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CHARLOTTE (MCT) — The host of a Charlotte FM radio station that sent a staff member aboard a Charlotte-Mecklenburg school bus as part of a prank Monday said this morning that the incident was never meant to be malicious. "We thought it was pretty entertaining," said Brotha' Fred, host of the Morning Mayhem on WIBT (96.1 FM). "We try to entertain in a way that some people will think was funny and some won't." "But we had no malicious intent." A staff member from the show, Jase Edward "Cubby" Squires, 26, was charged with causing a disturbance on a school...

In a scene reminiscent of a satirical Carnival parade, about 75 protesters chanted and waved handmade signs outside a posh Canal Street hotel Friday evening while inside a gilded ballroom two stories above them Mayor Ray Nagin accepted the inaugural Award of Distinction for Recovery, Courage and Leadership from an honorary committee packed with his political allies. MICHAEL DEMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Protestors gather outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New Orleans Friday August 22, 2008 to protest Mayor Ray Nagin getting an award. Marching in a circle so they wouldn't halt foot traffic, protesters wearing T-shirts, shorts and paper hats...

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin refutes the findings of the latest UNO Quality of Life Study that show his approval rating has declined from 40 percent to 31 percent. "I think UNO needs a little more money in its budget. The sample size was pretty small, as well as, the margin of error was at 10 percent in Orleans Parish, which is unusual for somebody trying to assess the approval rating of a political leader. Nobody does that," said Nagin in an exclusive interview with Rush Radio 99.5 WRNO. According to the UNO poll, 49 percent of black respondents approve...

Here's how rising fuel prices affect an organization with a fleet of 1,273 school buses: The Montgomery County school board today will consider giving Superintendent Jerry D. Weast emergency powers to make students walk farther to school, if need be, in the coming academic year. (snip) Should prices continue to rise, the school system could save money by raising maximum walking distances for students, because more walkers means fewer buses. Currently, elementary school students walk up to a mile, middle school students 1.5 miles and high school students two miles.

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: You saw the school bus girl from February 15. A female Arizona bus driver and two female students go at it. But now someone is being charged. Here is the video from inside the bus. The blowout starts when a student demands she is let off the bus. The bus driver refuses. They start arguing. The driver takes the girl's cell phone and calls security. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are not allowed to touch me, lady. I am getting off the bus. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are not getting off the bus. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom, the bus driver...

Family members of the woman charged with causing the fatal school bus crash last month near Cottonwood say she left her native Guatemala two years earlier, hoping to make a better life for her family. The parents of Olga Franco tell the St. Paul Pioneer Press that she was sending them small amounts of money to help supplement about five dollars a day they earn growing corn. Franco is charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the crash that killed four students aged 9 to 13. Family members recall her as a loving daughter who helped care for...

SEASIDE, Calif. — A 15-year-old girl who stopped an out-of-control school bus she was riding on was handed a Saturday detention instead because she was skipping school. Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head. Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was injured.

A 15-year-old girl who stopped her out-of-control school bus was hit with a Saturday detention because she was supposed to be in class when the accident happened. Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head. Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was injured. But Rouse said she was punished because she wasn't supposed to be on the bus in the first place....

Ray Nagin welcomes "V-Day" Founder, Eve Ensler to cityNew Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he is "a vagina-friendly Mayor." Nagin made the remark while welcoming the author of the Vagina Monlogues, Eve Ensler to the city to promote the "V-Day" celebration in New Orleans next month. Scheduled to appear during 2 days of educational, cultural and entertainment events at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome, are Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Salma Hayek, Sally Field, Christina Lahti and Faith Hill. Ensler says they will celebrate V-Day's 10 years of ending violence in the world. Mayor Nagin began his...

CANTON, Ga. — A school bus has overturned in Georgia's Cherokee County, and authorities say two students are in critical condition. The bus lost control Monday morning on Highway 140 near Canton, about 40 miles north of Atlanta. Cherokee County 911 Center Supervisor Greg Argo said that 28 other students suffered minor injuries.

(WCCO) The driver of the van and the owner of the van involved in the fatal Cottonwood bus crash were each charged with four additional federal charges Friday. Prosecutors charged Olga Martina Franco del Cid, 24, the driver of the van, with two counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of false representation of a Social Security number. Authorities have said she is in the country illegally. Francisco Sangabriel-Mendoza, 29, was the registered owner of the van involved in the crash and was also charged with two counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of false representation of...

Surveillance footage from a Gilbert school bus shows the driver and a 15-year-old student physically confronting one another on February 15th.

U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann has written to U.S. immigration officials to determine how an illegal immmigrant allegedly was able to cause last week's fatal school bus crash in Cottonwood. Bachmann asks the assistant secretary of Homeland Security in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie Myers, how federal and local law enforcement can ensure such a thing never happens again. Bachmann also raises questions with ICE about the suspect, Olga Martinez Franco, who had gone by the alias Alianiss Morales. A woman using that name was ticketed for driving without a license in Montevideo in 2006. Bachmann says she wants...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Immigration agents say they've learned the true identity of a van driver charged in a Minnesota bus crash that killed four children. Twenty-4-year-old Olga Marina Franco of Guatemala is accused of running a stop sign and hitting the school bus. Investigators say she gave them a fake name after last week's crash and told them she was from Mexico. Franco is charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide and lesser crimes. Authorities say she claims she stopped at the sign and the bus hit her. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers say they believe Franco is an...

A woman who identified herself as Alianiss Nunez Morales was driving a van that failed to stop at a stop sign, hitting a school bus, police say. A woman who identified herself as Alianiss Nunez Morales was driving a van that failed to stop at a stop sign, hitting a school bus, police say. MINNEAPOLIS — A woman who authorities say is in the country illegally and using an alias was charged Friday with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide and two lesser charges in a school bus crash that killed four children. A woman who identified herself as Alianiss...

MARSHALL, MINN. - The 23-year-old woman whose van collided with a school bus was arrested Thursday afternoon and booked on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation in connection with the crash that killed four children near Cottonwood, Minn. Alianiss Morales, of Minneota, Minn., is expected to be charged and make her first court appearance this morning, said Lyon County Attorney Rick Maes. The Minnesota State Patrol's investigation of the crash continued Thursday, and Maes said much of the paperwork from the investigation was already on his desk. "One [part of the investigation] is whether she was operating the vehicle in a...

The local Fox affiliate in the Twin Cities finally confirms what the local papers didn’t seem to want to mention about the horrible school bus accident that killed four children. It didn’t have to happen: Authorities have confirmed that the the driver of the van that struck the school bus that killed 4 students on Tuesday is an illegal alien. Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are checking to see where she came from and how long she’s been in Minnesota. FOX 9 has also learned that the name she gave to police, Alainiss Morales, is an alias. 23-year-old...

COTTONWOOD, Minn. -- Authorities have confirmed that the the driver of the van that struck the school bus that killed 4 students on Tuesday is an illegal alien. Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are checking to see where she came from and how long she's been in Minnesota. FOX 9 has also learned that the name she gave to police, Alainiss Morales, is an alias.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has uncovered information on the driver of the van that hit the school bus. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned through state license records and state staff that the driver of the van does not have a valid driver's license. Alianiss Morales, of Motevideo, was convicted of driving without a license two years ago, according to police and Chippewa County Court administration staff. Morales was pulled over, according to the clerk of court's office, after a report of an an erratic driver. The officer found she was driving in Motevideo without a license. The Minnesota State Patrol will...

COTTONWOOD, Minn. — Authorities say four students have been killed in a school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota. Minnesota State Patrol Lieutenant Mark Peterson says the students died when their Lakeview School bus was hit by a van this afternoon on a highway near Cottonwood, about 2 hours southwest of Minneapolis. The bus then collided with a pickup and tipped on its side. • Click here for photos. The victims weren't immediately identified, and their ages weren't immediately given. At least 14 people were hurt. The school bus was carrying 40 people at the time. The Marshall Independent reported that...

A Knox County school bus driver was suspended pending a probe into how a 9-year-old boy this morning escaped from a bus by climbing out a window. Police were alerted at 8:48 a.m. that a child had climbed out a bus window and fled while the vehicle was stopped on Lay Avenue in East Knoxville to pick up other students. Bus 103 has a capacity of 20 passengers and serves Ridgedale School, said Knox County Schools spokesman Russ Oaks. Ridgedale School is located along Ridgedale Road just off Oak Ridge Highway. The school serves grades pre K-12 as an alternative...

DETROIT -- A Detroit bus driver was arrested after allegedly trying to pick up a prostitute while driving special-needs children to school on Wednesday morning. The 30-year-old man was arrested after he drove the bus up to a decoy officer posing as a prostitute working in the area of Telegraph and Grand River roads and inquired about having sex with her, police said. Police said at the time, the driver only had one child on the bus. He told the decoy officer he would be right back, said police. Police said a few moments later he returned with three more...

LAS VEGAS - Six junior high or high school students were shot Tuesday after they got off a school bus, and two were critically hurt, police said. Gunshots rang out in northeast Las Vegas just before 2 p.m., Officer Bill Cassell said. Six young people were transported to area hospitals. Four had minor gunshot injuries and two were in critical condition, Cassell said. At least two people are believed to have taken part in the shootings, he said. Police were not saying whether the shooting suspects were on foot or in a vehicle. The shooting occurred less than a mile...

via translation - Strong explosion in the Supreme Court of Algiers ALGIERS-A powerful explosion, the nature of which is not yet known, occurred Tuesday at 8:45 GMT in Algiers near the Supreme Court of Algeria, Ben Aknoun, on the heights above the town, noted journalists of AFP . Many ambulances, sirens hurlantes, were directed at the scene of the explosion which was climbing a thick column of black smoke. A security cordon was immediately deployed and the road leading to the area, including housing the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Council, has been closed to traffic.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Channel 9 obtained video of a man who stormed onto a school bus and threatened children. The man was angry because the children threw crayons at his SUV. When the bus stopped, that's when he got on. The kids said he had a gun and, while the video doesn't show it, you can hear the man threatening to use a weapon. Orange County Schools hope someone recognizes the man on video. A school bus camera captured the black and white video of him storming onboard despite pleas from the bus driver. The students from CEP Northwest...

Al Qaeda 'Re-Emerging' in Pakistan Sanctuaries The U.S. military said Tuesday it expected Al Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence" in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan. Sanctuary was provided to Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels after Islamabad signed a peace deal with militants in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally administered areas in September 2006, a U.S. military official said. The militants called off the deal in July this year after Pakistani security forces raided a radical mosque in Islamabad where rebels had massed. Dozens were killed in those...

While Democrats prepare witless campaign slogans blaming Republicans for millions of children not protected by health insurance, al Qaeda's blatant threat to exterminate 2 million American kids remains unheeded. And it will likely continue to be, notwithstanding mounting evidence that there exists no peril on Earth our young need greater protection from today than merciless jihadist monsters.

Dunwoody College is offering to help pay tuition for Jeremy Hernandez, the Interstate 35W bridge's school bus rescue hero. Jeremy told reporters at a news conference that his financial difficulties forced him to drop out of Dunwoody. He aspired to be an automotive mechanic. Dunwoody received many phone calls and e-mails after the news conference from alumni and staff encouraging the college to help Jeremy with school. In response, the College responded with an e-mail to alumni and faculty that stated its intention to help Jeremy re-enroll at Dunwoody An e-mail issued by the Dunwoody administration to staff and alumni...

Police say deported Colombian native with a long rap sheet is back in the area, hiring others to help in thefts Nassau police are scouring the Island to find a man they say was involved in about 20 burglaries in the county in the past three or four months and several more in Suffolk County, Queens and as far south as Atlanta and Florida. Police say Pablo Castro, a convicted thief, recruited day workers from Astoria to carry out daytime burglaries, many in the New Hyde Park and Manhasset areas, said Det. Lt. Raymond Cote, commander of Nassau's Third Squad....

Nagin To Give First Post-Katrina State Of City SpeechWed May 30, 12:04 PM ET New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin will deliver his first State of the City address since Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday night. Nagin will speak at the World War II Museum starting at about 7 p.m. You can watch the speech live on WDSU-TV and WDSU.com. Our coverage starts at 6:30 p.m., right after NewsChannel 6 at 6.

More than a dozen school bus drivers gathered Friday morning in front of a Frederick County Public School building to support two drivers who resigned after an disagreement with officials over safety concerns. At issue is the right to refuse service to students who threatened violence against drivers or other students, the drivers said. "This is something every taxpayer and every parent needs to know because every student is in danger," Steve Burdette said. His wife was disciplined for refusing to pick up a Heather Ridge School student who had threatened her, he said. He also said he was placed...

Just months after 9/11, videotapes were confiscated in Afghanistan showing al-Qaeda terrorists training to takeover a school.  Six months later, spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith boldly declared al-Qaeda's "right" to kill 2 million American children.  In 2004, an Iraqi national with known terrorist connections was caught with a computer disk containing information detailing Department of Education crisis planning for U.S school districts.  Last year, two Saudi men - one wearing a black trench coat despite the Florida heat -- terrified a busload of Tampa schoolchildren by boarding a school bus and remaining for the entire ride to school, all the while...

Students held hostage in Philippines Gunmen who say they have grenades seize group near Manila?s city hall BREAKING NEWS The Associated Press Updated: 7:34 p.m. MT March 27, 2007 MANILA, Philippines - Unidentified gunmen seized a busload of students and teachers near Manila's city hall while on the run after a holdup Wednesday, police said. Hostage-takers scribbled on a piece of paper, visible through the bus window, that they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades, an Uzi assault rifle police and a .45-caliber pistol, officer Mark Andal said. They said they were demanding...

The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said it will not recommend endangerment charges against a bus driver who left a six year old special needs elementary schooler alone for several hours aboard a parked school bus during the March 16 storm. Hamilton Police had been investigating whether to charge Suzanne Brewer, 56, a substitute driver and office manager at the Delaware Valley Bus Line. Brewer, who has worked for the bus company for more than 25 years, has not been disciplined by her employer. In an exclusive interview with Millennium Radio, the family of the boy who was forgotten on the...

An American Beslan? By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2007 4:20 PM PT Homeland Security: As Democrats hold more silly hearings to embarrass Republicans, the FBI is warning local police to be alert for Muslim extremists hijacking school buses. Reality check, please. We wonder if any of the grandstanding politicians on Capitol Hill are thinking in terms of one of these nuts driving a fertilizer-filled yellow bus up to a government building — or, easier yet, a school. Of course not. They're too busy swooning over Valerie Plame to even notice we're still under threat from the...

Five days after a Trenton elementary school student was left alone on a parked school bus during a winter storm, Hamilton Police haven't decided whether to charge the driver who left him there. The boy, 6, was found wandering Trenton, cold and crying, Friday afternoon by a passer-by and brought to safety. The 53 year old driver could face endangerment charges, but it remains unclear if she will face any punishment at all. Her employer, the Delaware Valley Bus Company, refuses to even entertain questions about her status. Millennium Radio's calls to the bus company were angrily hung up on...

The slow pace of New Orleans' post-Katrina recovery is part of a plan to change the city's racial makeup, Mayor Ray Nagin told a national newspaper publishers' group last week. According to The Washington Post, Nagin made those remarks at a dinner meeting Thursday of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a trade group for newspapers that target black readers. He told editors and publishers that the slow recovery is part of a plan to change the racial makeup, and hence the political leadership, of the city.

WASHINGTON — Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said "parents and children have nothing to fear." Asked about the alert notice, the FBI's Rich Kolko said "there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern," although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids' safety. The bulletin, parts of which were read to The Associated Press, did not say how often foreign...

WASHINGTON — Members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said "parents and children have nothing to fear." Asked about the alert notice, the FBI's Rich Kolko said "there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern," although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids' safety.

A charter school and a bus company scrambled Wednesday night to determine how and why a 4-year-old boy was put off a school bus Monday morning, only to wander, crying and lost, for at least an hour on St. Paul's East Side. The boy boarded the bus about 8 a.m. near Earl and Wakefield streets to go to Achieve Language Academy on Stillwater Avenue in St. Paul.

The school bus driver let Rachel Armstrong's three kids board the bus Monday morning, but he warned them that he wouldn't give them a ride home that afternoon, nor could they ever ride his route again. The problem: Armstrong's 10-year-old twin girls and 8-year-old son speak English. The driver told them the route had been designated for non-English speakers only. Armstrong said Wednesday that she got a call from a worried daughter who didn't know how she was going to get home. "She thought they had done something wrong," she said. So a furious Armstrong had to leave work early...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A woman rear-ended two school buses with her car within about a half-hour on the same street, police said. No children were injured, but the driver of the car, Amy Osborne, 31, was taken to Bloomington Hospital after she had to be cut out of her car following the second crash Monday, police said. She was not seriously injured, police said, and there was no record of the Bloomington woman at the hospital Tuesday. "They put her on a backboard and a neck thing. She was crying a lot," said Chuck Brown, who heard the second crash...

Yet despite many advancements in school safety, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of School Resource Officers, 55% of the school administration respondents said that school emergency preparedness is inadequate and a full 95% of them said that schools are “very or somewhat” vulnerable, particularly to terrorism…as Lancaster County most certainly was.

Racism, bigotry and discrimination have been completely eliminated in the United States of America. There is no more racial injustice to be found. Because when the FBI is summoned to a small town in Louisiana to investigate an allegation of a school bus driver making black children ride in the back of the bus, there must be no serious instances of race-related problems left. I’ll spare you all the specific details of this preposterous situation. I can sum up what happened, based on numerous news reports, in one sentence: a white female veteran school bus driver told some black students...

NEW YORK - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin opened a visit to New York on Friday by expressing regret for having criticized the slow redevelopment at the World Trade Center site, saying he will "never again refer to that site as a hole." Nagin was in town for a two-day pitch to the New York investment community to get business in his hurricane-ravaged city. While on a stage with the Rev. Al Sharpton and representatives of a New Orleans delegation, Nagin addressed comments he'd made in a recent "60 Minutes" broadcast, where he branded ground zero "a hole in the...

TAMPA, Fla. -- Two Saudi men accused of boarding a school bus full of students won't be prosecuted if they complete a pretrial intervention program for first-time offenders, the state attorney's office said Monday.

A brutal beating was caught on tape from inside a school bus. The graphic video showed a middle school teen repeatedly hitting and taunting a 10-year-old boy. The female bus driver can be heard yelling at the teen, and then moments later removing two teens from the bus; one of them just 14 years old.

Athorities say two Saudi men who boarded a school bus full of children and gave conflicting reasons why they were there were arrested and held without bail. Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, were charged with misdemeanor trespassing and were jailed after a judge said Saturday she wanted more background information on them. A hearing was scheduled Tuesday. The two men arrived in the country six months ago on student visas and are enrolled at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. Investigators said they boarded the school bus Friday, sat down and began...

NEW ORLEANS – Mayor Ray Nagin took the oath of office Thursday for a second term leading this storm-hobbled city, promising a better future during a ceremony held at the site of some of the worst misery caused by Hurricane Katrina. Nagin, who defeated Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu on May 20, was sworn in at the convention center, a giant riverside complex where thousands of hungry, scared evacuees waited days for rescue last summer as muddy water submerged most of the city. “Today is a new beginning for New Orleans, another beginning for New Orleans. I stand before you tried,...