Paging Charles Darwin
KENT, Washington (AP) -- A man who placed a lava lamp on a hot stovetop was killed when it exploded and sent a shard of glass into his heart, police said.
I hate when that happens.
KENT, Washington (AP) -- A man who placed a lava lamp on a hot stovetop was killed when it exploded and sent a shard of glass into his heart, police said.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Kelly Holcomb threw for 400 yards and five touchdowns -- and lost.
Today, an eager class of third-graders is traveling to the State House to ask that a homegrown invention - basketball - join the chickadee and the Boston terrier as symbols of the state.
"We're going to try to make the state sport basketball because it was invented in Massachusetts," said one 8-year-old girl in Laura Mullen's class yesterday at Mulready Elementary School.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) Malnutrition among Iraq's youngest children has nearly doubled since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq despite U.N. efforts to deliver food to the war-ravaged country, a Norwegian research group said Monday.
Since the March 2003 invasion, malnutrition among children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years old has grown from 4 percent to 7.7 percent, said Jon Pedersen, deputy managing director of the Oslo, Norway-based Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, which conducted the survey.
Regardless of the unrest that has gripped the country, Pedersen said the findings were still puzzling.
"Given the fact that World Food Program has distributed a lot of food, it's quite clear that one could expect some malnutrition, but the level that there is, it's a bit difficult to explain."
Native fan Denis Leary is a smart choice as the 90-minute disc's narrator, lending the proceedings a tone that perfectly captures Red Sox Nation's perennially disappointed crankiness as well as its fiery keep-the-faith-and-damn-the-Yankees passion. (The other prominent voice, naturally, is guaranteed future analyst Kevin Millar.) When Leary says in voice-over, ''Tom [Gordon], meet Big Papi" before David Ortiz's clutch homer off the Yankee reliever, you can almost picture the comedian flicking a cigarette at the mound.
It's a limitation of the format that for all the local emphasis placed on beating New York -- that might as well have been the World Series -- the DVD packs its recap of those games into an opening half-hour covering everything from regular season action to the Nomar trade. We see as much of the Cardinals here, practically, as we did in real time during the sweep.
As a horribly burned baby returned home yesterday, the Department of Social Services opened an investigation into what other torture 19-month-old Matthew Kruse may have endured at the hands of his teenage Taunton mom's boyfriend.
Alan Johnson, 20, who is not the tot's father, was being held on $7,500 cash bail after police said he confessed Thursday night that he had repeatedly put the flame from a disposable lighter to Matthew's flesh while the child's mother, Jennifer Kruse, 19, was at work.
Residents are urged to draw attention by screaming "fire."
Harvard University is warning students to be wary after two incidents near campus Tuesday night in which a male student was robbed at gunpoint and a Lesley College coed was indecently assaulted.
[snip]
Shortly after 9 p.m., Harvard freshman Robert K. Lord was robbed of $60 and his cellphone by two men, one of whom was armed with a handgun.
"Normal conflict is something that I can deal with. I'm a martial artist," Lord told the Harvard Crimson. "This guy pulls out a gun, points it at my stomach and the whole game changes right there."
Cambridge parents who are tired of the human waste and bedrolls left by homeless people in city playgrounds say they want the community to stop encouraging overnight sleeping.
"They are raising the rights of homeless people above the safety and health of children. That flummoxes me," said Millicent Stilwell, who said she has seen used condoms, human waste, toilet paper and bedrolls at the playground on Cambridge Common when taking her 2 1/2-year-old daughter to play there.
About 120 Beacon Hill residents met with police last night to address concerns about the rape of a woman last weekend in her apartment on Joy Street, police and neighbors said.
Police also handed out plastic whistles and offered to help residents organize a crime-watch group.
Last night, police urged women not to walk alone on the Hill and to avoid anyone who appear suspicious.
Residents are urged to draw attention by screaming "fire."
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Just in time for the holidays, a consumer group announced its pick for the 10 worst toys of 2004 Wednesday, including the Pocket Rocket Miniature Motorcycle and the Megabuster Battle Weapon.
The toy industry responded by saying that toys on such lists almost always end up meeting U.S. product safety standards.
The list also included Imaginarium Police Car Building Blocks, Dress Me Paz, Fun Slides Carpet Skates, Air Burst Rockets, the 38" Playtime Trampoline Happy, Birthday Bear, Parents Magazine Mirror Pound-A-Ball and the 3 Gun Squad Set - Uz-1 Commando Machine Gun.
The state's anti-ticket-scalping law has all the teeth - and deterrence - of jaywalking prohibitions, critics say.
Lawmakers on Beacon Hill, in the wake of fans being ripped off after buying fake World Series tickets, are looking to overhaul the code.
"We have to get a handle on some of these providers who are charging outlandish prices for tickets, and the state is not getting anything out of it," (State Rep. Brian) Wallace said.
Another idea expected to come up: granting licenses to ticket scalpers in a bid to regulate their trade. The state would get a piece of the business through license fees, Wallace said.
A stranger forced his way [that's ONE] Sunday night into a Beacon Hill apartment, where he tied up [TWO] and robbed [THREE] two women and raped [FOUR] one of them at gunpoint [FIVE], police and neighbors said yesterday.
"The girls are gone," (the neighbor) said. "I don't think they're coming back."
Police also urged women to be careful when walking alone. They issued a similar warning after two abductions and rapes in Jamaica Plain in September. The suspects in those attacks are also at large.
Wow! Maybe New Hampshire should ban migration from every state except Massachusetts, giving Bay Staters a special entry deal like the Cubans get from the federal government - if you can make it across the border, we won't send you back to that Communist hellhole.
As fat cat commercial real estate developers rake in tax savings on their high-rise properties, Boston's homeowners are about to be told to take up the slack with a projected double-digit increase.
"It's like they're letting the big business get away and they're screwing the average person," said John McNamara, who owns a single-family home in West Roxbury.
Hit with huge tax bill increases a year ago, Hub homeowners are now bracing for new hikes when notices get mailed out next month.
City officials have not finalized the numbers that will set taxes for property owners, but Steve Wintermeier, a Back Bay business consultant who began analyzing city tax and assessing data several years ago when his own taxes nearly doubled, predicts hefty tax hikes are coming for many.
"Based on my calculations, the average (residential) tax bill will go up by about 12 percent," he said.
John Clifford, 78, a retired school teacher, said rising taxes are a budget-buster for him.
"I'm in kind of a bind," said Clifford. "(My taxes) went from $1,200 (a year) to $4,600 in five years." His pension, meanwhile, went up just $30 a year.
Last month, Clifford confronted Mayor Thomas M. Menino at a public event to question him about climbing taxes. Menino told him he was lucky because his property was worth a lot more than it was a few years ago.
The second factor is that the city uses office rents to calculate commercial assessments. As a result, downtown skyscrapers like One Lincoln that sold for $700 million are assessed at a fraction of their selling price, saving their owners millions of dollars every year, a phenomenon detailed in yesterday's Herald.
Daniel J. Shea, who lives on Centre Street with his wife, Ann Marie, said his taxes have jumped almost 50 percent in two years - from $1,640 a year to $2,440. And he doesn't expect it to go down this year.
"Everything's gone up this year," Shea said. "The schoolteachers got a raise. The firefighters got a raise...so I imagine (taxes) will go up."
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Residents of Connecticut and its New England neighbors continue to earn more and give back less, according to an annual index of charitable giving.
Connecticut ranks first when it comes to making money, but joins New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island in falling to the very bottom of the 2004 Generosity Index, according to the Catalogue for Philanthropy.
Mississippi held onto its title as the most giving state for the eighth consecutive year. Following right behind are Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee.
On other subjects, the singer said the recent US presidential election had illustrated how US society was "becoming very divided".
"People are becoming very polarized," she said. "We have people who don't want to think, and who just want to guard what is theirs, and they're selfish and limited in their thinking and they're very fearful in their choices."
When (Officers) Brown and Estepe approached the Subaru's driver, Anne Marie Carpenter, her cellphone rang, police said, and she told them, "I'm taking this phone call. Wait your turn."
When the officers asked to speak with her again, she allegedly yelled obscenities at them. The officers then asked her to stand on the sidewalk for her safety, police said, and she told them, "Go (expletive) yourself. I'll do what I want. I've been around for a long time."
She also refused to take a sobriety test despite stumbling when she tried to walk, police said. After a brief struggle, the officers managed to handcuff her and drive her to District 14, where, to add insult to injury, she vomited on them.
The long, cold nights of winter are a little brighter with Celebration Ale. Wonderfully robust and rich, Celebration Ale is dry-hopped for a lively, intense aroma. Brewed especially for the holidays, it is perfect for a festive gathering or for a quiet evening at home.
PARIS - Yasser Arafat is in a coma and is "between life and death," though he is not brain dead, his spokeswoman said Friday. Doctors still had no diagnosis, but anxious Palestinian officials were already looking for ways to prevent unrest if their 75-year-old leader dies.
Carita abandoned the Kia Spectra he allegedly tried to outrun state trooper Joel Balducci in...
"Talk about losing their binkies."
Are you ready to move America in a nude erection?
A day before Thomas Toolan allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death on Nantucket, the spurned beau was caught trying to smuggle a large kitchen knife onto a plane at a New York airport, according to New York authorities.
[snip]
When Toolan arrived on Nantucket Oct. 25, he bought a $13.95 knife at Brant's Point Marina, the owner told The New York Times. Toolan then hunted down 44-year-old Elizabeth Lochtefeld and killed her in her home, officials said. He was later arrested in Rhode Island.
A boy waves a sign supporting George Bush behind a man toting a John Kerry sign. (AP)
Raynham police are investigating the apparent theft of an officer's service weapon, which disappeared from his home last week while his teenage daughter was throwing a party in his absence.
"We're working on it," Raynham Sgt. Detective Dave Bonaparte said yesterday. "We're going to pull out all the stops to get it back."
Bonaparte declined to identify the officer, but said the gun is a .40-caliber Glock. The semiautomatic firearm was reportedly secured and unloaded, but ammunition also was missing from the home, Bonaparte said.
Sources told the Herald the weapon vanished after the girl was showing it off to her party guests.