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Local News (General/Chat)

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  • Burlington, Iowa City Council to Consider Ban on Open Carry of Toy Guns

    07/21/2014 10:49:48 AM PDT · by servo1969 · 29 replies
    The Gateway Pundit ^ | 7-21-2014 | Jim Hoft
    The Burlington, Iowa city council wants to ban open carry of toy guns. The ordinance will make it illegal to openly carry a toy gun or conceal one with clothes. ia Iowa Gun Owners Facebook page: The Burlington Iowa City Council is moving to pass an ordinance that would require you to get their WRITTEN permission before your kids can play with toy guns, replica guns, BB guns, etc! If your kids play with these toys in most outdoor situations, or if they play with toy guns in the car while you drive them around, you are looking at a...
  • Boy living with mom and grandparents was starved and looked like ‘Holocaust victim’: detective

    07/21/2014 9:57:28 AM PDT · by Morgana · 15 replies
    ny daily news ^ | Doyle Murphy
    The boy ate bugs to survive. Beaten and starved, the 7-year-old from Greenville, Pa., was tortured nearly to death by his mother and grandparents until a woman walking her dog by their house saw what looked like a living “human skeleton” and told authorities, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. “He looked like a Holocaust victim,” Mercer County Detective John J. Piatek told the Tribune-Review. “He had been beaten with a belt every time he tried to get food. He had three abscessed teeth and weighed 20 pounds when he was taken to Children's Hospital. The starvation could have killed him. The...
  • City launches program to help Queens trafficking victims come out of the shadows

    07/21/2014 5:25:04 AM PDT · by EinNYC · 4 replies
    NY Daily News ^ | July 17, 2014 | ELI ROSENBERG
    Human trafficking victims now have another reason to come out of the darkness. The city will provide foreign-born sex trafficking victims in Queens free lawyers to help them navigate available pathways to citizenship, officials announced Thursday. Six pro-bono attorneys will be on hand at Queens Family Justice Center in Kew Gardens, for one day a week, as part of a pilot program launched through the Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence and advocacy groups. The lawyers will determine if undocumented victims qualify for asylum or visas — available to some who agree to help law enforcement find traffickers or other...
  • 21-year-old ‘Patriot’ actress found dead in Houston home

    07/21/2014 1:19:55 AM PDT · by fella · 15 replies
    KHOU ^ | July 20, 2014 at 3:19 PM | KHOU
    HOUSTON -- Actress Skye McCole Bartusiak, who portrayed Mel Gibson's young daughter in the 2000 film "The Patriot," died in her Houston home, her mother said Sunday. She was 21.
  • Florida boy, 4, mauled to death by pit bulls, officials say

    07/20/2014 7:53:53 PM PDT · by BBell · 43 replies
    TAMPA Fla. (Reuters) - A 4-year-old Florida boy was mauled to death by two pit bulls at his uncle's home, said authorities on Sunday, who suggested the child may have let the dogs out of their cage to play with them.
  • Arizona Man Wins Hemingway Look-Alike Contest

    07/20/2014 4:20:06 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 15 replies
    NBC Miami ^ | Sunday, Jul 20, 2014
    Wally Collins of Phoenix triumphed over 130 other entrants, including his son Matt Collins, late Saturday night at Sloppy Joe's Bar. The bar was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway during the 1930s.A white-bearded Arizona restaurateur has won Key West's annual "Papa" Hemingway Look-Alike Contest on his sixth attempt. Wally Collins of Phoenix triumphed over 130 other entrants, including his son Matt Collins, late Saturday night at Sloppy Joe's Bar. The bar was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway during the 1930s. Related: Hemingway Look-Alikes "Run With the Bulls" in Key West Competitors in sportsman's attire paraded before a judging panel of...
  • (SC) Six arrested in Midlands home invasion linked to teen romance rivalry

    07/20/2014 11:17:49 AM PDT · by Gamecock · 19 replies
    The State ^ | July 18, 2014 | RACHAEL MYERS LOWE
    IRMO, SC — Three Columbia adults and three underage teenagers have been charged in a home invasion Thursday that stemmed from an argument earlier in the day between two teen girls over a boy, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said. Charged in the incident were Lenore Sharlene Jennings, 43, and Terrell Lamont Miller, 25, both of Jamil Road; Martha Nicole Pringle, 20, of Alcott Drive; and, two 15-year-old girls and a 15-year-old boy, who were not identified because of their ages. The warrants charge that Jennings, armed with a stolen handgun, threatened the homeowner and an unknown number of children...
  • Workers cleaning home mistake hanging corpse for mannequin, take it to rubbish tip

    07/20/2014 1:31:44 AM PDT · by Slings and Arrows · 28 replies
    Metro [UK] ^ | Saturday 19 Jul 2014 | Harry Readhead
    Two Florida men hired to clean out a vacant house mistook a hanging corpse for a Halloween-style hoax – and took it to the dump. Workers Israel Lopez, 50, and Adam Hines, 30, told authorities they were tidying the house in Spring Hill at the request of the landlord when they came upon the corpse in the garage. The pair cut it down, believing it to be a mannequin, before hauling it to the local rubbish tip where a landfill worker realised it was a body and called the police. ‘Both individuals as well as the property owners believed the...
  • 'Sniper van' found in Metairie leads to mystery with mob ties

    07/19/2014 6:13:12 PM PDT · by BBell · 42 replies
    NOLA.com | Times-Picayune ^ | July 18, 2014 | Andy Grimm
    Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies found a racketeer and a riddle when they pulled over a van in Metairie two months ago. The racketeer was Joe Gagliano, the 55-year-old son of a reputed New Orleans mob underboss. The riddle was what he was doing in a van outfitted with what appeared to be gun ports, with a sniper rifle and silencer inside.Late one night a patrol deputy got a tip from a "credible and reliable source" that there was a van with stolen plates, driving on Metairie Road near the Orleans Parish line. When they pulled over the van, deputies found...
  • Cornhole champions being decided in West Virginia

    07/19/2014 2:08:47 AM PDT · by Slings and Arrows · 31 replies
    AP via [Myrtle Beach] Sun-News ^ | July 18, 2014 | JOHN RABY
    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Cornhole, the strange-sounding game made popular in backyards and at football tailgate parties, is taking on a serious side this week. The American Cornhole Organization will crown its world champions as about 380 competitors from 17 states vie for $10,000 in prize money in singles and doubles events. -snip- "When you're out there throwing, it's serious," Smith said. "And then as soon as it's over, it's time to buy somebody a beer."
  • Typhoon Rammasun Heads for China After Lashing Philippines, Killing at Least 38

    07/19/2014 1:12:02 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 1 replies
    ABC (Australia) ^ | Fri 18 Jul 2014
    China's southern regions are bracing for a powerful typhoon that has ripped through the Philippines, killing dozens and forcing more than 400,000 people to flee their homes. The official death toll from Typhoon Rammasun has climbed to 38, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said on Thursday. Ten people have been injured and eight are missing. Typhoon Rammasun made landfall in the Philippines on Tuesday, just eight months after Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated parts of the country in November 2013. The eye of Typhoon Rammasun passed south of Manila after cutting a path across the main island of...
  • Cops: Teens Attacked Adult Near Taste Of Park Ridge

    07/18/2014 5:16:27 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 17 replies
    cbslocal.com ^ | July 17, 2014 8:12 PM
    It was a vicious attack: The alleged beating of a man by teenagers amid a large crowd in northwest suburban Park Ridge’s Hinkley Park last weekend. And it was was caught on video. Footage first obtained by the Park Ridge Herald-Advocate shows a 48-year-old man in a yellow shirt pushed to the ground and then punched and kicked by three individuals while a raucous crowd looks on. CBS 2 aired the video on Thursday night at 10 p.m. Police say the man was looking for his son when someone threw a lit firework near him. When he tried to find...
  • Police: Robber Kills Accomplice In Mini-Mart Robbery Gone Wrong

    07/18/2014 5:08:02 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 20 replies
    CBSLA.com) ^ | June 18, 2014
    Police say two men walked into a mini-mart Friday to rob the place when things went terribly awry. About 11:15 a.m., the men, both believed to be gang members, walked into the store near the intersection of Alhambra and Hollister avenues in El Sereno, LAPD detective Michael Zolezzi said. One man was wielding a rifle and the other toting a machete. As they attempted to rob the store, the man with the firearm got into a struggle with someone inside. The rifle went off, firing a single bullet into his accomplice’s upper body. He died at the scene. It’s unclear...
  • Man Gets Locked Up [arrested], Orders Pizzas From Cell

    07/18/2014 4:00:22 PM PDT · by Slings and Arrows · 29 replies
    Yahoo! News ^ | 7/18/14 | Ko Im
    He was already suspected of shoplifting beer, but a southern Kentucky man now faces additional charges for a pizza prank. While Michael Harp was in the process of getting booked at the police station, the 29-year-old placed an order for pizza on his cell phone.Five boxes from Domino's were delivered to an Officer Wilson, who had arrested Harp.
  • 'Italy's Ginger Gene Spread From Sicily'

    07/18/2014 1:53:50 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 33 replies
    Over the centuries, they’ve been scorned, persecuted and marginalized. But it was an example of modern-day disdain towards redheads that prompted an Italian photographer’s mission to safeguard their diversity, The Local has learned. Let’s face it, redheads get a tough time, especially in the early years of their life. I should know, because I am one. But more on that later. Marina Rosso, a 29-year-old fine art photographer and researcher from Udine, is not a redhead as the English translation of her surname might suggest. But after hearing in 2011 that flame-haired men were being rejected from the world’s largest...
  • How Not to Become a World Cup Star

    07/18/2014 12:54:46 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 2 replies
    Peru’s Reimond Manco was once rated better than Colombian superstar James Rodriguez. So where is he now?<Colombian soccer star James Rodriguez appears to have it all. At just 22, he is the World Cup’s current top scorer, with six goals, and viewed by many as the standout player of the tournament in Brazil. He also appears to be a good kid: hardworking, focused and grounded. #176506735 / gettyimages.com Peru’s Reimond Manco But there was a time when James (pronounced HA-mes), as he is known, labored in the shadow of an even more outrageously talented South American player, Peru’s Reimond Manco....
  • Family Says High School Basketball Star Is Very Much Alive

    07/17/2014 9:08:23 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 6 replies
    CBSLA.com) ^ | July 17, 2014 7:38 PM | Tom Wait
    CHINO HILLS (CBSLA.com) — The family of a high school basketball star who was critically injured in a skateboarding accident says he is very much alive, despite reports to the contrary. Nnamdi Okongwu, 17, plays center for Chino Hills High School and was reported dead Wednesday. Okongwu was rushed to a hospital after hitting his head while skateboarding two days ago. Classmates offered condolences to his family on Twitter. One of his coaches described him as being brain dead after the accident. On Wednesday evening, the hospital said Okongwu was alive but couldn’t provide his condition. CBS2′s Tom Wait spoke...
  • Man sets house afire trying to kill spider with lighter, spray paint

    07/17/2014 6:56:35 PM PDT · by DogByte6RER · 23 replies
    KOMO News.com ^ | July 15, 2014 | KOMO Staff
    Man sets house afire trying to kill spider with lighter, spray paint SEATTLE -- Fire officials say a West Seattle man was using a lighter and a can of spray paint to kill a spider in his laundry room when the house went up in flames. Fire crews were called to a home in the 10200 block of 34th Avenue SW just before 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Firefighters originally battled the blaze from a distance after learning there may be ammunition inside. Crews were eventually able to extinguish the fire, but not before it did significant damage to the structure....
  • Man sentenced to nearly 3 years in prison for possessing shotgun as undocumented immigrant

    07/17/2014 6:00:19 PM PDT · by BBell · 13 replies
    NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune ^ | 7/17/14 | Quincy Hodges
    Juan Flores-Flores, 30, of Mexico had been deported at least three times prior to being sentenced to prison. Juan Flores-Flores, of Mexico, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison after he was found guilty of possessing an assault style shotgun as an undocumented immigrant, United States Attorney Walt Green with the Middle District of Louisiana said in a news release Thursday evening.Flores' sentencing stems from a burglary investigation that occured Jan. 11 earlier this year
  • Judge tells young Detroit man in mob attack he needed a beating from dad

    07/17/2014 4:11:49 PM PDT · by Morgana · 11 replies
    FOX ^ | AP
    DETROIT – A young man who participated in a mob attack on a Detroit-area motorist needed a father to "beat the hell" out of him as a kid to discourage him from committing such a crime, a judge said Thursday. The stunning remarks by Wayne County Judge James Callahan came as he sentenced Latrez Cummings to six months in jail. In response to the judge's question, Cummings, 19, said his father wasn't around when he was growing up.