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An American Eagle flight taxiing to a Raleigh-Durham Airport runway was turned around Monday, but not because of a terrorist threat. The crew was kicking an autistic Cary toddler and his mother off the plane. As the American Eagle flight headed down the taxiway, two-and-a-half-year-old Jarett Farrell wasn't a happy traveler. His mother says she was doing all she could to calm the autistic boy, but got no sympathy from the flight crew. "If they just would have been a little more understanding I think that none of this would have been a problem," Mother, Janice Farrell said. But it...

JAMES CITY - James City County police officers used a Taser gun on a 24-year-old autistic Williamsburg man Thursday after police said he became unruly with employees at Wilson's Leather at the Prime Outlets-Williamsburg shopping mall. Police responded to the store on Richmond Road around 2 p.m. after employees reported that the man had become argumentative during a dispute over a returned item, according to police spokesman Mike Spearman. The man, whom Spearman called "large in stature," became combative with police and refused to leave the store. Officers incapacitated him with a single shot from the Taser, placed him under...

The mother of a 13-year-old autistic boy who was banned by a court order from attending services at a Roman Catholic church in Bertha, Minn., woke up Sunday determined to take her son to mass. But Carol Race changed her mind when Todd County Sheriff Pete Mikkelson met her at the end of her driveway Sunday and told her she would be arrested if she brought her son, Adam, into the Church of St. Joseph. Instead, Race took Adam and her four other children to mass at Christ the King Church in nearby Browerville, Minn. "It occurred to me that...

See the amazing picture by an autistic artist who drew London from memory after a single helicopter trip  This picture depicting the London skyline in fine detail was drawn after just one flight over the city and purely from memory.  Stephen Wiltshire, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, memorised the appearance and position of hundreds of London's buildings in exact scale during a helicopter ride along the Thames.  Over the next five days, the 33-year-old drew the seven-square mile panorama, including landmarks such as the Swiss Re tower, and Canary Wharf, on a 13ft curving canvas....

A Brooksville, Kentucky, family vowed Tuesday to fight for the rights of children with autism after a criminal charge was dismissed Tuesday against their six-year old autistic son. "As for our plans we plan to seek the best possible outcome for our son's future," Cathy Darnell wrote in an e-mail to WCPO-TV on behalf of her son, Nathan. "Sadly, that probably means by civil action," Darnell said in her e-mail. "We understand that may bring a more political aspect to the matter." Nathan Darnell was charged September 11 with 4th degree assault, a minor misdemeanor, for allegedly knocking a kindergarten...

Children suffering from autism pay very little attention to faces, even those of people close to them. Indeed, this characteristic can become apparent as early as the age of one, and is often used as a developmental sign of the disease. The results of a new study provide additional insight into why autistic children avoid eye contact: they perceive faces as an uncomfortable threat, even if they are familiar. Kim M. Dalton of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her colleagues studied 27 autistic teenagers who looked at pictures of faces (see image) while a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine scanned...

"Our country was captivated by an amazing story on the basketball court," the president told reporters gathered on the tarmac, his arm draped around the 17-year-old senior, with Air Force One, the presidential jet, in the background. "It's the story of a young man who found his touch on the basketball court, which in turn touched the hearts of citizens all around the country." The president joked that if his aging body would let him return to the basketball court, he'd want a lesson from McElwain. Because of his autism, McElwain didn't begin talking until he was 5 and still...

Amazing, positive story about a young man

MOUNTAIN GATE, Calif. (AP) - An autistic teenager suffered a head injury and a broken elbow in a beating by three sheriff's deputies who mistook him for a prowler, authorities say. Pierre Cowell, a 17-year-old who does not speak, had wandered from his home early Friday. A neighbor, who did not recognize him, called 911 after seeing him outside her home about 2 a.m., Capt. Tom Bosenko said Monday. The woman became alarmed when she heard the doorknob jiggling, he said. As three deputies approached the house, Cowell ran toward them and bumped one of them, Bosenko said. When Cowell...

Somewhere, in the arms of a starry winter night, a little 9-year-old boy is resting. His mind is filled with the new and wonderful, led on to things he has always wanted to see, things that were always just beyond the fence. But behind him, just on the other side of the adventure, people are searching, praying, looking for him. For out in the wonderment, beneath the stars, Logan Mitcheltree is missing. The runners and the dreamers never understand what it is that makes us fear so for them; they only know that the world is a marvelous, moving...

The search for 9-year-old Logan Mitcheltree continued Sunday in South Williams, but as of 11:30 p.m. officials had found no signs of the boy, despite hundreds of volunteers having combed every inch of the borough since he went missing Saturday. Logan, of 1195 Main St., was last seen running east at Market Street and Southern Avenue at around 5 p.m. Saturday, borough Police Chief Rexford Lowmiller said. He was wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt, blue jeans and brown slippers. He is 4 feet tall, weighs 55 pounds, has short, reddish-blond hair and dark brown eyes. The youth is autistic and...

For education and discussion only. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children with autism have inflammation in their brains, although it is not yet clear whether the inflammation actually causes the condition, researchers said on Monday. Tests on the brain tissue of 11 patients with autism who had died and spinal fluid from six living children with autism showed the activation of immune system responses, the team at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and the University of Milan found. "These findings reinforce the theory that immune activation in the brain is involved in autism, although it is not yet clear...

BOOKS ON HEALTH "Through the Glass Wall: Journeys into the Closed-Off Worlds of the Autistic'' by Dr. Howard Buten. Bantam Books, $23.95. "Asperger Syndrome and Your Child: A Parent's Guide'' by Dr. Michael D. Powers with Janet Poland. Quill (Harper/Collins), $14.95. At on time or another, every child experiences sadness, anger and loneliness, and displays a range of odd mannerisms. When these normal feelings are overwhelming and interfere with their daily lives, the behavior has become a disorder. Autism and Asperger's syndrome are closely related pervasive developmental disorders. Asperger's is often less severe, but both are marked, among other characteristics,...

<p>Each morning, as a Quincy mother and her severely autistic 11-year-old son waited for a school van, a neighbor walked past with a barking dog, knowing it frightened the boy and made him shriek and wet his pants, according to the attorney general's office.</p>

'Baby Hair' Study Shows Autistic Children Have Altered Response to Mercury; Reduced Excretion of Toxic Metal May Explain Autism Link 8/25/03 1:36:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Health Reporter Contact: Mark Blaxill of Safe Minds, 617-492-3412 CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A study published this month in the International Journal of Toxicology, the official journal of the American College of Toxicology, provides the strongest clinical evidence to date supporting the theory that mercury exposure is tied to autism. The study, co-authored by Mark Blaxill, a director of Safe Minds, suggests a biological mechanism for the hypothesis first...

<p>The incident happened late Friday at Faith Temple, a six-family church in a strip mall in north Milwaukee, Pastor David Hemphill said.</p> <p>The boy, whom Hemphill identified as Terrance Cottrell, was at the church with his mother, he said. Hemphill's brother, Ray Hemphill, and two women from the church also were present, he said.</p>