Man accidentally shoots himself in church while advocating for right to have guns in church
A man accidentally shot himself and his wife inside a Tennessee church Thursday while advocating the right to bring guns to church.
The individual was displaying a Ruger handgun to other churchgoers in the sanctuary about 50 miles south of Knoxville when he apparently forgot it was loaded, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
“I carry my handgun everywhere,” he said while removing the ammunition magazine and showing the firearm to other members of the church.
The man began to re-holster his weapon — but first put the magazine back into the firearm and loaded a round into the chamber, the local police chief told the paper.
Someone then asked to see the weapon. The man pulled the gun out of his holster and claimed it wasn’t loaded before pulling the trigger.
“Evidently he just forgot that he re-chambered the weapon,” the police chief said.
The gun fired and the bullet sliced the man’s hand before piercing his wife’s abdomen.
Both he and his wife, who are in their 80s, were taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where they were expected to survive.
Woman confesses to drowning four newborns in concrete
TOKYO — A Japanese woman was arrested Tuesday after police say she confessed to putting four newborns in concrete-filled buckets two decades ago and having been filled with guilt over not caring for her babies.
Human remains were identified in four buckets found in her condominium, an Osaka police official said, requesting anonymity due to department policy.
Mayumi Saito, 53, was arrested Tuesday on charges of abandoning bodies, a day after she turned herself in at the police station.
Saito was quoted by police as saying she put the bodies into concrete from 1992 through 1997 because she had been too poor to raise them, but she had been filled with guilt over the years.
Saito had a part-time job, but details of her work, family and comments were not available.
The causes of the babies’ deaths were unclear. It is fairly standard in Japan for criminal charges to be added later as an investigation progresses.
Although Japan is the world’s third-largest economy and has a reputation as being economically advanced, poverty remains a problem, especially among women.
Social support such as affordable daycare is lacking for women to work while child-rearing, as well as to get counseling and other help to cope with parenting duties and mental stress.
Japanese media reports quoted the woman as saying she had no one to talk to or turn to.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/11/21/woman-confesses-to-drowning-four-newborns-in-concrete/
‘Worst nightmare’: Parents sue hotel after 5-year-old boy’s skull gets crushed in rotating restaurant
The family of a 5-year-old boy whose skull was crushed in the rotating wall of a hotel restaurant has sued the Atlanta hotel, accusing it of negligence in his death.
Attorney Joseph Fried filed suit Wednesday for Rebecca and Michael Holt of Charlotte, North Carolina, whose son Charlie died April 14.
“What started out as the best family trip, turned into the worst nightmare,” Rebecca Holt said in a statement emailed by Fried.
They had chosen the Sun Dial restaurant “because it was recommended as a fun place for families with kids to see the Atlanta skyline and enjoy a meal,” Charlie’s father, Michael Holt, said in the statement.
Marriott International, the hotel’s owner, didn’t immediately respond to an email and phone call requesting comment.
Police had said the boy wandered away from his family’s window table at the restaurant atop the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel and got his head stuck between tables. They also said the rotating floor shut off automatically when he was struck.
The lawsuit disagrees with police statements.
It said the family left along a path that various members had used without problems to go to and from the bathroom. But this time, it said, a booth rotating near a stationary wall blocked their path.
Charlie, a few steps ahead of his parents, “was too short to see past the booth and did not appreciate the danger until it was too late,” and was trapped in the “pinch point” between booth and wall, according to the lawsuit.
“To Michael’s and Rebecca’s horror, the rotation did not automatically stop when Charlie got trapped,” the lawsuit states, and there was no emergency button to stop it.
Rebecca Holt tried to pull her son free and Michael Holt “threw his body against the booth,” but both actions were futile, it said.
It said Michael Holt heard his son’s skull crack before someone finally stopped the rotation.
“The family has filed this law suit to set the record straight about what happened and to make sure, to the best of their abilities, that no other family ever has to suffer the same fate,” Fried’s statement said.
Defendants include Marriott, as well as the chain that previously owned the Peachtree before Marriott bought the chain. Also named are other former owners and operators, and the architects, interior designer and contractor in charge of renovations to the restaurant in 2012 and 2013.
The hotel reopened the restaurant in June.
“After Charlie’s death, Marriott has said that it won’t allow the restaurant to revolve again until it has addressed the dangerous pinch points,” Fried’s statement said. “Marriott should not have waited for this tragedy before acting to correct this hazard, especially while it held itself out as a safe place for kids.”
Baby stuck behind bed dies, parents charged
ANKENY, Iowa — Authorities say a baby whose parents have been charged with child endangerment died after becoming wedged between her bed and a wall.
The Des Moines Register reports that the Polk County medical examiner says the 7-month-old from Ankeny likely died of “positional asphyxia” last August and that the infant tested positive for cocaine metabolite, a breakdown product of cocaine. Examiner Gregory Schmunk says cocaine can be transmitted between baby and mother via breast milk, but he could not confirm how the drug got into the child’s system or when.
Thirty-three-year-old Michelle Atwell has been charged with child endangerment causing substantial risk, and several drug counts. Forty-eight-year-old Matthew Cohara has been charged with child endangerment causing no injury, and drug counts.
Cohara has said their daughter’s death was an accident.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/11/20/baby-stuck-behind-bed-dies-parents-charged/
10-Year-Old Boy Dies After Getting Tangled in Florida Swing Set Chain – wrapped around his neck
A 10-year-old Florida boy died Friday night after he got tangled in swing set chains and they wrapped around his neck, according to WJXT.
Police went to Charles Clark Park in Jacksonville at about 6:15 p.m. and found NaShon Green unresponsive. NaShon was on the swing set while his mother was getting her other children ready to leave the park.
“When she turned around, she saw the child and he was hanging from the swing set and his feet were not touching the ground,” Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Sgt. S.C. Rudlaff told WFLA. “She immediately reacted, got the child off the swingset and called 911.”
NaShon was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries.
Investigators believe the boy was standing on the swing set when he got tangled and the swing’s chains wrapped around his neck.
Foul play is not suspected and the death is being investigated as a “tragic accident.
via: http://ktla.com/2017/11/20/ten-year-old-boy-dies-after-getting-tangled-in-swing-set-chain/
NeNe Leakes Cries As Husband Gregg Is Hospitalized For Heart Problems: ‘I Can’t Do This’
NeNe Leakes ended Sunday’s Real Housewives of Atlanta in tears — and it had nothing to do with any drama among the women.
The 49-year-old reality star found herself in a rare vulnerable moment when her husband, Gregg Leakes, landed in the hospital for a “dangerously low” heart rate, his doctors taking him for a minor surgery test to see if he had a blockage.
“I heard his voice on the phone and I knew that he was afraid,” NeNe said as she raced to be by Gregg’s side. “Like, ‘If this is the last time that I’m going to see anybody, I need to see my wife.’ … Everything was just kind of going really left.”
“Oh my God, what if Gregg doesn’t come home?” she wondered, tearing up. “What will they find? Is this something that Gregg’s not telling me? I can’t even imaging Gregg not walking on this earth. I can’t do this. Gregg has to get better.”
Earlier in the episode, Gregg had complained about his health, saying he was experiencing chest pains, numbness and felt like he was “going to pass out.”
The feeling didn’t go away, and eventually, Gregg asked to be admitted to the hospital for monitoring. “For the last couple days he’s been like, ‘I just don’t feel good. I just don’t feel good.’ But this time he was crying in tears,” NeNe told fellow Housewife Cynthia Bailey. “I was like, ‘Okay, you want to go to the doctor or do you want to go to the hospital?’ And he was like, ‘I want to go to the hospital.’ ”
“His dad had heart issues, and Gregg’s always had it in his head that he’s going to have heart issues,” she added.
Though NeNe told Bailey, “I think he’ll be fine,” the former supermodel was convinced NeNe was failing to see the problem in front of her.
“I’ve known NeNe for like eight years now. I know she is very concerned, but I also can see that she’s in denial,” Bailey confessed. “I don’t think she’s fully grasped how serious any type of heart situation could potentially be. I think NeNe is dealing with the situation with Gregg the best way she knows how to. She’s not the girl that handles any kind of sickness situation well.”
NeNe did let her guard down when the two talked again later, a day after Gregg had entered the hospital.
“[He’s] elevating his feet and all this stuff, trying to keep his heart rate where it needs to be,” she said, explaining that Gregg was still suffering from dizziness from time to time. “Last night I didn’t sleep good because normally it’s me who’s gone. Normally Greg is here, so I didn’t sleep good knowing he is gone.”
It’s no wonder she feels that way. NeNe and Gregg have been married for 18 years and together even longer — though, as RHOA fans remember, they briefly divorced in 2011 and remarried 2 years later (as seen on NeNe’s spin-off series, I Dream of NeNe: The Wedding). The couple have one son together, Brentt, 18.
“I’ve been with Gregg since I was in my 20s,” NeNe said on the episode. “The only secret I can tell you a relationship is finding a way to still love each other and be attracted to one another. Without Gregg, what would I do. Who is going to cut the grass? Who is the poll person? Who do we pay our lights and gas to?”
While the episode ended in a cliffhanger, all appears to be well with Gregg now. He recently stood by his wife’s side on Halloween, dressing up as a cockroach to her pest control operator.
National NYC subway to use gender-neutral terms during announcements
When it comes to the New York City subways, there’s no such thing as ladies and gentlemen.
Conductors on subway trains have been told to stop addressing passengers as “ladies and gentlemen” when making announcements about delays, detours or other things, and instead use the gender-neutral terms “passengers,” ‘’riders,” and “everyone.”
The new train announcement scripts are part of an effort by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to improve communication with passengers frustrated with having to deal with a system troubled with delays, mechanical failures and even derailments. Conductors have also been instructed to give subway riders more information about delays, departing from a longtime practice of making sparse announcements that sometimes obscure the real reason a train isn’t moving.
A lack of straightforward info, officials say, can leave passengers wondering if they should ride it out, transfer trains or get out and hail a cab.
“I have been in situations where they said it’ll be moving shortly or momentarily,” subway passenger Judith Mosh said as she waited for a train in a Manhattan station. “Sometimes momentarily means two minutes, sometimes it means 20 minutes.”
Knowing if a delay was likely to last could help riders make alternative plans, she said.
The new scripts were detailed in a bulletin sent out to all train service personnel earlier this month and are the first substantial change to the “blue book,” which governs how to communicate with riders, in almost 30 years, said Jon Weinstein, MTA spokesman.
Ohio governor candidate boasts of sexual history with ‘approximately 50 very attractive females’
An Ohio Supreme Court justice who recently declared his intention to run for governor is defending “heterosexual males” amid growing accusations of sexual misconduct.
Justice William O’Neill took to Facebook on Friday to make a statement on what he called the “national feeding frenzy about sexual indiscretions,” and in doing so he gave details about his sexual history.
“In the last fifty years I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females,” O’Neill wrote. “It ranged from a gorgeous blonde who was my first true love and we made passionate love in the hayloft of her parents barn and ended with a drop dead gorgeous red head from Cleveland.
“Now can we get back to discussing legalizing marijuana and opening the state hospital network to combat the opioid crisis.”
O’Neill, a Democrat, drew swift, bipartisan condemnation from Ohio politicians and from the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court.
“No words can convey my shock,” Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor said in a statement emailed to The Washington Post. “This gross disrespect for women shakes the public’s confidence in the integrity of the judiciary.”
Video shows nurses laughing as dying 89-year-old WWII veteran calls for help, gasps for air
Hidden camera footage recently made public revealed a decorated World War II veteran died after fighting for air while a pair of nurses laughed in front of him.
James Dempsey on Feb. 27, 2014, repeatedly called out to staff members at Northeast Atlanta Health and Rehabilitation before he fell unconscious, gasping for air all the while.
Nursing home staff found him unresponsive just before 5:30 a.m. and it took them nearly an hour to call 911, according to state records obtained by WXIA.
Dempsey’s family, who sued the facility in 2014, declined to comment, citing a settlement with the nursing home.
Former nursing supervisor Wanda Nuckles testified during the trial that she rushed to the 89-year-old veteran’s room when she learned he’d stopped breathing and performed chest compressions until help arrived.
Nuckles did not know she’d been filmed at the time and the clip directly contradicts her account, which she said was just “an honest mistake.”
Instead, the footage shows nursing staff repeatedly start and stop Dempsey’s chest compressions. When the responding nurses struggled to get Dempsey’s oxygen machine to start, Nuckles can be heard laughing with them in the background.
“Ma’am was there something funny at the time?” Mike Prieto, the attorney for Dempsey’s family, questioned.
She responded: “I can’t even remember all that, as you can see.”
Retired nursing professor Elaine Harris identified several violations, including failure to respond, failure to assess and failure to act.
“In 43 years of nursing, I have never seen such disregard for human life in a health care setting,” she told the news station.
Attorneys representing the Atlanta nursing home attempted to block WXIA from releasing the footage, but in the end dropped its appeal with the Georgia State Supreme Court.
Both Nuckles and another nurse were fired, but not until nearly a year after the incident. And they only just turned in their licenses in September — nearly three years after Dempsey’s death.
A spokesperson for the Georgia Board of Nursing could not confirm when the state became aware of the video, but the board’s action did come on the heels of receiving a link to the video.
A spokesperson for the nursing home, owned by Sava Senior Care, in a statement wrote they were “saddened by the events which occurred three years ago” before going on to note it has “new leadership and the leadership team and the staff have worked very diligently to improve quality care and the quality of life for our residents.”
E! investigating Ryan Seacrest misconduct claim
Cable channel E! is conducting an internal investigation into an allegation of misconduct against Ryan Seacrest.
The allegation stems from an alleged incident reported by a former stylist who worked at E! News when Seacrest worked there. The incident, the details of which are unknown, is alleged to have occurred roughly a decade ago.
“Recently, someone that worked as a wardrobe stylist for me nearly a decade ago at E! News, came forward with a complaint suggesting I behaved inappropriately toward her,” Seacrest said in a statement Friday. “If I made her feel anything but respected, I am truly sorry. I dispute these reckless allegations and I plan to cooperate with any corporate inquiries that may result. I treat all my colleagues with kindness, dignity, and understanding, as this is a principle that’s core to who I am. Throughout my 25 years in the entertainment industry, the majority of my co-workers have been women, and I’ve endeavored to foster a positive work environment of mutual respect and courtesy, as that’s how I believe it should be. I’m distraught that anyone or any situation would call that into question. I’m proud of my workplace reputation, and believe my track record will speak for itself. I’m an advocate for women. I will continue to support their voices.”
A spokesperson for E! did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Seacrest is a multi-hyphenate producer and host. He currently co-hosts “Live With Kelly and Ryan” weekday mornings on ABC and is slated to serve as host of that network’s upcoming revival of “American Idol.”