I’m not that deep into politics, so before now, I’ve never heard of this Rob Ford guy, who is the mayor of Toronto, but all of that is beside the point. There’s a video out there of a mayor — a CONSERVATIVE mayor — smoking crack from a pipe!

And if Gawker has its way, the world might see this video very soon so that we can all watch it and point and laugh … because who doesn’t want to see a major political figure smoking crack on camera? I most certainly do, and you know you do.

But before I get into this hell of a story — and boy is this a big one — let me put it like this. Toronto is basically the Canadian version of New York City, with a metro population of about 6 million people. That’s about 2 million less than NYC, and about 2 million more than Los Angeles.

So the fact that the mayor of a city with a population density akin to New York City — the biggest and most famous city in the entire world — has been captured … on video … smoking CRACK COCAINE (not a cigarette, not weed, not even cocaine, but CRACK cocaine) is a pretty big deal.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get into the meat of this here mountain of a story.

Gawker editor John Cook was recently tipped off about the existence of video footage taken within the past six months showing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine (and it’s the real deal). To make an extremely long story short … Gawker wants to buy it.

But there’s only one problem. The guy who owns the video wants at least 6 figures for it. And the owner is so serious about their hefty price tag that he turned down a $40,000 offering from a Canadian media outlet that he refused to name.

Cook actually traveled to Toronto so that he could verify the authenticity of the clip in person, and he is 1,0000% certain that the man in the video is Rob Ford. He was even given a nice photo (at the top of this post) showing Ford hanging out with a bunch of college-aged twenty-somethings in an area that looks to be prime for crack smoking. (FYI: The gentlemen on the left, Ford’s right, flipping the bird was shot and killed two months ago outside a Toronto nightclub)

After going back and forth for days with the “tipster,” Cook eventually got a chance to personally meet up with the holder of the video camera that contained the 100% legit footage of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine:

We sit idling in his car, making small talk. The tipster calls the owner and talks in language other than English. “He’ll be right down,” he says. Fifteen minutes pass. “Waiting for the elevator,” he says. Ten minutes pass. A young gentleman opens the rear door of the car and gets in. The two men speak in a language other than English. The young gentleman immediately exits the vehicle. No video.

The tipster looks at me: “The battery is dead.” The young gentleman—the owner of the video—needed to go back upstairs to charge the battery on the device that contained the video. We wait. More small talk.

The owner of the video returns. He thrusts a device, a phone with a touchscreen, in my face. “Can I hold it?” I ask. “No.” I crane my neck. It plays.

Here is what the video shows: Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, is the only person visible in the frame. Prior to the trip, I spent a lot of time looking at photographs of Rob Ford. The man in the video is Rob Ford. It is well-lit, clear.

Ford is seated, in a room in a house. In one hand is a a clear, glass pipe. The kind with a big globe and two glass cylinders sticking out of it. In the other hand is a lighter. A slurred voice off-camera is ranting about Canadian politics in what sounds like an attempt to goad Ford. “Pierre Trudeau was a faggot!” is the one phrase the lodges in my mind.

Ford, pipe in one hand and lighter in the other, is laughing, and mildly protesting at the sacrilege. He seems to keep trying to light the pipe, but keeps stopping to laugh. He is red-faced and sweaty, heaving with each breath. Finally, he finds his moment and lights up. He inhales.

In one move, the owner stops the video and draws the device back into his pocket.

“You took this?” I ask. “Yes.”

“When?” … “Within the last six months.”

“You’re sure it’s crack?” … “Yes.”

“You’ve seen him smoke crack before?” … “Yes. Gotta jet.”

And he is gone.

Well damn. It looks like Toronto has the Canadian version of Marion Berry running wild up there.

Gawker is looking for a partner to help offset the cost of the video, so if anyone out there wants to help out with this great this cause, feel free to reach out to them! The world needs to see this. Seriously.

In a truly unsettling story, a hospital in St Paul, Minnesota accidentally tossed a stillborn baby in with its dirty laundry.

According to a report from Associated Press, the stillborn baby boy was delivered at 22 weeks at Regions Hospital on April 4.

The body was wrapped in linen and sent to the hospital’s morgue but tragically, it was mistaken for laundry, and sent offsite to Crothall Laundry in Red Wing — about 45 miles away — for cleaning.

Frighteningly, the baby’s body was discovered by staff members after it reportedly fell out of a bed sheet.

It is still unclear how such a mix up occurred, and hospital officials were still trying to reach the deceased child’s family. The hospital’s chief nursing officer Chris Boese expressed his apologies in a statement.

“This was a terrible mistake, and we are deeply sorry,” said Boese. “We have processes in place that should have prevented this but did not. We are working to identify the gap in our system, and to make sure this does not happen again.”

“We are really sorry and saddened that this event happened,” Boese added. “This has never happened before that I am aware of, this unfortunate event.”

NOTE: Image of sleeping newborn baby above (via Shutterstock) used for illustrative purposes only

This story is almost a month old … but who cares? THIS SH*T IS NUTS! (No pun intended)

A prostitute — who probably calls herself an “escort” in her listing on Backpage.com (think Craigslist, but for hookers) — was arrested and charged with attempted murder back in March after she nearly bit a man’s penis off during a sexual encounter at an Orange County Hotel in Florida.

Now, after reading that line, I’m sure you have a few questions running through that innocent little inquiring mind of yours.

First off, did the woman look like that mugshot before or after the man agreed to pay her for sex?

Secondly, what. the. f*ck?

To answer those burning questions, here’s how it all went down, according to the Orlando Sentinel:

Deputies were called to the Crestwood Suites on University Boulevard after multiple 911 callers “reported screaming and growling sounds from a room on the second floor” of the hotel.

They arrived to find the victim “covered in a significant amount of blood, with numerous bite wounds,” the report states. He was rushed to the Orlando Regional Medical Center trauma center.

The man had “significant” bites to his penis and testicles, the report states, as well as damage to his leg, abdomen, chest and fingers.

His alleged attacker, Priscilla Vaughn, “was nude, and had blood around her mouth, which had spread to her face and head,” the report states, adding Vaughn “growled and snarled” at deputies.

The victim later told deputies his attacker was an escort he’d hired for Monday evening. After dinner, they returned to her hotel room, where they drank alcohol and Vaughn used Ecstasy, the report states.

During consensual sex, the escort “became more aggressive, and she began to bite his genitals. He described it as if she were trying to eat his penis and testicles,” the report says.

The victim tried to get away, the report states, but Vaughn “was too powerful and he could not get her off of him.” She also took his cell phone away when he tried to call for help, the report says.

The Sentinel is not naming the victim because of the sexual nature of the crime.

When deputies searched the room later, they found “a significant amount of blood, knocked over furniture, and strewn belongings,” as well as a sex toy that had been severely damaged by bite marks.

“The damage to the toy indicates a desire to cause severe damage,” the report says, adding it appeared the damage to the toy was done prior to the attack.

Vaughn, 29, faces charges of attempted second-degree murder, false imprisonment

In addition to a second-degree temporary murder charge, 29-year-old Priscilla Vaughn also reportedly faces charges of false imprisonment and tampering with the victim’s ability to contact law enforcement. She was jailed without bail.

[Orlando Sentinel]

When we first met Amanda Bynes years ago, back in the 90′s when she was that cute little kid on Nickelodeon, we would have never guessed that she would turn out to be the crazy person that she is today.

No one knows what went wrong with Amanda between then and now, but from the outside looking in, it looks like things started to go downhill for Ms. Bynes in 2010 after “Easy A” — which is the last time she’s worked. She was due to reprise her role as Penny Pingleton in the “Hairspray” sequel, however the movie was canceled. Bynes was also set to star in the 2011 comedy Hall Pass, but dropped out and was replaced by Alexandra Daddario.

In June of 2010, Amanda began to exhibit strange behavior, announcing via Twitter that she planned to retire from acting, though a month later she had a change of heart and “unretired,” also via Twitter.

At the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, Bynes told reporters that she was merely taking time off from acting, and unbeknown to us all, that would end up being the last time the world would view Amanda Bynes as a sane, coherent person. It would take at least another year or so for the world to find out just how troubled she really is.

On March 7th 2012, Amanda was stopped by police in Los Angeles for talking on her cell phone while driving. Pretty normal stuff. But then about a month later, on April 6th — a year ago from yesterday — that’s when the weird began to kick in.

During the early morning hours of April 6th 2012, Bynes was driving her black BMW through West Hollywood when she accidentally side-swiped a police car. She was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. At the time, her father spoke out on her behalf and denied that Bynes was drinking, saying, “She was not drunk. I was told that she blew a zero on the Breathalyzer. She didn’t have a single drink that night. My daughter doesn’t drink.”

No, she doesn’t drink. She just can’t drive, and the DMV rightfully suspended her license on September 6th 2012 after she was was charged for two hit-and-run accidents — one from April 10th and the other on August 4th.

A little over a week later, her BMW was impounded after TMZ posted photos of her driving around smoking weed … something she probably shouldn’t have doing, considering her license was suspended.

On September 21st 2012, Bynes was officially charged with driving with a suspended license, and later that month, she plead guilty to two hit-and-run charges. That case was settled in December 2012 and the charges were dismissed.

Bynes has since moved from Los Angeles to New York City, probably because living in Manhattan doesn’t require much driving, which at least keeps her out of the legal system. But not being able to drive hasn’t stopped Amanda from continuing to exhibit strange behavior and providing endless amounts of material for blogs very much like the one you’re on right now.

Amanda turned 27 years old last Wednesday (Apr 3), and was spotted in NYC looking and acting a hot mess.

Not only was she wearing the same outfit she was photographed wearing just the day before — sweatpants, a sweatshirt and sandals (this time with no socks) — but Bynes looked sad and lost, as if she didn’t know what she was doing, where she was going, or even who she was. She also appeared to be all alone.

That night, in a series of tweets that she later deleted, Bynes denied being the woman in the photographs, and said that an imposter was pretending to be her. But we all know that’s just the crazy talking.

“My hair is blonde, I’ve never been a redhead!” she wrote. “Somebody keeps posing as me! Check my photos on Twitter for up to date pictures!”

An eyewitness told E! News that earlier that same week, she saw a woman who looked very much like Amanda Bynes, cheek piercings and all, wandering through bodegas near Madison Square Garden looking “like a homeless person.”

27-year-old eyewitness Danielle Berman says she looked up and spotted a red-haired “crazy-looking person” (Bynes) wearing a wig while shopping for pipes in a store.

“It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen,” Berman tells E! News exclusively. “She had this shoulder-length mousy wig and then all the hair was hanging out underneath. It was bizarre. She looked like a homeless person…she looked a hot mess.”

Bynes left the pipe store and then wandered into the street. “She was crossing into traffic, wasn’t waiting for any of the lights to change and a cab almost hit her twice,” Berman explained.

Berman, a fan of the cheek-pierced starlet, says it was unfortunate to see Bynes in that state.

“She looked like a bag lady,” she said. “It’s not a good area over there. Cops were looking at her like, ‘Who is this person?’”

“I felt bad,” Berman continued. “She is my age. I grew up watching The Amanda Show and I always thought she was the one that was going to turn out normal, and clearly she is not. It was really depressing to see her like that.”

Amanda was scheduled to appear in court earlier that week to answer to the charges of her driving with a suspended license, but she was a no-show.

Her attorney asked the judge for an extension, which was granted, but the judge warned that this would be the last time the actress would be allowed to miss court, as this case has been dragging on since last October.

Bynes is now scheduled to appear in court on May 9th, with the pretrial set for May 2nd. Maybe she’ll find the time to show up to this one. Or maybe she won’t.

PREVIOUSLY: Amanda Bynes Claims to Have an Eating Disorder in Bizarre Twitter Rant

According to Mississippi police, state lawmaker Jessica Upshaw was found dead on Sunday with a single gunshot wound to the head in the home of former legislator Clint Rotenberry.

It’s unclear as to why Upshaw was at Rotenberry’s home in Mendenhall, Miss. — which is about 110 miles away from her home district in Diamondhead — but he hasn’t been charged with anything, as police believe her death to be a suicide.

According to Simpson County sheriff Kenneth Lewis, Upshaw appeared to have shot herself in the head  “It appeared she had a gunshot wound to her head; it appeared to be self-inflicted,” he said.

Jessica Upshaw, a conservative Republican, practiced as a lawyer before she became a state lawmaker in 2004. In that same year she chaired the Legislature’s Conservation and Natural Resources Committee.

Upshaw wasn’t married, but she had a daughter and son in law working in South Korea as engineers, and she was also a grandmother who was spoken very highly of by her friends and fellow politicians.

“She was very close with her daughter and with her mother — just loved her family,” Mississippi Rep. John Read told the Clarion-Ledger. “Her heart was just so big. She’d do anything for you. She was just a sweet person.”

“I have known Jessica for many years as an unselfish and dedicated public servant,” Miss. Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement. “This is a tragic loss for her family and all Mississippians, and our thoughts and prayers go out to her family during this difficult time.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating Upshaw’s death, spokesman Warren Strain said.

While no one on the outside still really knows what’s going on with Lil Wayne right now, those closest to him have been spotted going in and out of Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles to visit the ailing rapper.

Late Friday night (Mar 15), shortly after the news broke that Lil Wayne was in critical condition in the ICU after suffering from multiple seizures, his protege Drake was spotted outside the hospital walking with his head down and looking very somber.

Other celebs who have visited Lil Wayne in the hospital include his female protege Nicki Minaj, L.A. Clippers star Chris Paul and his wife Jada, and Wayne’s own rap mentor Birdman, who he affectionately calls his “daddy.”

As usual, TMZ had the ‘honor’ of being the very first media outlet to report on Lil Wayne being in “critical condition” in the ICU, but the way they reported on the situation had everyone in the world fearing the worst — that Wayne was about to die.

In their initial report, TMZ sensationalized the entire situation, saying that Wayne was “being prepared for his last rites” with his family near his bedside saying their last goodbyes and Twitter/Facebook immediately lit up with responses to the story. Within moments, Lil Wayne and TMZ were both the top trending topics worldwide, respectively.

After a short time, TMZ deleted the portion of their story about the last rites and his family saying goodbye, amid responses from Wayne’s camp on Twitter, including tweets from Mack Maine that denounced the site, and let everyone know that his boss was going to be OK, and was not dying as TMZ initially suggested.

@tmz and definitely don’t try to kill a man before his time….so from the bottom of my soul and on behalf of my fam……FUCK YOU

— Mack Maine (@mackmaine) March 16, 2013

About a half hour or so later, a tweet came from Lil Wayne’s own Twitter page to further confirm Mack Maine’s account of the situation — that Lil Wayne was alive and well and everything was going to be OK.

I’m good everybody. Thx for the prayers and love.

— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) March 16, 2013

Literally 2 minutes after Wayne’s tweet, TMZ updated their story again, saying that Weezy was still in critical condition in the ICU, but was “stabilizing,” though his “prognosis was uncertain.”

“Wayne is sleeping right now … which is odd, because he just tweeted saying he’s OK and thanking people for the prayers and love,” TMZ wrote, suggesting that Wayne wasn’t the one who tweeted that he was OK.

One Twitter user even went as far as to retrieve the coordinates from the tweet, and revealed that it most certainly did not come from Cedars-Sinai Hospital:

@tmz FYI @liltunechi tweet did NOT originate from 34.0766385, -118.37954589999998 (the lat/long for Cedars Sinai)

— Startup Tech Guy (@startuptechguy) March 16, 2013

Further adding to the conflicting reports was a statement from someone in Lil Wayne’s entourage who was quoted by L.A. Weekly as saying that TMZ’s coma/last rites story was comprised of “lies.” Speaking anonymously, the woman said, “He’s sitting up, drinking water.”

And the next morning, Cash Money co-founder Ron “Slim” Williams (Birdman’s brother) said in a radio interview that Wayne was doing fine and was looking to be released sometime during the weekend.

Still, TMZ seems to be going with their story  that Lil Wayne is damn near on his death bed, and it’s now going into the sixth day that he has been in the intensive care unit:

Lil Wayne is still in rough shape … and remains in the intensive care unit at an L.A. hospital 6 days after being admitted for seizures stemming from a suspected drug overdose … TMZ has learned.

Sources tell us … Wayne’s condition has not improved enough to be moved out of the ICU … and he continues to be monitored very closely by staff at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai hospital.

We know Wayne has been surrounded by friends and family since he was admitted to the ICU this past Wednesday … and we’re told the mood around Wayne’s bedside has been very serious.

We’ll update you as the story develops. For now, it’s best to just continue to keep Weezy in your prayers…

UPDATE: Good news! Lil Wayne is finally out of the hospital!

A high school football coach from California died in a freak accident Monday night (Mar 4). The Sacramento Bee reports that Marion Adams — who coached football and track at Rio Linda High School — was riding his bike home from track practice Monday night night when he accidentally ran into a parking garage gate, which impaled him.

According to the Bee, as Adams was riding his bike, he temporarily looked over his shoulder to say goodbye to a student, and didn’t notice the partially open metal swing gate in the school’s parking lot. “At his rate of speed, Adams was impaled by the gate arm,” the paper reported.

Adams was rushed to the hospital, where he initially survived two surgeries to treat internal injuries, but the doctors couldn’t stop him from bleeding, and he was pronounced dead Tuesday.

Mike Morris, the athletic director at the school said, “Marion was the most popular and nicest man on campus; just a great guy … It’s a huge loss, devastating to our community. He’s an example of how great Rio Linda is as a school and community. He couldn’t wait to come back here. This place meant everything to him.”

Marion Adams graduated from Rio Linda High School in 1972 and his brother says he recently left a high-paying job to return to his Alma Mater to take up a coaching job there.

“Marion loved kids, loved seeing them do well,” said David Adams. “He absolutely loved Rio Linda. He gave up a job that paid really well to teach and coach at his favorite school.”

David Adams said he was “impressed” at the outpour of support he saw from the school’s faculty, staff, students and parents, who all filled the hospital’s waiting room and even stayed there with the coach until he passed away.

“I was so impressed, so touched by the outpouring of support,” he said. “So many people hung out for the night in the hospital. I knew what kind of man he was – he’s my brother – but to see all that love and support really moved us. We’re all feeling this.”

Marion Adams is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, two grandchildren, his mother and seven siblings.

“Still in shock,” said Adams’ longtime friend Terry Ray, who coaches boys basketball at the school. “I know people say this a lot about people, that they’re great when we lose them, but Marion Adams was a wonderful man and teacher.”

WATCH A VIDEO REPORT ABOUT THE INCIDENT HERE:

A 23-year-old man from New York City who stabbed his mother to death, cut her body into pieces and then stuffed them in a series of trash bags that were scattered along several blocks was arrested and charged with murder last week. And apparently, before he discarded of his mother’s remains, he posed in a VERY disturbing photo with her severed head.

The unsettling image, snapped with his cellphone purportedly as a keepsake, was leaked to the New York Post, and it shows Bahsid McLean posing in front of the bathroom mirror, holding the bloody head of his slain mother as if it were a trophy.

Police say that the shocking photo is just one of several images they found on McLean’s cell phone. “I lost sleep over it. Just sheer inhumanity. It’s horrible what he did to her,” one law enforcement official told the Post.

Last Tuesday (Feb 26) morning, a man was out walking his dog when he made a gruesome discovery: the dismembered remains of a woman in a heavy duty plastic garbage bag that investigators later identified as 45-year-old Tanya Byrd, who was last seen alive the Monday before.

Police later found several other bags with the rest of her remains scattered along several blocks. After medical examiners completed an autopsy, they determined the following Wednesday that Byrd was stabbed in the neck before she died, and her death was officially ruled a homicide.

It was later discovered that her son Bahsid McLean was behind the gruesome murder after he confessed to the crime. He has since been placed on suicide watch.

According to police, after getting into an argument with his mother because she told him to grow up and move out, McLean fatally struck the woman while she was sleeping. He then stole money from her to purchase an electric chainsaw to cut up her body.

With the help of a friend (later identified as 26-year-old William Harris), McLean stuffed his mother’s body parts in three heavy-duty trash bags and dumped them in several different locations within blocks of each other.

At his arraignment, McLean — who wore a plastic bag because he kept urinating on himself — reportedly told the judge, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” He also made several other outbursts and was ultimately ordered to be held without bail.

Sources close to the family say McLean is troubled and he resented his mother, who worked as a home health aide and was described as a “beautiful” person and a “hard worker” by her sister.

McLean is said to be schizophrenic and his lawyer said he had been off his medication for days, the New York Daily News reported. His father discussed his history of violent tendencies, saying, “He did destructive things. He set fires. Nobody could control him.”

“He’s acted out in violent ways before, but I never thought he could do something like this. Not in a million years,” one family member, who wished to remain anonymous said.

A lawsuit has been filed against Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD following a massive scandal involving a disturbed gynecologist who was secretly recording his patients during exams.

According to the Baltimore’s CBS affiliate WJZ, Dr. Nikita Levy was accused of recording and then storing footage of his patients earlier this month and subsequently committed suicide after police confiscated the videos.

The Baltimore doctor reportedly used an undetectable camera pen to obtain the footage, which he also took still photos from, over a period of five years.

Police have been inundated with questions from over 1,000 victims and two of those victims have filed lawsuits.

Levy, 54, admitted to recording his patients earlier this month when his co-worker told hospital officials that she was suspicious of the pen he was wearing around his neck.

But the horrifying case doesn’t end there. On February 18, Levy took his own life. According to Baltimore City Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, it is still unclear what he did with the intimate footage that he collected.

Guglielmi said that police are “looking to see if Dr. Levy perhaps sold this material online and if he partnered with anyone else during the commission of this crime.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine the unimaginable breach of trust that this incident has created for families and patients,” he said.

In what sounds like something straight out of an action movie, three people were killed Friday morning (Feb 21) in Las Vegas after a shootout between a Range Rover SUV and a Maserati resulted in a fiery crash that shut down about a block and a half of the world-famous Vegas strip.

“First time in Vegas, and then, like, the whole thing, what you know from movies only — I was shocked,” said Christine Gerstenberger, who was visiting from Germany.

“There was a loud bang, and I hear two other booms. I looked out my window at Caesars Palace … and could see the fireball,” John Lamb, who was inside nearby hotel Caesars Palace, told KLAS.

Police are still trying to piece together what exactly happened, and who was behind the tragic incident that occurred in the middle of the busiest intersection on the entire strip that left three people dead, but here’s the gist of it, according to the Associated Press:

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie told reporters the shooting was sparked by an argument in the valet area of the nearby Aria hotel-casino, and spilled over to one of the busiest intersections on the Las Vegas Strip. As bullets flew from the Range Rover, the Maserati ran a red light and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames.

Three more cars and a utility truck also collided at an intersection near Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Bally’s hotels as the Range Rover sped off into the pre-dawn darkness, just before 4:30 a.m.

The taxi driver and his female passenger were killed instantly, and at least six other people were injured, including a passenger in the Maserati, who is said to be cooperating with police. They were all treated for minor injuries.

The third victim who died in the shooting incident was an aspiring rapper and alleged pimp known as “Kenny Clutch” — the driver of the Maserati — who succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital. Born Kenneth Cherry Jr., Clutch was from Oakland, California and was living in Las Vegas, according to his Facebook page.

“Out of everyone I know in the rapping industry there is no way I would have ever, ever expected to find that he was shot on the Las Vegas strip in such an aggressive manner,” said his attorney Vicki Greco, who said Cherry had two kids and disputed claims that he was a pimp and had a criminal background.

“He didn’t have a (criminal) record or a history. He was just a good kid trying to make it and be a good father,” she said.

Cherry’s aunt told the Oakland Tribune that she wasn’t aware of her nephew’s history as a rapper, but called him a kind soul. “Right now my heart is breaking,” said Pat Sims. “This has really been a tragedy. Kenny was just a delightful kid.

“I can tell you this … the world has lost a good man,” she added. “I’m not saying he didn’t have his faults, but he was very kind, especially to older people. Whatever happened in Vegas, I don’t know about, but he was a very kind soul.”

Sims said Cherry was close with his 106-year-old grandmother. “I haven’t been able to tell her,” she said.

Authorities are still looking for the Range Rover believed to have sparked the tragic incident, which ironically happened about a block away from where Tupac was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996 under similar circumstances.

Country singer Mindy McCready died Sunday (Feb 17) at her home in Heber Springs, Arkansas from a single self inflicted gunshot in an apparent suicide. According to sources, McCready shot herself and her dog. She was 37 years old.

According to E! News sources, McCready’s father had been staying with her up until this morning when he went back home to Florida. One source said that when her father left, “[Mindy] was in good spirits and seemed to be fine.”

Later in the day, neighbors heard two gunshots and called the police. “She shot herself and the dog,” the E! News source said.

A statement from the Cleburne County Sheriff’s Office read:

“At 3:31 PM, Sunday, February 17th Deputies from the Cleburne County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a report of gun shots fired in the area of 1132 Fox Chase Drive in Heber Springs. Officers arrived on the scene at 3:58 PM and discovered the body of 37-year-old Melinda Gayle McCready on the front porch of the residence at 1132 Fox Chase. Ms. McCready was pronounced dead at the scene from what appears to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound. Ms. Mcready will be transported to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for an autopsy and the matter will be fully investigated.”

McCready’s life has been marred with troubles and tragedy over the past several years. The country singer, who was once engaged to Dean Cain, has been in and out of rehab and had lost custody of her two children.

She was also convicted of prescription medication fraud in 2004, a DUI in 2005, and was charged with battery and resisting arrest in 2007.

McCready had attempted suicide at least four times before her death, once back in 2005 and most recently in 2010. She was also featured on Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab in 2010.

Just last month, the father of McCready’s youngest child, David Wilson, was found dead from a suicide. Her children were removed from her custody on February 6, and she was committed to a to a treatment facility for a mental health and alcohol abuse evaluation. She was released two days later.

McCready is survived by her two young sons, Zander, 6, and 10-month-old Zayne.

A meteorite plunging towards Russia exploded over the country’s Ural Mountains early Friday morning (Feb 15) U.S. time, causing several giant explosions and forcing many schools and offices to be evacuated.

Nearly 1,200 people were reportedly injured as a result of the frightening blast sent out a huge shock wave, shattering countless windows in its path. Witnesses in Russia say that their cellphones stopped working and windows were blown out as the meteor exploded in the air.

According to estimates from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the meteor measured about 49 feet wide, weighed around 10 tons and was traveling at roughly 10 to 12 miles per second (about 30,000 to 45,000 mph) when it disintegrated into pieces about 20 or more miles above the ground.

Though the asteroid wasn’t considerably large, Andrew Cheng of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory explains that even small asteroids pack a mean punch, comparing the impact to that of an atomic bomb.

“It doesn’t take a very large object. A 10-meter size object already packs the same energy as a nuclear bomb,” Cheng, who led a 2000-2001 mission for NASA to orbit and land on an asteroid, told FoxNews.com.

Coincidentally, a much larger 150-wide asteroid named “2012 DA14″ passed over earth at around 2:20 p.m. EST, though astronomers are certain that this asteroid, which was over 17,200 miles away from Earth, had nothing to do with the one that hit Russia earlier today.

Amid the national debate over gun control laws, a 15-year-old girl who performed with her high school band for President Obama’s Inauguration celebration last week was shot and killed in Chicago Tuesday (Jan 29).

Hadiya Pendleton, who was an honor student at King College Prep High School in Chicago, reportedly died after a gunman opened fire on a group of teenagers while they were hanging out a park just a few blocks away from the school.

According to reports, Pendleton — a majorette for the King College Prep Marching Band and Drill Team, had been released from school early after completing an exam, and was among a group of about a dozen teenagers seeking shelter from the rain under a covering at the park.

Witnesses tell Chicago’s CBS 2 that around 2:30 pm, out of nowhere, the gunman hopped a fence, ran up to the teens and started shooting. Pendleton was shot once in the back, and she was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Corner Children’s Hospital.

Another boy was also taken to Comer Children’s Hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg, and was listed in serious condition, though he is expected to recover from his injuries.

A witness said the teens who were with Hadiya at the time of the shooting scattered in different directions and ran out of the park as the shots rang out. Hadiya and the boy who was shot in the leg collapsed about a block away.

A neighbor who lives near the park said he heard six shots, and saw a man who he believes to be the killer wearing a blue hoodie and blue jeans, and he drove off in a white Nissan. Police are still working on a description of the killer.

“There has to be an end to it. It’s just too much. The children cannot go to school. They’re in fear,” another neighbor said.

Police say neither Hadiya wasn’t a part of any gangs, but they do believe the shooter confused someone in the crowd she was with for another rival gang member, and shot at them. Apparently, some of the young people gathered at the park had ties to area gangs.

“By all indications, it appears the female victim was an unintended target in this incident,” Chicago Police officer Jose Estrada said, according to The Washington Post.

Coincidentally, Hadiya appeared in an anti-gang violence PSA in late 2008.

And just days before she was gunned down, Hadiya had performed with her high school band during the parade for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in Washington, D.C.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with Hadiya’s family and some of her classmates at her home Wednesday night. Earlier that day, in response to questions about murders and violent crime, he said “we’re gonna make changes.”

“She is what is best in our city. A child going to school, who takes a final exam, who had just been to the inaugural,” Emanuel said. “You look at her, you look at how she talked about her future. She took her final exams. She had dreams. And this gang-banger, this punk took that away from Cleopatra. They took it away from Hadiya. And in my view, they took it away from the city of Chicago.”

Hadiya, who dreamed of becoming a lawyer one day, was part of her school’s Crystal Elegance marching band’s majorette team. In addition to being an honor student and a majorette, Hidiya was also a volleyball player.

Nathaniel Pendleton described his daughter as a “shining light.”

“She would brighten up a room when she walked in,” Mr. Pendleton said. “They took someone that had a real shining light.”

Members of the Chicago community where Hadiya Pendleton was killed marched in the slain teenager’s memory Friday (Feb 1).

Early Friday, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and other police officials announced that the reward for any information leading to the arrest of Hadiya’s killer had been raised from $14,000 to $40,000.

A horrible, horrible decision made on behalf of the band that was playing the night a fire ripped through a Brazilian nightclub earlier this week and killed over 200 people was apparently the cause of the massive blaze.

After conducting a thorough investigation into the fire, police believe that flares designed for outdoor use only were inappropriately used that fateful night, which when lit, caused the entire ceiling to catch on fire.

Police inspector Marcelo Arigony said in a news conference on Tuesday (Jan 29) that “the flare was for outdoor use only and the people who lit them know that.”

According to Brazilian fire officials, when the fire broke out Sunday night, around 2,000 people — double the maximum occupancy of 1,000 — were packed like sardines inside the Kiss nightclub, which reportedly had no sprinklers and no emergency exits.

Arigony said “Any child could have seen that this establishment should not have been open.”

The blaze began at around 2:30 am local time, during a performance by Gurizada Fandangueira, a country music band that had made the use of pyrotechnics a trademark of their shows.

Police have said the club’s ceiling was covered with an insulating foam made from a combustible material that appeared to have ignited after it came in contact with a spark from a flare lit during the performance.

After the fire extinguisher malfunctioned, the blaze spread throughout the packed club at lightning speed, emitting a thick, toxic smoke. Because Kiss apparently had neither an alarm nor a sprinkler system and only one working exit, the crowd was left to search desperately for a way out.

About 50 of the victims were found in the club’s two bathrooms, where the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.

Police investigator Arigony said people headed to the bathrooms because the only lights in the dark club were coming from there, and the patrons mistook them for exits.

Regarding the outdoor flares that were stupidly used indoors, Arigony said that the Gurizada Fandangueira country music band — known for its flashy stage shows and pyrotechnics — “chose to buy those because they were cheaper than those that can be used indoors.”

The outdoor flares — meant for OUTDOORS only — cost only $1.25 a piece, compared with the $35 price tag for an indoor flare. So basically, the whole thing could have been prevented had the band not decided to cut corners with something as serious as FIRE.

But because of their penny-pinching, 234 people lost their lives, and authorities say more than 120 people remain hospitalized for smoke inhalation and burns, with dozens of them in critical condition.

[HuffPo/AP]

Any news out of North Korea should be taken with the biggest grain of salt on the planet, but multiple reports from the region claim that food shortages in North Korea are so bad that people are resorting to cannibalism. Even worse, parents are reportedly murdering their own children for food.

The shocking reports come from independent news reporters commissioned by Asia Press, an independent press agency focusing on Asia, and were published by U.K. newspaper the Sunday Times.

“A father in North Korea is reported to have been executed by firing squad after murdering his two children to eat them during a ‘hidden famine’ that may have killed more than 10,000 people last year,” the Sunday Times wrote of one known incident of cannibalism in North Korea.

The British newspaper reports that hunger in the country may be widespread as a “litany of horrors [have been] documented by undercover reporters,” with one man even reportedly digging up his own grandchild’s corpse for food, and another who “went mad with hunger” and boiled his own child and ate the flesh for dinner.

Another startling report from the Sunday Times states:

While his wife was away on business he killed his eldest daughter and, because his son saw what he had done, he killed his son as well. When the wife came home, he offered her food, saying: ‘We have meat.’

But his wife, suspicious, notified the Ministry of Public Security, which led to the discovery of part of their children’s bodies under the eaves.

The big question here is whether or not all of these reports of cannibalism are actually true, considering North Korea, who favors propaganda over the facts, would never confirm such issues.

However, the Asia Press’ use of citizen reports in famine-stricken regions of the country adds serious veracity to their claims of cannibalism. And The Sunday Times, as well as The Independent — both credible news sources — have been reporting on this issue as well.

An image taken of North Korean children during the food shortage of the 1990′s

Sadly, these aren’t the first reports of North Koreans eating other people to combat a national food shortage. Ten years ago, during another food shortage, there were refugee accounts that North Korean citizens were not only killing and eating their own children, but also selling their children’s corpses.

Meanwhile, amid his country’s national food shortage, leader Kim Jong Un has spent vast sums of money on two rocket launches, and a third is reportedly underway.

North Korea is definitely a country with its priorities in order.

Sad news Skettie Nation: Honey Boo Boo’s beloved gay, redneck uncle is now an HIV-positive man.

This unfortunate turn of events has hit Uncle Poodle, whose real name is Lee Thompson, quite hard, since he was infected just last year. He trusted his then-boyfriend, who he was exclusive with.

But Uncle Poodle later learned that his boyfriend, who he was having unprotected sex with, was HIV positive and failed to tell him. He eventually had his ex locked up for infecting him without informing him of his HIV-positive status.

Uncle Poodle revealed the details in an exclusive interview with Fenuxe.

Dino: Lee, when did you find out about your HIV status?

Lee: I was adamant about getting my HIV status checked on a regular basis. On March 16, 2012, I tested negative. Then, in May of 2012 my test results came back positive. I knew it had been my boyfriend who infected me. I later learned he had been HIV positive and was not taking medication and had not bothered to tell me about it. I was advised that I should press charges and, hesitantly, I did. It was the right thing to do.

Dino: What happened to your ex?
Lee: He is serving a 5-year sentence. I would have been cool with his HIV status if he had been honest. I don’t have an issue with the disease. I would have known how to protect myself.

This is horrible, horrible news. Our best wishes to Uncle Poodle.

Some very sad news out of the state of Oklahoma. Police have confirmed that the body of a missing 30-year-old woman from Oklahoma City was found in the trunk of her car Tuesday in a St. Louis, Missouri neighborhood.

Ebony Jackson‘s family says that she was visiting some friends the St. Louis area last week, but no one had heard from her since last Thursday.

Days earlier, her 3-month old son was found abandoned in a car seat in the hallway of an apartment building in Breckenridge Hills, MO. The child was clean, warm and in good health, and reportedly a full bottle nestled next to him.

While Jackson had a troubled relationship with her baby’s father, police have no immediate suspects, and have no idea how she went missing and ended up dead in the trunk of her car, and how her baby ended up inside the apartment complex. Foul play is suspected, and police are checking her phone records for any clues.

“It’s just totally out of character for her to be in a neighborhood like this, or just the car being in a neighborhood like this,” one family member told Channel 9 News in Oklahoma City.

Not much is really known about Jackson, other than her arrest history in Oklahoma City — three since 2005 (one for assaulting an OKC police officer, another for stealing from Dillard’s, and the most recent for using her son’s stroller to hide stolen merchandise at a local Walmart). Her family tells police that she suffered a brain injury in the past that causes her to have severe memory loss and mood swings.

Jackson’s boyfriend is in St. Louis at this time trying to bring their son back to Oklahoma where he lives.

[News 9]

In an extremely sad story out of the underground Hip Hop community, Seattle rapper Freddy E was found dead Saturday (Jan 5) from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, according to confirmed reports.

Freddy’s father confirmed the sad news with a statement on Facebook, posted shortly after the story originally exploded on Twitter.

“Our family is saddened beyond words; our loss is great; this tragedy is enormous and unforeseen,” the message read. “Not only our family, but the world has lost a talented, sensitive, brilliant young man who lit up our existence with his.”

Though he wasn’t a household name, Freddy E, born Frederick Eugene Buhl, was best known for his highly successsful YouTube channel “Jerk TV,” which boasted over 7 million video views and more than 70,000 subscribers, and mostly featured comedy segments and original rap music.

Before pulling the trigger on himself, the 22-year-old, who recently celebrated his birthday, took to Twitter to cryptically vent about a situation that was apparently troubling him:

Annnd, my day is ruined. Fuck… my… life. I’m about to delete my twitter in a second…

This day couldn’t get any worse…

I’m sorry………..

Smoked my first pack of cigarettes today… been a long time since I’ve gone through heart break. It’s a cold unforgiving world if I do say. It’s all bad y’all…

Cruising in the 300 Chrysler. Wishing the world could be a little brighter. But all I can seem to find is this lighter. It’s all bad y’all.

If there’s a God then He’s calling me back home. This barrel never felt so good next to my dome. It’s cold & I’d rather die than live alone.

It’s… all… bad… y’all. *puts finger around trigger*

I love you Mom. I love you Dad. I love you Katherine. God… please forgive me.

I’m sorry.

Nothing about his death has been confirmed, however, many believe Freddy’s last tweets, and subsequent suicide, were related to a recent breakup with his (rumored?) girlfriend Honey Cocaine — a female artist signed to Young Money rapper Tyga‘s music label Last Kings Entertainment.

And some of Freddy’s fans are blaming his death on his failed relationship with Honey Cocaine, claiming that he basically took his own life because she broke his heart by dumping him.

But Cocaine — who experienced drama of her own last year after she was shot when her crew, including Tyga, ran into some trouble with a few rowdy concertgoers at a concert in Omaha, Nebraska — responded to the backlash on Twitter, slamming the idea that she had something to do with Freddy’s death:

To say I caused what happened is ignorance.. You know nothing about our friendship or the story, hate me if you feel.. We loved eachother..

— Honey Cocaine(@QueenHoneyC) January 6, 2013

We were homies. We had a bond and a connection. For people to attack me acting like I made him do it is a shame.

— Honey Cocaine(@QueenHoneyC) January 6, 2013

Say it’s my fault, threaten me, whatever.. I knew him well enough to know he had other things happening.. I was there for him all the time.

— Honey Cocaine(@QueenHoneyC) January 6, 2013

Honey Cocaine also tweeted a screenshot of a text message exchange with Freddy E she says took place the morning of the day Freddy took his life.

In the excerpted message, Freddy explained that he felt as though everyone was out to get him, and asked her whether or not she felt as though that were true. Her response was: “The devil is always out to get you in different forms… Anything revolving around money is intertwined with evil. Play your cards right and keep your soul pure cuz you can be a victim in a second.”

Though the exact nature of the relationship between Honey Cocaine and Freddy E isn’t known, Freddy spoke very highly of Honey recently in a series of messages on his Facebook page and described how they remained in constant contact.

“I talk to Honey damn near every day,” he wrote. “I text her. She calls me. We talk on the phone for hours. I’ve met some of her family and she’s met some of mine. We call each other by our birth names. I’d take a bullet for her, as would she take one for me. I actually know her.”

And in a 20-minute video posted on January 1st, Freddy continued to express his admiration for his friend, saying “Honey, you’re one amazing individual. Someone doesn’t have to be in your life very long for them to leave a huge impact, and she definitely did that. She’s beautiful, ambitious, passionate about her craft. Seriously… I love that girl.”

After tweeting a link to the video on Sunday (Jan 6), Honey Cocaine wrote: “I love you too @Freddy_E… The end of the video is beautiful.”

For some reason, actor/comedian Katt Williams used the last couple of months of 2012 to act the damn fool, and ended up getting arrested not just once, twice, three, or four times … but FIVE times over an extremely short period of just three months. And three out of the five arrests occurred in the month of December alone.

While we haven’t been keeping you abreast of all of Katt Williams’ shenanigans, we have been keeping a running log of his run-ins with the law. And it goes a little something like this:

Arrest #1: Katt was arrested on October 16th 2012 outside a Hollywood nightclub after he allegedly pulled a gun out on fellow actor/comedian Faizon Love, who explained to TMZ that he and Katt were arguing over a $50,000 debt Katt allegedly owes him.

Turns out, the gun wasn’t even loaded, and Faizon insists that he wasn’t the one who called the cops. Williams was quickly released and no charges were filed.

Arrest #2: Police arrested Katt on November 15th in Oakland, California on charges of suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly hitting an 18-year-old man over the head with a bottle at a hotel.

Arrest #3: On December 2nd, Williams was arrested in Seattle, Washington after he allegedly got into a dispute at a bar — just a few days after he failed to show up at a two-night engagement at the Paramount Theater.

According to TMZ, Katt allegedly threatened a bar manager with a pool cue and threw a cigarette at a woman, which hit her in the eye. He also threw a rock at a car pulling out of the parking lot.

Arrest #4: December 7th saw Katt Williams arrested AGAIN — for the second time in less than a week — on a felony warrant stemming from a November 25th incident in Sacramento, California, where he allegedly drove a three-wheeled motorbike down a sidewalk and refused to stop for police. His exact words to police, according to sources, were “I’m not going to stop!”

During the ridiculous “police chase,” Williams allegedly hit five people with his bike, which prompted authorities to put an end to the chase and issue the arrest warrant.

And Arrest #5 occurred within the last few days of 2012 — December 28th, when Williams was taken into police custody on suspicion of child endangerment and possession of a stolen gun.

According to police, following a welfare check at Katt’s home, authorities found drugs and several firearms — one of which had previously been reported as stolen.

The L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services later revealed that Williams’ four children were in the home, and they were placed in protective custody after Katt’s arrest.

But that’s not even the half of it! In between Katt’s arrests were also a few notable incidents that did not end up with him behind bars.

On November 25th — the same day he led police on a high-speed chase down a sidewalk with his motorbike — Katt paid a visit a local Target, where he got into an argument with an employee, and actually SLAPPED the man in the face, which was captured on the store’s security cameras, and of course, sent to TMZ.

Police were called, while Katt made a quick getaway in an electric cart, before ditching the cart and hopping back onto his three-wheeled motorcycle — the same one he had just led police on a high-speed chase on just moments before.

At a subsequent stand-up show in Hollywood, Katt told the audience that the reason he slapped the Target employee was because the guy said to him, “Your assistant is already suing you, you pussy ass nigger,” in reference to a $5 million lawsuit in which Katt’s former assistant is suing him on claims that he punched her, causing her “serious and permanent injuries.”

And if you think that’s all, then you must be crazier than Katt Williams!

Just days after he slapped that Target employee in the face, Williams was performing a show in Seattle when he became irate after noticing a fan was recording the show, and hit the audience member upside the head with his microphone.

He told the crowd, “It could happen to you. Record me and see what happens to you. Go home and get your raggedy pistol and bring it back. I already got mine.”

The man has since filed a $250,000 lawsuit against Katt and the theater, claiming that the hit left with him with a concussion and contusions on his head.

And capping off his illustrious year of arrests, fights and random incidents … Katt and his good friend Suge Knight — who has been there to bail the troubled star out of jail on multiple occasions — got into a random fight outside Eden nightclub in Hollywood that ended with Suge nearly running some people over with his SUV … and all of this went down literally just hours after Katt was released from jail the last time.

Just the week prior, the pair were detained and cited by police for parking too close to a fire hydrant outside a Subway restaurant in West Hollywood. Suge — who was getting a manicure/pedicure at a nearby nail salon (**insert blank and confused stare here**) — also received a ticket related to multiple outstanding traffic warrants.

Further adding to Katt’s legal issues is a $4 million tax lien filed against him on claims that he failed to pay over $3 million in taxes in 2008, and $800K in 2009.

According to someone who used to work with Katt Williams, the comedian was diagnosed with bipolar disorder years ago, and for some reason … ever year, he chooses to forgo his prescription meds between the months of October and January, which definitely explains the last few months.

The anonymous source told Necole Bitchie, “There is NO ONE around him who will get him any help. Everyone with him is either just as crazy as he is, or milking him for his money because he spends frivolously when he is like this then blames other people for stealing after he semi-snaps back to reality!”

Meanwhile, Katt’s BFF Suge Knight tells TMZ that Katt is just a really sensitive man with a horrible temper who gets himself into bad situations.

“People test him because he’s small and the best comedian of all time,” Knight said. “When people see him, they don’t separate the Katt Williams on stage from the Katt Williams just being a regular person.”

Suge added, “Things happen to Katt all the time where people start with him. He just don’t take no shit. That’s what happens when you’re the best in the business. Sometimes you just have rough times.”

Well, let’s just hope and pray that Katt is back on his meds and will not let all of that nonsense from 2012 roll over into 2013.

A 20-year-old man from Tunisia bet his friends he could eat 30 raw eggs in a row, but unfortunately for him … he not only lost the bet, but also his life, after consuming raw egg number 28.

The Daily Mail reports:

Dhaou Fatnassi, 20, allegedly wagered a friend he could eat 30 raw eggs in a row, for which he would receive an undisclosed sum.

Mr Fatnassi, from Kairouan in north-east Tunisia, managed 28 eggs before he collapsed with severe stomach pains.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival, local radio station Shems FM reported.

It’s unclear whether Fatnassi swallowed the eggs whole (shells and all), or cracked them before consuming. Regardless, there’s a major lesson to be learned in all of this.

DON’T BET YOUR FRIENDS YOU CAN EAT A LARGE SUM OF RAW EGGS! IT CAN (AND MOST LIKELY WILL) KILL YOU!

They say that love knows no age, color or even gender. But surely it knows species.

One 15-year-old Nicaraguan boy has been taking his mother’s chickens and giving them the BUSINESS! And he actually showed his face on camera and talked about it.

Apparently, he saw one of his cousins do it first and he later got curious about it and decided to give a go himself. That’s when he got hooked on that chicken nookie.

Watch the video of the boy who loves freaking chickens every freakin’ night and every freakin’ day.

So, hey, young fella. Masturbation? It’s a thing. Get to know it. Use your hands and let the damn chickens be. They don’t deserve that.

The creepiest part? When the boy said he thinks the chicken likes it because she lets it happen. What in the fuck? That sounds like the logic a future rapist, y’all. Pray for the women of Nicaragua.

The first photo of Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooter Adam Lanza (circa: 2005)

The United States was hit with one of the worst tragedies it has seen all year Friday (Dec 14) when 26 people, including 20 children, were murdered after a crazed gunman opened fire inside an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Eighteen children, and nine teachers and faculty members — including the school’s principal and a psychologist — were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, while other students and school staffers, including the vice principal, were treated for injuries (after being shot in the foot) at a nearby hospital.

Two students were pronounced dead at the hospital, and police say the body of a 28th shooting victim was discovered at another location

The shooter was identified as Adam Lanza (after being mistaken for his older brother Ryan in previous reports), the 20-year-old son of kindergarten teacher Nancy Lanza, who taught at the school.

Some media outlets are reporting that the kindergarten teacher that was shot and killed at the school was Nancy Lanza, while others are reporting that Mrs. Lanza was murdered at her home before the massacre at the school … which actually makes sense, as Adam drove his mother’s car to the school, according to police.

The details surrounding the story are still sketchy, which is why there are so many variations floating around, but sources are now saying that Nancy and Adam had some sort of a “dispute” at their family home before he killed her, took her car, drove to the school and shot up the school where she taught, targeting her kindergarten class specifically.

It was also reported that Lanza’s father was killed in New Jersey, though NBC News and other sources have backed off from that statement, as police have yet to confirm anything.

Police have also yet to neither confirm nor deny the reports that a third brother in the family was also killed at the home.

Police are, however, confirming that SOMEONE was found dead in a house in Newtown owned by Lanza’s mother, but they’re not revealing who exactly it is.

Story developing…

Sandy Hook Elementary school — located in the small town of Newtown, Connecticut — was the scene of a mass shooting early Friday morning (Dec 14) that resulted in the tragic loss of at least 28 lives, including 20 children, the shooter himself and another person later found dead at a second scene.

Police have yet to officially identify the gunman, but multiple outlets are reporting that the shooter was 20-year-old Adam Lanza. He was reportedly carrying four weapons, and wearing black clothing and a bullet proof vest as he opened fire at the school.

According to reports, Lanza, the son of a kindergarten teacher at the school, showed up at about 9:40 a.m. just about 30 minutes after the day had begun. He had driven to the school in his mother’s car.

Someone who claimed to witness part of the shooting witness told CNN that gunshots were heard in the hallway during an early morning meeting, and after the shots were fired, three people — the school’s principal, vice principal and psychologist — ran into the hallway, but only the vice principal crawled back with a gunshot wound to the leg.

The principal and psychologist had been shot and killed. The gunman then walked to another part of the building, where his mother’s classroom was, and opened fire on a room full of innocent children.

One parent told CNN that his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst into the room and shot the teacher and several other students without uttering a single word.

“That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” Robert Licata said. “He was very brave. He waited for his friends.”

There were about 600 students in the building at the time of the shooting, and the Newtown Patch spoke with another school parent who praised her 8-year-old daughter’s teacher for protecting her students.

“My daughter’s teacher is my hero,” Brenda Lebinski said. “She locked all the kids in a closet and that saved their lives.”

Other students were led to safety single file from the building to a nearby fire station, where parents arrived — after being alerted through text messages and e-mails from the school district — hoping to find their children safe.

The shooter was later found in the building lying in a pool of blood, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police officials said three guns were found at the scene — two pistols (a Glock and a Sig Sauer) and a .223-caliber Bushmaster assault rifle. The pistols were found inside the building, while the rifle was recovered from the back of his car.

Officials also said the shooter’s girlfriend and another friend were missing in New Jersey, and a senior law enforcement official says a brother of the shooter was found dead in a home police searched in Hoboken, New Jersey, which brought the total death count up to 28.

It was initially reported that the shooter was a 24-year-old man named Ryan Lanza, but the latest official reports confirmed that the shooting suspect is 20-year-old Adam Lanza, Ryan’s younger brother.

After the shooting, Ryan was questioned by police in New Jersey, and apparently his ID was found on Adam’s body, which led officers to originally believe that he was the shooter.

Naturally, the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary is being compared to previous school shootings in the country — Columbine and Virginia Tech, in particular — that claimed the lives of innocent people, and some are considering it to be the worst school shooting in United States history. Columbine’s death toll was 15, while 32 died in the Virginia Tech massacre.

President Obama was understandably emotional as he made an official statement on the tragedy this afternoon.

“We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years,” he said. “Each time I learn the news I react not as a president but as anybody else would as a parent. That was especially true today. I know there’s not a parent in America that doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do.”

He continued, “This evening Michelle and I will do what every parent in America will do – hug our children a little tighter and tell them that we love them.

“There are families in Connecticut that cannot do that tonight and they need all of us tonight. May God bless the memory of the victims and in the words of scripture heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds.”

[Sources: CNN, AP, HuffPo]

Ladies, when it comes to the love below, LEAVE IT ALONE!

All of this talk about vaginal rejuvenation should scare the bejeezus out of you. If you think you need a surgeon to make your lady bits function better, then it’s a wonder how the human race has managed to procreate and prosper all these thousands of years.

The sad thing is that vaginal alteration by surgery apparently isn’t anything new.

Back in 1984, Cheryl Dillon of Ohio, then 36, went to see Dr. James Burt, a well-known ob/gyn at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. She went to Dr. Burt for minor bladder surgery, but he recommended a hysterectomy, according to an account of her story in the Daily Mail.

Whoa there. That’s pretty extreme for a 30-something-year-old woman.

But Dr. Burt did a whole lot more than just remove Ms. Dillon’s uterus. He literally “rearranged” her vagina, moving the hole to a different location and removed her clitoral hood, effectively ‘circumcising’ her.

This left Dillon in severe pain, and she even had trouble wearing pants and sitting. And it also wrecked her then 12-year marriage since her sex life was pretty much ruined, she told the Daily Mail.

“The way I was deformed, I couldn’t have sex. I ended up going through three different corrective surgeries but by that time, my marriage was shot and I lost the best thing that had happened in my life.”

Here’s the important lesson to learn from this: If a doctor offers to rearrange your vagina, return the favor and offer to rearrange his face.

[Daily Mail]

It has been an emotional and hectic week for Jenni Rivera‘s family following the 43-year-old singer’s death this past Sunday (Dec 9).

The entire Rivera clan, especially her children and mother, initially held out hope that the Diva de la Banda would be found alive and return home safely. They refused to accept reality — at least not until DNA results came back positive and confirmed Jenni’s demise.

The shaken Latin community joined their positive thoughts for Jenni and prayed incessantly for a miracle. However, Mexican authorities have now confirmed that the DNA results coincide with the identity of Jenni Rivera, killing the dreams of thousands of seeing their beloved idol alive ever again.

Although Jenni Rivera’s death was completely unexpected and shocking, a lot of eerie things happened before the tragic accident.

Was her early passing written in her destiny? Did she have a feeling she wouldn’t be here much longer? Let’s take a look.

The Cross-Shaped Stage

This overhead view of the Monterrey Arena where Jenni Rivera’s last concert took place just a few hours before dying is chilling, to the say the least.

She had never before in her career performed on a cross-shaped stage and apparently it was her and her team’s idea. The picture shows Jenni singing in a black dress while standing in the center of the cross. Does this give you goosebumps or what?

Excessive Crying During Last Concert

The Diva of Banda was known for wearing her heart on her sleeve and giving emotional performances almost every time she put on a show.

However, various sources have testified through televised interviews that she cried and sang with more passion than ever before during the last concert on Saturday, December 8th.

Witnesses also say that the song she wept the hardest over was “Paloma Negra,” a song she dedicated to daughter Chiquis Marin whom she had recently became distant from over a supposed affair with her husband Esteban Loaiza.

Jenni Joins Brother Lupillo On Stage One Last Time

Lupillo Rivera, older brother of Jenni Rivera, is a star in his own light. Part of a musical family, the two are the most popular members of the Rivera dynasty.

Through time, the siblings had various fall outs and had not shared a stage in years. Perhaps saying goodbye on Saturday, December 1st, a week and some days shy of her death, Jenni surprised Lupillo on stage to sing a tear-filled duet with her brother.

Little did they both know, it would be the last time they would ever sing together. Jenni told the audience that no matter how distanced they were from one another, her brother was always there for her when she needed him.

And indeed, he still is. Lupillo Rivera is the one in charge travelling to Monterrey to identify and bring Jenni’s physical remains back home to their awaiting family members and fans in Lakewood, CA.

Jenni Leaves a (Goodbye?) Letter Behind

Sources have also revealed that Jenni Rivera wrote a special secret letter to her family members just about a month ago. She carefully instructed her sister Rosie Rivera to keep the letter a secret until “her day” came.

The contents of the letter have not yet been exposed, however, we speculate it must be an emotive message for her loved ones. Perhaps a personalized goodbye?

The Jet Was Made The Same Year Jenni Was Born

Another incredibly weird coincidence is that the Learjet 25 in which Jenni Rivera and the six other people were traveling in was allegedly made in 1969 — the same year the Banda singer was born. Interesting.

Jenni Left NOTHING for Husband in Will

Jenni Rivera might have had a feeling that her marriage to baseball player Esteban Loaiza would not last. The singer filed for divorce from her husband just two months before her death but never revealed the specifics of her decision.

The indirect hints she gave in recent interviews implicating Loaiza and daughter Chiquis in a “wrong doing that she simply cannot tolerate” left everyone thinking that the two had an affair.

Rivera made Loaiza sign a pre-nuptual agreement stating that he wasn’t to get a single dime from her fortune should they divorce or after her demise.

Undoubtedly, Jenni Rivera was at the prime of her career at the time of her untimely death. Although she was involved in yet another scandal in her personal life, Jenni’s attitude was that of a warrior and her recent words of empowerment prove she had reached a newfound level of peace and emotional maturity.

Her last words when asked how she felt as of late at her last press conference just hours before her death confirm The Diva de la Banda was in a better place emotionally:

“I feel blessed. Very fortunate, very loved. Sometimes I can’t believe the things that happen in my career, and well, in my personal life also. But truthfully, I’m very happy and very blessed. I never think too far ahead because I feel so blessed in this moment, but God always has good things ahead of me.”

Our sincerest condolences go out to the families of everyone who died in this unfortunate accident.

May they all rest in peace.

It is a very sad day for the Latin community. The death of 43-year-old Jenni Rivera, better known as “La Diva de la Banda” (The Diva of Banda Music), has been confirmed by her family.

On Sunday (Dec. 9) Jenni, her publicist and former entertainment reporter Arturo Rivera, stylist Jorge Sanchez, make-up artist Jacobo Llenares, attorney Mario Macias and two pilots boarded a private plane from Monterey to Mexico City. The fatal flight took off at 3:30 am.

Just 60 miles into the flight, the plane disappeared from the radar and lost touch with control towers. Fearing, but not yet declaring, the worst outcome, it was announced that the flight was missing and a search would take place later on in the day when then sun was up.

The Rivera family, celebrities and fans immediately began a chain of prayers for Jenni and the other passengers, wishing and hoping that they were all safe. The optimism endured as the day went on and evidence of a crash hadn’t been yet found.

However, the dreaded news broke in the afternoon that the crash site was found, leaving the Latin community in complete shock. The Diva de la Banda was said to be dead amongst the 7 passengers aboard the Learjet in an announcement to the press made by her father Don Pedro Rivera outside of her home in Encino, CA.

Jenni Rivera is pictured singing at what would be her last concert ever in Monterey, MX on Saturday December 8th, 2012. (Right) A photo taken at the site of the crash showing the remains of her belongings.

Search crews found scattered pieces of the plane as well as belongings of the singer. Her California driver’s license was found somewhat melted and even the pink dress and yellow scarf she had worn the night before at her last concert was seen lying on the ground.

Transportation Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza told the press that “there is nothing recognizable, neither material nor human. [The remains] are scattered over an area of 250 to 300 meters. It is almost unrecognizable.”

This is most likely the last photo ever of Jenni Rivera and her team aboard the Learjet before take-off, taken by her make-up artist Jacobo Llenares. The caption on his Instagram reads "We getting Back To Mexico City.....jenni Rivera, Arturo, Gigi and Me.. Los Amooo!"

Jenni Rivera in Recent Years

The Mexican-American singer was frequently surrounded by controversy but showed strength through her struggles and always voiced exactly what was on her mind — traits which made her very popular amongst her fans, especially women.

Rivera was probably the most successful female in “banda grupera,” a mainly male-dominated genre. Her songs about heartbreak and rising-above-it-all were her signature sound.

Her recent divorce to two-year husband Esteban Loaiza had been highly publicized and was later rumored to being the fault of Jenni’s oldest daughter Chiquis Marin, who was accused of having an affair with the man and even helping him steal money from her mother.

Chiquis appeared on a television program denying the rumors and crying and pleading that her mother give her a chance to speak to her as they had became estranged since the scandal arose. Such chance would never take place.

Jenni was starring in her own reality TV show on Mun2 called “I Love Jenni” alongside her 5 kids and grandchildren. She recently made comments that she wanted to spend less time on stage and dedicate more of it to having quality time with her family.

Her last concert ever took place in Monterey on Saturday, December 8th where she also held a press conference and received a double gold and platinum disc for her latest record “Joyas Prestadas” (Borrowed Jewels).

She is remembered by her father as someone who “never gave up.”

Rest in peace, Jenni Rivera.

Love. Why does it have to be so complicated?

Yesterday, Gawker reported about a 26-year-old from Long Island who shot his girlfriend because she expressed doubts about the realization of a zombie apocalypse. He, on the other hand, was a believer. Religious disputes can really tear a relationship apart, can’t they?

The man, Jared Gurman, is apparently a big fan of AMC’s “Walking Dead” — a TV show about zombies — and he insisted that his girlfriend swear her allegiance to the zombie flag. She, however, refused to back down and well, mayhem ensued.

“He feels strongly about the possibility that some military mishap could occur. She thinks it’s ridiculous,” [police] told reporters. “She was not taking him seriously or taking the show as seriously as he does.”

In the early hours of Monday morning, a text exchange between the two became heated, and Gelderman went to Gurman’s apartment to calm him down.

However, Gurman, who greeted her with a .22 caliber assault rifle, refused her efforts to defuse the situation, and as soon as she entered the apartment, Gurman shot her in the back.

“Her injuries are a shattered rib, a pierced lung, a pierced diaphragm and she is in serious, but stable condition,” Cote said, noting that Gurman drove Gelderman to the hospital himself.

Police arrested Gurman at the hospital and charged him with attempted second-degree murder.

So, um…what did Gurman do to his mom when she broke the news to him that the Easter Bunny wasn’t real? ‘Cause if he can do all this to his girlfriend over a TV, lord knows where it all started from.

[Gawker via amNY]

NFL star Jovan Belcher — a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs — shot and killed his girlfriend, then took his own life early Saturday morning (Dec 1), according to various confirmed reports.

Officials from the Kansas City Police Department say that Belcher and his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins — who had just given birth to their daughter less than three months ago — had been arguing earlier in the morning at their home, at around 7:00 a.m. local time, when Belcher fatally shot her multiple times.

Perkins was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Her mother was at the home and reportedly witnessed the shooting; and tipped police off about the incident.

According to police, 25-year-old Belcher left the scene, then drove about 5 miles to the team practice facility at Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of two team officials — Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and head coach Romeo Crennel — who both spoke briefly with the NFL star before he turned the gun on himself.

Police say before he shot himself in the head, Belcher — who had been with the Chiefs for the past four seasons thanked Pioli and Crennel for everything they had done for him. The coaches told police they never felt as though they were in danger.

As of right now, authorities have no idea of a possible motive for the murder-suicide, which has obviously stunned his teammates, and came one day before the Chiefs are scheduled to play against the Carolina Panthers at home. The NFL has said that the game will go on as scheduled.

The details about the brutal beat-down that happened over the Thanksgiving holiday have been all over the web this week. And now that the devastating photos of Gabriel Aubry‘s bruised and battered face have surfaced, it’s hard to understand what could’ve started such a violent encounter.

So far, Aubry’s side of the story has been unheard, but RadarOnline.com clearly has a source close to Aubry as they’ve been leaking details of the story that paint him in a more flattering light. TMZ, on the other hand, appears to be staunchly pro-Halle/Olivier, as they’ve stuck to their version of events more.

According to the sworn declaration of events by Aubry, as reported by Radar Online, Olivier was the instigator in the fight.

According to the sworn declaration within his TRO application, Gabriel took Nahla to her school play the day before Thanksgiving. Halle and Olivier also went and Aubry alleges that Olivier walked up to him and whispered in French in his ear: “I wish I could beat the s**t out of you right now. You’re lucky we’re in a school right now. We’re going to take Nahla right now and you’re not going to follow us.”

The following day, Gabriel arrived at Halle’s home with Nahla around 10 a.m. Gabriel states in his declaration that contrary to their usual arrangement, Olivier was the first to come out of the door – stating that normally he is met by a nanny. Gabriel then claims in his TRO application that Olivier said: “We need to talk.”

Gabriel goes on to allege that he turned his back on Olivier and walked towards his car. Gabriel then claims in the court documents that Olivier jumped off the stairs and knocked him to the ground before brutally beating him. Gabriel also claims in his sworn declaration that Olivier screamed that he has cost them $3 million in their custody battle.

Gabriel then claims in the court documents that Olivier took his head in his hands and slammed it on the concrete driveway and raged that the family was going to move to Paris and Gabriel should follow too or Olivier would kill him.

Then, Gabriel claims in his sworn declaration, Olivier said, “We called the cops,” and when they arrive, “you’re going to tell them that you’re the one who attacked me, or I’m going to kill you.”

Olivier’s side of the story was that he merely tried to “talk” things over with Aubry. TMZ’s version of events painted a much “lighter” tale.

Gabriel showed up at Halle’s doorstep with Nahla for a custodial hand-off. We’re told Gabriel was inside the house when Olivier walked up to him and said, “We have to move on.”

According to witnesses, Gabriel then pushed Olivier and threw a punch at his face, but Olivier blocked it and the punch struck him in the shoulder instead. We’re told Gabriel then pushed Olivier to the ground, and Olivier cold-cocked him in the face, and a struggle ensued, ending with Olivier pinning Gabriel to the ground.

In the struggle, Gabriel suffered a broken rib, contusions on his face, and possibly a more serious head injury. Olivier may have broken his hand and suffered neck injuries as well.

As it stands now, there is a restraining order in place against Aubry to stay away from Halle, Olivier and his daughter, Nahla, until Nov. 29 but Radar is reporting that Aubry’s visitation has already been reinstated.

One important angle to note is that Aubry is demanding the video footage of the fight from Halle’s security cameras. Conveniently, the cameras were “repositioned” so that they didn’t capture any footage of the brawl, according to TMZ.

Hmmm. Something smells about this smells fishier than Mama Jones Pumkash perfume.

If Aubry was the instigator, why would he demand the footage if he knew it’d show him as the aggressor? And Olivier does have a reason to be mad at Aubry, since he’s clearly the motivating force behind Halle’s bid to move to France.

So which side are you on? Team Gabriel or Team Olivier?

OMG, run for your lives because you’re about to get hit by the crazy mobile! A six month pregnant 28-year-old woman from Gilbert, Arizona went totally ape shit on her husband and ran him over with their jeep simply because “he didn’t vote,” which, based on her logic of politics, is the reason why President Obama was re-elected.

The woman, who’s name is Holly Solomon, was reportedly sitting in her car having a pretty heated argument about this year’s presidential elections with her spouse Daniel Solomon.

Holly was upset that President Barack Obama was re-elected and protested against her husband for not voting. Apparently, Holly believed her family would face hardship as a result of Obama’s re-election

Tired of the nonsense, Daniel stepped out of the vehicle and began walking away. This made the already frantic woman even more aggravated, and according to 911 callers this is when she stepped on it and ran him over, pinning him under the car.

Operator: “911 what’s your emergency?

Caller: “This woman just ran down her husband or boyfriend or husband in the parking lot! She got out of the car and she was screaming at him, started driving circles around him and finally he started trying to get away and she ran into him.”

Operator: “911 where is your emergency?”

Caller: “Yeah somebody just got rammed over here. The guy is on the ground right now and I can see the wife or girlfriend is on the phone right now.”

Solomon told police the incident was basically an accident and that she meant to hit the brakes, not run into her husband.

The man was immediately hospitalized and is currently in critical condition.

WTF?!

We knew this year’s election results would make waves, but…running people over?  That’s just CRAZY!

…Then again, she did vote for Mitt Romney. ;)

Despite being downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm late Monday (Oct 29), when Sandy hit … she hit HARD, leaving a devastating path of destruction behind her.

As of 5 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, October 30th, the Associated Press reports that the nationwide death toll from Sandy is at 39 people, and with heavy search and rescue still underway, that number still has the potential to rise as the days go on.

Additionally, nearly 10 million people from Maine, to the Carolinas, to Ohio woke up Tuesday morning without power, including New York City and parts of New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Massachusetts, which were among the places where the storm hit the hardest.

The wrath of Sandy caused torrents of water to fill the streets of Atlantic City, while also ripping up parts of the popular vacation spot’s boardwalk.

The late-season storm also set records on Manhattan island, which was hit by an unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater — at least 3 feet above the previous record — that gushed into the city, flooding its tunnels, subway stations and the underground electrical systems that power the megalopolis.

The massive storm caused skyscrapers to sway, and a crane sitting above a 75-story building currently under construction collapsed, and could still be seen dangling beside the tower the next day.

Airlines canceled more than 15,000 flights, and New York City’s three major airports were shut down. Most major tunnels and bridges in New York were closed, as were schools and Broadway theaters.

And thanks to the high tides boosted by a full moon, a giant 700-ton tanker ship was displaced, and washed ashore on Staten Island. Also, the facade of one building literally collapsed as a result of the dangerous, 80-90 mile per hour winds.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the “devastating storm” was “maybe the worst that we have ever experienced.” He said that there was an “extraordinary” amount of water in Lower Manhattan, as well as downed trees throughout the city and widespread power outages.

“We knew that this was going to be a very dangerous storm, and the storm has met our expectations,” he said. “The worst of the weather has come, and the city certainly is feeling the impacts.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Sandy was “beyond anything I thought I’d ever see … It’s a devastating sight right now.”

Sandy’s death toll in the U.S. included several people who were killed by falling trees, and at least three of the victims were reported to be children, one just 8 years old.

Off the coast of North Carolina, a replica of the 18th-century sailing ship HMS Bounty that was built for the 1962 Marlon Brando movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” sank, and Coast Guard helicopters rescued 14 crew members from rubber lifeboats bobbing up and down in 18-foot seas.

After a search on the boat, a 15th crew member was found unresponsive and was later pronounced dead. The ship’s captain was still missing.

Sandy also claimed the lives of 69 people in the Caribbean before making its way up the Eastern Seaboard, bringing Sandy’s total worldwide death toll to over 100.

Flood watches, wind warnings, storm warnings, blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings and winter advisories are all in effect for much of the Eastern part of North America, including parts of Canada and the Northeastern United States, but the worst of Sandy is now behind us.

Natina Reed, best known as one third of the late 90′s R&B/Hip Hop group Blaque, was reportedly killed in Georgia over the weekend after she was struck by a car.

According to Georgia police, Reed was hit while crossing the street in Lawrenceville (near Atlanta) late Friday night (Oct 26).

The driver of the vehicle that accidentally hit Reed called 911, and the passenger performed CPR on Reed, contrary to initial reports that stated that the tragic accident was a “hit-and-run.”

Reed was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital about 30 minutes later. News about the tragedy quickly spread on Twitter, as Reed’s former group member Brandi Williams confirmed the reports.

The driver was later determined to not be at fault, multiple reports confirmed, and police are trying to figure out why Reed was in the roadway.

“It’s kind of a dark lit area,” Gwinnett County police spokesman Sgt. Rich Long said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There is not really anything in that area that’s open at that time of night, that would be any kind of a draw to a person up there.”

As a member of Blaque, Reed achieved success in the late 1990′s with hit singles like “808″ and “Bring It All to Me,” the latter of which was an international success.

In addition to her singing career, Reed also had somewhat of an acting career, appearing in the popular 2000 film “Bring It On” and 2003′s “Honey” as herself.

Reed was also a protege of the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who also died in a tragic car accident in Honduras over 10 years ago.

Reed is survived by her 10-year-old son Tren Brown, whose father is rapper Kurupt. She died two days shy of her 33rd birthday, which was Sunday, October 28th.

Kurupt said in a statement released to MTV News:

“Myself and Tren, Natina’s son, would like to thank everyone for their love and support during this tragic time,” he said. “This is a tremendous loss to our family. Natina was a great person and I wish everyone had the opportunity to meet her and know her as I did.”

Blaque’s Brandi Williams and Shamari Fears-DeVoe also released a joint statement to E! News:

We are devastated by the loss of our group member, sister and friend Natina Reed. Because of the enormous support of Blaque fans and our love for each another, Blaque officially reunited this fall and we were in the process of working on a new album and a reality show.

Natina continuously embodied the pioneering spirit of Blaque and her undeniable creativity touched the hearts of fans everywhere. Natina was a mother, sister, accomplished songwriter, artist and friend.

We ask for your prayers at this time for Natina’s family. She will forever be missed and her global influence eternally felt. We thank God for the experiences we shared.

A public wake and funeral for Reed is scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

A Miami rapper known as “Bizzle” was reportedly shot and killed Monday night (Oct 15) outside a car washing business with his two young children nearby.

According to reports out of Miami, 37-year-old Robert Labranche apparently became involved in an argument with someone at the Magic City car wash before he was shot and killed.

Miami police officers on patrol near the area say they heard gunshots at around 8 p.m. and after searching the area found Labranche’s body on the ground behind the car wash.

The man had two children — a son and a daughter, both younger than 10 years old — inside an SUV parked out front, but fortunately, they were not hurt and did not see the incident first-hand, Miami police said.

In the hours that followed the tragic shooting incident, word began to spread on Twitter and Facebook that Lebranche was a Miami rapper known as “Bizzle,” as noted by his MySpace profile and several video performances posted on YouTube.

The morning after the shooting, Bizzle’s friends, family and supporters all gathered outside the car wash, which was owned by the local rapper.

Among the mourners was Bizzle’s former manager Alex Pierre-Louis, who said Bizzle was a well-liked businessman who employed young men to work at his car wash.

“He didn’t grow up with a lot of money. If he saw a little kid buying food at Wendy’s he paid for the food. He was always looking out for people,” Pierre-Louis told reporters.

Police are still looking for the shooter, but they believe a man in his 20′s (wearing all black) who they saw running from the scene after the shooting might have had something to do with it.

[Miami Herald, NBC6 Miami]

An employee of tuna maker Bumble Bee Foods was reportedly cooked to death last Thursday morning (Oct 11) at a seafood plant in Southern California. The company identified the man as 62-year-old Jose Melena, a 6-year employee of the business.

According to California Division of Occupational Safety and Health spokeswoman Erika Monterroza, the man became trapped inside an industrial pressure cooker described in coroner’s documents as a “steamer machine,” and was “fatally injured” after being cooked inside the oven.

Paramedics rushed to the plant and pronounced Melena dead as soon as they arrived, KABC-TV in Los Angeles reported.

Melena’s job was to push baskets of sealed cans into the pressure cooker, though it wasn’t immediately clear how the man ended up inside the so-called “steamer machine,” but Monterroza says Cal/OSHA has launched an investigation into the freak accident.

According to Cal/OSHA statistics, more than 300 people died in fatal occupational injuries in 2010.

“The entire Bumble Bee Foods family is saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Melena family,” the tuna company said in a statement. “It remains our first priority to support and assist the Melena family during this very difficult time.”

Jose’s grieving children spoke to reporters in the days following the incident.

His daughter Sara Melena told KABC, “He left happy. I’m grateful with God that even though it’s tough for us, but I know that he is with him.”

The family has yet to receive an official explanation of what exactly happened, but Sara says she cherishes the fond memories of her father.

“He didn’t have a lot of money or any of that, but he would always say, ‘I would do anything to give you guys what you need,’ so that gives me peace,” she said.

Melena’s son Antonio (aka “Tony”) echoed his sister’s sentiments to CBS L.A. “He was just grateful he had a job, that he could pay his bills and provide food for his family.”

“It’s hard to believe what’s going on,” Tony added. “And what’s happening. It’s just been really tough.”

In addition to his daughter Sarah and his son Antonio, Jose Melena leaves behind three other children and seven grandchildren.

[KABC-TV, CBS L.A., AP]

The scum of the earth, aka former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, has somehow managed to prove himself an even worse human being than we thought possible.

The depravity of his molestation and sexual abuse of young boys has already been proven in a court of law. But new evidence is being brought to light by a former child prostitute that Sandusky not only raped and molested boys, he also sex trafficked them as well.

The Huffington Post has more details on the latest developments:

The New York Daily News reports that on Monday, Greg Bucceroni, a self-described former child prostitute, sent an email to officials at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn.

In the message, Bucceroni said he was associated with a child sex ring that included Sandusky and former Poly Prep football coach Phil Foglietta. The email said that, in 1979, Bucceroni was originally expected to have sex with Sandusky, but, because of time constraints, he was introduced to Foglietta instead.

There’s something really, really rotten in the world of youth sports. When did coaches get into the game for nothing more than pedophilia?

There isn’t a jail rank, dusty and wretched enough to punish Sandusky for all of his violations against humanity.

Heard any shocking news lately? Well, the news 60-year-old Valerie Spruill found out 6 years after her husband died probably tops anything you’ve ever heard in your life.

Valerie Spruill, from Doylestown, Ohio, recently discovered that her husband Percy was also her father, according to a report from the Akron Beacon Journal.

Valerie says she was raised in Ohio by her grandparents because her mother was a “night lady,” who was a family friend.

It wasn’t until she turned nine that Valerie found out that the man she thought was her father, was really her grandfather, and the “family friend,” was her real birth mother.

After her mother died in 1984, Valerie later met a man she would later marry. 20 years later, in 2004, with the help of a DNA test, she found out her late husband, Percy Spruill, who had died 6 years ago in 1998, was actually her biological father.

For years, Valerie says she overheard odd whispers she couldn’t figure out, and one day, her uncle finally told her the truth about her “husband,” who was really her father.

Valerie’s father/husband met her mother when he was just 15 years old, and no one is sure how many kids they had, but at one point, he somehow fell in love with his daughter and married her, and also had three children with her.

Valerie says she isn’t sure if her husband knew he was really her father because he never talked about it, but admits there is a possibility that he knew, and was just afraid to tell her the truth.

Asked why she’s decided to let the world in on her family secret, Valerie Spruill explained that she “wants to set an example” and inspire those who are going through a rough time.

She said she also wants to show other people who were born into miserable situations that they can still lead, good, productive and fulfilling lives, as she is a living, breathing example.

“I want this to be more of an inspirational story,” she says. “If I’ve come through this, anyone can come through anything through the help of the Lord.”

Now retired, after working for over 30 years in the accounting department at Goodyear, Valerie has three children and eight grandchildren.

Valerie said her story “needs to be told, because children need to know where they come from,” she said. “And I know it hurts, because I have been devastated by this.”

She says to this day, she is still seeing a therapist to come to terms with the difficult revelation that she was married to her father, and had children with him. (So does that make her own children her brothers and sisters too?)

Valerie also says that she hopes her decision to go public with her story will help her find the rest of her siblings.

“My biggest goal is to find [my siblings] and let ‘em know that [their mother] loved them, no matter what,” she said. “And [to say], ‘Thank God she gave you away like she did me, so you could have a beautiful life.’”

One of the six brothers she is aware of advised her not to go public, saying, “Val, that might bring up a whole lot of skeletons in the closet.” She says she told him, “Well, I’m not a skeleton, and I’m hurt.”

But Valerie believes the hurt can be outshined by the truth.

“It’s a miracle how God reveals and heals at the same time, and he gives you that blessing to keep on going … If this old lady done come through all this, and God’s still got her here and still with a good heart — because you find so many mean, vicious people in the world, and you don’t have to be — you can love no matter what you’ve come through or where you’ve been in this world.”

Have your barf bags handy, cause this is one gruesome tale that would probably make even the fictional serial killer character Dexter blush.

David Viens, a California man, confessed to law enforcement that he actually killed and then slow cooked his wife Dawn, who had been reported missing.

The L.A. Times has the details on the killer’s confession:

“I just slowly cooked it, and I ended up cooking her for four days,” David Viens said on the tape, which was played in court.

“You cooked on [her] body for four days?” replied Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Garcia.

“Before it was done,” Viens said. It was unclear from the interview where the cooking took place.

Viens, who happens to be a chef and restaurant owner, told police that his wife’s death was an accident. He got “violent” with his wife and duct taped her mouth and bound her arms and feet. The next morning, she was dead, according to reports.

It’s weird that she died from being tied up alone. Presumably her nose wasn’t blocked, so what happened? Did she just die from the trauma of her husband turning violent on her?

Unfortunately, her unnecessary death wasn’t the end of this tragedy. Once Viens discovered his wife’s body, he plotted on how he could get rid of the evidence. WARNING: This is the part of the story where your stomach will do flip-flops.

David Viens said he packed his wife’s 105-pound body into a heavy container and used weights to keep it submerged in the bubbling water.

Viens said he mixed what remained with other waste and poured it into the grease pit at his Lomita restaurant, Thyme Contemporary Cafe. Other remains were packed into garbage bags and chucked into a trash bin. All that remained was his wife’s skull, he told investigators.

“That’s the only thing I didn’t want to get rid of in case I wanted to leave it somewhere,” he said.

Garcia asked Viens where the skull was.

“In my mother’s attic,” he said.

Later that day, investigators scoured his mother’s attic in Torrance. They found nothing.

How do you go from wedded bliss to this gruesome nightmare? Somehow, life in prison doesn’t seem long enough for this cruel, evil man.

A gunman opened fire near the Empire State Building in New York City Friday morning (Aug 24), killing a former co-worker, before being shot and killed himself by police officers.

At least 8 other people were shot by the gunman, identified as 58-year-old Jeffrey Johnson, who police say was a disgruntled former employee of a company located inside the popular landmark skyscraper.

The 8 other shooting victims, some some grazed by bullets, others hit directly, suffered non-life threatening injuries, and are all expected to survive.

Law enforcement officials say that the shooting occurred around 9 a.m. on the Fifth Avenue side of the Empire State Building, a time of day when the sidewalks surrounding it are packed with pedestrians and merchants are opening up their shops.

Armed with a .45-caliber handgun, Jeffrey Johnson, a clothing designer who got laid off about a year ago from apparel company Hazan Imports, fired three times at the company’s 41-year-old office manager, shooting him in the head on the front sidewalk on West 33rd Street.

Witnesses say the shooter then tucked away his gun and tried to walk away, but a quick-thinking construction worker who saw the shooting followed Johnson and pointed him out to two nearby officers on foot patrol — a security detail regularly assigned to patrol the 1,454-foot skyscraper since the 9/11 terror attacks, officials said.

A chaotic gunfight ensued, with nine bystanders injured, and Johnson himself was shot and killed by police, who admit that some of the wounded people may have been struck by their bullets.

“Police confronted him and asked him to stop,” says one witness. “Right in front of Fifth Avenue, he opened his briefcase and pulled out a gun and started shooting.”

“People were yelling ‘Get down! Get down!’” said Marc Engel, an accountant who was the area when he heard the shots. “It took about 15 seconds, a lot of `pop, pop, pop, pop, one shot after the other.”

By the time the shots stopped, he says, the sidewalks were covered with blood. One person was “dripping enough blood to leave a stream,” Engel said.

NYPD officials say that two of their officers fired 14 rounds at Johnson from about five feet away.

Police said Johnson’s semi-automatic weapon was equipped to fire at least eight rounds, and at least one round was left in the clip.

Immediately following the shootout, crowds of tourists and people on their way to work gathered along 34th Street, which was promptly shut down by police.

“There was blood on the sidewalk,” another witness said. “It was like a scene out of CSI, but it was real. I was literally shaking.”

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that Johnson and his victim reportedly had a history of problems, with each accusing the other of workplace harassment.

Johnson worked at the company near the building for about six years and was laid off because of downsizing, Kelly said.

New York officials have made a point to note that the shooting was in no way a terrorist attack.

[NYDN, AP, USA Today]

Tony Scott, best known as the director of the hit 1980′s movie “Top Gun,” was found dead Sunday (Aug 19) after jumping off the Vincent Bridge in San Pedro, California — an apparent suicide. He was 68 years old.

According to the L.A. Times, contact information found inside Scott’s car, which was parked on the bridge, led authorities to a suicide note that was in his office.

Law enforcement sources reportedly said several witnesses saw Scott climb over a fence on the bridge and jump off.

Scott’s body was pulled out of the water by a dive team at around 4:30 PM (L.A. time), and turned over to coroner officials who, along with his publicist, confirmed his death to several major media outlets, after identifying him Sunday evening.

Tony Scott was seven years younger than his brother, Oscar-nominated director Ridley Scott, who was also his partner in their movie production company Scott Free Productions.

SFP produced this year’s “Prometheus,” which was directed by Ridley, and has so far grossed $327 million worldwide.

It’s unclear as to what prompted Scott to take his own life, but he leaves a large body of work behind, including “Beverly Hills Cop II,” “Crimson Tide,” “Enemy of the State” and “Spy Game” and “The Taking of Pelham 123,” among many others (click here for his full filmography).

A man opened fire at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin Sunday (Aug 5), killing six people and critically wounding three others, including a police officer. He was immediately shot and killed by another police officer outside the temple.

The suspect in the tragic shooting incident was identified Monday as Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old white male who served in the U.S. Army in the 1990s, and also had links to the white supremacist movement.

As details are uncovered from the incident, and pieces of Page’s life emerge in the incident’s aftermath, police have yet to find a motive explaining why he would commit such a horrible act of violence … though FBI agents are said to be looking into Wade’s background to determine if Wade’s crime was motivated by hate.

But who is this guy, what exactly did he do and whose lives did he take/affect?

Here are 7 things you need to know about the Sikh Temple Shooting and the shooting suspect Wade Michael Page:

Amardeep Kaleka, son of the president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, center, comforts members of the temple after the tragic shooting accident that left six people dead, and three others severely wounded. Kaleka's father -- 65-year-old Satwant Kaleka -- was among four priests who died in the shooting.

#1 – Authorities say Wade Michael Page walked into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin carrying a 9mm handgun and multiple magazines of ammunition, and opened fire without saying a word:

Witnesses said Page “did not speak – he just began shooting”. Using a semi-automatic pistol, he fired shots in rapid succession. He was carrying several magazines of bullets. Some of the congregants hid in cupboards. Children cowered downstairs and several women barricaded themselves in the building’s kitchen.

#2 – Wade Michael Page served in a U.S. Army psychological operations unit before he was discharged in 1998 for a pattern of misconduct, including being drunk on duty:

Page joined the military in Milwaukee in 1992 and was a repairman for the Hawk missile system before switching jobs to become one of the Army’s psychological operations specialists assigned to a battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C.

As a psyops specialist, Page would have trained to host public meetings between locals and American forces, use leaflet campaigns in a conflict zone or use loudspeakers to communicate with enemy soldiers. He never deployed overseas while serving in that role, Pentagon spokesman George Wright said.

Page was demoted in June 1998 for getting drunk while on duty and going AWOL, two defense officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information about the gunman.

Page also received extra duty and was fined. The defense officials said they had no other details about the incident, such as how long Page was gone or whether he turned himself in.

A recent shooting death in Arkansas has everyone puzzled. How on earth did a man — who was handcuffed and sitting in the back of a police car — take a gun out of his pants, after being “thoroughly searched,” and shoot himself in the head?

21-year-old Chavis Chacobie Carter was a passenger in a pickup truck that was pulled over by two policemen in Jonesboro, Arkansas Saturday night, according to confirmed reports.

After they searched the car, one of the officers reportedly found “some marijuana” and several plastic baggies … and when they ran Carter’s information, they found out he was wanted on a warrant out of his home state of Mississippi.

The cops immediately placed Carter in handcuffs, asked him a few questions, searched him once again, and then put him in the back of a police cruiser.

According to Arkansas ABC affiliate KAIT 8, while the officers were searching the car once again … a car whizzed by and they heard “a loud thump with a metallic sound,” which they originally thought was the result of the vehicle running over a piece of metal in the road.

But the “loud thump” was Carter “shooting himself in the head” … despite the fact that his hands were cuffed behind his back.

After questioning and releasing the other two men, Officer Marsh reportedly returned to his unit while Officer Baggett said he prepared to leave the scene. He then heard “several thumps” on his trunk and saw Officer Marsh motioning for him.

Officer Marsh reportedly said Carter had shot himself.

When the two officers opened the door, they found Carter in a “sitting position slumped forward with his head in his lap” and observed a large amount of blood on Carter’s shirt, pants seat and floor.

Carter’s hands were stilled cuffed behind his back, and a small caliber handgun was “found” beside him.

Seeing that Carter was still breathing, Officer Marsh radioed for an ambulance and a supervisor. Carter was taken to St. Bernards Regional Medical Center where he later died of his injury.

Jonesboro Police Department Sgt. Lyle Waterworth said in an interview with WREG-TV that he thinks Carter pulled out a hidden gun and shot himself.

“As protocol, he was handcuffed behind his back, double-locked and searched,” he said, adding, “Any given officer has missed something on a search, be it drugs, knife, razor blades, this instance it happened to be a gun.”

Carter’s mother, however, disagrees. “I think they killed him,” Teresa Carter said. “My son wasn’t suicidal.”

Ms. Carter said that she was told her son, who was left-handed, was shot in the right temple. “I mean, I just want to know what really happened,” she told WREG-TV. “That’s all I want to know.”

Officers Keith Baggett and Ron Marsh have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the shooting’s investigation.

What do YOU think happened?

NFL player O.J. Murdock, a wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans,  has died from an apparent suicide, according to numerous confirmed reports.

Murdock was reportedly found suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound early Monday morning (Jul 30) in his car, which was parked in front of Middleton High School in Tampa Bay, Florida, where Murdock was an all-county and all-state high school football player back in 2005.

Tampa police say Murdock was “still and alive,” but “severely wounded from the gunshot” when they arrived at the scene at around 8:30 am EST after responding to a 911 caller who reported hearing a gunshot from a parked vehicle outside the school.

Murdock (real name: Orenthal James Murdock) was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, and the 25-year-old was pronounced dead a little over two hours later.

After graduating from Middleton High School, O.J. Murdock played two years of college football at the University of South Carolina, before transferring to Pearl River Community College and Fort Hays State University.

In 2011, he got signed by the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent … however, he never played a game, because he suffered a right Achilles injury during the second day of training camp last year, which forced him to have to spend his only season in the NFL on the injured reserve list.

Murdock had reportedly been absent from Titans training camp, citing “personal reasons,” and he was placed on the reserve/did not report list on Saturday (Jul 28).

Al McCray, one of Murdock’s former high school coaches, said he received a kind, but confusing, text message from Murdock a few hours before police found him in his car.

McCray, who is now an assistant head coach at Fort Hays, said Murdock, who he had known since the football player was in middle school, thanked him for everything he had done for him and his family.

McCray said that because the message came so late in the night — at 3:30 am, while he was sleeping — he didn’t get a chance to read until after he woke up at his home in Hays, Kansas. And by then it was too late.

“I spoke to him a week ago, and he was so excited about getting ready to go (to training camp). He was real happy about being able to help his mother out,” McCray said. “You always like to hear kids who talk about that. It brings a smile to your face to hear a young man talk about ‘Hey, I’m glad I’m able to help my mother out.’”

McCray was an assistant coach at Middleton when Murdock was attending, and later helped the rising football star resume his college career after he was kicked off the team at South Carolina, where he was part of Steve Spurrier‘s first recruiting class.

McCray said the last time he talked to O.J., he didn’t show any signs that anything might be troubling him.

“The hardest part about this is I got a text at 3:30 in the morning, where he said: ‘Coach, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me and my family. It’s greatly appreciated,’” McCray said. “At the end, he goes: ‘I apologize.’ And I don’t know what he’s talking about. I woke up, and I’m thinking he’s apologizing because he texted me so early … I wish he had called instead.”

Police say Murdock left a suicide note, however its contents can’t be revealed right now because the case is still under investigation, leaving his family and friends to continue wondering what happened.

“He was always a happy guy who played around a lot and always had a smile on his face,” Murdock’s Titans teammate Damian Williams said. “I definitely didn’t see it coming.”

[AP, Yahoo! Sports]

According to multiple reports from foreign media outlets, a Nigerian husband of six was violently forced to have sex with five of his six wives … until he was dead.

Uroko Onoja, a wealthy business man, who was well-known in a small Nigerian town, was allegedly “raped to death” last week by all but one of his wives after returning home from a local bar at around 3 a.m.

The Indian Express reported that Onoja was having sex with his youngest wife, when the other five women attacked him with knives and sticks, and demanded that he have sex with all of them at once.

According to the Nigeria Daily News, just as the oldest of the five women was climbing onto the bed, Onoja stopped breathing.

The man’s youngest wife — who was not a part of the violent attack — told local authorities that when her husband stopped breathing, the women ran out, laughing … but when they realized that he was dead, they took off into the forest.

By the time this story was being reported on by local news media, two of the five violent wives had already been arrested.

[Sources: TIE, NDN, IBT]

Foreign media outlets are reporting on a bizarre story out of China, in which a man’s penis was “stolen,” while he slept.

Wait … what?

According to police in East China’s Zhejiang province, a 41-year-old man named Fei Lin told them that while he was fast asleep, a small group of men burst into his home in the Niqiao village at around 4 am, put a bag over head, pulled his pants down … and then “ran off” with his penis.

Left: The outside of Fei Lin's home / Right: The scene of the crime, inside Lin's home.

Lin — a rural migrant worker — says that everything happened so quickly, he didn’t even realize that his penis was “gone” until he noticed there was blood everywhere.

“They put something over my head and pulled down my trousers and then they ran off,” Lin said. “I was so shocked I didn’t feel a thing – then I saw I was bleeding and my penis was gone.”

Fei Lin is recovering in the hospital after his penis was "stolen" from him.

Really?

So you mean to tell us … you didn’t even FEEL your d**k getting cut off?

Wow.

While no one has been apprehended yet, police believe the attackers were jealous lovers of several local women whom Lin was romantically/sexually involved with, though Lin denies taking part in any infidelity.

Emergency workers searched for Lin’s missing penis … but were unable to locate it, and believe it was purposely taken away by the attackers (as some weird sexual ritual, possibly?), who, along with their girlfriends, are now being sought by the police.

Just when you think you’ve heard it all…

[Sources: Daily Star, Austrian Times]

Sad news to report: Kile Glover, the 11-year-old son of Tameka Raymond and stepson of Usher, has died after his family decided to take him off life support 14 days following the tragic jet ski accident that critically injured him and left him brain dead.

When doctors determined his injuries were too severe to overcome, Kile — whose biological father is Atlanta businessman Ryan Glover — was reportedly taken off life support Saturday morning (Jul 21) and died a short time later of heart failure.

Usher, who has two songs with Tameka — Usher V and Naviyd — has been a source of comfort for his ex wife ever since Kile’s tragic July 7th accident, in which the 11-year-old and a 15-year-old female friend were both struck in the head by a jet ski while they were inner tubing on Lake Lanier in Georgia.

The man driving the jet ski has been identified as 38-year-old Jeffrey S. Hubbard, a family friend, who was part of the same group with Kile and the girl. At this time the police have determined that no drugs or alcohol were involved, and no charges have been filed.

Several of Usher and Tameka’s Atlanta friends were the first to respond to Kile’s death, and shared their condolences on Twitter:

Kim Zolciak (“Real Housewives of Atlanta”): Prayers to Tameka Raymond and family. NO mother should have to bury their child. Such a sad situation.

Frank Ski (Atlanta radio personality): Crying! I will miss you Kyle! Trying to be strong for my foundation trip today. Sometimes life is so unfair.

Valeisha Butterfield (wife of NBA player Dahntay Jones): Completely heartbroken. Fly angel fly. Our prayers are with the entire Glover family. Love you @TamekaRaymond.

DJ Gregg Street (ATL radio): Lil RG is an angel now, Ryan, Tameka, Usher, and the whole Glover family we gotta make him proud.

James Holmes is the man responsible for the shooting deaths of at least 12 people, and the injuries of at least 59 others Friday (Jul 20) at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado during a premiere showing of the latest “Batman” movie “The Dark Knight Rises.”

But who is this guy … And where did he come from?

READ: Gunman Kills 12 and Injures Nearly 60 Others at “Batman” Movie Premiere in Aurora Colorado

While police have no clear motive as to what led Holmes to commit such a horrible act — which contributed to the deaths and serious injuries of over 70 people, including young children — details about his personal life and background are slowly emerging.

Here are 5 things you need to know about James Holmes:

#1 – His identity and background seem pretty normal … however his mom appears to already have known her son was a disturbed individual:

24-year-old James Holmes is 6 feet, 3 inches tall white male. His family lives in a two-story home in a quiet, upper-class neighborhood in San Diego, California, where they have lived for around 10 years. His mother is a nurse, and his father is a manager at a software company. Holmes also has a younger sister.

Before going public with the information about James Holmes’ identity, ABC News contacted his mother, who told them on gut instinct, “You have the right person. I need to call the police … I need to fly out to Colorado.”

#2 – He graduated from high school and college in California, and was attending graduate school in Colorado:

The Poway Unified School District in California issued a statement, confirming that James Holmes was a Class of 2006 graduate of Westview High School in Carmel Valley, CA.

“On behalf of the Poway Unified School District, Superintendent [John] Collins joins the rest of the nation in offering our deepest condolences to the victims and their families,” the statement read.

The University of California, Riverside confirmed to CBS News that Holmes graduated in 2010 with a degree in bachelor’s degree in neuroscience.

He had enrolled in the University of Colorado-Denver graduate school’s neuroscience program in 2011 to go for a Ph.D, but was in the process of withdrawing. A spokeswoman for the school said she didn’t know why Holmes had decided to withdraw.

At least 12 people were shot and killed, and 59 others were wounded, after a masked gunman opened fire early Friday morning (Jul 20) during a premiere showing of the latest Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

According to Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates, 10 people died at the theater, and at least two others have died at nearby hospitals.

The tragic shooting incident went down at the Century 16 theater at around 12:30 am. The Aurora, CO movie theater is said to be about 13 miles from Littleton, CO — the scene of the infamous 1999 Columbine high school shooting.

Police say the gunman, who they have identified as 24-year-old James Holmes, made his way into the darkened theater packed with Batman fans and released a canister of tear gas, setting off mass hysteria and chaos.

Panicked moviegoers were screaming as they scrambled to escape the gunman, dressed in all black, who wore a gas mask and randomly shot as he walked up the steps of the theater.

Police and witnesses said some people in the audience thought the thick smoke and gunfire were a special effect associated with the movie, and it took a few gunshots before they figured out what was going on.

“I hit the floor and hid behind the seats in front of me, pulling my wife down to hide with me,” CNN iReporter Adam Witt said.

“It was the longest minute of my life. The gunshots just kept coming. I knew it could be over any second. I knew my wife could be gone any second. It was absolutely surreal. I felt something hit my left arm, and my first thought was, ‘At least it’s just my arm.’”

“There were so many people running,” he said. “I didn’t look back. I just remember getting up from the floor and shouting, ‘We have to run.’”

Witt said he and his wife held hands while they were running out of the theater. “There was a moment where I lost her hand, but I grabbed her shirt,” he said. “We didn’t let go of each other.”

Officials told CNN that the shooter had at least four guns — an “AK type” rifle, a shotgun and two handguns. The man was arrested behind the theater shortly after the shooting.

“He did not resist. He did not put up a fight,” Frank Fania, a police spokesman, told CNN.

Holmes reportedly told police that his apartment was booby-trapped and rigged with bombs, but after SWAT teams inspected the building, no live bombs were found, though they discovered “items of interest” inside the apartment.

There were initial reports that as many as 15 people had been killed in the shooting, but police updated the death toll to 12 later Friday afternoon.

One witness says they saw a police officer carrying a girl believed to be around 9 years old with gunshot wounds to her back out of the theater, and “she wasn’t moving.”

Many of the wounded were rushed to the hospitals in their patrol cars, while others were either transported by ambulance. “They’re arriving by police, by ambulance. Some are walking in,” a hospital worker said early Friday morning.

Some of the injured people — ranging in age from 3 months to 45 years old — are listed in critical condition. The dead and injured included young children, and initial reports stated that a baby was shot at close range.

President Obama released a statement saying, “Michelle and I are shocked and saddened by the horrific shooting … We will do everything we can to support the people of Aurora in this difficult time.”

[Sources: CNN, AP]

Usher was very close with his stepson Kile Glover, despite any differences the singer may have had with the 11-year-old’s mom (Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Foster Raymond) … and the tragic jet ski accident last Friday that left Kile brain dead has reportedly taken an emotional toll on the Grammy Award winning singer.

“He grew close to Kyle and, of course, that has nothing to do with the situation with Tameka,” a source tells Us Weekly. “He loved Kyle. This is a terrible, awful tragedy. Usher is torn up.”

Before the tragedy (read all about it here), Usher and Tameka were engaged in a heated custody dispute over the two sons they share together, 4-year-old Usher Raymond V and 3-year-old Naviyd. But they’ve obviously put their differences aside so that they can be there for each other during this difficult time.

“Tameka and Usher don’t get along, but in this circumstance Usher is coming to her side,” a source told Us. “Usher practically raised Kyle as his own. He’s known him for seven years. It is so sad what happened.”

Kile’s birth father is Tameka’s second husband Ryan Glover, a former executive with Turner Broadcasting, based out of Atlanta, Georgia.

Kile remains in critical condition in an Atlanta hospital, and his family has been holding vigils at the hospital ever since Friday’s incident. Usher visited Kile early Saturday morning, but hasn’t returned, a source close to the family told CNN.

“We know God’s in control, and are leaning on our faith in Him and His word at this most difficult time,” his family said in a statement Tuesday. “We firmly believe in the power of prayer and ask that you all continue to pray and lift Kile up, as it’s the best way we can all support him now.”

Doctors have declared Usher‘s 11-year-old step son Kile Glover brain dead following a tragic jet ski accident that happened over weekend.

Kile Glover is one of Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Foster’s five children, including the two she has with the R&B singer.

According to reports, Kile and his friend — a 15-year-old girl — were hit by a man on a jet-ski Saturday afternoon (Jul 7) as they were floating in inner tubes while being pulled by a boat on Lake Lanier near Atlanta, Georgia.

Tameka Raymond pictured here with her son Kile

Kile, who was struck in the head, was unresponsive when he was taken out of the water, and they were both airlifted to the hospital, where the girl was treated for a cut on her head and a broken arm, and Kile was monitored for brain activity.

Despite Usher and Tameka’s differences and their ongoing custody battle, the tragic incident has brought them back together, and Usher reportedly chartered a private jet for Tameka (who was out of town) so that she could be by her son’s side.

TMZ sources say Tameka hasn’t left her son’s side since she arrived, and was extremely thankful for the grand gesture form Usher, who arrived the next day. Usher and Tameka were married in 2007, but divorced just two years later.

Doctors say that Kile hasn’t experienced any brain activity since he was admitted to the hospital, forcing them to declare him brain dead.

No decision has been made yet as to whether or not he will be taken off life support.

In the meantime, as the story develops, keep the youngster (and Usher and Tameka’s family) in your thoughts and prayers…

***

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Kile Glover’s name as “Kyle.” The story has been updated to reflect this change.

Police in Texas say they arrested a 22-year-old man this week after he attacked a neighbor and ate his own family’s dog alive.

Michael Terron Daniel of Waco, Texas was allegedly high on what is known as “K2″ — a form of synthetic cannabis known to exacerbate existing psychotic disorders — at the time of the June 14th incident, and was said to be “going crazy,” according to police reports.

Witnesses say the man, who had already assaulted several people in his home, told them he “was on a bad trip from ingesting K-2″ before he started crawling around “on his hands and knees and chased a neighbor” back into their home “while barking and growling like a dog.”

Daniel then allegedly took his family’s 30 to 40-pound dog out onto the front porch of the house, where he beat and strangled the pet, and began chewing “hunks of flesh” from the animal.

According to Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton, officers arrived at the house to find Daniel sitting on the porch with “blood and fur around his mouth,” and with the dead dog lying in his lap.

Police say he was “initially incoherent and unresponsive,” and while he was waiting for paramedics to arrive, Daniel asked officers to fight him or use a stun gun “to help him get off his bad trip.”

Daniel was charged with felony cruelty to a non-livestock animal and booked into the McLennan County Jail.

This latest “zombie-like” incident follows a series of bizarre attacks by people allegedly high on synthetic drugs, like bath salts, for instance. If Michael Daniel’s brutal attack sounds familiar, that’s because a guy named Rudy Eugene was shot and killed over a month ago by police in Miami after he did the same thing, but to a human being.

Police believed he was high on “bath salts,” but according to the full toxicology report from his autopsy, it was determined that no synthetic drugs were found in his system. The only “drug” that was found in his body was marijuana, which has left many medical professionals scratching their heads.

READ: No Bath Salts, Just Marijuana Found in Miami Zombie Cannibal Face Eater Guy After Toxicology Tests

Synthetic marijuana, popularly known as “K2″ or “Spice,” is a legal substitute for the real thing, which is currently illegal in most states. However, following recent incidents, like Michael Daniel’s, officials are taking the steps necessary to get the drug banned.

In fact, a federal ban on not only synthetic drugs is on its way to President Obama for final approval after passing the Senate this week.

The bill, sponsored by New York Senator Charles Schumer, will prohibit the sale of at least 31 chemical substances — including synthetic marijuana, bath salts and other synthetic hallucinogens — sold online, in convenience stores and in smoke shops.

[KWTX]