A two-year-old boy in East L.A. was struck and killed by a Chevy Tahoe on Saturday afternoon when the child ran into a busy street.
Brian Marroquin of Bakersfield was playing on the sidewalk when he ran into Percy Street at about 2:30 p.m., according to ABC News. Carlos Sanchez of Long Beach, the driver of the SUV, was going about 10 to 15 miles per hour.
Sanchez did not stop immediately but did so when the boy’s father and a witness caught up to him. The SUV driver was not cited at the scene, and it is unknown whether any charges will be filed against him.
A security guard at the Gold Ranch Casino in Verdi, Nev., noticed a 5-year-old boy crying and pounding on the windows of the car he was locked inside during a snowstorm at 3 a.m. on Monday morning.
Jason Wardrobe and Rene Perry, a Reno couple who had been gambling inside the casino for about two hours, were arrested and charged with child endangerment and possession of meth, according to the Associated Press. Cops found the drugs in the car with the child.
Photo by Jam Adams
McDonald’s is loving it. One quarter of an average child’s vegetable intake consists of French fries, according to a new study.
As for fruit, kids are getting 40 percent of their intake through juices, which often contain high amounts of sugar. The study, conducted by Ohio State researchers, examined government data on 6,500 kids ages two through 18.
Barbara Lorson, an Ohio State dietitian, told USA Today of one suggestion for parents: offer your child fresh produce when he’s especially hungry.
Another new study offers a less cruel way to entice kids — rename the vegetables. Four-year-olds ate twice as many carrots when they were told that the veggie were “X-ray vision carrots.” Other ”cool” food names suggested by Cornell University researchers: power peas and dinosaur broccoli trees.
Photo by Scott Abelman
Seven Chicago police officers will be disciplined for being out-smarted by a 14-year-old wanna-be cop for five hours, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
As Minor Troubles previously reported, the crafty kid duped his fellow officers during his rogue crime-fighting spree, going on patrol with them, and even driving a police squad car. While the teen didn’t wear a gun, he put a newspaper under his uniform to make it look like he was wearing bulletproof armor.
Announcing the reprimands today, a supervisor didn’t specify the officers who got played by the impetuous imposter. The seven officers’ punishment, which has not yet been named, could range from suspension to firing.
Of course, the embarassment and humiliation of having been fooled by a 14-year-old, without a badge or a gun, when your job consists of sniffing out shenanigans, is its own unique form of punishment, too.
An Ohio mother has been charged with child endangerment for breastfeeding her tot while driving, according to the Associated Press.
Police in Kettering said that the 39-year-old mother had been seen simultaneously breastfeeding, driving and talking on a cell phone. Police tracked down the driver from her license plate number. She faces up to 180 days in jail and an $1,800 fine if convicted.
Police stressed that it wasn’t the breastfeeding that they had a problem with. Driving with a child in your lap is illegal.
Keeping them away from shoot-em up games violates their precious constitutional rights. That’s the reasoning behind a California court’s strike-down of a four-year-old law designed to shield minors from violent video games. The law, which never took effect, would have banned the rental or sale of violent games to those under 18, and required strict labeling by the manufacturers.
“None of the research establishes or suggests a causal link between minors playing violent video games and actual psychological or neurological harm, and inferences to that effect would not be reasonable,” Judge Consuelo Callahan said in her ruling for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The law’s author, state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is asking Attorney General Jerry Brown to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Yee, a child psychologist, said “we need to help empower parents with the ultimate decision over whether or not their children play in a world of violence and murder.”
Photo by Mileena
A fender bender at Greenville Middle Academy in South Carolina on Wednesday ended with one mom being arrested for driving under the influence.
Marcia Peyrouse Gaines, 49, was involved in a minor traffic accident in the school pick-up line. What tipped police off that this mother might be three sheets to the wind? When a cop asked Gaines for her driver’s license, she gave him a credit card. Testing revealed that her blood alcohol level was .23 percent, nearly three times the legal limit, according to WYFF TV News. She faces a fine of up to $1,000 or 90 days in jail.
While no one was hurt, Jason Rampey of the Greenville police said: ”I think one of the things that is so egregious about this is that there were kids present and so many other people present in this line.”
The cuffed mom apparently retained her sense of humor, if not her sobriety. When a WYFF reporter asked her for comment, she replied: ”I’m sorry you’re having such a slow news day.”
Three families with autistic kids had sought to be compensated by the government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. But a special court panel ruled on Thursday that there was insufficient evidence of a link between autism and early childhood vaccines, CNN reported.
The plaintiffs included the Cedillo family, whose 14-year-old daughter cannot speak and wears a diaper. Judge George L. Hastings Jr. said in his ruling that he had deep sympathy for the three families, but “must decide this case not on sentiment, but by analyzing the evidence.”
Scientists say that it’s unclear what causes autism, a range of disorders that inhibits a child’s ability to interact and communicate and affects 1 in 150 American kids. A big study last year found no link between autism and vaccines. The British researcher who in 1998 suggested that a link existed has been under investigation for various charges of professional misconduct.
More than 5,300 parents of autistic children have filed cases, seeking damage awards from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Celebrities including Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son, have staged anti-vaccine rallies. Many parents have refused to get their children vaccinated against measle, mumps and rubellas, which has triggered outbreaks of the diseases and major public health concerns.
It’s unlikely, even if your kid is spending time outside, according to a new study. Researchers who looked at 3, 4 and 5-year-olds enrolled in 24 community preschool programs found that the children spent 89 percent of their time in activities that could only be characterized as sedentary.
Maybe the sandbox is just too tempting; even when the children spent time outside 56 percent of their activities were sedentary, too. The study also found that preschool teachers very rarely encouraged kids to be active.
“The low levels of children’s activity and the lack of adult encouragement point to a need for teachers to organize, model, and encourage physical activity,” said William H. Brown, professor in the College of Education at USC and the study’s lead author.
Parents who are looking for a preschool should ask teachers what exactly they do to encourage the kids to run around and get their yah-yahs out.
Photo by Jason Tromm
The boy got the heroin from home, and he and four others tried the powdered substance, thinking it was candy, authorities said. A gym teacher at their Philadelphia school spotted the kids passing around the baggies during class; one of the kids took a lick of the powder and spit it out.
The children were taken to a hospital for observation, but later released. On Wednesday, police arrested the father of the boy who had brought the drugs to school, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Robert Parks, 35, was charged with possession of narcotics, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment of another person.
Parks’ son and his siblings are now in the custody of a maternal aunt. A police official told the newspaper that Parks was uncooperative and didn’t tell officers where he got the drugs.