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A California judge has ordered a teenage mother in Visalia to stand trial on a murder charge for allegedly killing her infant daughter by spraying her face with Lysol to stop her from crying. Detectives testified Monday in Tulare County Superior Court that Shyla Chapman told investigators she was frustrated her 4-month-old daughter wouldn't stop crying and sprayed the cleaner into her face. Chapman said she was upset that no one helped her care for the baby and was seeking psychiatric help after giving birth. Chapman is scheduled to be arraigned on March 19 on charges of first-degree murder and...

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SAN FRANCISCO - Even on a weekday in winter, the Castro district vibrates with energy, most of it male. Men holding hands, walking dogs and lounging at cafes have long been the main attraction in a neighborhood known as a gay mecca the world over. Yet where visitors see a living monument to gay pride, longtime community leader Brian Basinger sees a cultural enclave at risk of becoming a faded museum piece - or worse, a place where gay men may one day feel like they don't belong. "When I see a stroller now, I see it as someone who...

NEW ORLEANS, March 10, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) (PRIMEZONE) -- Speaking to a crowd of more than 5,000, U.S. Sen. David Vitter of La., described the Northrop Grumman-built (NYSE:NOC) amphibious transport dock ship New Orleans (LPD 18) as a ship that "embodies a new culture of technological growth and economic progress not only for the Navy and Marines, but also for the city of New Orleans and Louisiana. This ship represents new processes, design work and engineering that will clearly serve the Navy, Marines and our country very well." The ship was commissioned into the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet here today...

The city recorded its 37th murder of 2007 on Saturday as three people were killed in less than 10 hours. The latest murder occurred in Mid-City, near the intersection of Esplanade and N. Broad avenues, shortly after 2 p.m., according to Joe Narcisse, an NOPD spokesman. Around 11 a.m., police received word of a shooting in the 7800 block of Venice Blvd, Narcisse said. Seventh District Officers found the victim lying in the street with gunshot wounds to his head and arm. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The first shootings of the day took place around 5 a.m....

Group Accused Of Trying To Hide Woman's Body LAFAYETTE, Colo. -- Two Colorado teens have been arrested after the mother of one of them was found stabbed to death in the trunk of her car. Investigators allege that Linda Damm's body had been in the car for nearly a month as her daughter and friends tried but failed to get rid of it. On one attempt, police said they buried the body at the edge of a cemetery only to retrieve it later, fearing the grave was too shallow. Investigators claim 15-year-old Tess Damm and her live-in boyfriend were planning...

INDIANAPOLIS - Local and national gay-rights groups are questioning Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy's decision to appear at a fundraising banquet this month for a group backing a proposed state ban on same-sex marriage. The Indiana Family Institute, a conservative Christian group affiliated with Focus on the Family, plans to honor Dungy on March 20 with its "Friend of the Family" award at a banquet in suburban Carmel. The Indiana Family Institute has been a leading supporter of a proposed state constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman. "I am a little disappointed in that...

The family of the mentally ill man shot dead this week by a Louisiana National Guardsman protested on the steps of City Hall on Friday, demanding an exhaustive investigation into the incident. "A good man lost his life, by someone who took an oath to protect and serve us," said Priscilla Fair, a cousin of Terry C. Burton, 53, who was killed at about 1 a.m. Thursday after allegedly pointing a rusted BB gun at a group of soldiers. A guardsman mistook the BB gun for a rifle and shot Burton multiple times in the chest, police said. Burton, who...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Calls made on cell phones do not affect hospital medical devices, U.S. researchers said Friday, but store anti-theft alarms might make implanted heart devices misfire. Tests at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, showed normal use of cell phones, also called mobile phones, caused no noticeable interference with patient care equipment, they said. But a portable CD player caused an abnormal electrocardiographic (ECG) reading when a patient used it near one of the leads of the device, according to one of several reports in the March issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. And at least two reports suggest...

It has been eighteen months since Katrina devastated homes and businesses in the city and still hundreds of places remain closed. Many local mom and pop shops don’t have the funds to reopen and their places remain abandoned. But most of the national chains that do business in the city of New Orleans and in other devastated areas have either gutted, demolished or reopened their stores. With one notable exception: At least four Taco Bell restaurants in New Orleans East and St. Bernard remain much as they were when Katrina hit – laying wide open with rotted food, broken glass...

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana's bulwark insurer of last resort has lost its financial records for the past two years, probably because of mishandling of its computer software program, the state's legislative auditor revealed to a group of high-level state officials and legislators Tuesday. The board of the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will hold a special meeting today at 2:30 p.m. to address the issue, which shocked many of those at the auditor's meeting because of the implications for customers, bondholders and the state insurance market's ability to cope with future catastrophes. At least several Citizens board members were unaware...

BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU women's basketball coach Pokey Chatman said Thursday she won't coach in the NCAA tournament, and The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported on its Web site the resignation was prompted by the school's discovery of inappropriate conduct between Chatman and one or more players. Assistant coach Bob Starkey, who will take over the team for now, declined to say whether he was aware of any improper conduct. "There's been 20 to 25 things that are just floating out there, and I think she thought if she just stepped away from it she could eliminate that from...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama got more than an education when he attended Harvard Law School in the late 1980s. He also got a healthy stack of parking tickets, most of which he never paid. The Illinois Senator shelled out $375 in January -- two weeks before he officially launched his presidential campaign -- to finally pay for 15 outstanding parking tickets and their associated late fees. The story was first reported Wednesday by The Somerville News. Obama received 17 parking tickets in Cambridge between 1988 and 1991, mostly for parking in a bus stop, parking without a resident permit...

The Walt Disney Studios will continue its fairy tale legacy in animation by taking moviegoers on an all-new "once upon a time" musical adventure with its 2009 release of "The Frog Princess," it was announced today by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, and John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. A musical set in the legendary birthplace of jazz -- New Orleans -- "The Frog Princess" will introduce the newest Disney princess, Maddy, a young African- American girl living amid the charming elegance and grandeur of the fabled French Quarter. From the heart...

An officer with the Louisiana SPCA narrowly escaped serious injury after she slammed on the brakes and flipped the special vehicle she was riding inside of in order to avoid running over a turtle that was in the middle of the road in Algiers Wednesday. LASPCA Executive Director Laura Maloney said that officer Sali Magee was driving a special $60,000 animal transport vehicle on River Road in Algiers during the early morning hours when she noticed a turtle in the middle of the road. Maloney said Magee sharply hit the breaks and rolled the car into a ditch, totaling the...

Sen. Sam Brownback wants Congress to apologize to American Indians for the egregious federal actions committed against them, while a freshman House member wants the same courtesy extended to black Americans. Mr. Brownback said he has introduced the legislation in the 108th and 109th Congresses, the bill being passed out of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs both times, but he has never been able to get the bill to the floor. "The arguments against the bill are always that there were atrocities committed on both sides and that apologies lead to financial remedies, but this bill doesn't deal with...

A Louisiana National Guardsman shot and killed a New Orleans man who pointed what was thought to be a rifle at a group of police and other guardsmen early Thursday morning. According to Sgt. Joe Narcisse, an NOPD spokesman, the incident happened shortly before 1 a.m. in the 2100 block of Benton Street. The guardsmen were patrolling the area of Benton and North Miro streets when they saw a man riding a bicycle holding a hacksaw and behaving suspiciously. Guardsmen got out of their vehicles and pursued the man, Narcisse said. The man pulled out a knife and then threw...

Fort Worth, TX (AHN) - A teen arrested after police found a video tape that appears to show him forcing two toddlers to smoke marijuana said Tuesday that media reports had blown the incident out of proportion and insisted that the children would have eventually smoked pot anyway. "It ain't nothing small because it's kids and giving kids weed, but you are exaggerating the whole thing, taking it too far," said Demitrius McCoy, 17. "Those kids was going to smoke sooner or later, it's going to eventually happen whether I was to do it, or what." McCoy and 18-year-old Vanswan...

- 'I hope they don't do a DNA test,' he says OJ Simpson has allegedly claimed he could be the father of the late Anna Nicole Smith's baby, Dannielynn. The pair starred together in Naked Gun 331/3: The Final Insult in 1994 and OJ allegedly told documentary maker Norm Pardo - who filmed 70 hours of footage with him from 2000 to 2005 - that he was "throwing his hat into the ring" regarding the paternity battle. Pardo told the New York Post: "He said he knew Anna Nicole pretty well, and he said he had slow-moving sperm, and he...

HOUMA -- A 21-year-old man left in charge of four young children Saturday night is accused of smothering a 14-month-old to death because the child would not go to sleep. Preston Morris, 142 Gladys St., a live-in baby sitter for the child and his three sisters was at their home in Coteau near La. 182 Saturday night while their parents went out, said Terrebonne Sheriff Jerry Larpenter. Morris called 9-1-1 just before 10 p.m. and told emergency workers that he’d found Christian Boudreaux, the youngest of the children, unresponsive in his crib. By the time a medical team and investigators...