddingstone Reservoir.
Three men on the power boat were airlifted to Los Angeles County USC Medical Center with serious injuries. A woman in her 20's, who was also on the boat, was taken by ambulance to another hospital with less serious injuries.
"The circumstances of the incident are currently under investigation," said Hugo Maldonado with L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation. "It appears both vessels were engaged in a turn, and as they were turning, one vessel collided with the other."
Investigators say the lake was unusually crowded for an October day.
It's not clear if the victims were wearing life jackets. Investigators say they have no reason to believe alcohol was involved, but the cause of the collision is under investigation.
Two ongoing legal cases to determine whether new voting maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature discriminate against minorities have cast uncertainty over Texas' 2012 elections.
While a federal court in Washington has been mulling for months whether the maps meet legal requirements, another court in Texas is preparing to temporarily implement alternative maps to ensure March primaries are not delayed.
Until the cases are resolved, would-be candidates for Congress and legislative seats aren't sure what districts they live in, much less which ones they'll run in. Elections officials can't finalize realigned precincts, set up polling places or begin printing ballots.
"We're sort of in a state of limbo," said Jose Garza, an attorney representing the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, one of the plaintiffs suing the state over the proposed maps. "The time now is pretty critical."
Expressing doubt that a resolution would be in place before the upcoming election deadlines, a federal judge in San Antonio has asked plaintiffs to submit alternative maps by Monday that can be used until final maps are in place. A hearing to determine the interim plans is set to start Oct. 31, two days before another judicial panel in Washington reviews the validity of the state-approved maps.
Meanwhile, the backlog of deadlines has already started.
The San Antonio court, which concluded a trial on the matter last month, waived an Oct. 1 deadline for county officials to finalize their election precinct boundaries. A requirement that counties issue new voter registration certificates to voters also was temporarily lifted.
Candidates have a month starting Nov. 12 to file for a spot on the ballots, which have to be mailed to overseas voters by Jan. 21.
"You can see the pressure cooker we're living in," said Jacque Callanen, the Bexar County elections administrator.
Several plaintiffs groups, including MALC and the League of United Latin American Citizens, said they would submit separate interim proposals Monday, although the court suggested they agree on one plan.
Several Democrats and minority groups sued the state after the Legislature redrew voting district boundaries this summer, arguing the maps are discriminatory because they camouflage a statewide surge in Hispanic population during the past decade. They argue the growth warrants the creation of districts in which Hispanics have enough voting strength to elect the candidates of their choice.
Plaintiffs have targeted the design of a handful of districts, including a sweeping West Texas congressional district represented by freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Quico Canseco. Critics contend Hispanic-dominated precincts with a history of low turnout were moved into the district to meet the constitutional requirements while maintaining its GOP dominance. Hispanic voters have traditionally supported Democratic candidates.
The Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also among the plaintiffs, has argued growth in Texas' black population merits at least one new district with a mostly black population on the congressional map.
The Legislature is tasked with redrawing electoral districts every 10 years to reflect updated census data. This year, Texas received four new seats in the U.S. House based on a population surge driven by Hispanics.
The MALC proposal being submitted Monday would preserve the seven minority-dominated districts already in the congressional map and turn the four new seats into minority-dominated districts -- three Hispanic districts and one black district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Under a provision in the Voting Rights Act, the Legislature's redistricting maps can't be legally implemented until the U.S. Department of Justice or a federal court in Washington determines the maps do not limit people's right to vote on the basis of race or language group.
Bypassing the Justice Department, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked the federal court in July to approve the Legislature's map.
The state "continues to believe ... we will have a decision from the D.C. District Court in time to comply with Texas' new voter registration deadlines, deeming interim maps unnecessary," Abbott spokeswoman Lauren Bean said in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press. "The interim maps would only be necessary if the D.C. court has not issued a decision in time for Texas to prepare for the March 2012 primary election."
Former Democratic Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, who was ousted last year by the freshman lawmaker Canseco after 11 years in office, said he's committed to running for re-election, no matter what the final map looks like. But he's optimistic that the courts will restore the current boundaries of his old Congressional District 23.
"I've been through this game," Rodriguez said. "You never know what the judges are going to do in the end."
Sheriff’s deputies investigating a theft report at a Temecula casino ended up arresting two men, but not without a struggle that injured one of the officers, according to Sheriff's officials.
The deputies went to the Pechanga Casino at 45000 Pechanga Parkway shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday when security officers called in that two suspects from a theft on Friday night had returned, according to sheriff's Sgt. Will Edwards.
The suspects were identified as Thomas Paul Allen, 43, of Oceanside, and David Alan Roll, 49, of Fallbrook.
"As deputies were detaining Roll, he began to pull away from the deputies in an attempt to flee," Edwards said.
Roll was ultimately taken into custody after a brief struggle and deputies then located a loaded firearm that fell from his waistband, Edwards said.
Edwards added that one of the deputies involved in the struggle was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries.
A preliminary investigation revealed that Roll had an outstanding felony warrant from San Diego for a weapons and explosive charge and is a convicted felon, according to Edwards.
Roll was later booked into the Southwest Detention Center for his warrant, as well as for suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a loaded or concealed firearm and for resisting arrest.
Allen was arrested for possession of a loaded firearm and transported to the Southwest Detention Center where he was later booked, according to a media release.
Edwards said that the theft investigation was ongoing and further information was not immediately available.
An 11-year-old girl was inside a residence in the Roseland neighborhood when a bullet went through a window and hit her in the arm Sunday afternoon on the Far South Side.
It happened at 1:15 p.m., while the girl was inside a residence in the 10000 block of South Perry Ave., according to a Calumet District police lieutenant.
Paramedics responded at 1:16 p.m. and took her in serious, but stable condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Joe Roccasalva.
The lieutenant said the child was not the target, but it was not known immediately who, if anyone, was inside the residence with her.
Calumet Area detectives are investigating.
Authorities in Jersey City say 12 firefighters were hospitalized with respiratory problems after they responded to an explosion caused by a bug bomb.
But none of the injuries are believed to be serious, and all 12 should be released by Sunday night.
City Fire Director Armando Roman tells The Jersey Journal () that the firefighters went to a Magnolia Avenue apartment around 10:20 a.m. Sunday after receiving calls about an explosion.
But no one was home at the time, so they forced their way inside and were soon overcome by fumes. The injured were taken to Jersey City Medical Center for treatment.
No other injuries were reported.
Authorities say the cause of the explosion remains under investigation.
The search is on for a kayaker who disappeared in high waves on Lake Michigan Saturday afternoon.
The Coast Guard launched a rescue mission around 3 p.m., when reports came in of three kayakers who had capsized in high waves inside the breakwater, near New Buffalo, Mich.
Rescue crews were able to pull two kayakers from the water, but rough waters kept them from reaching 18-year-old Mitchell Fajman. As they tried to throw lines and floatation devices to Famjan, heavy waves threw him from his kayak, the Coast Guard reported.
As rescuers watched, he apparently slipped out of his life jacket and disappeared beneath the waves.
The Coast Guard reported that all three of the kayakers were wearing life jackets, wetsuits and helmets.
Fajman is from southwest suburban Minooka, Ill.
Mourners were set to gather Sunday at Grace Community Church of Seal Beach to honor eight people who were killed in a shooting rampage last week.
There figure to be a few tears, a bunch of former players on hand and plenty of memories shared by everyone when the Oakland Raiders play their first home game since the death of longtime owner Al Davis.
The tributes will be nice although the Raiders know there's really only one thing their demanding owner would have wanted to make the day complete.
"I expect the atmosphere to be electric,'' quarterback Jason Campbell said. "That's the way Mr. Davis would want it. The only thing he would always tell us to do, 'I don't care about anything else. I want you to win.' That's what he'd always say. Win. I think a great tribute to him is continue winning, and that's the only way you can honor him.''
The Raiders (3-2) were able to do that last Sunday, holding on to beat Houston 25-20 a day after Davis died at age 82. Now they prepare to take on the Cleveland Browns (2-2) on Sunday in front of an expected sellout crowd and as part of a day of celebration of Davis' life.
It figures to be an emotional day at the Coliseum as perhaps no owner has been as linked to his team as Davis. But don't expect any pregame ``Win one for Al'' speeches from coach Hue Jackson.
Coach wouldn't want it any other way,'' Jackson said of Davis. "He wants this football team to play football. That's my message to these guys. We've done our grieving. We've paid the respects the right way and we'll continue to do so. But the most important thing we got to do is, play a Cleveland Browns team that is coming here to beat us.''
It will be hard to top the emotions from Houston. Davis' son, Mark, flew in that morning and hugged many of the players on the field before watching the game from a luxury box, where he had to wipe away tears at the end of the game.
The Raiders won it when Matt Schaub was intercepted in the end zone by Michael Huff on the final play, leading Jackson to fall to his knees in tears, overtaken by the emotions. Making that final play even more unlikely was the fact that the Raiders only had 10 players on the field because safety Jerome Boyd had mistakenly run off the field before the play.
"We only had 10 helmets on the field but it was definitely 11 men out there,'' cornerback Stanford Routt said, believing Davis had a hand in that play. ``It was definitely 11 men out there.''
That's the kind of emotional environment the Browns can expect when they come to Oakland on Sunday looking to get back on the winning track after being blown out at home two weeks ago by Tennessee and having an early bye week last weekend.
Coach Pat Shurmur said he made a point this week to tell his players what to expect and to try to tune it out as much as possible.
"Everybody's well aware of what the Raider Nation is going through with the passing of Al Davis,'' Shurmur said. ``We all know how emotional it is when you lose someone that's had such a great influence on the organization. The players are aware of that, and I think what we've got to try to do is what you do in any situation when you go play on the road, you've got to try and block all that out and get to the business of playing ball.''
The Raiders are planning a pregame moment of silence, a halftime celebration of Davis' life and various other tributes throughout the game to a man who joined the organization as coach in 1963 and later became general manager, owner and face of the Raiders for nearly a half-century.
Davis won three Super Bowls during his time with the Raiders and hand-picked most of the players on the current roster. While many of the rookies never got a chance to meet Davis during their brief time in Oakland, the veterans knew and mostly adored Davis.
"He knew everything about you,'' defensive tackle Tommy Kelly said. ``He knew about your family, your brothers, your sisters. Mr. D, he always made you feel like you weren't just a piece of meat. He got to know you. That made it where anything he asked of you, you had no problem doing it.''
Kelly was signed by the Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2004 and then got a seven-year deal worth up to $50.5 million in 2008 that was criticized at the time. Kelly has been a stalwart on defense the last few years and came up big in the win against the Texans.
So did some of the other players that Davis was criticized for signing, drafting or overpaying through the years, including Huff, kicker Sebastian Janikowski, receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey and defensive tackle Richard Seymour.
The last team Davis assembled is his best in recent years, with the big-play speedsters on offense he always craved and a physical defensive line. After eight straight seasons without a winning record, the Raiders appear ready to content in the AFC West this
year.
"They really look like a different team,'' said Cleveland linebacker Scott Fujita, who last faced Oakland in 2008 in a 34-3 win with New Orleans. ``Obviously, physically they are always one of the most gifted teams in the league you talk about talent, big, fast, look really good getting off the bus. But now they are playing fantastic.''
Just the way Davis would have liked.
San Diego police are asking the public for help in locating a 62-year-old woman who went missing from a home in the Emerald Hills area on Saturday afternoon.
Annie Leala Stokes was last seen at 5511 Roswell Street at around 1 p.m., according to police.
Stokes was said to be wearing a red, white and orange nightgown with a blue nightgown underneath and pink house slippers.
She is described as weighing 115 pounds and being 5 feet 4 inches tall.
Stokes has undiagnosed paranoia and is a diabetic, according to police.
Anyone with information is asked to call the SDPD at (619) 531-2000 or (858) 484-3154.
Michael Vick has thrown for 141 yards and completed 12 of his 20 passes as the Eagles lead the Redskins 20-0 at halftime at FedEx Field.
The Eagles scored the first points of the game on their second possession of the game, driving 82 yards in 11 plays to take a 7-0 lead as Vick tossed a 7-yard-screen pass to Brent Celek, who took it in for a touchdown. The drive was helped immensely by a roughing-the-passer penalty against Brian Orakpo on a 2nd-and-12 play from Philadelphia's own 16.
Philadelphia doubled their lead on the second play of the second quarter as LeSean McCoy slipped through the left side and into the end zone from a yard out to make it 14-0, Eagles.
After another Redskins punt, Philadelphia drove into the red zone again, but the drive stalled, and the Eagles settled for a 28-yard Alex Henery field goal to take a 17-0 lead.
On the first play from scrimmage after the field goal, Rex Grossman threw his second interception of the half, which set up another Henery field goal, this time from 24 yards away.
In contrast to Vick's stellar outing, Grossman had a less-than-stellar first half, completing just six of his 14 passes for 64 yards and throwing two interceptions, including one on the Redskins' first possession of the game. That initial possession, which was halted at the Philadelphia 38-yard-line, represents Washington's deepest penetration of the half.
The 2-3 Bears take on the 1-4 Vikings on Sunday night to fight over who is the worst team in the NFC North. It's a game the Bears need to win to keep postseason hopes alive, but with injuries and benchings, it won't be easy. What do you need to know before kick
Reshuffling lines, part I: That Julius Peppers knee injury is a bigger problem than originally thought. He was listed as doubtful, and Matt Toeina is out. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Henry Melton will move over into Peppers spot, with Amobi Okoye starting at defensive tackle.
Reshuffling lines, part II: After drawing five offensive penalties on Monday night, ESPN reports that Frank Omiyale will be benched in favor of Lance Louis. With Jared Allen focusing on ruining Jay Cutler's night, this might get ugly.
Injuries, injuries, injuries: It doesn't end on the D-line. Kellen Davis is questionable with an elbow injury. Gabe Carimi is still out. It's possible Earl Bennett will return from his chest injury.
AP All day: Those defensive line issues will be magnified by Adrian Peterson, who is second in the NFL in rushing yards. Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher have to be ready to stop Peterson or the game will get ugly. Quickly.
That bench is crowded: Omiyale isn't the only one who lost his starting job. Veteran safeties Chris Harris and Brandon Merriweather won't start on Sunday night after getting burned by Detroit on Monday.
History lesson: Sunday will be the 101st time the Vikings and the Bears play. Minnesota has the edge, with a record of 52-46-2. The last time the two teams played, Corey Wootton sacked Brett Favre into retirement. For that, Wootton should always have a special place in your heart.
Stick with NBC for the game tonight, then Sports Sunday after the game. Follow Grizzly Detail on Twitter for updates throughout the game.
A New York City councilman says he has $1 million to spend -- and he wants his district members to tell him how to use it.
Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, who represents the 45th Council District in Brooklyn, announced Sunday he is allocating $1 million from his capital budget for "participatory budgeting."
"Local residents will come together in public meetings to discuss local priorities and design specific infrastructure projects to address the needs of our community," Williams explained in a press release. "In March, a public vote will be held, and winning projects will be funded through my budget for the 45th District."
Williams sent an email Sunday to community members announcing the project, with the subject line: "MEETING TOMORROW! How Would YOU Spend $1 Million of the City's Money?"
Williams said this is the first time in New York City and the second time in the U.S. that citizens are able to direct where the money in their local capital budget goes.
Neighborhood assemblies have been scheduled throughout the district, and each has arrangements for food, child care and entertainment.
• October 17, 2011 from 6:30-9:00 PM at the Gold Room on the sixth floor of the Brooklyn College Student Center, located at East 27th Street and Campus Road.
• October 21, 2011 from 6:30-9:00 PM at Clarendon Road Church, located at 3304 Clarendon Road.
• October 24, 2011 from 6:30-9:00 PM at the Tabernacle of Praise, located at 1274 Utica Avenue.
• October 31, 2011 from 6:30-9:00 PM at the Gold Room on the sixth floor of the Brooklyn College Student Center, located at East 27th Street and Campus Road. (Conducted in Haitian-Creole)
For more information on participatory budgeting in New York City, visit pbnyc.org.
Four malnourished mentally disabled adults were found chained to a boiler in a locked Tacony basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, police said Sunday.
Three people were arrested Linda Ann Weston, 51, and Thomas Gregory, 47, both of the 2500 block of N 29th Street and 49-year-old Eddie Wright who is homeless.
Officers were investigating a report of squatters in a building on the 4700 block of Longshore Avenue Saturday when they found three men and a woman in a 15-by-15-foot room behind a steel door that was chained shut. The subbasement room they were in called to mind a Cold War-era bomb shelter and contained a makeshift bed, mattress and sheets, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman.
“It was horrible,” she said Sunday. “The space was very tiny and confined.”
Weston, Gregory and Wright were charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping, conspiracy, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and related charges, cops said.
Police are investigating the possibility that the suspects were trying to make money through access to the victims' Social Security or disability checks, Little said. It wasn't clear how they know the victims.
The 29-year-old woman and the men, who are 31, 35, and 41, have the mental capacity of 10-year-olds, police said. They were taken to a hospital for treatment and listed in stable condition. Little said the victims appeared to have no physical problems other than malnourishment.
Getting information from the victims was difficult due to their disability, police said. But the victims apparently were brought to Philadelphia about 10 days before they were found. They had apparently been in West Palm Beach, Fla., and before that in
Texas, she said.
“It's heartbreaking that people can do such horrifying things to other people,” Little said.
Experts say Illinois appears to be the worst state in the country when it comes to paying bills late.
Illinois regularly lets several billion dollars of bills stack up. Businesses and community groups sometimes wait months to be paid for their services.
Many states slow down payments when money is tight, but it has become the status quo in Illinois.
The Council of State Governments says it doesn't know of any other state that matches Illinois' backlog, which topped $5 billion last month.
And an expert with the Urban Institute think tank says Illinois wins the prize for worst in the country.
An Urban Institute survey in 2009 found that more non-profit groups reported late payments in Illinois than in any other state.
Going without payment for months at a time can force vendors to borrow money, lay off staff, cut salaries and more.
Figures from the Illinois comptroller showed thousands of business bills that were a month or more overdue in early September. They totaled roughly $67 million.
Some of that was owed to Irvin Klemmensen, an airplane mechanic in Jacksonville. He says he had to lay off two people, largely because of slow payment from the state.
The largest ambulance service in downstate Illinois, Advanced Medical Transport, says it will drop one of its state contracts.
And a funeral director in Fairview Heights says some funeral homes have stopped serving the indigent.
A 38-year-old police officer in New Jersey was struck and killed by a drunk driver while he was on patrol in his police car early Sunday, the Morris County prosecutor's office said.
Mount Arlington police officer Joseph Wargo was apparently driving eastbound on Route 80 while a driver sped from the opposite direction, in the westbound lanes, just after midnight, the prosecutor's office said.
The driver, identified as 29-year-old Michael Cassella, lost control of his car and slid sideways across the center median into Officer Wargo's patrol car, said the prosecutor's office.
The patrol car was found in the woods off the roadway with extensive front-end damage, the prosecutor's office said. Wargo was transported to Morristown Memorial Hospital by Atlantic Air One helicopter.
He was pronounced dead at 1:25 a.m.
Cassella was arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter, vehicular homicide, driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and speeding.
Bail has been set for Cassella at $500,000. He remains in Morris County Correctional Facility.
The accident remains under investigation.
Nearly 30,000 participants put on their walking shoes and headed to West Hollywood for the 27th annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles to raise funds for AIDS Project Los Angeles.
Warm skies greeted the participants as they began the 10 kilometer route that starts and ends at West Hollywood Park.
More: AIDS Walk Route
Last year's walk raised more than $2.8 million for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and advocacy programs, according to Gabriel McGowan, AIDS Project Los Angeles' director of communications. The funds help as many as 10,000 AIDS patients locally.
Since its inception, the walk has raised more than $69 million to fight the disease in Los Angeles County, McGowan said.
The walk, sponsored in part by NBC4 News, is the largest single "source of funding each year'' for AIDS Project Los Angeles, which provides bilingual direct services for people with AIDS and prevention education, said Craig E. Thompson, the organization's executive director.
"There are more people living with HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles than at any other time in history -- 63,000 Angelenos -- but we face an unprecedented era of government austerity. That's why private giving through events like AIDS Walk Los Angeles is more critical than ever.''
As of Sunday, funds raised online have reached $2,319,064. Donations can also be given at the Aids Walk Los Angeles website.
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Three tanks full of compressed hydrogen at a Sylmar energy plant that were too dangerous to transport were successfully detonated Sunday.
A pair of huge booms rang out across the eastern San Fernando Valley Sunday, as an LAPD bomb squad used plastic explosives to detonate canisters containing a volatile mixture of hydrogen, oxygen and other gases.
The planned demolition was coordinated by a task force that included the LAPD bomb squad, city fire department, California Highway Patrol, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Federal pollution scientists were monitoring the atmosphere for any residual effects of the explosion.
Sunday's explosions were delayed by the late discovery of a homeless man sleeping within the blast zone, and three blasts were needed to finish the job, according to city fire Capt. Jim Ruda.
A large industrial park in a canyon, about a half mile from the nearest houses, was evacuated prior to the scheduled detonations. A section of the Foothill (210) Freeway was closed at about 6 a.m. to accommodate the planned destruction.
The large police operation was prompted by an explosion and fire at Rainbow of Hope, a startup company that had taken out a patent on a supposed process to crack the molecular bond between hydrogen and oxygen from water molecules. For two centuries, science has known that running an electrical current through water can cause hydrogen and oxygen gas to be emitted, but that process takes more energy than is generated.
In 2010, a pair of explosions at another Rainbow of Hope facility in nearby Simi Valley killed one person and seriously injured another. Tyson Larson was killed in the June 2010 Simi Valley blast, and his brother Tim Larson was maimed in the explosion last August in Sylmar.
Tim Larson, a Los Angeles firefighter on disability, lost an arm and leg in that blast. The powerful explosion opened up the roof and threw a second man, William Stehl, into an alley.
Stehl and the two brothers' father, Timothy J. Larson, apparently owned the energy-from-water company. The Ventura County Star has reported that Stehl; and the elder Larson had applied for a patent to generate energy from water, and Stehl had also faced trial on federal charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and tax evasion in connection with the energy company.
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Closed-door negotiations continue in Albany to reach an agreement that would avoid laying off 3,500 New York state employees.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Public Employees Federation union are racing against a Wednesday deadline. If there is no new contract with significant concessions to the state, layoffs will begin.
But there is apparently some potential for extending that deadline.
PEF members rejected a tentative contract struck by their union leaders and Cuomo that included a pay freeze and higher employer costs for health care.
Cuomo is insisting on the concessions. Savings are already budgeted as part of the way the state balanced its budget and addressed a $10 billion deficit.
In a statement released Sunday afternoon, Cuomo said he hoped PEF leaders moved for a revote and that members would ratify the contract.
"I am confident that my Administration has been more than resonable and fair, as CSEA's ratification demonstrates," said Cuomo. "Simply put, the fate of the members is in the union's hands. It's up to them."
Police are investigating a fatal shooting which occurred Saturday evening in Southeast.
Shortly before 11 p.m., police responded to a report of a shooting in the 2500 block of High Street SE, where they found 21-year-old Davon Gray suffering from gunshot wounds. The unconscious and unresponsive Gray, of Northeast, was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The precise nature of his injuries are not known.
Police are asking anyone with information about this crime to call (202) 727-9099 or 1-800-919-2746.
A partially clothed woman ran for help into a West Side police station early Sunday, carrying a bloody butcher knife she allegedly used to stab a man who was beating her up.
The man is under police guard at Mount Sinai Hospital where he is in serious condition with stab wounds. He'd been previously ordered to stay away from the woman, but violated that order and attacked her, according to police. No charges have been filed as of early Sunday afternoon.
Neighbors in the 900 block of South Central Park Avenue called police at 11:01 a.m. when they heard screaming, and shortly after that, a woman clad only in an athletic shirt and carrying a bloody butcher knife ran into the Harrison District station, 3151 W. Harrison St. for help, police Lt. John Andrews said.
Moments after the call to police, paramedics found the wounded man inside the home and took him to Mount Sinai Hospital with serious injures, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Joe Roccasalva.
The woman, who had her little girl, about age seven, with her, told police she stabbed the man because he was beating her up.
“She was protecting herself,’’ said Andrews.
The child was not hurt.
The woman was also taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, and police recovered the knife at the Harrison station. Detectives are investigating.
Is it possible to extend the human lifespan to biblical proportions, perhaps to 200 years, or more?
A panel of experts at Chicago Ideas Week will explore human longevity, mortality, and what taking care of your health may mean in the 21st Century.
Those on the panel include Dr. Sanjay Gupta, senior health correspondent for CNN, Fran Drescher, actress and president of Cancer Schmancer, as well as pioneers in molecular medicine and neuroscience.
Watch the discussion live from Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, right here on NBC Chicago, from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16.
Gov. Chris Christie is more popular than ever, but no one, including him, expects Republicans to take control of the New Jersey Legislature in the November elections.
The GOP governor, whose job approval rating was at 55 percent or higher in two recent polls, has been downplaying the likelihood that he could help sweep out enough Democrats in either the state Senate or Assembly for Republicans to take control. Few potential upsets are seen.
"Let's remember, we're operating under a Democratic map," Christie said of the newly redrawn legislative district map, which protected incumbents of both parties, the majority of whom are Democrats. "If we were to take back majorities this fall, that would definitely represent a tsunami."
Political scientists agree it would be a longshot for the GOP to wrest control from Democrats — even with someone like Christie, who was courted for a 2012 presidential bid but declined to run, at the helm. Democrats hold a 24-16 advantage in the Senate, and a 45-32 edge in the Assembly with three open seats.
Christie said Republican efforts would be focused on thinning Democrats' margin of control. Many believe this is a mere lead-up to 2013 when Christie will be on the ballot.
In the Senate, Democrat-held seats in District 2, which includes Atlantic City, and District 38, which includes Paramus, where Christie appeared on Wednesday, are seen as battlegrounds. In the Assembly, pundits from both sides said seats in Districts 2 and 38 are in play, with possible races in District 4, which includes Washington Township in Gloucester County, and District 7, which includes Mount Laurel, where Christie was on Thursday.
"I'm going to do the best I can, but I've always said that gaining a Republican majority back in the Legislature is a process," Christie said.
He didn't specify how much money he was willing to spend on the election and how much he was prepared to bank for 2013.
All 120 seats in the Legislature are up for grabs on Nov. 8.
"Absolutely not," pollster Patrick Murray said when asked if the upcoming election would be a referendum on Christie. "This is a district-by-district race. Anywhere there will be some competition, it will be focused on issues particular to that area."
For example, in District 2, the local issue is Atlantic City and its new tourism district, he said.
Nevertheless, Christie is sure to wield some influence over the election as the popular, nationally recognized leader of his party.
For example, he just raised more than $500,000 for the state Republican Party during a fundraising swing to Missouri and California.
As for his popularity, Christie earned a 55 percent approval rating this month in a Monmouth University/NJ Press Media Poll and a 58 percent approval rating in a Quinnipiac University poll — his highest marks since taking office.
However, because his name won't be on the ballot, his influence won't be outsized this year, said GOP Sen. Kevin O'Toole of Wayne, a Christie ally in the Legislature.
A Rutgers/Eagleton poll taken this month found that 54 percent of respondents said their votes would reflect their views of the governor. But, with 28 percent in support and 26 opposed to Christie, those votes would cancel each other out. Some 42 percent said their vote would be independent of their thoughts about the governor.
Christie summed it up this way:
"In the end, I don't think these Legislative elections are a referendum on (President) Barack Obama or on me. I think they are a referendum on each one of these individual candidates in these individual districts."
A 30-year-old man was charged with a felony after being involved in a motorcycle accident in Ocean Beach, early morning Sunday.
The man was riding in the 1600 block of Bacon St. at about 6:14 a.m. when he lost control of his motorcycle and hit the guardrail, said Officer David Stanford.
He suffered an open lower leg fracture during the accident and was transported to an area hospital, according to a report.
The man was later charged with a felony for driving under the influence, said Stafford.
Downtown area trolley stations will be closed for the last two weekends of the month, and one station will be temporarily relocated due to the $620 million Trolley Renewal project, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System nnounced Friday.
The closures are scheduled to take place the weekends of Oct. 21-23 and Oct. 28-30, beginning at 9 p.m. on Friday and ending late Sunday night or early Monday morning, said Rob Schupp of San Diego MTS.
Additionally, the American Plaza Station will be relocated two blocks east of C Street, between Columbia and State Streets, from Oct. 21 through December, Schupp said.
The weekend closures include service from Old Town Transit Center to City College Transit Center and from the Convention Center Station to America Plaza Station. Also, there will not be any Vintage Trolley Silver Line service.
Sections of Broadway and Kettner Boulevard will be closed. Broadway will be closed between Kettner and Pacific Highway and Kettner will be closed between Broadway and A Street.
MTS will provide substitute shuttle bus service for the Old Town and City College closure but not on the other closures.
Riders should allow an extra 30 minutes for travel time.
Tanks full of compressed hydrogen at a fire-ravaged energy plant are too dangerous to transport and will be blown up early Sunday morning, a move that will temporarily close a freeway in the eastern San Fernando Valley, a federal official said Saturday.
The controlled explosion is necessary as federal and state investigators continue to probe a pair of accidental blasts at plants operated by an alternate energy company, including an Aug. 9 blast in Sylmar that critically injured two men and a 2010 blast that killed a person in nearby Simi Valley.
Beginning about 6 a.m. Sunday, the Foothill (210) Freeway will be closed between Maclay Avenue and the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway for up to several hours, an official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. The blast is set for about 6:30 a.m. at the recycling yard.
Detour signs will route freeway traffic around the closure via the 118 and Golden State (5) freeways. Foothill Boulevard will also be closed in the area, and local businesses have agreed to close for the 6:30 a.m. detonation.
”While there are no residential structures in the immediate vicinity, the nearest communities might notice the police activity in the area and hear the explosion,” said Nahal Mogharabi, press officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
”The business operators in the impacted area have been kept informed and will be temporarily closed,” Mogharabi said.
The intentional explosion will be inside the fire-damaged Rainbow of Hope, a company that claimed to be generating alternative fuel in a canyon east of the Foothill (210) Freeway in Sylmar, just north of the interchange with the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway.
A joint statement issued by federal officials and the LAPD said the exact cause of last August's explosion remains under investigation.
”Numerous other cylindrical containers have been discovered at the extensively-damaged facility,” the statement said.
”Since the exact cause of the explosion is not fully understood, the Unified Command has decided that the safest course of action is to evacuate the area and intentionally rupture the cylinders which present a hazard,” the statement said.
The blast last August occurred when two men were reportedly transferring hydrogen from one cylinder to another. William Stehl, a part owner of the company, and a second man were critically injured.
Two similar blasts had hit a Simi Valley branch of the same company, which the Ventura County Star said was partly owned by Timothy A. Larson, a lawyer with offices in the northern San Fernando Valley. One of Larson's sons, Tyson Larson, was killed in a June 2010 explosion at the company's Simi Valley facility.
A second son, Tim Larson, was the second man injured in Sylmar. He was described at the time as a Los Angeles city firefighter on long-term disability.
The Star reported that Stehl and the elder Larson had applied for a patent to generate energy from water. Stehl had also faced trial on federal charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and tax evasion in connection with the energy company.
At the time of the August explosions, firefighters said they were confronted with numerous unexploded cylinders of oxygen and hydrogen, and unidentified other materials, that had been damaged. Both elements can be explosive in concentrated amounts.
Nearly 40 years after tough new drug laws led to an explosion in prison rolls, New York state has dramatically reversed course, chalking up a 62 percent drop in people serving time for drug crimes today compared with 2000, according to a Poughkeepsie Journal analysis.
The steep decline — driven, experts said, by shifting attitudes toward drug offenders and lower crime — means that nearly 17,000 fewer minorities serve state time today than in 2000, groups that were hardest hit by the so-called war on drugs. Overall, the prison population declined 22 percent.
Hispanics and blacks are still vastly overrepresented in prisons but incarceration experts said the overall figures were impressive.
"The drop itself is really quite extraordinary," said Michael Jacobson, director of the Manhattan-based Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit center for justice policy research.
"This is very intriguing stuff and encouraging," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that has criticized sentencing policies as racially biased and counterproductive.
Nationally, New York charted the biggest drop in its prison rolls from 2000 to 2010, a decade when 37 state prison systems had double-digit population hikes. Ironically, it was the state's 1973 drug laws, championed by then-Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, that helped kick off a massive national prison buildup — and the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world.
Now — with state prison spending at $3.7 billion in fiscal 2010, or $55,000 per inmate — New York may be leading the way back.
Nearly 7,700 fewer blacks are incarcerated in state prison in 2011 compared with 2000, the Journal study found. In addition, 35 percent fewer female inmates serve time — and 77 percent fewer women serve drug sentences as their top crime. Inmates were also older — by three years on average, according to the analysis, which used databases of the inmate population on one day each in February 2000 and March 2011.
The trend is an outgrowth, experts said, of factors including the diversion of more drug offenders to treatment, changes in drug laws and lower crime rates — especially in New York City, which currently ranks among the safest big cities in America. There, aggressive "stop-and-frisk," zero-tolerance and computer-driven anti-crime programs have been employed, some say, with remarkable results.
"It's exactly these policies," said the Vera Institute's Jacobson, "that are driving crime down."
While the New York City policies are highly controversial — 600,000 people were frisked in 2010, statistics show, 90 percent of them minorities — there's little doubt of the city's mighty contribution to the state's prison reversal. The five boroughs charted a 42 percent decline in sentenced inmates in 2011 compared to 2000; inmates from the rest of the state actually increased 17 percent. Both the city and upstate saw big declines in drug commitments — but the city's decline, 76 percent, was three times that of upstate.
The decline in drug-convicted inmates means more of the type of inmate for which penitentiaries were constructed: violent offenders.
Today, the No. 1 top crime of sentenced inmates is second-degree murder, with just over 8,000 convicts — about the same as in 2000.
In 2000, the most common top crime for which inmates were incarcerated was third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance - with almost 10,000 people sentenced. That's now down to about 3,000.
"I would argue that the right people are being sentenced to prison," said Brian Fischer, New York state's prison commissioner. "Was prison the best alternative for drug abusers? Clearly it was not."
While Fischer also favors diverting nonviolent mentally ill offenders to achieve further downsizing -- "that's the goal," he said- - he doesn't plan to close any more than the nine prisons already closed and one more in process. In fact, while the system lost 15,800 inmates since 2000, it has closed just 6,277 beds -- a hard-fought battle in a state in which prisons sustain many job-poor upstate communities.
Before adoption of its drug laws in 1973, New York had built just 18 prisons in 140 years. Driven by mandatory drug sentences and other tough-on-crime statutes, the state opened 52 prisons from 1973 to 2000, raising the population from 13,400 to a historic peak, on Dec. 12, 1999, of 71,538 inmates. It was 55,599 last week.
With the population shrinking, the state closed three of its 69 prisons in 2009 and six more as of Oct. 1, with Arthur Kill prison on Staten Island set to close by Dec. 1. Portions of eight other prisons have also been closed since 2009.
The downsizing is embraced by Fischer, reform advocates and the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, which had long resisted drug-law changes that would cede some prosecutorial power to judges.
"It wasn't in anyone's interest to wholesale incarcerate anyone who committed a drug crime," said the group's president, Janet DiFiore, a former judge and current Westchester County district attorney. "For those hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who were just unfortunately drug-addled people, that wasn't the right view."
DiFiore ties the prison downturn both to drug law reforms — in 2004, 2005 and 2009 — and a recognition in law enforcement that alternatives like drug treatment were needed. Almost 200 drug courts have been opened statewide, most since 2000, that divert many otherwise prison-bound offenders to treatment.
The downsizing doesn't impress some reform advocates, who still see the system as hugely bloated, especially with blacks and Hispanics, now 77 percent of inmates and down from 84 percent in 2000.
"The disparities have diminished somewhat and that's good news, but that does not put us as a state in a place that we can be proud of," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which has opposed city frisking policies as invasive and discriminatory. "We were starting at a pretty horrific place from which to decline."
"The prosecution of drug offenses is still tremendously racially biased," said Jack Beck, a project director for the Correctional Association of New York, which monitors state prisons
What's clear is that the downturn is continuing — equal to one or two large prisons in each of the last three years. And it may accelerate with most experts agreeing that the latest drug law reforms have yet to fully kick in.
In 2009, amendments to the Drug Law Reform Act gave judges far broader discretion to divert offenders to drug treatment or sentence them to lesser, non-mandatory, terms. In 2004 and 2005, the act reduced the harshest sentences — 15 years to life for selling as little as two ounces of cocaine or possessing four ounces — but those reforms only marginally reduced the population, experts said.
The reforms are an outgrowth of something much larger than a drug-war backlash, according to close prison observers, among these ballooning prison budgets, the economic downturn and a realization that punishment isn't always the answer.
"Prosecutors were recognizing that our job was not just about handcuffs and prison," said DiFiore. "It was a mindset change."
"In a time of economic recession it causes a rethinking," said Alan Rosenthal, director of justice strategies for the Center for Community Alternatives, a Manhattan-based sentencing reform group. "We had a shift from tough on crime to smart on crime," an acknowledgement, he added, that high prison rolls did not equate with lower crime.
Rates of major crime in New York state have dropped 63 percent since 1990 — a consistent decline even as the prison population rose an average 4 percent a year in the 1990s and declined an average 2 percent a year in the 2000s.
The latest prison closures will save taxpayers $72 million in fiscal 2011, according to state officials - about 2 percent of the prison budget, which grew 30 percent since 2000. Fischer, the prison commissioner, attributed the growth to new mental health and disciplinary programs required under law and in settlement of a lawsuit against the system, expanded sex offender treatment and increasing personnel costs.
When he announced the latest closure plans last June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the system "too inefficient and too costly with far more capacity than what is needed." But he also recognized that prisons were "a major source of employment and economic sustainability," and set up a $50 million economic development fund to help affected communities.
Two-thirds of the state's prisons saw double-digit percentage declines in population since 2000, the Journal analysis found, and Fischer, the prison commissioner, would like to see other inmates diverted.
"If alternatives work rather well for nonviolent drug offenders," he said, "we should talk about alternatives that we don't have now for people with mental illness or medical problems," especially as the population ages.
San Diego police are searching for two suspects in connection with a carjacking which happened outside a mall in San Ysidro on Saturday evening.
The incident took place at about 5:11 p.m. when two men, a woman and a 12-year-old child were sitting inside a van in the parking lot of the Las Americas Outlet located at 4400 Camino de la Plaza, said Officer David Stafford.
As the victims sat, two men approached the vehicle and then one of the suspects told the victims to get out of the van as he displayed a handgun, Stafford said.
After taking an undisclosed amount of cash and personal property from the victims, the suspects reportedly drove away inside the group's van.
Police said the suspects were then seen driving northbound on Interstate 15 at Tocayo Ave.
Some time later, officers came in contact with the van inside a 7/11 parking lot at 2200 Palm Ave.
Though they were able to take the van's passenger into custody, and find the handgun inside of the vehicle, the other suspect fled on foot, Stafford said.
The Robbery unit is investigating.
Teresa Dodson hadn’t laid eyes on her elder son, Dennis, for years. The last she knew, about a decade ago, he had an address in Independence, Mo.
“We’ve been trying to find him for a long time,” she said from her Iowa home.
She knows now he’s in the Cook County Jail, on the psychiatric floor of the hospital wing.
For drugs, she assumed. Denny’s drug problems started after he and some friends stole hog tranquilizers as a teenager from a vet’s office, she said.
“None of them were quite right after that,” she said.
Dodson certainly didn’t know her 34-year-old son had been accused of sexually assaulting an 83-year-old lady who tried to help the homeless young man, after she found him behind the Home Depot in Orland Park in late September.
Dodson also had no insight into why her son had ended up in Chicago’s south suburbs, some 250 miles from his hometown. Police don’t know why either, though they think he may have traveled here on a bicycle.
Dennis Dodson has been on the move for at least the last 15 years, landing in as many states, according to his arrest, court and prison records.
His travels spanned the nation: a disorderly conduct arrest in New York City in 2001; extensive problems with the law in California and Florida, and plenty of stops in America’s heartland.
He’s been through Illinois at least once before, in November 2004, when he acquired a state identification card, using the Tinley Park address of a social service agency. Yet he has no prior Illinois arrests, and he had never before been accused of such a violent crime.
Dodson has stolen cars, gotten drunk in public, battled police officers, trespassed. He possessed cocaine and stolen property. He took things from stores. He’s been arrested 60 or so times, according to records Sun-Times Media acquired.
And when police in several states tried to arrest him, Dodson fought back.
Denny Dodson’s troubles started close to home in southeastern Iowa, not far from the Mississippi River and the Missouri border.
He was mainly raised in West Point, Iowa, a small town in the state’s southeastern corner, maybe a dozen miles from the Mississippi River.
Dad and mom divorced when their two boys, he and Phillip, were young.
“It was a good life until his dad and I got a divorce,” Teresa Dodson said. “Both boys kind of went wacko.”
They went to school in Fort Madison, Iowa, on the river, where the family had moved. But neither one graduated, she said.
“I used to go sit in that school to try to keep them there every day.”
Eventually, she sent Phillip to live with his grandfather in Missouri, she said. He was kind of a follower, prone to trouble. And Dennis?
“Denny just sort of did what he wanted to do. I had no control,” she said. “I did what I could do.”
Denny got into drugs. Then, she got a call from police in Missouri. Her elder son was in jail.
“They said they were going to put him on a bus home. He never came home.”
He showed up at home about a month later. He wasn’t more than about 19.
“He stayed with me for a couple months,” she said.
Then he disappeared again.
“He sort of up and went. And then next thing I knew he had stolen a car.
“That’s the last I had heard from him for years.”
Dodson was convicted of operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent in January 1995. A year later, he was caught driving without a license. Then came burglary, trespassing and theft charges.
Between 1997 and 2001, after violating his probation, he was sent to the Iowa Department of Corrections, housed at facilities with addiction programs that a judge ordered him to attend.
Then he started to move, covering at least 10,000 miles in 2001.
Dodson’s 2001 looked like this: San Diego; New Mexico (shoplifting); New York City (disorderly conduct, possessing stolen property); Portland, Ore.; Jacksonville Beach, Fla.; Sioux City, Iowa (public intoxication). By early 2002, he was in Salt Lake City. Then Washington state and Escambia, Fla. In 2003, when his mother said his brother died, he was in California, Colorado and Ohio.
In 2004, he got an Illinois state ID, using the address of Together We Cope. The social service agency would not comment, citing the privacy of its clients.
Dodson appears to have settled in Florida, mainly in Vero Beach on the Atlantic coast, from 2005 to 2009. But he was busted in April 2010 in Nevada, accused of concealing a deadly weapon. He was arrested again in May 2011 in Nevada, found guilty at trial of trespassing and aggressively soliciting for donations.
In between, he kept getting arrested in California.
A wooded patch behind the Home Depot store, 7300 W. 159th St., had been a getaway for the homeless for a while now, Orland Park police Cmdr. John Keating said. It was a daytime stopover of sorts.
Until last week, elderly women still took out the trash from their condos nearby. Girls crunched around in the leaves, enjoying a day off from school. One left a little pink bicycle, unlocked, in the grass.
But not far away, a signed glared vagrants, Dodson among them — “NOTICE! All pallets, steel racking, merchandise and trash is the property of The Home Depot.”
In that very parking lot in August, police said Dodson threatened to stab a store employee.
Then in September, an elderly lady noticed him as she cut behind the store on her way home from the bank.
She offered him food, handed him $5. He was pleasant enough, she told a Cook County judge Friday, so she went back later with $10 and a box of crackers and offers to help. She called her church and the Salvation Army, but everyone refused to help him. A neighbor suggested she get police to make a well-being check.
The next day, on Sept. 23, she went back one last time to let the redheaded man know it wouldn’t be her helping him anymore.
She woke him up and smelled the booze on his breath. She couldn’t have imagined the response when she mentioned police:
“Do you want sex?”
The developer of an Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site and the owner of the building it's planning to buy are in a dispute over rent.
Consolidated Edison owns part of a site that the Park51 developers want to use for the center. The utility says that after an appraisal, the rent for that part has gone up, and now Park51 owes $1.7 million in back rent.
Park51 did not respond to an email seeking comment, but in court papers disputed the figure. The developer says Con Ed is using an incorrect formula to determine the rent and any monies owed in back payments.
A court date in connection to the dispute is scheduled for November.
New Jersey state police say a man involved in a two-vehicle crash on the Garden State Parkway was killed when he left his car to check on the other driver and was later struck by another vehicle.
Thirty-seven-year-old John Key of Long Branch apparently was involved in the crash, which occurred shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday near northbound milemarker 98.4 in Wall Township. He then parked his vehicle on the side of the highway and ran across four lanes to check on the other driver.
A short time later, Key tried to return to his vehicle but was struck by a blue Mercedes. State police say it's not clear whether the driver of that vehicle stopped to help Key or drove off.
No other injuries were reported in the crash.
There has been a lot of attention focused on kids bullying other kids. Now, some parents want to shift the focus to a problem they also see as pervasive - teachers bullying kids.
A former public school teacher, Judy now homeschools -- pulling her son out of his elementary school -- after she and her husband say he was bullied.
We are not using the last name of the family in order to protect their son who they say is the victim of bullying.
They say they were alerted to the alleged problem by concerned teachers.
“When staff calls you up and says there' s something going on and you need to take a stand well we did, said father Rafael.
After trying to work it out with the teacher, principal and district to no avail, the family says it realized their experience was not unique.
As a result, an 83-page complaint was filed with the district that includes allegations against the same teacher made by nine families.
“[Students] don't know when a book is going to be snatched out of their hands and thrown across the classroom,” said Judy. “They don't know if teacher is going to scream at them.”
Rafael and Judy would like to see anti-bullying policies expanded to include not just child to child bullying, but adult to child bullying as well.
They would like more training so adults know if there is bullying by teachers, coaches, any adult staff, they have an obligation to report it.
“I think it expands beyond the school we were at, I think it expands beyond the district we're at, I think it's something that occurs nationwide,” said Judy.
The family says states like Florida have policies regarding teacher bullying that encourage those who witness it to report it.
While San Diego Unified does have its own administrative rules and regulations about professional misconduct, the family says it would like to see the district actually champion that as a priority, and include bullying by adults in its anti-bullying policy.
“It needs to be expanded to include adults on campus including staff including parents anyone on campus because bullies exist in all forms shapes and sizes and ages,”
The area superintendent said there was an investigation.
He said the allegations were not accurate and the actions of the teacher did not rise to the level of bullying harassment or intimidation.
The teacher, he says, has high expectation and this was his style of teaching.
At one time, the district included the adult-to-child bullying guidelines in its safe school policy, but was advised legally to remove them because any complaints would be considered employee conduct and would fall under a personnel issue.
Firefighters are investigating the cause of a three-alarm blaze that swept through at least two houses and a church early Sunday morning in Chester Heights.
Investigators say the blaze started in a campground in the 300 block of Valleybrook Road shortly after 4:00 a.m. and spread quickly. No injuries were reported.
The cause of the fire is under investigation and the full extent of the damage has not yet been revealed.
Stay with NBCPhiladelphia.com for more on this breaking story.
A man who police say was holding a woman and her infant hostage inside a South Side apartment was tasered and then arrested Sunday morning, more than nine hours after the standoff began.
It all began with a domestic disturbance around 9:10 p.m. Saturday in the 6700 block of South Jeffrey Boulevard, according to police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.
Inside the apartment, a man was holding a woman and baby hostage, according to police.
Police tased the man and took him into custody at 6:43 a.m., ending the incident.
The suspect was taken to Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center where he remains in custody as of 9:10 a.m., according to Kubiak, who said the woman and child were not harmed.
Calumet Area detectives are investigating.
Authorities in northern New Jersey say a Newark police officer shot and wounded a man who allegedly drove off while the officer was hanging on the vehicle.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray says that around 10 p.m. Saturday, two Newark officers noticed a vehicle circling an area known for drug activity. The driver eventually stopped there and got out, but returned to his vehicle when he saw the officers approach.
They asked the man to stop, but he instead drove off, dragging one officer about 100 yards. The officer then shot at the driver, who was hit at least once in the shoulder, and the car struck a building.
Both the officer and the suspect, neither of whom was identified, were hospitalized Sunday with injuries that aren't considered life-threatening.
A car plowed into a Chili's restaurant in Morgan Park Saturday night, seriously injuring several people.
The building, at 1750 W. 119th St., caught fire after the crash, but the flames were quickly put out. Eight people were hurt and taken to nearby hospitals, including the driver. Of those, four were initially listed in critical condition.
"All we saw was fire," said a woman who was inside the restuarant. "People on the corner, they were really messed up because they were stuck under the table."
Police do not yet know why the woman behind the wheel crashed into the building.
Marines are known for their tough character, but one local Marine is using physical and mental strength to go above and beyond for an upcoming road race.
According to WTOP, Captain Jason "Duke" Dequenne, who is based at Quantico, plans to run 236 miles this month. He's doing it to celebrate the Marine Corps 236 birthday. Captain Dequenne also plans to dedicate each mile to a Marine killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Duke will start in Philadelphia and plans to finish his mighty feat during the Marine Crops Marathon October 30.
The stepfather of a missing Germantown boy will appear in a North Carolina court Monday to face charges in his ex-wife’s murder. Curtis Lopez is accused of beating and stabbing 51-year-old Jane McQuain to death.
Lopez was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina last week after detectives tracked McQuain’s missing SUV to a hotel there. Meanwhile McQuain’s son, 11-year-old William McQuain is still missing.
Friends, family, classmates and teammates are gathering today to start their own search party in the Germantown neighborhood where the McQuain’s lived. Those who organized the search say they just can’t sit idly by.
“Jane would definitely be doing this for any of us if she was here,” Roger Anderson, a search organizer, told News4’s Derrick Ward. “Unfortunately since she’s not here, we are picking up that slack and doing it for her. We’re all parents, so we definitely understand.”
Come Thanksgiving, gamblers in Atlantic City won't have to be on a casino floor to gamble.
The Tropicana Casino and Resort is expanding gambling to The Quarter, its shopping and dining area across the street from the casino.
Tropicana president Tony Rodio told The Associated Press the casino got approval Friday from the state Division of Gaming Enforcement for a pilot program with 11 slot machines and two electronic table games. It hopes to eventually have 100 to 125 slots and live table games in The Quarter.
"This will be the first time ever in the history of Atlantic City that there's gaming on the city side of Pacific Avenue," he said. "It's pretty historic."
Since gambling began here in 1978, it was limited to the beachfront block along the Boardwalk. An exception was later made to allow casinos in the Marina District, where the Borgata, Harrah's and the Golden Nugget are.
Rodio said the machines are designed to give people waiting for dinner or a movie something fun to do while they're waiting.
"We'll get a lot of impulse play, from people waiting to sit down for dinner or waiting for their reservations or for a movie at the IMAX," he said. "On a unit-by-unit basis, I expect these machines will out-perform the ones in the regular casino."
He said the machines should be up and running by Thanksgiving, once installation of the hardware, electrical wiring and security cameras is completed. The pilot program will last 90 days, during which the gaming enforcement division will monitor how it is working.
"There are a bunch of families around there for the restaurants and the IMAX theater, and there is a concern about underage gambling; I'll be honest about that," Rodio said. "We'll be very vigilant about making sure that doesn't happen, and that's part of why there's a pilot program at first for this."
Assuming all goes well, Rodio said Tropicana eventually plans to have 100 to 125 slot machines added to The Quarter, along with an undetermined number of live-staffed table games such as cards, roulette and craps.
The Quarter is a 200,000-square-foot entertainment complex with 20 shops and 20 restaurants, and the IMAX theater. It opened in November 2004 and soon became one of the most popular entertainment destinations in Atlantic City.
The Tropicana has 2,078 rooms and suites, making it the third-largest casino-hotel in Atlantic City. It has 2645 slot machines and 139 table games.
After a seven-week postponement caused by Hurricane Irene, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial will be dedicated Sunday morning, and the weather will be quite different.
A crowd of more than 50,000 is expected, and they should be dry and comfortable if they bring a coat or sweater. The forecast is for a pleasant morning and sunny skies for the event, which begins at 9 a.m.
A wooden stage was being set up Friday. President Barack Obama will address the crowd from it Sunday, and a huge Jumbotron will broadcast it to most of the crowd. He is expected to speak in the 11 a.m. hour.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond and members of King’s family also will speak.
Aretha Franklin will be the headlining entertainer.
Officials urge the public to take Metro and avoid driving anywhere near the Tidal Basin Sunday morning. Metro will open at 5 a.m. Sunday -- two hours early -- to accommodate the crowd. There will be extra cars and track work was suspended.
Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and water.
The memorial closes at 10 p.m. Saturday night to prepare for Sunday's program. The memorial foundation expects the memorial to be closed to the public all day Sunday and reopen at 5 a.m. Monday morning.
Click here for a list of street closures.
More than 1,000 people watched as a memorial to the 273 victims of the American Airlines Flight 191 crash was unveiled.
The May 25, 1979, crash was the deadliest, non-terror-related airplane disaster in U.S. aviation history. The crash of the DC-10 killed all 271 aboard and two on the ground.
The memorial in Lake Park in Des Plaines isn't far from where the aircraft went down shortly after takeoff from O'Hare International Airport. The curved stone wall has all of the victims' names.
It was covered with flowers, cards and framed photos at the dedication ceremony.
Nancy Howell traveled from Knoxville, Tenn., for the ceremony. Her mother Elaine was on the flight.
She says the memorial allows her to think of something else when she comes to the area.
A 46-year-old Suffolk County man was arrested Saturday, charged with driving drunk while he had two young children in the car.
Reynaldo Jackson, of Copiague, was driving southbound on Deer Park Avenue in Babylon when he rear-ended a Mazda stopped at a light at Simon Street, said Suffolk County police. The Mazda then struck a Jeep.
Jackson's 12-year-old son and 2-year-old grandson were in the car with him during the accident, according to police. The children were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center to be checked out. No one else was treated.
Police said a responding officer who interviewed Jackson determined his ability to drive was impaired by drugs, and arrested him.
Jackson was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child, a felony while under Leandra's Law; driving while ability impaired by drugs; and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Jackson was scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on Oct. 16.
A sexual assault in Windsor Terrace has been linked to pattern of sex attacks in that neighborhood and surrounding areas bringing the total in that disturbing pattern to 14 cases.
The latest victim is a woman in her 20s who was walking her dog in Windsor Terrace Thursday night when a man approached her from behind, claimed he had a knife and groped her, according to police.
The victim's alleged attacker apparently ran off after she started screaming. The incident happened on 17th Street near Seventh Avenue at about 10 p.m., police said
This latest attacks has Windsor Terrace, Bay Ridge Park Slope and Sunset Park residents on edge.
Meanwhile, police released a new poster showing sketches of five suspects wanted for the other attacks in the borough.
On Tuesday, police arrested a 26-year-old man for groping a woman on Monday night near the subway station at 36th Street and Fourth Avenue.
Adolfo Martinez, 26, was charged with forcible touching and third-degree sexual abuse for allegedly groping an 18-year-old woman near the Sunset Park station.
Sources told USA LOCAL NEWS that investigators are looking at his possible connections to some of the other assaults.
He's being held without bail. It wasn't immediately clear if Martinez had an attorney.
Police are asking for the public's help in identifying a suspect in the rape of a 20-year-old woman in a public area of Jamaica, Queens.
Police said the victim was walking in the area of 108 Drive and Merrick Blvd. at around 2 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, when she was approached by a man armed with a box cutter.
The man took her to a secluded area and raped her, police said.
The suspect is described as about 20 to 23 years old, with a Caeser-style haircut. He was wearing a black bandana across his face, a black waist-length leather jacket and dark jeans, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
Police are questioning a New York City woman in the fatal stabbing of her 18-year-old son.
Media outlets report Yvonne Hines was being questioned Saturday in the death of her son Sean at the family's apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Police said the woman and her son had fought violently in the past. According to The New York Times, Commissioner Raymond Kelly says both were arrested after a fight in June.
Authorities say the stabbing was reported late Friday night by the victim's stepfather. Witnesses told The New York Post that Yvonne Hines denied killing her son as she was led away and blamed her husband, who was also being questioned.
About 15 years ago, only about 500 people would meet in a small field near NorthPark Center to participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
Times have changed.
On Saturday, the event attracted 22,334 participants with 992 teams signing up, according to the Komen website.
Jennifer Legere, executive director of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Dallas, told The Dallas Morning News a little more than $2 million has been raised and fundraising will continue through Nov. 11.
The first Race for the Cure in Dallas was in 1983.
Officials say Komen, founded in 1982, has contributed $685 million to breast cancer research and $1.3 billion to community programs that help with mammograms, transportation and other needs.
