Girl comes to rescue after great-grandmother suffers stroke
NASH COUNTY, N.C. — A North Carolina woman suffered a stroke while driving. Fortunately her 7-year-old great granddaughter knew just what to do.
Last Friday, Nakhia Silver was riding home from the bus stop with her great-grandmother, Phyllis Blackwell.
“She had turned the car around, and instead, she hit the stop sign. She had her eyes closed and stuff and she didn’t talk,” Nakhia told WNCN,
The girl knew she had to act fast. First, she put the car into park. Then she ran home to tell her family.
“Sometimes I watch when my mom didn’t have a car, she used to drive my grandmother’s car and I be watching where she drives and stuff. All I had to do was twist this thing. It was kind of hard to do. But I was lucky that she had her foot on the pedal. If she didn’t have her foot on the pedal, it wouldn’t work,” the girl said.
“All I know is, things weren’t right,” Blackwell said.
Blackwell said she doesn’t remember much, but is thankful her great-granddaughter knew what to do.
“She’s been very forward for her age,” Blackwell said. “She is a very special child.”
Nakhia’s school honored her with student of the day for her quick thinking.
The sheriff’s department also shared the story on social media, gaining thousands of likes and stunning Nakhia’s mother, Latisha Redding.
“The social media and all of the attention, and just the love and care from everything, it’s like, wow,” Redding said.
Nakhia’s family is proud. Her great-grandmother summed it up this way:
“Never underestimate a child. Never underestimate them, because they will surprise you every time.”
via: https://abc7chicago.com/girl-comes-to-rescue-after-great-grandmother-suffers-stroke/5116684/
Boy, 13, arrested after telling Siri he wanted to shoot up a school
An Indiana middle schooler was busted for telling Siri he planned to open fire on a school — prompting the digital assistant to suggest possible ones nearby, police said in reports Friday.
The unnamed 13-year-old boy is accused of telling Siri, “I am going to shoot up a school,” the Valparaiso Police Department told the Northwest Indiana Times.
The voice-activated iPhone assistant then responded with recommendations for several schools in the Valparaiso area — an interaction the boy posted in a screenshot on social media, police told the paper. One of the kid’s friends saw the post and quickly called cops, according to police.
The boy, who attends Chesterton Middle School, was being held at Porter County Juvenile Detention Center on intimidation charges Friday.
But cops don’t believe he posed a real danger because he made no specific threat on a person or place, officers told the paper, saying it was likely meant to be a joke.
“The threat is not believed to be credible at this time; however, these types of communications are taken very seriously by the Valparaiso Police Department and our community,” police said in a press release. “We continue to work with the Valparaiso Community Schools to ensure the safety of the students and staff.”
The incident remains under investigation, police said
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/01/boy-13-arrested-after-telling-siri-he-wanted-to-shoot-up-a-school/
Gov. Ralph Northam ‘deeply sorry’ after photo emerges from his 1984 yearbook showing blackface, KKK hood
RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) on Friday acknowledged appearing in a “clearly racist and offensive” photograph in his 1984 medical school yearbook that shows a man in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe.
“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now,” he said. “This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine, and in public service. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment.”
Northam, 59, did not say if he was the man dressed in blackface or Klan robes. Calls for his resignation came from the NAACP, the Republican Governors’ Association, the state’s Republican party and some national Democrats – including presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Julian Castro.
“Black face in any manner is always racist and never okay,” tweeted Derrick Johnson, NAACP president. “No matter the party affiliation, we can not stand for such behavior, which is why the @NAACP is calling for the resignation of Virginia Governor @RalphNortham.”
Members of the state legislative black caucus said Friday night stopped short of demanding Northam step down but said “what has been revealed is disgusting, reprehensible, and offensive. We feel complete betrayal. The legacy of slavery, racism, and Jim Crow has been an albatross around the necks of African Americans for over 400 years. These pictures rip off the scabs of an excruciatingly painful history and are a piercing reminder of this nation’s sins. Those who would excuse the pictures are just as culpable.”
But a statement released by the governor in the early evening indicated that he would continue his work.
The image in the yearbook from Eastern Virginia Medical School was on a page with other photos of Northam and personal information about the future governor. Northam, a pediatric neurologist, graduated from medical school in 1984 after earning an undergraduate degree from Virginia Military Institute.
The yearbook page is labeled Ralph Shearer Northam, along with pictures of him in a jacket and tie, casual clothes and alongside his restored Corvette.
It shows two people, one in plaid pants, bow tie and black faced, and the other in full Klan robes and a hood. Both men appear to be holding beer cans. The person in black face is smiling. Beneath the photo, Northam lists his alma mater, an interest in pediatrics and offers a quote: “There are more old drunks than old doctors in this world so I think I’ll have another beer.”
Jack Wilson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia said Northam should step down. “Racism has no place in Virginia,” Wilson said in a statement. “These pictures are wholly inappropriate. If Governor Northam appeared in blackface or dressed in a KKK robe, he should resign immediately.”
Vivian Paige, a long-time political activist in Norfolk who has known Northam since he first ran for office, said she was distraught over the news and felt Northam should step down.
“I’m disappointed and I believe that he can’t lead the party any more,” said Paige, who is African American.“Ralph and I are a year apart in age. It really cuts to the bone to me that someone would do that at our age. Our generation – the tail end of the Baby Boom – we grew up in an integrated society. How could you not know that was wrong?”
The yearbook image was first posted Friday by the website Big League Politics, a conservative outlet founded by Patrick Howley, a former writer for the Daily Caller and Breitbart.
The Washington Post independently confirmed the authenticity of the yearbook by viewing it in the medical school library in Norfolk.
The revelation comes after a wild week for Northam, who was accused by Republicans of advocating infanticide after he made comments defending a bill that would have lifted restrictions on late-term abortions. It was more surprising because Northam has billed himself as the political antidote to Donald Trump – an aw-shucks leader with a boring speaking style and a reputation for honesty. He gained the trust of Republicans, who worked with him last year to pass Medicaid expansion after four years of resisting it under previous governor Terry McAuliffe (D).
House Speaker M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights), Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment (R-James City) and other Republican leaders released a statement Friday that called the yearbook image “a deeply disturbing and offensive photograph”
In his statement, Northam said that he recognized “that it will take time and serious effort to heal the damage this conduct has caused. I am ready to do that important work. The first step is to offer my sincerest apology and to state my absolute commitment to living up to the expectations Virginians set for me when they elected me to be their Governor.”
A Northam ally, Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) defended the governor.
“His whole life has been about exactly the opposite and that’s what you need to examine, not something that occurred 30 years ago,” said Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax). “While it’s in very poor taste, I would think no one in the General Assembly who would like their college conduct examined. I would hate to have to go back and examine my two years in the Army. Trust me. I was 18 years old and I was a handful, OK? His life since then has been anything but. It’s been a life of helping people, and many times for free.”
He later said he agreed with the legislative black caucus.
Sen. Richard Stuart (R-Stafford), one of the governor’s closest friends, said he had not been able to talk to Northam about the yearbook and did not know what to make of it, but stood by him.
“He’s my friend and I will always stand up for him,” said Stuart, who also took exception to claims that Northam had advocated infanticide. Joan Naidorf, whose husband’s yearbook page sits opposite Northam’s in the yearbook, said she was surprised the photos are only now just coming out, given Northam’s stature in Virginia politics.
“We’ve often wondered over the last 10 years or so why someone didn’t dig this up sooner,” said Joan Naidorf, a non-practicing emergency room physician who lives in Alexandria.
When she first saw the photo shortly after the yearbook was published, Naidrorf said, “I thought: `That’s awful.’ I assumed it was something at a drunken frat party.”
Naidorf said she didn’t know when or where the photos were taken. Her husband, Tobin, wasn’t available Friday. He had met Northam a few times when they worked medical rotations together, but weren’t friends, she said.
Eastern Virginia Medical School allowed students to pick their own photos for their yearbook page, Naidorf said. Her husband chose their engagement photo and other personal pictures. Another student chose a picture of men also in blackface and dressed as woman in what appears to be a variety show routine.
Northam has built his 12-year political career on a clean-cut image as a soft-spoken doctor and Army veteran who headed Honor Council at VMI, a demanding job that required him to pass judgement on fellow students who lied or violated the school’s honor code.
First elected to the state Senate from Norfolk in 2007, Northam has had a charmed political career. He was courted by Republicans because of his conservative leanings, and was identified early by then-Gov. Tim Kaine (D) as future governor material because of his experience in both health care and the military. Northam served in the Army for eight years after medical school, treating soldiers wounded in the Gulf War.
He later walked that back and now says it should be up to localities, but said recently that his personal belief is that such statues are harmful.
Northam, 59, grew up on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the fishing village of Onancock. His father was a judge and his mother was a school teacher. Northam and his brother attended desegregated public high school, where Northam played basketball and baseball.
The origins of blackface date to minstrel shows from the 19th century, when white actors covered themselves in black grease paint to portray African Americans but in a cartoonish, dehumanizing way. The minstrel shows put forth racist notions of African Americans as primitive and inferior.
Last week, Michael Ertel, Florida’s secretary of state resigned after the emergence of photos from 2005 of him in blackface, apparently mimicking victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Former NBC journalist Megyn Kelly stirred controversy in October for defending blackface in Halloween costumes.
Suspected DUI Driver Allegedly Left Her 2 Toddlers Inside Car in Freezing Temps for Hours While at Kansas Bar
A Kansas mother is in jail, accused of leaving her two small children inside a car for hours while she was at a bar, according to KTLA sister station WDAF in Kansas City.
The children were found as temperature plummeted to single digits early Wednesday morning.
A worker told WDAF that a 26-year-old woman, later identified as Tiara Dillon, came into Playerz Sports Bar in Lawrence about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Over the course of almost 4 hours, bartenders said she ordered several drinks and made erratic remarks. At 1:30 a.m., they’d had enough and kicked her out.
Dillon went out to the parking lot, and apparently, her car wouldn’t start. Workers said she tried to go back to the bar, and that’s when bar employees called police.
Officers said Dillon had left the area, but they found her car nearby. Two children, ages 2 and 3, were inside. The temperature outside at the time in Lawrence was 6 degrees with a wind chill of -12.
Dillon was arrested on suspicion of DUI and aggravated child endangerment. She’s expected in court Thursday.
Police said the kids weren’t injured, but child protective services are also now investigating.
“Being in a car is not predictable, and they can be exposed to those temperatures that cause medical issues,” said Dr. Travis Langner, University of Kansas Health System pediatric critical care division manager.
Doctors at the University of Kansas Health System say extreme temperatures are dangerous for small children. Their bodies can’t adjust to the deep freeze easily, and it only takes a drop of a couple degrees in body temp for mild hypothermia to kick in.
“Definitely within minutes you could have that drop in what we call core temperature of the body. Once it gets below 95 degrees, we start becoming very concerned and want those patients to present to the hospital because part of the treatment is to re-warm them a specific way that can’t be done at home,” Langner said.
It is also important to know even running your car heater with small kids inside can be dangerous, according to experts. If children get too hot inside coats and blankets and can’t take them off, they can get sick from being overheated, too.
Woman arrested for masturbating in public; continued in cop car
A half-naked woman was arrested after being caught masturbating in public in Austin, Texas — then allegedly continued pleasuring herself while handcuffed in a police car.
Police responded to a complaint from the JW Marriott Austin Hotel about 5:20 p.m. Tuesday about a woman across the street “holding a silver object” against her privates “with her legs straight up in the air, spread open,” according to the arrest affidavit.
A hotel worker said he could hear the woman — identified by authorities as Dovie Nickels, 26 — “making moaning noises,” the affidavit reads.
The worker saw the woman masturbating on the patio for about seven or eight minutes, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
The worker said the woman told him to back off as he approached her to tell her to stop.
She then went to the Second Bar + Kitchen across the street — where the lewd behavior allegedly continued, the outlet reported.
When police arrived at the bar, the woman stopped moving her arms under the table and placed them on top of it — but the officers “observed that Nickels was not wearing any pants,” the affidavit said.
After being arrested, Nickels allegedly continued to pleasure herself — even while handcuffed in the back of the squad car, police said.
The cops went across the street to investigate the original complaint and learned from a hotel employee that the woman had been spotted earlier at the Marriott’s street-level patio, the affidavit said.
Nickels was charged with indecent exposure and sent to the Travis County Jail with bail set at $3,000.
Mom accused of pouring water on sleeping baby’s face as “Payback for waking me up all kinda times of da night.”
SUMTER COUNTY, S.C. – A South Carolina mother has been charged over a video that shows her pouring water on the face of a sleeping baby, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
Caitlyn Alyse Hardy, 33, faces a charge of cruelty to children after authorities say she doused the 9-month-old girl with a bottle of water twice, causing the infant to wake up coughing.
The sheriff’s office says she recorded the incident and posted it on her Facebook page. According to WIS News, the post was captioned: “Payback for waking me up all kinda times of da night.”
Sumter County deputies arrested Hardy Wednesday after issuing a warrant accusing Hardy of “ill treatment, unnecessary pain and suffering, and/or deprivation of necessary sustenance.” The sheriff’s office called video of the incident “disturbing.”
The sheriff’s office says they’ve notified the Sumter County Department of Social Services “for the benefit and safety of all children in this home.”
“The charges against this defendant will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Sheriff Anthony Dennis said.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/01/30/mom-accused-of-pouring-water-on-sleeping-babys-face-as-payback/
Mom charged with murder after falling asleep in car with 2 girls who later died
LIBERTY, Mo. – A Missouri mother has been indicted on murder and several other charges after she allegedly fell asleep in her vehicle last summer with her two young daughters, who later died, according to WDAF.
Jenna Boedecker, 30, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of child endangerment, one count of third-degree domestic assault, one count of armed criminal action and one count of first-degree property damage.
Court documents released in July say Boedecker told investigators she put the two girls, 2-year-old Ireland Ribando and 7-week-old Goodknight Ribando, in her Jeep Patriot sometime overnight between July 3 and 4. She said she didn’t want them to hear her and her husband argue.
Boedecker told police the Jeep had very little gas in it, less than a sixteenth of a tank, according to court documents.
At some point, Boedecker said she fell asleep in the vehicle. When she woke up on July 4, she found her two girls unresponsive.
The Clay County mom told officials she took her daughters to a neighbor’s home for help and tried to revive them. When first-responders arrived at the home, the little girls were pronounced dead.
Court documents detailing the two girls’ official causes of death weren’t immediately available Tuesday.
Boedecker remains in custody on a $500,000 bond.
The 30-year-old mom was originally charged with domestic assault, armed criminal action and property damage in July. Those charges stem from the fight with her husband the night of July 3. Boedecker allegedly threw a brick at her husband and rammed the truck he was driving with her Jeep.
Search warrants released in July revealed that a child services investigator responded to the Clay County home on the morning of July 4.
The investigator told police on July 3, the agency received a hotline call around 11 p.m. It was classified as an “assessment,” which are typically addressed during business hours.
So the child services worker “put it off until the morning,” the search warrant says.
The investigator said he went to Boedecker’s home around 9:30 a.m. July 4 and saw a silver SUV in the driveway. He said the vehicle’s rear lights were on, but he thought they were just left on by accident.
The child services investigator told police, when he pulled his vehicle in behind the SUV, he didn’t see anyone inside. When he got out of his car, he didn’t look inside the car as he walked around it. The investigator said he heard the engine running but didn’t hear the fan for the air conditioning.
He told police if someone had been sitting upright in the car, he would have seen them. But he said he might not have seen children in the back or an adult if they were slumped over.
The man said he knocked on the family’s home three times but didn’t get a response, so he went back to his car and later left. His entire visit lasted no longer than five minutes, court documents say.
‘I’m going to watch’: Niece tried to kill aunt by driving until oxygen tank ran out
OLD FORGE, Pa. – A Pennsylvania woman allegedly tried to kill her elderly aunt, who is dependent on oxygen, by suffocating her back in November – now, arrest documents reveal disturbing new details in the case, according to WNEP.
Investigators say Carrie Trowbridge, of Old Forge, kept her aunt, Josephine Delucia, in a car for hours with a tank that would only last one hour and told her she was going to watch her die.
Police say Trowbridge would have benefitted financially from her aunt’s death.
According to police paperwork, Delucia wanted Trowbridge to bring her to the PNC Bank in Dupont to check her bank statements. She told police she hadn’t been receiving her mail and wanted to check the balance of her bank accounts.
Instead, investigators say on that day in November, Trowbridge kept her aunt in a car for eight to 10 hours with only enough oxygen to last one hour. Court papers say she kept the windows shut and pinched her aunt’s nose closed while driving.
That court paperwork says Trowbridge told her aunt, “I have your statements in my purse. You think I’m stealing your money? You’re going to die today old woman, and I’m going to watch you!”
Delucia told police she made several attempts to escape but was forced to stay in the car. At one point, she pretended to be dead, and Trowbridge brought her back to their home.
“How can you do that to your own relative? I mean, it is very sad. I mean, she’s dying for money that bad she has to kill her aunt,” said Tina Rutcavage of Tunkhannock.
“That is one of the worst things I’ve probably ever heard in my life. That’s terrible. No money should be worth somebody’s life,” said Dan Coffey, of Lake Ariel.
Since that drive, court documents indicate Delucia discovered $15,000 missing from her bank account. Not only that, but Delucia told police she found out that Trowbridge opened up a credit card in her name without her authorization. She has removed her niece as a beneficiary and went to police, leading to the arrest.
Trowbridge is locked up, facing attempted homicide, forgery, and reckless endangerment, as well as a long list of other charges in Lackawanna County.
Delucia is staying with other family members.
Boy calls 911 for help with his math homework — and gets it
She’s ready for any emergency — even a math meltdown!
A 911 dispatcher in Indiana sprang to the rescue when a boy called, frantically needing help with his mind-numbing math homework, according to NBC News.
“I had a really bad day, and, I just don’t know,” the unnamed kid told Antonia Bundy, who works for the Lafayette Police, on Jan. 14.
Instead of blowing him off, Bundy asked him how she could help.
“What happened at school that made you have a bad day?” she said, according to a tape of the call, cited by the station.
“I just have tons of homework,” he said. One of the math problems — which centered on fractions — was “so hard,” he said.
When the dispatcher walked him through how to solve it, he thanked her, and apologized.
“I’m sorry for calling you, but I really needed help,” the boy said.
Lafayette Police Sgt. Matt Gard later said it had been a slow day.
“[Dispatchers] do receive some oddball requests,” he said. “But this situation of calling asking for homework help — I’ve been in law enforcement for 13 years and I don’t know I’ve ever heard of this happening.” He called her a “dedicated” worker with a big heart.
The only minus? There are better places to call for help with math, he said.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/01/28/boy-calls-911-for-help-with-his-math-homework-and-gets-it/
photo credit: 911 dispatcher Antonia Bundy Facebook
Teen pleads guilty to trying to stealing plane so he could attend concert
TEXARKANA, Ark. — A 19-year-old Arkansas man has pleaded guilty to trying to steal a commercial plane so he could fly to Chicago to attend a rap concert.
The Texarkana Gazette reports that Zemarcuis Scott of Texarkana pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted theft of property and commercial burglary, and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Authorities have said Scott was found July 4 inside the cockpit of an American Eagle jet at Texarkana Regional Airport and that he had hoped to fly to an out-of-state concert.
He has no training as a pilot. Police have said he told investigators he thought piloting the plane would involve little more than pushing buttons and pulling levers.
In December, he was found mentally competent to stand trial.
Authorities say the 44-seat jet wasn’t damaged.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/01/29/teen-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-plane-so-he-could-attend-concert/