Society's ChildS

Bizarro Earth

High school teacher charged with having sex with 7 students

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© Provided by the Charlton County Sheriff's OfficeDaNita Wilson, a Charlton County High School teacher charged with having sex with students.
A Charlton County High School teacher has been charged with having sex with seven students, officials said.

DaNita Wilson, 32, faces seven counts of sexual assault after a one-day investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Stacy Carson, assistant special agent in charge of the GBI's Kingsland office.

Six of the students were at least 16 and one was younger than 16, Carson said.

"She turned herself in" at the Charlton County Sheriff's Office, which had requested the GBI's help, Carson said.

Carson said the investigation is ongoing.

Health

20 semis, 15 cars involved in massive crash in Indiana

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© Doug McSchooler/For the StarTraffic is backed up in both directions of I-70 in this photo from the 65 mile marker in between Plainfield and Monrovia exits. About 50 vehicles were involved in a massive pileup on I-70 in Hendricks County Thurs, Jan 31, 2012
A massive crash on I-70 west of the city has injured at least seven motorists and resulted in a major shutdown of the highway between Plainfield and Monrovia.

The highway is expected to be blocked in both directions for several hours this evening. Indiana State Police have blocked westbound access to I-70 at the I-465 interchange.

State police say the chain-reaction crash too place shortly after 2 p.m. near an overpass at Hendricks County Rolad 275 East.

Gold Coins

Applebee's fires waitress for exposing pastor's 'give God 10%' no-tip receipt

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A waitress says she was fired from her job at Applebee's after posting a note from a pastor who refused to tip, writing that "I give God 10% Why do you get 18."

The waitress, who identified herself only as Chelsea, told The Consumerist that she originally posted the photo on the atheist section of social media website Reddit as a "lighthearted joke."

"I thought the note was insulting, but it was also comical," she explained. "I posted it to Reddit because I thought other users would find it entertaining."

On the receipt she posted, Applebee's computer system had added an automatic 18 percent gratuity because the dinner party had eight or more people. But the customer scratched out the $6.29 tip and wrote "0." The receipt included a note about giving God 10 percent and a signature which indicated that the diner was a "pastor."

Candle

3 injured in San Diego explosion after suspects light cigarette near hash oil

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Three people were seriously injured Wednesday after a container of butane exploded in a San Diego hotel room as two suspects tried to make hash oil out of marijuana, police told The Associated Press.

Although hotel room explosions are usually association with making methamphetamines, they can happen any time an accellerant is improperly used, such as in the production of hash oil, a form of marijuana that is super-concentrated in liquid form, with roughly one drop equaling the amount of THC in a lower-potency joint.

Ambulance

Crash in Detroit kills at least three people, causes massive multi-vehicle accident

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© AP Photo/Paul SancyaA section of multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 75 is shown in Detroit, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013. Snow squalls and slippery roads led to a series of accidents that left at least four people dead and 20 injured on a mile-long stretch of southbound I-75. More than two dozen vehicles, including tractor-trailers, were involved in the pileups.
Blinding snow squalls, high winds and a slick highway led to a mile-long series of crashes in Detroit that left at least three people dead, including two children, and 20 more injured.

Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw said visibility was extremely poor when the mass of crashes happened on Interstate 75 on the southwest side of the city. The injured, also including children, have been taken to hospitals, Shaw said.

SUVs with smashed front ends and cars with doors hanging open sat scattered across the debris-littered highway, some crunched against jackknifed tractor-trailers and tankers. Rescue crews went vehicle to vehicle in the search for survivors and to provide aid.

Flashlight

Police hunt for two people who shot a Texas prosecutor

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© Credit: WFAAA prosecutor was shot dead outside the Kaufman County courthouse on Jan. 31, 2013.
Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot dead outside the courthouse Thursday, spurring a complete lockdown of the grounds and an active search for the two shooters.

Kaufman County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Pat Laney said the suspects ambushed the assistant DA on his way in to court and shot him multiple times in a parking lot at about 8:50 a.m. They then fled the scene. The courthouse was locked down and later closed for the day.

Hasse, a longtime prosecutor for the Dallas County District Attorney's Office and current assistant DA for Kaufman County, is the man who was shot and killed, the Sheriff's Office confirmed. He was a felony prosecutor who headed murder and drug cases.

Hasse joined the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office in July 2010, records show.

Health

14-year-old student shot in neck, teacher wounded at Atlanta middle school

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A 14-year-old student shot in the head at an Atlanta school Thursday is "alert, conscious and breathing," said police.

The shooting occurred outside Price Middle School in southeast Atlanta, said Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos.

The victim has been taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.

Brick Wall

No new developments in 2-day child hostage standoff

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Authorities and the suspected killer of a school bus driver and abductor of a 6-year-old kindergartner remain locked in a hostage standoff in southeastern Alabama that's spanned nearly 2 days.. The child is said to be "okay", having been given access to medicine and the box of crayons and a coloring book he requested.

The child, whose name isn't being published due to the ongoing investigation, has remained in an underground bunker with his captor since Tuesday afternoon when he was plucked from the school bus he was riding home. The abductor, identified as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, is accused of boarding the child's bus in the town of Midland City where he fatally shot the bus driver before kidnapping the boy.

Hostage negotiators have pleaded with the suspect to hand over the child and give himself up to police. Communication with Dykes, via a PVC pipe connected to his bunker, has so far yielded no movement.

At this time, federal law enforcement officials say FBI hostage negotiators are working with local law enforcement to try and bring the ordeal to a close.

The child is said to have a medical condition, for which authorities were successful Wednesday morning in getting medication. The situation remains "static".

Arrow Up

Unemployment claims rise as fragile US jobs market takes hit

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© Photograph: Mike Groll/APClaims above 400,000 signal a deteriorating jobs market
Jobless claims increased by 38,000 to 368,000 last week - more than forecasters expected and the largest rise since November

The number of people filing their first claim for unemployment benefits in the US has risen by more than forecasters expected.

Initial jobless claims increased by 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000 in the week ended January 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. The rise was the largest since early November, when claims spiked in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

The rise was higher than the 365,000 figure forecast by economists, but the jobs market still appears to be slowly recovering. Claims above 400,000 signal a deteriorating jobs market. The latest weekly figures come ahead of Friday's monthly non-farm figures, which give a far more comprehensive picture of the US jobs market.

Red Flag

With 42 homicides, Chicago sees most violent January in 11 years

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Rahm Emmanuel
One month into the new year Chicago has already set an ignominious record for homicides.

By late Tuesday, the Chicago Police Department had logged 42 such killings, making this the second consecutive January to top 40 homicides and the most violent first month of the year since 2002. By sheer happenstance, the 42nd victim was a teenage girl who had performed with her high school band at President Obama's inauguration earlier this month.

The January report does not bode well for turning the corner from last year, when homicides totaled 513 - the highest since 2008. Last summer, as the body count rose - primarily in marginalized swaths of Chicago where joblessness and poverty seem entrenched - Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy stood together to blame the epidemic of shootings on squabbles between multiplying gang factions and a proliferation of illegal guns.

Measures they have introduced to address the surge in homicides include partnering with CeaseFire, the nonprofit group that mediates street conflicts, and demolishing more than 200 vacant buildings that the city considers to be breeding grounds for crime. The police are also refocusing efforts from general sweeps of certain gangs and areas to hotspots or individuals deemed key to the shootings. Central to that strategy is an effort to determine when retaliation to a shooting may happen happen and who might be involved.