Free Republic

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - A 49-year-old Columbia man is charged in a most bizarre case that included a definitely unwanted birthday gift. The Columbia Police Department says the man, Frederick Davis, is charged with domestic violence. Police say Davis got into an argument with the female victim around 5 a.m. Wednesday morning -- which also turned out to be her birthday. The two argued to the point, according to police, where Davis bit off the tip of the woman's pinkie finger and swallowed it. Police have not yet been able to recover the fingertip.

Thirteen suspects reputedly tied to a street gang have been charged with trafficking heroin on Cape Cod — while three suspects have been charged with first-degree murder in connection to the brutal 2015 shooting and stabbing slaying of a 28-year-old Hyannis woman, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced today. The suspects are linked to the Nauti gang and the alleged drug ring was “responsible for a significant quantity of the heroin that has been distributed in Cape Cod,” Ortiz said in a criminal complaint.

New York — Stung by setbacks related to their access to public restrooms, transgender Americans are taking steps to play a more prominent and vocal role in a nationwide campaign to curtail discrimination against them. Two such initiatives are being launched this week — evidence of how transgender rights has supplanted same-sex marriage as the most volatile, high-profile issue for the broader movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists.

A man shot live streaming himself in a selfie video remains in critical condition after being shot multiple times in the streets of Chicago’s South Side neighborhood. The horrific video, which police discovered during standard online searches of known gang member social media sites, shows a man talking into a camera before being gunned down. The video, which continued to record, shows the gunman standing over the camera. A total of sixteen shots were fired in the video.

Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning Broadway musical, has faced criticism for an open casting call seeking only “non-white” actors. The hip-hop musical, which has been praised by Michelle Obama and which won a Grammy, features a diverse cast that reimagines the origin story of founding father Alexander Hamilton. The majority of the cast is multiethnic as well: African Americans play Aaron Burr, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, while a Chinese American portrays Hamilton’s wife, Eliza. Miranda, the show’s creator, is of Puerto Rican ancestry.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey woman accused of fatally stabbing her boyfriend during a dispute over their Xbox console has pleaded not guilty to reckless manslaughter and weapons charges. Aisha Barr entered her pleas on Monday during an arraignment hearing. The 29-year-old Newark resident remains jailed on $250,000 bail.

(CNN) — Thirteen current or former principals with the Detroit Public Schools were charged with bribery Tuesday in an alleged kickback scheme, which couldn't have come at a worse time for the troubled school district.

Earlier this season, Prairie View A&M women's basketball coach Dawn Brown suspended two players on her team because they were dating. This week, the university announced Brown would not return next season. Brown told USA Today Sports the university told her she was fired because she violated Title IX by discriminating against the players, even though Brown says the school's own Title IX administrator approved the players' suspension.

<p>CRESTVIEW, Fla. —A Crestview couple has been arrested after deputies say the woman hit her husband with a burrito before he retaliated by stabbing her hand with a fork.</p> <p>The Okalossa County Sheriff's Office tells media outlets in a statement that deputies responded Tuesday to a home, where they found 51-year-old Suzanne Hurlvert with a fork protruding from her hand. It was so deeply embedded that hospital staff had to remove it.</p>

A fan attending Saturday night's Tampa Bay-Pittsburgh game in Bradenton, Florida, was arrested after charging the field and throwing two bottles into the Rays dugout in an apparent protest of the team's trip to Cuba earlier this week. Bradenton police arrested a man of Cuban descent in the top of the seventh inning at McKechnie Field and charged him with trespassing, assault and starting affray, Lt. John Affolter said.

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Police have arrested two people in connection with a shooting Sunday at a Detroit gas station that left multiple people injured. A woman was caught on camera opening fire on a vehicle around 4:30 a.m. after the Dodge Charger she was riding in pulled up to the gas station on Fenkell and Greenfield.

Four boys in Chicago were wounded as they walked down the street, and a total of 17 people were shot in the city on Monday. The shootings of the youngsters happened at approximately 9 p.m. when an unknown male approached and opened fire on the city's West Side. The boys — aged 12, 14, 15 and 16 — were all in stable condition at local hospitals on Monday night. No arrests have been made, but an investigation is ongoing, an official with the Chicago Police Department told the Daily News on Tuesday.

Keith Richards once threatened to pull a knife on Donald Trump during an altercation that occurred 27 years ago, Vanity Fair learned. The story has come to light through Rolling Stones tour producer Michael Cohl, who explained how Richards almost came to blows with Trump at a 1989 concert as part of the Steel Wheels tour, which is famed for being the reunion of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

One of four illegal aliens from Guatemala accused of attacking a couple had been arrested for drunken driving in Framingham less than a month before the heinous attack in which the woman was raped and her boyfriend was beaten. But federal immigration officials said they were not alerted that 32-year-old Adan Diaz, who is in the country illegally, was arrested for drunken driving on Feb. 22.

An event hosted by METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich at the University of California-Berkeley earlier this month was interrupted by liberal students who stormed the stage in protest of subpar conditions endured by contract workers on campus. One student allegedly assaulted Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff during the incident. Benioff was on campus on March 2 to participate in the public forum intended to explore the creative culture of the Bay Area through conversations with other leading cultural figures from the community, including Ulrich and the drummer's father, Torben Ulrich, who at 87 is still active in music, film and poetry. Members...

An airliner flying from Dubai with at least 61 people on board crashed early Saturday in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, according to the Russian Emergency Ministry. The Boeing 737-800 crashed on a repeated landing attempt at the city’s airport, according to the ministry. There were 55 passengers and six crew aboard.

Four men were killed and at least nine other people were wounded, including two 14-year-old boys, in shootings in Chicago over six hours from late Tuesday to early Wednesday, police said. Nearly half of the shootings — including three of the homicides — occurred in a burst of violence from about 10 p.m. to midnight.

The father of slain 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee was ordered held on no bail Monday after he was charged with shooting three people in the Gresham neighborhood, including the girlfriend of one of the men charged in the shooting of the little boy, authorities said. Stokes was charged with three count of aggravated battery, three counts of unlawful use of a weapon and three counts of attempted first-degree murder, as well as a violation of his bond on an unrelated gun charge.

MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) — Ocean Drive looked like a scene out of a CSI: Miami episode early Sunday as crime tape and evidence markers stretched from 9th Street to 10th. Witnesses said it started as a fist fight in the middle of Ocean Drive and escalated into a shooting. Antoinne Decade, 20, was shot once in the chest and died in the hospital, investigators announced.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia police are investigating six deaths in six separate incidents, with crime scenes in Southwest Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansion, Grays Ferry and East Falls. So far, police have identified four of the six victims and, Action News has learned, one of those who died was the younger brother of an NBA player.