Free Republic

A veteran paramedic struggled to hold back tears Tuesday as he described finding the shrunken, emaciated body of 18-month-old James Fredrickson lying on the floor of the Streamwood condominium where the child starved to death. "It looked like somebody had taken tissue paper and put it over a skeleton," said Streamwood Fire Department paramedic Steve Beach, recalling how malnourished the boy appeared when rescue workers entered the family's home on Dec. 14, 2001, after receiving a 911 call. Beach's emotional testimony came as the murder trial of James' mother, 27-year-old Amanda Fredrickson, opened at the Cook County Courthouse in Rolling...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) - Ten years after a firefighter was left brain-damaged and mostly mute during a 1995 roof collapse, he did something that shocked his family and doctors: He perked up. "I want to talk to my wife," Donald Herbert said out of the blue Saturday. Staff members of the nursing home where he has lived for more than seven years raced to get Linda Herbert on the telephone. It was the first of many conversations the 44-year-old patient had with his wife, four sons and other family and friends during a 14-hour stretch, said Herbert's uncle, Simon...