126 pounds of meth found in semi carrying Starbucks products
CENTRALIA, Wash. — Officers have seized 126 pounds of methamphetamine from a semi that was hauling Starbucks products between California and Spokane, Wash., the Centralia Police Department said Friday.
The driver and passenger in the 1996 Freightliner tractor and refrigerated trailer began acting suspiciously during a traffic stop on Thursday, police said, prompting the officer to request a narcotics-sniffing K-9.
The dog alerted officers to the presence of drugs in the truck’s cab, police said, and a search of the sleeper berth revealed 40 bundles of meth, weighing a total of 126 pounds, hidden in a television box. Also found were 2.4 pounds of suspected heroin, several thousand Oxycodone pills and a few grams of cocaine, police said.
The driver of the truck, a 22-year-old man from Mexicali, Mexico; and his passenger, a 62-year-old man from Fontana, Calif.; were booked into the Lewis County Jail on drug charges. The truck had California license plates.
“No contraband was found in the trailer and none of the food product in the trailer was exposed or compromised,” police said in a news release, adding that the load was transferred to another truck and continued on its way.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/04/27/126-pounds-of-meth-found-in-semi-carrying-starbucks-products/
Hospitals may soon have to post prices for patients online
Hospitals may soon have to post their standard prices for patients online, under a proposed rule unveiled Tuesday by the Trump administration.
Also, the administration is seeking comments on how to stop so-called surprise billing — when patients are charged after unknowingly being seen by out-of-network providers — and how to give patients better information about the out-of-pocket costs they will face.
And officials are ramping up pressure on hospitals to give patients better access to their medical records electronically or face a penalty.
The proposed rule is the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ latest effort to give patients more information about the cost of health care and about their own medical history. The guidance applies mainly to Medicare patients and providers, but officials expect it will influence practices across the nation’s health care system. It would take effect in 2019.
The initiative builds on the Obama administration’s efforts to increase transparency. Hospitals are already required to provide either a list of their standard charges or their policies for allowing the public to view the prices. Trump officials want hospitals to post this information on the Internet and make it available in a way that third-party app developers can access.
The administration is also pressing providers to increase the sharing of information among hospitals so patients could see all their records, regardless of where they go for care. Currently, a hospital often gives patients access to their data through its own online portal.
“Our administration is serious about ensuring that when a patient leaves a hospital, they are able to get their medical information electronically,” said Seema Verma, the agency’s administrator.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/04/24/hospitals-may-soon-have-to-post-prices-for-patients-online/
5-year-old boy claims teachers taped his mouth shut, threw away his lunch
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. — A family is furious with an elementary school after they say their 5-year-old son was assaulted and humiliated in front of his class, CNN affiliate WXYZ reports.
It was during Abdul Dannaoui’s lunch hour during preschool, that he says two teachers left him hungry, and barely breathing.
“She put the scotch tape on my mouth” says Abdul.
The straight “A” student says back on March 26th at Highview Elementary School, not one, but two teachers were having a laugh at his expense and then trying to cover it up.
“They said don’t tell your mom or dad, or no one” says Abdul. But, he told his mother how allegedly as many as 10 times he was prevented from eating in the same way, during snack time and lunch.
His food was also allegedly thrown out.
“I’m emotionally heartbroken. Disappointed. That’s his second home. That’s how they treat a child with asthma?” asks his mother Hoda.
Attorney Nabih Ayad says the family filed a police report and is pursuing legal action against the school district, that failed to address the situation with adequate discipline and transparency.
“It’s outrageous. It’s absurd. You think you send your kid to a place or school, where he would be safe” says Ayad.
Ayad also says the district still employs one of the teachers involved, placing other students at risk for similar attacks.
“One of the teachers was discharged. But, they kept the other teacher who said don’t tell your mom or dad, and even gave him a bracelet to entice him not to tell anyone” adds Ayad.
Action News tried numerous times to reach the school district since Thursday, but they haven’t returned our calls.
We’ll be reaching out to them again in the morning. In the meantime, Abdul’s parents are relocating him to another school.
Man ‘vomits’ 33 bindles of heroin after locking himself in bathroom
PROVO, Utah – A 30-year-old Utah man faces multiple charges after police say he “vomited” nearly three dozens bindles of heroin.
According to an inmate booking sheet and a probable cause statement, police were dispatched to 930 south State Street in Provo just before 11 p.m. Saturday night on a complaint of a man smoking heroin.
The suspect’s wife told officers she and her husband, Mitchell Dean Kuhni, had been arguing when he busted a door and a frame in the house, then locked himself in a bathroom and began smoking heroin.
When an officer knocked on the bathroom door, Kuhni said he would be right out.
After several minutes – during which time officers heard sounds of a toilet flushing and a faucet running – Kuhni exited the bathroom.
Almost immediately, officers noticed the man did not appear well and walked him back into the bathroom where he threw up seven black bindles into the toilet, which later field tested positive for heroin, according to charging documents.
Kuhni then threw up 26 more bindles into a container placed in front of him.
In all, 36 bindles of heroin were recovered and Kuhni was charged with third degree felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute as well as two misdemeanors for criminal mischief and tampering with evidence.
Homeowner finds naked intruder in her tub, eating Cheetos
MONROE, La. – A Louisiana woman is accused of breaking into a home, stripping naked and taking a bath while eating the homeowner’s Cheetos, according to MyArkLaMiss.com.
Evelyn Washington, 29, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with simple burglary and criminal damage to property in the home invasion.
According to a police report, a woman returned to her Monroe home and found a naked Washington in the bathtub.
Washington reportedly told officers that an unknown man told her to break-in to the house. Both the suspect and victim said they didn’t know each other.
Washington was taken to the Ouachita Correctional Center.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/04/19/homeowner-finds-naked-intruder-in-her-tub-eating-cheetos/
Toddler shoots pregnant mother outside Indiana thrift store
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. – A 3-year-old girl found her father’s gun inside a parked car and managed to pull the trigger, accidentally firing a bullet into her pregnant mother, police said.
The shooting happened around 4 p.m. Tuesday in the 300 block of East 81st Avenue in Merrillville, Ind., in the parking lot of Plato’s Closet.
The woman, identified by WMAQ as 21-year-old Shaneque Thomas, was sitting in a white sedan with the 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy while her boyfriend shopped. Thomas was in the front seat when the little girl fired the gun from the back seat, police said.
“What I saw was a lady she was almost about to fall, she was like bleeding out with like a bucket of blood on the ground and I just saw her two kids just standing there,” witness Paloma Prieto said.
Employees of Plato’s Closet heard screaming and ran out to help.
“The boyfriend was inside the store shopping so he ran outside because someone told him that there was a girl bleeding and he was yelling, ‘Did you kill yourself? Did you do this to yourself?’,” said Hadassah Kirkle, a supervisor at Plato’s Closet.
“We grabbed the little boy who was still in the car and we took the little girl from the mom because she was holding her hand and we took them inside and just tried comforting them the best we could,” said Plato’s Closet employee Rebecca Todd.
Detective Sgt. James Bogner said the girl “had no idea what she had done and she was very scared.”
Thomas was transported to Methodist Hospital’s Southlake campus.
She is listed in critical but stable condition.
The father isn’t being named pending formal charges, but police say he was held on suspicion of child endangerment.
The couple had traveled from their home in Michigan City to get pregnancy care at a Planned Parenthood, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana.
The investigation is ongoing.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/04/18/toddler-shoots-pregnant-mother-outside-indiana-thrift-store/
3 workers fired at L.A. Fitness after black men kicked out of NJ gym
SECAUCUS, NJ — Three workers at a New Jersey gym were fired after they kicked two black men out and called police on them Monday night, according to an L.A. Fitness employee.
Tshyrad Oates posted now viral videos of his encounter with employees to Facebook. Oates, who was at the gym using a guest pass with a friend who is a member, said a manager at the gym called Secaucus police.
Both men had checked in when they arrived, but employees apparently harassed them, Oates said. About a half hour after they arrived, an employee came over to Oates and told him he had to leave or pay. He said he’d just signed in with her with the guest pass, and then she said it was his friend who did not pay. His friend is a member and has swiped in with a tag when they arrived.
“He felt racially profiled and embarrassed by the harassment of this La Fitness employee in front of other members at the gym,” Oates wrote on Facebook.
The men continued their workout until two police officers showed up and questioned them about their presence in the gym. Oates and his friend explained the situation to them and the gym rescanned Oates’ friend’s member tag, which showed a current active statues.
They went back to working out, but then a manager came over to tell them to leave, Oata said. Then five police officers showed up telling them to leave.
“This La Fitness manager who refused to give us his reason to kicking us out, and refused to give us his name stated that I was banned from the gym and my friend’s gym membership has been terminated effective immediately,” Oates wrote on Facebook. This is ridiculous and the last video sealed the deal.”
In one video, Oates said he and his friend were the only two black people in the gym.
The incident took place the day before Starbucks announced plans to close stores for racial bias training in the wake of the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks.
PIX11 has reached out to L.A. Fitness for a comment, but has not yet heard back.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/04/18/3-workers-fired-at-l-a-fitness-after-black-men-kicked-out-of-nj-gym/
Teacher says he was suspended for making students breakfast during state test
LANCASTER, Pa. – A teacher at a Pennsylvania middle school said he was suspended and expected to lose his job after making breakfast for his students while they took state tests last week.
LancasterOnline.com reports Hand Middle School teacher Kyle Byler brought an electric griddle and made a whole-grain pancake for each student to eat during the test.
Less than 24 hours later, the eighth-grade social studies teacher said he was told the school board would be voting at a Tuesday meeting to decide whether or not to terminate him for causing a distraction during the tests. He was suspended without pay, but the school board said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that “there was never any dismissal action on the Board’s agenda,” and that he’s due back in the classroom this week.
District officials added that “no teacher can be dismissed without the School Board first approving a written notice that offers the opportunity for a School Board hearing, and that step has also not occurred.”
“I don’t understand what I did wrong, to be honest with you. There was no infraction whatsoever,” Byler, 38, told LancasterOnline.com. “At no point was it any distraction for any of the students. They worked their butts off.”
School officials said in the statement that they already provide food for the students, and that “the Pennsylvania Department of Education strictly requires that teachers who proctor PSSA testing focus their full attention on monitoring students during the test.”
Nicole Reigelman, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, told the paper that while no rules are in place to keep teachers from preparing a meal for students during a test, doing so would “likely interfere with ‘actively monitoring’ the assessment, which is a key task.”
Meanwhile, Byler’s students have come to his defense and even protested for two hours outside the school Friday.
Lancaster Education Association President Jason Molloy told the newspaper that the situation should have been handled differently. He said that losing Byler would be “a terrible injustice to his students,” and that many of them are from economically distressed households and often come to school hungry.
“For some, whole-grain pancakes may be the only hot meal they’ve gotten that day,” said Molloy.
See the full response from the school district below:
There is an inaccurate news report that the School Board is scheduled to take action tonight to dismiss a teacher. That is wrong. There was never any dismissal action on the Board’s agenda. In any event, no teacher can be dismissed without the School Board first approving a written notice that offers the opportunity for a School Board hearing, and that step has also not occurred. Nor will it occur in this situation, as the personnel matter has been resolved with the employee, who is scheduled to return to work.
Regarding the incident addressed in the news report, the School District provides a free breakfast and lunch for all students every day, including PSSA testing days. Moreover, the Pennsylvania Department of Education strictly requires that teachers who proctor PSSA testing focus their full attention on monitoring students during the test. All teachers serving as PSSA test proctors receive specific training on testing protocol. Had permission been sought by a teacher to cook in the classroom during PSSA testing and serve food to the students, the response would have been that such activities would distract the teacher from the required duties as a test proctor. PDE has requested information about this incident for its review.
We acknowledge, appreciate and support the many SDoL educators who go above and beyond to meet the needs of our students every day, and we thank the community for advocating on behalf of our students.
Mom uses 12-year-old daughter to smuggle $24,000 worth of cocaine
TUCSON, Ariz. – A mom was busted after she allegedly used her 12-year-old daughter to smuggle $24,000 worth of cocaine.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested the 35-year-old mom on Friday, officials said.
She was driving from the Mexico into the U.S. with her three children in the car when she was stopped, officials said. A customs and border protection canine smelled drugs on the 12-year-old girl.
Officers found more than 2 pounds of cocaine taped to her torso.
CBP officers seized the vehicle and the drugs, then turned the case over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/04/17/mom-uses-12-year-old-daughter-to-smuggle-24000-worth-of-cocaine-cbp/
14-year-old mom charged in murder of baby boy in NJ
HIGHLAND PARK, NJ — Police arrested and charged a 14-year-old mom in the death of her newborn baby boy, whose body was found outside of a Highland Park home on Monday, officials with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
The baby’s death is being investigated by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Highland Park Police Department.
His mother is from Highland Park. Her identity is being withheld because of her age. She was charged in a juvenile complaint with murder in the first degree.
Officials said she “caused the death of her newborn baby boy,” but did not immediately offer any additional details.
An autopsy by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner will be scheduled.
The baby’s death is the second in New Jersey in the last week. A baby was found dead in a suitcase left near PATH tracks in Jersey City on April 11.
Police also found a baby boy alive in a duffel bag in Trenton on Sunday. Officials are asking for the public’s help to find the baby’s family.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/04/16/newborns-body-found-in-highland-park/