A judge in Tennessee changed a 7-month-old boy’s name to Martin from Messiah, saying the religious name was earned by one person and “that one person is Jesus Christ.”
Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered the name change last week, according to WBIR-TV (http://on.wbir.com/1cDOeTY). The boy’s parents were in court because they could not agree on the child’s last name, but when the judge heard the boy’s first name, she ordered it changed, too.
H/T – abcnews
Branford Fire Chief Jack Ahern confirmed that news Friday afternoon.
The three were killed when a plane plowed into two homes at 11:22 a.m. on Friday on Charter Oak Avenue in East Haven, just north of Tweed New Haven Airport.
A Seattle TV station is reporting that the pilot was Bill Henningsgaard, a former vice president of Microsoft, and that he was flying the plane with his son.
Up to five people may have been killed in the crash. At a press briefing earlier Friday afternoon, Gov. Dannel Malloy said the pilot of the plane may have had up to two passengers with him, according to airport authorities.
Malloy said two bodies had been found in the basement of a house struck by the plane.
Officials said earlier that two children, ages 1 and 13, were believed to be in one of two homes struck. Chief Ahern said both of those children died in the crash. Click the play arrow to see the houses, in a video shot by the Branford Eagle’s Mary Johnson.
h/t – indepedent
I’m not really sure where to even start with this heartbreaking story. A 10-year-old Houston, Texas girl was arrested and charged with raping a 4-year-old boy, KHOU 11 reports.
While the details surrounding the incident are scarce, what we do know is that the alleged incident is said to have occurred in the courtyard of the girl’s apartment complex.
“She was just being a child, having fun and playing. She didn’t know she was doing any wrong,” the girl’s mother told KHOU.
The incident was first reported back in April, which is when a sex crimes investigator was assigned to the case. The child was arrested last week and taken to a juvenile detention center, where she was held for four days.
In yet another racially charged shooting in the Sunshine State, a man reportedly shot his neighbor point-blank in the face last July and then went back to cooking his dinner.
Not only did 59-year-old Walton Henry Butler shoot 32-year-old Everett Gant but he called 911 to report it. He also became aggravated when they arrested him because as he told them, he only shot a “nigger.”
Gulf County Sheriff Joe Nugent Police said the suspect acted as if shooting the victim was “no big deal” and they were inconveniencing him with the arrest and interrogation.
h/t – allvoices
According to the Daily News and NY Times, the state ethics commission is investigating complaints that were kept secret. As the Times puts it, “The records related to the Kellner allegations were not turned over to the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, even though the commission issued a broad subpoena for documents related to sexual harassment allegations as part of an investigation into harassment claims made against a former assemblyman, Vito J. Lopez, that concluded earlier this year.”
Lopez allegedly groped female staffers and made them touch his tumors; Lopez wasn’t charged with anything but resigned from the Assembly…so he could run for NY City Council, ugh.
Kellner’s former chief of staffer Eliyanna Kaiser had brought allegations of Kellner’s harassment toward an aide to Silver’s office, only to be ignored. Now State of Politics reports
“According to people familiar with the situation, Kellner made repeated inappropriate sexual advances and comments to a male employee. According to one person who asked to remain anonymous:
‘Micah would comment about his appearance and his sex life all the time. It was creepy. One time Micah leaned onto his shoulders and told him he had pretty hands-and he just froze. It escalated to the point where he actually got up the nerve to confront Micah. And after that, things did not get better. Micah took him off projects, diminished his role in the office, and when everyone else got a raise a few weeks later, his salary stayed the same. No one was surprised when he quit.'”
Kellner, a Manhattan Democrat, is married to a woman, but is openly bisexual. He told the News, “There should have been an investigation four years ago. There should be an investigation now, and I’m going to cooperate with any investigation.”
h/t – gothamist
In a new wave of crime that occurs in an instant, thieves are cagily sliding into victim’s cars and snatching valuables from open windows, in what police are calling “sliding.”
From Corbin, Ky., to Tampa, slippery sliders are being caught on camera all across the country. Sometimes the perpetrator is caught red-handed, but most of the time the victim has no idea until it’s too late.
Often operating at gas stations while customers are casually pumping fuel, thieves lying in wait pounce, snatching purses and other valuables, then running off.
“They’re not looking for a confrontation,” Houston police officer Jim Woods told ABC News.
“They just want the property, because they know it’s being left abandoned and you’re not paying enough attention.”And police say these types of crimes are on the rise.
In an incident caught on tape at a Houston gas station, a woman pulled up and walked into the station as a man in a neighboring vehicle cased the inside of her car. Once she returned to the pump, the slider struck.“It’s very scary that someone could just surprise you and just steal all of your belongings,” the victim said.
Authorities say the best thing the public can do is lock car doors every time the vehicle is exited.
h/t – abcnews
Shortly after the NYPD asked the public for helping identifying someone suspected of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl inside a McDonald’s play structure, the cops have made an arrest. And the suspect is a 14-year-old boy.
The boy was charged with criminal sexual act. Because he is a minor, his name hasn’t been released and “his case will be handled with Family Court.”
The alleged incident is alarming: The child was assaulted, police say, inside the tubular play structure at a McDonald’s on Hillside Avenue and Avon Street. The Post’s sources say the suspect had walked into the location at 6:45 p.m. and headed “for the play area where he hid until the child encountered him and he ran off around 8:25 p.m… The man forced the girl to perform oral sex until she fled down the slide and told her mom what happened, sources added. The enraged and distraught mother begged a security guard for help but he did nothing as the suspect tried to flee out an emergency exit, sources said.”
Both the Post and Daily News say the mother tried the grab him, but he escaped.
The police are also looking into whether this attack is linked to a March incident at the same McDonald’s, when a nine-year-old was fondled.
American consumers now have not one, but two federal agencies they can call upon for help dealing with abusive debt collectors.
The Federal Trade Commission has brought several cases against problem debt collectors over the past couple of years. And the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has started publishing rules debt collectors have to follow to conduct business fairly.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB was set up to be the first federal agency solely focused on making consumers get a fair shake from financial firms. The agency has pulled many non-traditional financial providers into its purview, such as debt collectors. Recently the CFPB created five form letters consumers can use when dealing with debt collectors to make sure they are treated fairly.
h/t – abcnews
Jazz musician George Duke died Monday in Los Angeles at age 67.
A pioneer in the funk and R&B genres, he had been battling chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to his label Concord Music Group, which confirmed his death.
“The outpouring of love and support that we have received from my father’s friends, fans and the entire music community has been overwhelming,” said his son, Rashid Duke, in a statement. “Thank you all for your concern, prayers and support.”
Born in San Rafael, Calif., Duke aspired to a music career from an early age, after his mother took him to a Duke Ellington concert.
h/t – usatoday
