Free Republic

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...

BARSTOW, Calif. (AP) - An 11-year-old attacked her baby sitter with a machete during a struggle that included attempts by the girl to grab a baseball bat, a shovel and a BB gun, investigators said. The girl fled on a bicycle after the attack but was arrested about an hour later and booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon, said Sgt. Doug Hubbard, of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. The 34-year-old sitter telephoned deputies after fending off the Tuesday attack and locking herself and the girl's 12-year-old sister in the bathroom of the Mojave Desert home, Hubbard...

July 15, 2003, 12:30PM Claudette chases off all but one tree protester By JEFFREY GILBERT Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle "There's a hurricane?" the sole remaining Memorial Park tree-sitter joked in the rain Tuesday morning, still perched atop a 110-foot tall pine tree. "Trust," as he refers to himself, is sticking it out through Hurricane Claudette, but he's the only one. His companion, "Bear", came down this morning. "We knew it was going to get rough," Trust said. "So we decided that only the most experienced person stay up here." Trust has survived wet and stormy weather for the past week,...