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NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. - A Pennsylvania woman will stand trial on charges she fed marijuana-laced margarine to a 12-year-old girl she was baby-sitting, as well as two other children at her home. The 12-year-old's mother called Upper Burrell Township police after discovering the drugs in a tub of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter in 22-year-old Stevie Hickey's freezer. The woman tells police Hickey spread the substance on two pieces of toast that Hickey gave to the girl. Police say Hickey told the girl it was "parsley butter" but later acknowledged to police that it was marijuana.

David Hansell, acting assistant secretary for a children and families agency within the Health and Human Services Department, on Monday touted the Obama administration’s “acceptance and embrace of the LGBT community,” including its efforts to encourage same-sex couples to adopt children. LGBT refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. The “Adopt Us Kids” Web site, described as “a cooperative agreement with the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children & Families, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,”

Authorities are now confirming the identity of a man who allegedly put a grenade in an 11-year-old boy's backpack. Harlingen police arrested 46-year-old Dedrick Thompson on child endangerment and probibited weapons charges on Thursday evening. The incident took place on West Monroe Avenue between North D Street and North E Street. Police said Thompson approached the boy when he got off a school bus and put something in the boy's backpack. Family members told Action 4 News that they found a grenade inside. Authorities sealed off the area and the Brownsville Police Department bomb squad was able to dispose of...

VACAVILLE, Calif. (CBS13) ― A Vacaville father called police frantic that his toddler was missing, but what happened next led police to arrest the man for child endangerment. Once the father called police, officers rushed in for the search: Vacaville Police on the ground, and CHP in the air. The search lasted only a few minutes after the boy was found safe; and the boy's father was put in cuffs. "We found it disturbing," said Sgt. Charlie Spruill, a Vacaville Police officer. The house had cluttered rooms with clothes everywhere, and garbage on top of garbage. A ladder was partially...

Here's a dose of reality. The father of teen sailor Abby Sunderland told The NY Post that he's broke and had signed a contract to do a reality show, "Adventures in Sunderland," about his family of daredevil kids weeks after she set off on her doomed and dangerous solo sail around the globe.

Abby Sunderland's recent adventure has everyone questioning teen safety. It all depends one how one defines it. Parents, where are your teenage daughters? They had better be "safe" at home watching the perverse antics of Disney role models like Miley Cyrus or Lindsay Lohan on TV. Perhaps they're "safe" at school, where they are being educated about the sexual revolution, and in some states, being ushered "safely" by administrators to a clinic where the abortion procedure will be administered with you parents none the wiser. At the very worst, one can rest assured that even if America's daughters have ventured...

A Michigan man could face life in prison after he allegedly tortured and ultimately killed his girlfriend's 4-year-old son last week for wetting his pants, prosecutors say. Brandon Joshua-Frederick Hayes, 24, "systematically beat" Dominick Calhoun, 4, "pummeling [him] with fists and kicking him" on his arms, legs and genitalia, Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton told CNN. Hayes also apparently burned the boy in the course of the torture. "The knuckles across one hand were charred," Argentine Township police chief Dan Allen said. "I've been doing this a long time, and this is the worst case of child abuse I've ever...

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, a Bay Area woman has won the right to parental status and visits with the daughter of her former lesbian partner, who moved out when the girl was 3 months old. The high court denied review Monday of an appeal by the birth mother, identified only as Kristina S., who challenged her former partner's right to be considered a parent. Kristina's lawyers, from the religious conservative group Liberty Counsel, argued that recognizing parental status after a few months of care violated a mother's right to control her child's...

HAMPTON - A Hampton man could face charges this morning after an apparent hostage situation involving a 2-year-old girl led to a house fire that spread to the suspect's pants. Jeremiah Valil, 38, fled a structure fire on Peachtree Lane around 2:45 a.m., ending an apparent domestic situation in which he was holding a 2-year-old girl hostage at knifepoint. -snip Valil fled the house when his pants caught fire. She said he ran down Cedar and King streets before officers apprehended him. Loughran said Valil dropped the 2-year-old during the pursuit, but the 2-year-old was not injured. Valil was taken...

A mother is accused of providing alcohol to young teens...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Springfield police say a man tried to steal T-shirts from a store while his girlfriend was in another part of the business applying for a job...

A U.S. Postal Service worker is being praised after handling with extreme care her most precious package to date. Lisa Harrell, 42, can add hero to her record after catching a 1-year-old baby who fell out of a second-story window Monday in Albany. Harrell, a 14-year veteran of the Postal Service, was delivering mail to a home late Monday morning when she noticed the baby in a window above the front door. Harrell said the next thing she knew, the baby had fallen into her arms. "I noticed the upstairs window open halfway," Harrell told the Albany Times Union. "The...

A Harris County woman could face child endangerment charges after allegedly leaving eight children home alone while she traveled to Africa to marry a man she met on the Internet, authorities said Thursday. Charges are pending against the woman, whose name was withheld Thursday. She reportedly flew to Nigeria on Monday, leaving the children with little food and no money. Veteran Harris County authorities said the children's case is one of the saddest they've seen. "It's just terrible," said Lt. John Martin of the Harris County Sheriff's Office. A deputy making a welfare check at a home in the 11000...

POLICE STATE, GERMANY Court: Homeschooling is 'child endangerment' Gives 2 kids to government, castigates social workers for letting family flee A court decision that categorized homeschooling as "child welfare endangerment" has assigned custody of two children to the government and criticized a social services agency for allowing a family to flee Germany, where homeschooling remains illegal. Federal High Court in Karlsruhe, Germany's highest court, was reported by the German edition of Agence France-Presse, as well as Netwerk Bildungsfreiheit, an organization that advocates for homeschoolers against the repression in Germany. The report did not directly identify the family involved, but described...

ACLU Lawyer Convicted of Child Porn Possession Sentenced to 7 years in prison By Hilary White ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Charles Rust-Tierney, an attorney who served as the president of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1993 to 2005, was arrested February 23, 2007 and charged with possession of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography, was convicted and on September 8, was sentenced to seven years in prison. Tierney had downloaded and paid for what the judge called "abhorrent" child pornography including torture and sexual...

A middle school teacher who burned two American flags as part of a civics lesson won't be charged, but may still face discipline from the school board... (SNIP) Bill Patteson, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Attorney's Office, said the evidence doesn't warrant filing a charge of criminal wanton endangerment charge - causing significant risk of serious injury or death. (SNIP)

NORWALK, Ohio The quest for a better picture has apparently brought a 145-dollar fine for an Ohio T-V cameraman. Police in Norwalk say three teens told officers the Cleveland cameraman offered to put them on T-V if they rode their bikes through water on a bridge. The teens told police a reporter waded into the water for the shot, so that they would be riding behind her. Police cited Gary Abrahamsen last month for misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Norwalk Municipal Court says he paid the fine last week. Abrahamsen denied coaxing the teens to ride through the water. But he told...

As many as nine LSD-laced candies disappeared during a gathering at a Northwest Austin apartment and, about an hour later, a 3-year-old boy was hallucinating, crying as he grasped at the air, police said. The boy spent three days in Children's Hospital, at times in intensive care, before being discharged Wednesday and placed in a foster home. His mother, 22-year-old Ashli Rene Freas, faces a state jail felony charge of abandoning or endangering a child after the incident Sunday. Police arrested Freas late Sunday outside her Cedar Park apartment on Cypress Creek Road, saying she took her child to an...

CHEYENNE -- One of the many people following the Lander "meth baby" case was Rep. Elaine Harvey of Lovell. The Republican lawmaker is the chief sponsor of the 2004 felony child endangerment law the defendant, Michele Ann Foust, 31, was charged under. Harvey said Wednesday she is having an amendment drafted to make it clear the law applies to an unborn child as well as a child. The lack of a clear definition in the law caused District Judge Norman Young to dismiss charges against Foust. "I thought we were covered. The intent was to protect unborn children but apparently...

PALMDALE -- A toddler died in a flooded desert wash after she fell into the fast-moving water as a helicopter was plucking her family from their partly submerged sedan. Two-year-old Jamaia Davis' mother had driven around barricades trying to get home Sunday night to Lake Los Angeles and drove into what firefighters said was water 3 or 4 feet deep where normally dry Little Rock Wash crosses Avenue N.

Television presenter Donna Air and her zoo-owner boyfriend Damian Aspinall intend to place their daughter in the care of a gorilla. The couple plan to put Freya, who was born in September, in the gorilla enclosure at Howletts Zoo near Canterbury, Kent. They will then let her be carried off by the female of the group. Neither parent has any qualms about letting their daughter be taken off despite five keepers being killed by animals at Howletts and its sister park, Port Lympne, since 1980. Mr Aspinall told the Evening Standard: "It is a ritual. I'll probably give her to...

Police detained retired Star-Telegram Vice President and Executive Editor Jack Tinsley on Thursday after his infant grandson was found unattended in a locked car in a discount store parking lot as the temperature exceeded 95 degrees. The 10-month-old child had apparently been in the car's back seat only a short time and was not injured, Lt. Dean Sullivan said. Officers took Tinsley from the Sam's Club at 4400 Bryant Irvin Road to the police Crimes Against Children Unit offices near Cook Children's Medical Center, Sullivan said. He was questioned and released later in the afternoon, said Lt. Jesse Hernandez, a...

<p>PORTAGE COUNTY -- A mother traveling from Detroit to Pittsburgh got into trouble in Portage County while trying to drive and breastfeed her baby at the same time.</p> <p>Twenty-nine-year-old Catherine Donkers had fed the baby before she left Detroit but said her seven-month-old daughter was hungry again.</p> <p>"I knew I was doing nothing wrong when I was breastfeeding her," Donkers said.</p> <p>Donkers doesn't consider her actions excessively dangerous.</p>

Babysitter arrested after leaving 1-year-old in van 06/10/2003 By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News Police arrested a babysitter on Monday afternoon on suspicion of leaving a 1-year-old inside a locked minivan. The van’s tinted windows were open about two inches, allowing a passer-by who noticed the boy crying, to unlock the door and get him out. The van was parked at a shopping center at Hampton Road and Illinois Avenue. “It really was lucky,” said the passer-by, William Jackson, 32. “He was red and really hot.” Temperatures were nearing 90 degrees in Dallas as the child sat inside...

Pomona police rescue child trapped in washing machine Sunday May 25, 2003 POMONA, Calif. (AP) A 2-year-old girl was rescued from a locked, running washer at a coin laundry Saturday night and her mother was arrested after a surveillance tape allegedly showed her putting the child into the machine, police said. An officer smashed the window of the machine with his baton to rescue the girl, who was pulled unconscious but breathing at about 5:30 p.m., authorities said. The machine was in its agitation phase and the child was ``submerged in water,'' police Sgt. Matt Stone said. ``She wasn't drowned...

Atlanta, Friday, April 18) -- House Judiciary Chairman Tom Bordeaux (D-Savannah) called an irregular "short-notice" meeting yesterday of a "special" subcommittee to advance the SB1 Stealth Triggerlock bill.The full Judiciary Committee will take up SB1 on Mon. Apr. 21 and it's expected to be approved. SB1 will then go to the House Rules Committee where it will likely be scheduled for floor action Thu. Apr. 24, the last day of the session.But CSG lobbyists warned that could change. "The creation of a special subcommittee to advance SB1 on short notice is a signal House bosses are ready to use irregular...

A jury in Kew Gardens, N.Y. convicted a vegan couple of nearly starving their baby to death with a strict diet that the prosecutor described as "a path to hell." Joseph and Silva Swinton, both 32, were found guilty in Queens Supreme Court of assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. The couple fed their toddler daughter, Ice, a homemade soy bean and herb infant formula that left the little girl with the appearance of a Third World famine victim and the developmental abilities of a newborn. At 15 months, Ice had no teeth and could not...

(Atlanta, Tuesday, February 25) -- The SB1 substitute Stealth Triggerlock bill has picked up steam and could come before the full Senate Judiciary Committee for a crucial vote on Wed. Feb. 26 at 2:30 pm. Over the weekend, gun owners across Georgia did an outstanding job in turning up the heat on Senate boss Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) for cutting a deal to advance the so-called SB1 "Child Endangerment" bill being pushed by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor (D-Atlanta). If you assisted with this, give yourself a pat on the back for helping flush him out. CSG members reported several conflicting...

I am in possession of a new, deeply disturbing video tape taken from North Korean TV late last week (through the services of Fuji Television Network in Japan for their daily evening news program anchored by Ms. Yuko Ando). [Photo of FNN TV Japanese Anchors Below] This video clip shows unmistakeable scenes of child cruelty and abuse engaged in by a North Korean TV production company in the process of filming a rabidly anti-American drama. The drama has been appearing nightly on North Korean TV and Fuji TV in Japan has been regularly following the story and this vibrant escalation...

Mother sentenced for child's death 01/09/2003 By HOLLY BECKA / The Dallas Morning News A Dallas County judge on Thursday handed down the maximum punishment -- two years in state jail -- to a mother convicted of child endangerment that resulted in the death of her young daughter. Norma Suarez had asked visiting Judge Gary Stephens to decide her punishment after he found her guilty in December of being reckless in the death of 3-year-old Amanda Estrada, who was run over after falling unnoticed from her mother's car window. Amanda Estrada According to testimony, Ms. Suarez was driving from...

<p>Terming it a “reluctant” decision, a Greene County circuit judge has determined a Springfield man did not endanger two young children he left alone in his house.</p> <p>Michael Waller, 42, whom a Kansas City judge acquitted earlier this year of killing his wife, was found not guilty of two counts of endangerment to a child. A key issue in Waller’s August trial was whether leaving the children caused “substantial risk to the life, body or health of a child.”</p>

News Incident leads couple to jail house By Rebecca Yonker Era news editor LA GRANGE - Two New York residents ended up in the jail house Sunday after Oldham County police found a young girl riding in the bed of their pickup in a doghouse. Police arrested the couple Sunday night as they traveled north on Interstate 71 after finding a 7-year-old girl in a wooden doghouse in the back of a pickup truck. "That's just not smart," said Oldham County Detective Kevin Nuss. "That's very dangerous." Courtney Goodspeed, 25, of Massema, N.Y., and his girlfriend, Jessica Clary, 20, of...

IRVINE, Calif. _ A resident of an upscale gated community is accused of keeping a 12-year-old Egyptian girl as a servant in his squalid garage. Abdelnaser Ibrahim, 41, was arrested Wednesday on charges of child endangerment and is free on $150,000 bail. The girl allegedly worked as a maid for Ibrahim, his wife and their five children. "She was in substandard living conditions while the rest of the family enjoyed very nice surroundings," said police Lt. Sam Allevato. The girl appeared in good health and did not look to be physically abused, police said. She was turned over to child...