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The official start of summer comes later this month, but already children have died after being left unattended in hot cars, according to the nonprofit National Safety Council, drawing attention to an issue that kills an average of 37 children a year. The council released a report this month that says 742 US children died of heatstroke in vehicles between 1998 and 2017. Forty-two children died in these conditions in 2017, up from 39 the previous year. Just 21 states have laws regarding this issue, the report says; eight include the possibility of felony charges for individuals who deliberately leave...

SACRAMENTO — Californians who see an animal trapped in a hot car can now break a window to set them free without fear of prosecution under a bill signed over the weekend by Gov. Jerry Brown. Rescuers can break into the car as long as there is no other way to free the animal, for instance if the animal appears to be in peril, the car is locked and law enforcement is not arriving quickly enough. The rescuer must stay at the scene until law enforcement respond to the situation. The bill was introduced after a series of incidents in...

A 3-year-old police dog died from a heat stroke after being left in his handler’s patrol car, Woodstock police said Tuesday. Spartacus, a Belgian Malinois, was found dead inside the patrol car around 9 p.m. Monday at the officer’s Pickens County home, according to Brittany Duncan, Woodstock police spokeswoman. *** The officer has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Duncan said. **** In an unrelated case, a South Georgia police officer resigned in September after leaving his canine partner “Sasha” in his patrol vehicle for three days.

Japan's cheap hand-me-down cars have flooded Bolivia's narrow streets, where empty cabs honk pleadingly for fares and lines at gas stations often stretch down the block. Now President Evo Morales has announced a ban on all imports of cars more than five years old, hoping to call time-out on an automotive binge that has given South America's poorest country a crash course in the joy, pain and traffic of car culture.

A Homewood woman left her 13-month-old daughter in a car overnight for about 10 hours with the windows and sun roof open while violent thunderstorms raged outside, Pittsburgh police said Thursday. Child welfare workers are caring for the girl. Her mother, Brandi Morgan, 25, who, police said, forgot about the child, faces a hearing next week on endangerment charges. A passerby discovered the child, whom police did not name, just before 7 a.m. Wednesday, strapped in a car seat in the back seat of a brown Lexus parked at Brushton Avenue and Fletcher Way, said Pittsburgh police Cmdr. RaShall Brackney....

SPOKANE -- A baby found locked in a hot car in North Spokane Thursday night is recovering, but uninjured. Employee spotted baby 'all wet, red, not crying' inside SUV An employee at the Grocery Outlet spotted the inside the sweltering SUV around 6:00 p.m. She advised the store to make an announcement over the intercom, advising customers there was a baby locked in a car. The employee told KREM 2 News, "nobody came up for like, 10 minutes." Employees confronted the woman when she finally spoke to them; they say she told them, "Oh my God, I forgot I had...

MANASSAS, Va. --Kevin Kelly is a law-abiding citizen who, much distracted, left his beloved 21-month-old daughter in a sweltering van for seven hours. Frances Kelly had probably been dead for more than four hours by the time a neighbor noticed her strapped in her car seat; when rescue personnel removed the girl from the vehicle, her skin was red and blistered, her fine, carrot-colored hair matted with sweat. Two hours later, her body temperature was still nearly 106 degrees. What is the appropriate punishment for a doting parent responsible for his child's death? A judge eventually spared Kelly a lengthy...

PARIS, France (AP) - Youths threw stones at firefighters and burned cars in scattered unrest during New Year's Eve celebrations in France, where police were mobilised to prevent a repeat outburst of rioting that broke out this fall. About 25,000 French police were on alert for the holiday. Every New Year's Eve, youths set several hundred cars ablaze as festivities get out of hand. Police are being especially cautious this time because of the wave of rioting and car-torchings that broke out for three weeks starting in late October. A state of emergency imposed during the rioting is still in...

Detectives on Monday arrested the parents of a baby boy left alone in a car for nine hours before being found dead Sunday morning in Northeast El Paso, police said. Robert Anthony Paredes, 33, and Jennifer Case, 22, were arrested Monday and charged with injury to a child, police said. Detectives were looking at the death as a case of negligence, but the investigation continues, police spokesman Javier Sambrano said. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. The couple allegedly left their 14-month-old son in his car seat overnight in a locked car parked at the...