Free Republic

A Kenner man accused of abducting a 7-year-old girl from her Fat City apartment complex and sexually abusing her before releasing her in Metairie last year, hopes to convince a jury this week that he was temporarily insane at the time. Steven D. Carter, 30, an electrician who had no such crimes in his background before his arrest, is standing trial on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape, in the June 5, 2013 incident.Jury selection began about 10:45 a.m., in 24th Judicial District Judge Scott Schlegel's court. The trial is expected to last at least through Wednesday.

When Joseph Connor was offered a job as a cook at a McDonald's here, he finally seemed to have found a way to help support his five children. But along came a snag. The McDonald's manager told Mr. Connor, who is 6-foot-1 and weighs nearly 420 pounds, that he could start work as soon as his specially ordered uniform arrived. He waited days, then weeks, then months. The restaurant chain says his uniform never arrived and his job never started because the franchise had changed hands. But in Mr. Connor's view, there could be only one reason: the restaurant's managers...