An electronic failure may be to blame for a practice bomb that was dropped from a jet onto a tavern's parking lot, a Maryland National Guard official said Friday.
An A-10 Warthog jet from the 104th Fighter Squadron in the 175th Wing was returning from a training mission Thursday night to Warfield Air National Guard Base in Middle River when the inert device was dropped, guard spokesman Lt. Col. Charles Kohler said. The guard has grounded the aircraft while it investigates.
Kohler didn't yet know exactly what device it was, but said it is made to fly like a 500-pund bomb, but weighs much less.
"This is an unfortunate incident and we're very lucky that no one was hurt. Safety is a top priority in all operations," Kohler said.
A customer at Darlene's Tavern in Sudlersville came in from outside saying he thought a car in the parking lot was on fire, said owner Darlene Hurley. The car was covered in dust and stones and a few feet away was a 3-foot deep hole, she said. They called 911.
Police officers dug in the hole and when they spotted the fins of the device, they called in the fire marshal's bomb squad, Hurley said. Bomb technicians determined that it was a practice aerial bomb and the device was turned over to the National Guard, the fire marshal's office said.
"It could have been a whole lot worse. It landed about 100 feet from the building," Hurley said noting that there are propane tanks nearby. "It could have been really, really bad. Thank God everyone was OK."
Source: Associated Press
Society's Child
© Fox4 Newsroom
Police received an anonymous tip that sent them to a home where a number of rabbits were being abused. Police described what they found as bizarre.
"They had rabbit cages that weren't being kept up, feces wasn't being cleaned up or removed from the cages," said Captain Tony Kirkendoll. "Animals were laying in their own urine and feces. They were left out in the sun, no shade."
Police found 17 neglected animals and two decomposed rabbits. The rabbits that were found alive are being treated at an area shelter.
James Venneman, 29, of Chillicothe, faces 18 counts of animal cruelty and neglect charges.
Chillicothe is about 90 miles northeast of Kansas City, Mo.
© KentuckyHunting.net
The hunter, 31-year-old James Troyer, killed the wolf back in March, but the Department of Agriculture only recently confirmed it was indeed a federally endangered gray wolf, not a German Shepherd like officials originally thought.The first documented free-ranging wolf in Kentucky's modern history was shot and killed by an unsuspecting hunter, state wildlife officials have announced.
Gee, I don't know. How odd that something that looked like a wolf turned out to be a wolf. </Daria voice>"I was like - wow - that thing was big!" [Troyer] recalled. "It looked like a wolf, but who is going to believe I shot a wolf?"
© Amanda Catherine Hein via Facebook
Amanda Catherine Hein has been accused of killing her newborn son — and she could face the death penalty if she is guilty as charged.
Amanda Catherine Hein has been accused of killing her newborn son — and she could face the death penalty if she is guilty as charged.
A Pennsylvania woman gave birth in the bathroom of a sports bar, smothered the baby boy in a trash bag and then left him to die in a toilet tank - a crime punishable by death.
Amanda Hein, 26, of Allentown, has been ordered held without bail. She was charged with criminal homicide. In Pennsylvania, the intentional murder of a child under 12 is a capital offense.
The baby boy was alive and healthy - carried from 33 to 36 weeks - when Hein delivered him at Starters Pub in Bethlehem, Pa., on Aug. 18, the coroner said.
The
Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, has warned Christians that their views on sexual orientation were beginning to look like an "atrocious injustice".
Justin Welby spoke at the opening of the Evangelical Alliance on Wednesday. During a question and answer session after his speech, the archbishop was asked why he voted against same-sex marriage legislation.
"What I voted against was what seemed to me to be the rewriting the nature of marriage in a way that I have to say within the Christian tradition and within scripture and within our understanding is not the right way to deal with the very important issues that were attempted to be dealt with in that bill," he replied.
© Screenshot
Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
Justin Welby spoke at the opening of the Evangelical Alliance on Wednesday. During a question and answer session after his speech, the archbishop was asked why he voted against same-sex marriage legislation.
"What I voted against was what seemed to me to be the rewriting the nature of marriage in a way that I have to say within the Christian tradition and within scripture and within our understanding is not the right way to deal with the very important issues that were attempted to be dealt with in that bill," he replied.
In Pennsylvania, and most other states, the law allows health and government officials to get court approval to provide medical care to save a child's life over the parents' religious objections.
But in Akron, Ohio, where Amish parents removed their 10-year-old daughter from the hospital to avoid further chemotherapy, the issue enters a legal gray area.
"I think this is a more heartrending question," said Wes Oliver, associate professor of law and director of the Criminal Justice Program at the Duquesne Law School. "Do you require parents to take extraordinary measures to give a child a percentage chance of survival, or do you leave that decision for the parents?"
In the Amish case, the parents took their daughter to the hospital in May for chemotherapy before removing her from treatment in June.
© Todd Richmond / File / Associated Press
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation
Gaylor, head of the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, wants to stop it - and she's asking a federal judge for help.
The standoff is the latest twist in a court battle over the parsonage exemption for clergy, a tax break that allows "ministers of the gospel" to claim part of their salary as a tax-free housing allowance. Gaylor's organization says the exemption gives religious groups an unfair advantage. That makes it unconstitutional, the foundation's lawsuit contends.
But government lawyers say atheist leaders can still be ministers, because atheism can function as a religion. So leaders of an atheist organization may qualify for the exemption after all.
No thanks, says Gaylor.
© Billings Police Department
Stacey Dean Rambold is shown in this booking photo.
Stacey Dean Rambold is shown in this booking photo.
In 2010, the girl killed herself at age 16 as the case was pending, and her mother told District Judge G. Todd Baugh Monday her relationship with Rambold was a "major factor" in her suicide.
Baugh handed down the sentence Monday after former Billings Senior High School teacher Rambold, 54, was terminated from a sexual offender treatment program that was part of a deal to have his prosecution deferred. The judge said he wasn't convinced that the reasons for Rambold's termination from the program were serious enough to warrant a 10-year prison term recommended by prosecutors.
In handing down the sentence, Baugh also said the 14-year-old victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control of the situation" as the teacher. The girl's mother, Auleia Hanlon, stormed out of the courtroom yelling, "You people suck!," the Billings-Gazette reported.
A Fairfax Station boy is undergoing emergency life-saving treatment at Inova Children's Hospital after he stepped out his door and into the fangs of a copperhead snake.
Michael Alford, 12, ran out of his house around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday wearing sandals. He says he stepped on something and when he lifted his foot, a snake tore into it.
"[I] opened the door and I stepped on a snake, a copperhead. I don't know whether I stepped on his tail or his head, but I took my foot off and he bit me."
Alford's mother asked him to run to the car to get a token. What he came back with left her frightened and frantic.
"He just ran up the steps and looked at me and was like 'A snake just bit me!' so I was a little freaked out," Kara Allan says.
The family came to Inova Children's, which is equipped to administer the series of anti-venom shots. Dr. Minal Amin says copperhead bites can be serious. They have seen several in the past few weeks at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
"We would recommend for someone to get away from the snake and elevate the extremity and come to the nearest hospital," Amin says.
Meanwhile, Alford watches the swelling, which is slowly receding.
"I'm doing better. The anti-venom is pushing it back to where it started," he says.
Michael Alford, 12, ran out of his house around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday wearing sandals. He says he stepped on something and when he lifted his foot, a snake tore into it.
© Kara Allan
This snake bit the boy in Falls Church.
This snake bit the boy in Falls Church.
Alford's mother asked him to run to the car to get a token. What he came back with left her frightened and frantic.
"He just ran up the steps and looked at me and was like 'A snake just bit me!' so I was a little freaked out," Kara Allan says.
The family came to Inova Children's, which is equipped to administer the series of anti-venom shots. Dr. Minal Amin says copperhead bites can be serious. They have seen several in the past few weeks at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
"We would recommend for someone to get away from the snake and elevate the extremity and come to the nearest hospital," Amin says.
Meanwhile, Alford watches the swelling, which is slowly receding.
"I'm doing better. The anti-venom is pushing it back to where it started," he says.
A young woman taking a shower inside her Westland apartment this week was shocked to find a large snake in an overhead exhaust fan.
"She screamed and I was like, 'what's the problem?'" said Reggie Johnson, the woman's boyfriend. But when he entered the bathroom, he immediately knew. Staring down at them was a 4-foot snake believed to be either a python or a boa constrictor.
Johnson was frightened for his girlfriend and her kitten Clyde, who happened to be in the bathroom at the same time. "It was probably wanting to get him," said Johnson. "I just took him out and put him in his cage."
Johnson says he called friends and they pulled the snake out and security at the Hunters West Apartments, near Wayne and Warren, released it into the nearby woods.
It turns out, the snaked belonged to a neighbor and it had escaped. But no one bothered to tell Reggie, his girlfriend or Clyde the kitten.
"It was a big surprise to us," said Johnson. "We're just happy it's gone."
