Society's ChildS


Red Flag

Doctor accused of urinating on dentist office door

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Dr. Donald A. Holshuh charged with tampering with a witness
Keene police said a man was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly urinated on the door of a dentist office in August.

The Keene Police Department launched an investigation into the incident on Aug. 14. Officials said a man urinated on the employee door of a dental office on Court Street, occupied by Dr. Wirant. A surveillance camera recorded the incident and police identified the suspect as Dr. Donald A. Holshuh.

Arrow Down

Charges dropped against woman who said Durham police officer beat her

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© Takaaki Iwabu - tiwabu@newsobserver.com Stephanie Nickerson, center, a Chapel Hill woman who is at the center of a police brutality claim in Durham, gets a hug from Nia Wilson (wearing a hat) while Rev. Curtis Gatewood with the NAACP, left, shakes a hand of Daryl Atkinson, right, attorney representing Nickerson.
Durham - A Chapel Hill woman who says a Durham police officer beat her during an arrest last fall won a court victory this week, and the officer has resigned.

Charges against Stephanie Nickerson, a Navy veteran who has filed a police brutality complaint, have been dropped. The charges of resisting arrest and assault on an officer were dismissed Wednesday, according to attorney Daryl Atkinson of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

Nickerson and her lawyers learned of the development Thursday morning after more than 20 people rallied for her in near-freezing temperatures on the courthouse steps. She had been due in court later that day.

Meanwhile, Cpl. Brian Schnee resigned from the Police Department on Friday, according to Beverly Thompson, the city's director of public affairs. He had worked for the department since 2001.

Atkinson said he and Nickerson's other attorney, Geeta Kapur, would discuss possible next steps.

"The immediate goal was to get these charges dismissed," Atkinson said. "This case, though, speaks to some larger issues of racial injustice."

Kapur said she could not say whether Nickerson would sue the city, but said, "Our client's going to explore all of her options."

Kapur and Atkinson are representing Nickerson pro bono.

Heart - Black

70-year-old charity told to stop feeding homeless in Seattle

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Feeding the homeless is being banned in many major cities in America. Seattle is just the latest city to enforce restrictions on charities that feed the homeless.

The Bread of Life Mission has been feeding the poor in Seattle for 70 years, and now they are being prevented from doing so in public parks without the city's approval.

"It was a service we were offering free of charge to be a blessing to the homeless," Executive Director Willie Parish, Jr told MyNorthwest.com. "All we were doing was just a continuation of what we do on a daily basis."

Eye 2

Exterminator charged with murder in death of Philadelphia doctor

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© Matt Rourke / Associated PressHomicide unit Capt. James Clark speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia.
An exterminator has been arrested and charged with strangling a Philadelphia doctor who was found tied and burned in her home, police said on Thursday.

Dr. Melissa Ketunuti, 35, a second-year infectious disease fellow at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was found Monday with her ankles and wrists bound and burned, police said.

Jason Smith, 36, was arrested Wednesday night at his home in Levittown, Pa., about 25 miles northeast of Philadelphia, homicide unit Capt. James Clark said at a televised news conference Thursday. Smith has been charged with murder, abuse of a corpse and other counts. There were no signs of sexual assault, he said.

Snowflake Cold

Ice from fire hoses threatens to collapse building

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© Scott Olson/Getty Images
Thick sheets of ice left on a Chicago warehouse are threatening to collapse the building after firefighters twice had to beat back flames there during a frigid cold spell.

The abandoned warehouse at the intersection of 37th and Ashland in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood burst into flames on Tuesday night. Firefighters succeeded in putting out the blaze - one of the city's biggest in decades - but it reignited a little more than a day later.

All the water poured onto the building meant more ice on the structure because of the frigid temperatures that have hit the city in recent days. All the ice has put more weight on the five-story warehouse.

"The last few days have been really tough. It's been really cold and really wet," Peter Vandorpe of the Chicago Fire Department told ABC News' Alex Perez.

Cowboy Hat

'Twisted Sister' frontman Dee Snider reminds Republicans that Ted Nugent dodged Vietnam

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© Flickr user diario de un pixel
In an interview with music website Noisecreep, "Twisted Sister" frontman Dee Snider said he doesn't know why most Republicans who seem to love fellow rocker Ted Nugent cannot seem to recall him dodging the draft during the Vietnam war in the most revolting way possible: by pooping and vomiting on himself for a week, and doing hard drugs.

"Ted's always been a gun-toting conservative," he said after being asked to opine on Nugent's claim that he's prepared to launch an armed revolt against the U.S. government over the reelection of Presidnet Barack Obama. "But what gets me is that he was actually a draft dodger! I mean, to the point where he didn't bathe for a week, and vomited on himself to deliberately avoid the draft."

It wasn't all criticism, though: "I totally understand why he did that," Snider added, "but all of these Republicans who love Ted don't seem to know or remember that too well. It's crazy that he's become one of the voices of conservative America even though he was a draft dodger. If you don't believe me, Google it."

Snakes in Suits

Catholic hospital chain beats malpractice suit by saying fetuses aren't people

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© Wikipedia Commons
A chain of Catholic Hospitals has beaten a malpractice lawsuit by saying that fetuses are not equivalent to human lives. According to the Colorado Independent, in the death of a 31-year-old woman carrying twin fetuses, Catholic Health Initiatives' attorneys argued that in cases of wrongful death, the term "person" only applies to individuals born alive, and not to those who die in utero.

Lori Stodghill was seven months pregnant with twin boys on the day she died. The Independent reported that on New Year's Day 2006 in Cañon City, Colorado, Stodghill was admitted to the Emergency Room at St. Thomas More Hospital complaining of nausea, vomiting and shortness of breath. She lost consciousness as she was being wheeled into an exam room and ER staff were unable to resuscitate her.

It was later found that a main artery supplying blood to her lungs was clogged, which led to a massive heart attack. Stodghill never woke up, dying an hour after her admission to St. Thomas. Her twins died in her womb.

Frantic ER personnel had paged Stodghill's doctor, obstetrician Pelham Staples, but the doctor never answered. A wrongful-death suit filed on the twins' behalf by Stodghill's husband, corrections officer Jeremy Stodghill, maintained that Staples should have made it to the hospital or ordered an emergency cesarian section by phone in order to save the 7-month-old fetuses.

Cheeseburger

Ontario toddler may have eaten glass in Subway sandwich

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Would you like glass with that?

Subway restaurants have already incited the ire of customers this week after one of its subs didn't measure up to its footlong name. Now a customer in Peterborough, ON, is saying her sub contained pieces of glass that her toddler swallowed.

According to The Peterborough Examiner, Laura Clark bought her daughter a 6-inch turkey sub last week and when her daughter bit into it, she began to complain her mouth was hurting.

Aubrey, 3, had cuts inside her mouth, according to Clark, who reported the allegation to Subway's head office. She said her daughter also passed two pieces of glass the next day.

Dollar

Las Vegas woman reportedly sues Match.com for $10M, claims site doesn't properly scan applicants


A potentially perfect match almost cost Mary Kay Beckman her life.

FOX 5 KVVU reports that Beckman, of Las Vegas, is suing Match.com for $10 million, alleging that the dating website doesn't do enough to keep violent offenders off its site after she met a man who attempted to kill her.

"He broke into my garage," Beckman told the station. "When the police arrested him, he said he wasn't there to hurt me. He was there to kill me. His intent was to kill me that night."

Beckman said she had been using Match.com for two months when she met Wade Ridley in September 2010. After just eight days, Beckman ended the relationship, causing Ridley to turn violent. Later, in 2011, Ridley stabbed her 10 times with a butcher knife and stomped on her head when the knife broke.

The 50-year-old real estate agent and mother of two said the attack left her hospitalized for months. She endured three head surgeries and a seizure. While she was in the hospital, Beckman said Ridley killed an Arizona woman he met on the same website.

Heart - Black

Restaurant customers refused service after making fun of child with Down Syndrome

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© screengrabs via Click2Houston.com
Michael Garcia has worked at Laurenzo's on Washington Avenue for two years. Because I've been eating there at least once a week for about a year, I've known him as the guy who always welcomed me with a surprisingly sincere smile and a handshake. I had no idea he was also a hero.

Another of Garcia's regulars, Kim Castillo and her family (including her five year old, Milo, who has Down Syndrome) were eating at Laurenzo's on Wednesday night. After the Castillos sat down, the people sitting next to them asked to be moved. Garcia moved them, and then he heard one of them say this:
Special needs children need to be special somewhere else.