An airport screener with the Transportation Security Administration at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the latest TSA officer to be fired for stealing from passengers, following an ongoing ABC News investigation into theft within the agency.

Reggie Edwards, 52, was charged with larceny under $50 after allegedly stealing $36 from a passenger's suitcase on New Year's Day.

"TSA does not tolerate theft and moved immediately to terminate this individual," said the TSA in a statement confirming Edwards' dismissal.

Edwards joins a growing list, now numbering nearly 400, of TSA officers to be fired for theft since the agency was incepted in 2003.

A woman has been arrested in the death of a toddler who police say was made to ingest chili powder - perhaps as a punishment.

Amanda Sorensen, 21, of Apple Valley, was detained early Monday morning on suspicion of child abuse resulting in death.

San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies were called to the 20000 block of Cayuga Road at 4:16 p.m. Sunday for a child suffering from a seizure after ingesting chili powder.

The 2-year-old girl was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Sorensen is believed to be the girlfriend of the child's father.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.

"[My staff] and I hope the people of Newtown don't have it crash on their head later." - Connecticut Medical Examiner D. Wayne Carver II, MD, December 15, 2012

Inconsistencies and anomalies abound when one turns an analytical eye to news of the Newtown school massacre. The public's general acceptance of the event's validity and faith in its resolution suggests a deepened credulousness borne from a world where almost all news and information is electronically mediated and controlled. The condition is reinforced through the corporate media's unwillingness to push hard questions vis-à-vis Connecticut and federal authorities who together bottlenecked information while invoking prior restraint through threats of prosecutorial action against journalists and the broader citizenry seeking to interpret the event on social media.

Along these lines on December 19 the Connecticut State Police assigned individual personnel to each of the 26 families who lost a loved one at Sandy Hook Elementary. "The families have requested no press interviews," State Police assert on their behalf, "and we are asking that this request be honored.[1] The de facto gag order will be in effect until the investigation concludes - now forecast to be "several months away" even though lone gunman Adam Lanza has been confirmed as the sole culprit.[2]

With the exception of an unusual and apparently contrived appearance by Emilie Parker's alleged father, victims' family members have been almost wholly absent from public scrutiny.[3] What can be gleaned from this and similar coverage raises many more questions and glaring inconsistencies than answers. While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place - at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation's news media have described.

An independent trustee must be appointed to oversee the bankruptcy of a Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a meningitis outbreak because of the firm's "gross mismanagement," among other reasons, a Justice Department official argued Tuesday.

U.S. Trustee William Harrington also argued in his motion that an accountant the New England Compounding Center hired to lead it through the Chapter 11 process had a hopeless conflict of interest because the NECC's board can fire him at any time.

Harrington accused the NECC of hiring Keith Lowey and appointing him to its board just before it filed for bankruptcy "in an apparent attempt to forestall the appointment of a trustee."

"Creditors and victims of the (NECC's) conduct should have an independent, conflict free party developing a reorganization or liquidation strategy," Harrington wrote in the motion filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Massachusetts.

Defense lawyers for the man accused of opening fire in a US theater in July, killing 12 and wounding dozens more, readied Wednesday to call witnesses in a bid to stop the case from going to trial.

The preliminary hearing, which began on Monday, has been emotionally harrowing as relatives and police choked back tears or wept openly at testimony describing the slaughter at a packed midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises".

Prosecutors have closed their case for the alleged gunman, James Holmes, to face trial. Next up, defense lawyers are expected to highlight Holmes' mental instability as a possible reason he should not.

Offering a preview of that strategy at the hearing Tuesday, defense attorney Tamara Brady asked federal firearms supervisor Steven Beggs if there was a process in Colorado "to screen out purchases by a severely mentally ill person."

"No," replied Beggs, who detailed for the prosecution how Holmes had purchased more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition in the months before last July's shooting in Colorado, both online and in person.

Drinking has become a massive problem among Scottish women, the country's government says. In fact it is so serious that local officials decided to launch a Drinking Mirror - a special mobile app designed to stop women from over-consuming alcohol.

The new Android app is aimed to help Scottish women drink less and prevent illnesses caused by alcohol abuse, by showing them just how their appearance will chance in 10 years if they drink 10 glasses of wine per week.

The Scottish Health Secretary's office introduced the free app on Tuesday. The initiative is part of the government's campaign named "Drop a Glass Size" aimed at persuading women to reduce the number of glasses of wine they drink weekly.

A commuter ferry carrying 343 people crashed while pulling into the docks at Lower Manhattan this morning, injuring at least 59 people. The Seastreak Ferry made a 'hard docking' at Pier 11 just before 9am, throwing dozens of people on board forward or to the floor.

One man is believed to have fallen down some steps from the upper level, smashing a window. Police and firefighters were on the scene and dozens of people were taken away in stretchers to nearby hospitals with more being treated at the scene

Additional images

Onlookers watch in horror as giant inflatable ball veers off course and hurtles down ravine at southern mountain resort.

A Russian man has been killed and his friend is seriously injured after their ride down a ski slope in a giant inflatable zorb ball turned to disaster.

A harrowing video captures the victim, 27-year-old Denis Burakov, and his friend Vladimir Shcherbakov, 33, setting off in the ball at a resort in the Caucasus mountains. The ride starts promisingly. But the zorb quickly veers off course, with one man unsuccessfully trying to stop it. It then hurtles leftwards down a ravine. Onlookers watch in horror, one asking: "What's down there?" A voice replies: "Nothing. Catastrophe."

The zorb continued rolling for about half a mile before finally halting near a frozen lake. The emergencies ministry said both men were ejected from the tumbling zorb, and landed on the snow about 10 metres apart.

Rescuers could reach the two tourists only by skiing down a sheer, rocky gully. They dragged the men back up the hill. Burakov died on the way to hospital, from spinal injuries; Shcherbakov suffered concussion, and remains in hospital.

John Noveske, the owner of Noveske Rifleworks in Grants Pass, was killed Friday in a single-car crash, according to the Oregon State Police. Sgt. Tyler Lee said that Noveske's 1984 Toyota Land Cruiser crossed the oncoming lane on a curve on Highway 260 and went onto the dirt shoulder, then struck two large boulders. The vehicle rolled, ejecting Noveske.

State police said that he was not wearing a seat belt, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

A post in the Noveske Rifleworks Facebook page says in part: "We would like to thank you for your support as we deal with our loss ... John was more than just the founder of Noveske Rifleworks, he was a loving husband and father, and caring friend."

An operator of a highly popular YouTube channel dedicated to high-powered guns and explosives was found mysteriously shot to death, authorities said. Keith Ratliff, who was a business partner at FPSRussia, YouTube's ninth most popular channel with more than three million active subscribers and a combined half billion views, was discovered on a rural road in Carnesville, Georgia.

Ratliff had a single gunshot wound the head and police are treating his death as a homicide.

When authorities made the grisly discovery on Thursday, they noticed there were several guns near Ratliff, according to a local radio station report.

'For him not to pull out that gun and try to defend himself, he had to feel comfortable around somebody. Either that or he was ambushed,' said Ratliff's heartbroken widow, Amanda.

'You know, it just doesn't really add up,' she told a television station.

'We all want to know and we all want justice to be done,' Amanda says. 'He had way to much to look forward to in his life.'