Free Republic

CONCORD, N.C. -- Concord police hope a surveillance video can help them arrest the two men who assaulted another man at a rest stop early Wednesday morning. Michael Honeycutt, 48, of Seattle, was beaten and robbed at a northbound rest stop on Interstate 85, investigators said. The attack happened around 2 a.m. Investigators believe Honeycutt was a random target [?]. They said his attackers, who were waiting near the rest stop's vending machines, hit him over the head with what appeared to be a baseball bat. "It appears he was taken by surprise," said Maj. Allen Overcash of the Concord...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A graduate student was convicted Friday of setting fire to dozens of sport utility vehicles and causing more than $2 million in damage, but was cleared of the most serious charge against him. William Jensen Cottrell, 24, was found guilty in U.S. District Court of conspiracy to commit arson and seven counts of arson. But the jury acquitted him of attempting to use a destructive device in a crime of violence - Molotov cocktails - a charge that carried a sentence of at least 30 years in prison. He will be sentenced March 12, and faces...

(snip)... Cabarrus County - [David Nelson] Judy was released from the Cabarrus County jail Monday on $40,000 bond. In Saturday's incident, the 5-year-old boy had been traveling from Tampa, Fla., with his mother and her boyfriend to their home in Newport News, Va., when they stopped at the northbound rest area at about 3:30 p.m. The boy and his two older brothers, ages 10 and 6, went to use the bathroom while their mother waited in the hall and her boyfriend cleaned out the car, police said. The 5-year-old entered a restroom stall, the boyfriend said. When the 10-year-old boy...