09/14/07 - McCain campaign suffers key shake-ups

John McCain jettisoned his two top aides Tuesday as the one-time Republican front-runner struggled to right a presidential bid in deep financial and political trouble.

Campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver offered McCain their resignations, which the Arizona senator accepted with "regret and deep gratitude for their dedication, hard work and friendship."

At least three other senior aides followed the two out the door, and the campaign announced that Rick Davis, who managed McCain's 2000 bid and has served as the current campaign's chief executive officer, will take over.

"I'm determined to continue to face our challenges head-on and win," McCain said, vowing to press on in an e-mail to supporters. Aides insisted he would not drop out of the race.

Full Story: Yahoo News

Donate or I'll abort my baby website is fake

(CBS 42) AUSTIN In South Austin, in a small apartment out of sight and out of mind, lives a Web site creator who is anonymously soliciting cash donations to stop an alleged unwanted abortion. The Web site (www.helpmybabylive.com) tells the story of a young couple who say, “….if we can’t raise $50,000 in the next three months, we’ll have to choose abortion. We don’t like it and we don’t like the nature of our appeal but it is what it is…”



The site claims to have collected more than $13,000 towards their goal and displays a countdown counter indicating how many days are remaining before the couple has to make the difficult decision. There’s also a set of “…terms and conditions…” for potential donors to follow, stating in part: “…you do not, and will never, know who we are. You agree not to try to find out who we are...you agree to pay only through PayPal…(and)…not to hold InvisiHosting, LLC liable for any actions on our part. You agree that they are not responsible for any dissatisfaction that you may experience as a result of donations to us (and) you agree to forfeit $25,000 per violation of these terms…”



At first glance, it is impossible to tell if the Web site is real or a scam. Or, even if there is a pregnancy or possible pending abortion. That’s why CBS 42 Investigates decided to dig deeper.



What we discovered is this is all a hoax. No couple coping with these difficult decisions. No thousands of dollars in contributions. And no impending abortion within the next three months.



After tracking down the site’s creator, 25-year-old Matthew Schiros, he told us “…it’s a joke” designed to “…further the national debate…” about abortion in America…”

Keith Elkins - Reporting



Full Story: KEYE TV

Also: Video: CBS 42 Investigates, CBS 42 Investigates, Read Keith's Blog

Chinese Eat Dinosaur Bones As Medicine

Villagers in central China spent decades digging up bones they believed belonged to flying dragons and using them in traditional medicines. Turns out the bones belonged to dinosaurs, and now scientists are doing the digging.

Until last year, the fossils were being sold in Henan province as "dragon bones" at about 25 cents a pound, scientist Dong Zhiming said Wednesday.

The calcium-rich bones were sometimes boiled with other ingredients and fed to children to treat dizziness and leg cramps. Other times they were ground up and turned into a paste applied directly to fractures and other injuries, he said.

Full Story: Washington Post

Alternate Tags: Tags: Dragons, Fed To Children

3 shot to death in dispute over fireworks

A neighbor apparently angry about noisy fireworks shot three people to death early Thursday and wounded two others, police said.

Terrance Hough Jr., a 35-year-old off-duty firefighter, was arrested in connection with the shootings near his home shortly after midnight, police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said. No charges had been filed Thursday morning.

The shooter was apparently upset about loud noise from fireworks at a house next door and opened fire, killing two men and a woman, all in their early- to mid-20s, Stacho said. He said another man was shot in the elbow and a woman was wounded in the hand.

Police had received a number of complaints in recent years about loud parties, fireworks and drag racing connected to the house where the victims were shot, Stacho said. Some complaint calls came from Hough's address, but no one called police about the party Thursday night.

Full Story: CNN.com

Alternate Tags: Shooting, fireworks, noise, 4th of July

Video: Watch Friends create a memorial for the shooting victim: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/05/fireworks.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Girl, 4, called 911 nearly 300 times

Authorities tracked down a 4-year-old girl who called 911 nearly 300 times last month by offering to deliver McDonald's to her suburban Chicago apartment.

Unbeknownst to her mother, the girl used a deactivated cell phone to call dispatchers 287 times in June - sometimes as often as 20 times a shift.

Dispatchers heard the child's voice but could only track the phone's signal to the apartment complex.

So authorities used a ruse to pinpoint her.

"We asked (the caller) what she wanted. She said she wanted McDonald's," said Steve Cordes, executive director of QuadCom's emergency center, which covers Carpentersville.

Full Story: Victorville Daily News

Alternate Tags: Tags: 911, prank calls, 4-year-old girl, deactivated cell phone, false promises of deliciousness

Police: Shoppers Stepped Over Victim

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) --As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped over the woman, police said

The June 23 situation, captured on the store's surveillance video, got scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle disclosed the existence of the video and its contents Tuesday।

Police have refused to release the video, saying it is part of their investigation

''It was tragic to watch,'' police spokesman Gordon Bassham said Tuesday। ''The fact that people were more interested in taking a picture with a cell phone and shopping for snacks rather than helping this innocent young woman is, frankly, revolting.''

The woman was stabbed during an altercation that was not part of a robbery, Bassham said। It took about two minutes for someone to call 911, he said.

Calloway, 27, died later at a hospital

Full Story: New York Times

AlternateTags: stabbing, Cell Phone, indifference