Pet injures former mayor in Ariz., kills husband

BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz. - The former mayor of this city of almost 40,000 was hospitalized and her husband died after the couple's pet dogs attacked them, according to the current mayor.

Former Mayor Diane Vick and her husband, Tom, tried to intervene after one of their larger dogs attacked one of their smaller dogs, but the dogs turned on them and attacked them, Mayor Jack Hakim said. They were flown to a hospital in Las Vegas.

Tom Vick and his wife tried to break up a fight Saturday evening between the family's boxer and cocker spaniel, police said. The boxer attacked both of them.

Tom Vick, 64, who taught social studies at Mohave High School, died of his injuries Sunday, Hakim said. Diane Vick "was pretty well beat up," but Hakim didn't believe her injuries were critical.

Hakim called the incident "pretty devastating."

"We've had dog bites before but never something like this," he said. "It's very sad for us in Bullhead City. She was former mayor and he was a prominent high school teacher at Mohave High School. ... We're just grateful that at least one of them was able to survive."

The dogs are being held at the Bullhead City Animal Control facility.

(USA Today)

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Robin Roberts comes out in Facebook post

LOS ANGELES -- Robin Roberts thanked her longtime girlfriend, Amber Laign, in a year-end post published on the ABC News anchor's Facebook page on Sunday, confirmed Heather Riley of ABC. The message comes after Roberts' battle with a life-threatening illness.

This is the first time the "Good Morning America" anchor has publicly acknowledged her 10-year, same-sex relationship with Laign, a massage therapist from the San Francisco Bay Area.

The host reached a 100 day benchmark on Sunday following a bone marrow transplant she underwent in September 2012 to treat the blood and bone marrow disease.

In May, Grand Central Publishing announced Roberts will write a memoir telling the story of her battle with the life-threatening illness and the life lessons she continues to gather following her return to "GMA" in February.

(Associated Press)

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Strangers donate $50K for Texas girl's obesity surgery

(NBC NEWS) -- A 12-year-old Texas girl who became morbidly obese after a rare illness triggered by brain surgery could get a potentially life-saving operation by February, thanks to a flood of donations from strangers.

More than 1,200 people have contributed more than $53,000 to a fund for Alexis Shapiro, of Cibolo, Texas, who weighs nearly 200 pounds and is gaining about 2 pounds a week because of a runaway condition called hypothalamic obesity.

That's in addition to at least four anonymous philanthropists who have stepped forward to help. The response started within hours after NBC News first reported the story on Saturday.

"My goodness! It's crazy," said Jenny Shapiro, Alexis' mother, who added that her family has been surprised and touched by the generosity. "Alexis really likes it. I think she feels like people aren't looking at her anymore and people are rooting for her."

Doctors say gastric bypass weight-loss surgery is the only thing that can help Alexis, but the U.S. military, which provides her family's health insurance, says it won't pay for the operation because Alexis is too young.

TRICARE and Humana Military, which provide family insurance for Alexis' father, Air Force veteran Ian Shapiro, denied the request citing rules that say gastric bypass surgery may be covered, but only if the patient is 18 or has achieved full bone growth. Officials said the family could appeal the decision.

But Alexis' parents - and doctors - say that an appeal could take too long and that there would be no guarantee the child would be approved for the $50,000 operation. Ian Shapiro, 34, is claims representative for USAA, a banking and insurance provider. Jenny Shapiro, 34, works part-time as a dog groomer at PetSmart.

"If nothing else, we have what's required for the hospital," Jenny Shapiro said. "If I need to make payments or whatever, then I will."

Dr. Thomas H. Inge, an expert in pediatric obesity at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said Alexis could receive the surgery at his hospital within six weeks now that the funding appears to be in place.

"The team is certainly in favor from a medical standpoint of moving forward as quickly as we can," he said.

Every extra pound gained is a risk to Alexis, who has developed Type 2 diabetes and other health problems in the past two years. She was just 9 when she developed a benign brain tumor called a craniopharyngioma, which affects at most 1 child per every million per year.

Surgery to remove the tumor went well, but it damaged her hypothalamus and pituitary gland, two organs that help regulate energy balance, appetite and weight.

Like more than half of children who get those tumors, Alexis developed hyperphagia and hypothalamic obesity, disorders that make her gain massive amounts of weight -- even as her body thinks it's starving.

Her parents have had to monitor her food intake and exercise extremely closely, sometimes limiting the child to 900 calories a day. In the past, they've had to padlock the kitchen cupboards because Alexis' conditions cause cravings that make her want to eat an entire jar of peanut butter at one sitting, for instance.

Gastric bypass surgery could help Alexis lose between 20 percent and 30 percent of her body mass, and also curb the misfire between her brain and gut that makes her feel like she's starving, Inge said.

What's not clear now is, even if the initial surgery is paid for, whether TRICARE would cover any follow-up care that Alexis might need. Officials with the military insurer did not respond to NBC News requests for comment about the new developments in Alexis' case.

The Shapiros and Inge said they were planning to talk on Monday to discuss the timing for surgery -- and its aftermath. Bariatric surgery is a serious procedure with lifelong consequences. New research by Inge and others suggests that teens do about as well as adults after weight-loss surgery, with the risk of major complications in about 5 to 7 percent of cases.

The money raised by NBC News readers and others will help pay for the surgery, Jenny Shapiro said. Any extra will go toward the costs of travel, lodging and other expenses as the family of five travels to Cincinnati for the operation. The family had started an account last summer at GoFundMe, one of several websites that help people raise money for medical expenses. Site organizers charge 5 percent of the donated amount, plus another 2.9 percent and 30 cents per transaction goes to WePay, a payment site.

But it wasn't until Alexis' situation received national attention that the fund jumped, within hours, from a little more than $1,000 to more than $53,000.

"I am really amazed at the power of information to bring out the best in people in cases like this," said Inge.

Alexis and her family are cheered by the outpouring of goodwill and generosity, especially during the holidays, Jenny Shapiro added.

"It's going to be a lot of hard work," she said. "We know that it's not going to be 'Have the surgery and, yay, everything's fixed.' But it's a start."

RELATED | More health stories

(NBC News)

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Suicide bomber kills 14 at Russian train station

(STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

(USA TODAY) -- Two suicide bombings within 24 hours killed at least 31 people in a southern Russia city, highlighting the terror threat Russia faces as it prepares to host the Winter Games in six weeks.

A suicide bomber on a bus early Monday in Volgograd killed at least 14 people and left nearly 30 wounded, Russian officials said, a day after another suicide bombing killed at least 17 at a railway station in the city on Sunday.

PHOTOS | Russia suicide bombing

Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia's main investigative agency said Monday's blast involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday's bombing at the city's train station.

"That confirms the investigators' version that the two terror attacks were linked," Markin said in a statement. "They could have been prepared in one place."

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for attacks against civilian targets in Russia. Umarov, leader of a terrorist group that calls itself the Caucasus Emirate, has called on Muslims to disrupt the Olympics, which will be held in Sochi.

"If you are a terrorist group in the Caucasus, the Sochi Olympics are going to be a very inviting target," says Steven Pifer of the Brookings Institution's Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative.

Some Muslim terrorists view the Olympics as a provocation, says Jeffrey Mankoff of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Russia and Eurasia Program. Sochi was conquered in the 19th century. "They view it as a provocation on territory they consider stolen from Muslims," he says.

The government has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers, police and other security personnel for the Games, and it has introduced some of the most extensive identity checks and security measures seen at an international sports event.

Suicide bombings have rocked Russia for years, but many have been contained to the North Caucasus, the center of an insurgency seeking an Islamist state in the region. Until recently, Volgograd was not a typical target, but the city formerly known as Stalingrad has been struck twice in two months - suggesting militants may be using the transportation hub as a renewed way of showing their reach outside their restive region.

Volgograd, which lies close to volatile Caucasus provinces, is 550 miles south of Moscow and about 400 miles northeast of Sochi, a Black Sea resort flanked by the North Caucasus Mountains.

Through the day Sunday, officials issued conflicting statements on casualties in the railway bombing. They said the suspected bomber was a woman, then reversed themselves and said the attacker could have been a man.

The Interfax news agency quoted unidentified law enforcement agents as saying footage taken by surveillance cameras indicated the bomber was a man. It reported that a torn male finger ringed by a safety pin removed from a hand grenade was found on the site of the explosion.

The railway bomber detonated explosives just beyond the station's main entrance when a police sergeant became suspicious and rushed forward to check ID. The officer was killed.

"When the suicide bomber saw a policeman near a metal detector, she became nervous and set off her explosive device," Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the nation's top investigative agency, said in a statement earlier in the day.

Markin later told Interfax that the attacker could have been a man but said the investigation was ongoing. He said another hand grenade, which didn't explode, was found on the explosion site.

Markin said security controls prevented a far greater number of casualties at the station, which was packed with people as several trains were delayed.

The latest bombings followed an explosion Friday in the city of Pyatigorsk in southern Russia, where a car rigged with explosives blew up on a street, killing three.

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Missing Cobb woman found at Calif. bus station

MARIETTA, Ga. -- A missing Cobb County woman has been found safe on the other side of the country.

Betty Ann Watson disappeared Friday from the Wellcare Senior Center in Marietta. Police said she suffers from dementia and schizophrenia.

Early Monday morning, a police officer spotted the 72-year-old woman at a Greyhound bus terminal in Los Angeles.

Police are making arrangements to return Watson to Georgia. They are also working to determine how she made it all the way to California.

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Deering Road closed by water main break

ATLANTA -- Part of Deering Road in Midtown Atlanta is shut down by a water main break Monday morning.

The break happened at the intersection with Kenwood Avenue.

City crews are working to repair the break in the six-inch main and reopen the road. Atlanta Watershed Management spokesperson Glennis Curry said about 20 homes were affected, but water has since been restored to all customers.

The road is expected to reopen at around 3 p.m. Until then, drivers can use Collier Road or 17th Street as alternate ways to access Peachtree Street.

For the latest traffic conditions in metro Atlanta, visit 11Alive.com/Traffic.

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New laws in 2014: From tanning bed bans to 'lemon pets'

(USA Today) -- If you're a pale 17-year-old in Illinois, get your indoor tanning sessions in now. Starting Wednesday, they're strictly forbidden.

A new state law takes effect Jan. 1 that bans anyone under 18 from using tanning salons in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois becomes the sixth state to keep teens out of the facilities, part of a growing trend of regulating tanning facilities to help reduce the risk of skin cancer, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a Washington-based group that tracks lawmaking.

The new measure is one of an estimated 40,000 new laws, regulations and resolutions approved by state legislatures in 2013, many of which take effect Jan. 1. Among them:

• Arkansas voters must now show a photo ID at polling places, while Virginia voters for the first time will be able to register online.

• In Colorado, 16-year-olds will be able to pre-register to vote, but must still wait until they're 18 to vote.

• California students must be allowed to play school sports and use school bathrooms "consistent with their gender identity," regardless of their birth identity.

• In Oregon, new mothers will now be able to take their placentas home from the hospital - some experts say ingesting it has positive health benefits. Another new state law bans smoking in motor vehicles when children are present.

• Minimum-wage increases take effect in four northeastern states: Connecticut's rises to $8.70 an hour; New Jersey's to $8.25; and New York's and Rhode Island's to $8. In nine other states, the minimum wage rises automatically because it's indexed to inflation.

Perhaps most significantly, Colorado adults age 21 or older will be able on Wednesday to buy up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational use from a state-licensed retail store. Marijuana advocates expect many of the new stores to be up and running by then, and observers say the new Colorado regulations are a sign of things to come.

"I think state legislatures will be faced with the marijuana issue" in 2014, says Jane Carroll Andrade, NCSL's spokeswoman.

In Washington state, regulators are combing through more than 2,000 applications for similar stores after voters approved a similar measure in 2012, says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). He expects the first Washington stores to open in a few months.

"Other states are watching Colorado and Washington because it will continue to come up," Andrade says.

Armentano, who likens these developments to the state-led reversal of Prohibition in the 1930s, says a dozen states are due to debate marijuana legalization measures in the coming year or so. "The genie's out of the bottle and it's simply not going back in."

Many new state laws take effect 90 days after they're signed, but a few states, like California, Colorado, Illinois and Oregon, get extra attention this time of year because traditionally many laws in these states take effect on Jan. 1.

As a result, life changes a bit more radically for Illinois residents each new year: On Wednesday, in addition to the tanning measure, they'll find that they can now return a pet or be reimbursed for veterinary costs if an illness was not disclosed by the seller. So-called "lemon pets" laws already exist in 21 states, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Also in Illinois: Anyone who flicks a cigarette butt on a street or sidewalk could be fined at least $50 for littering; police must receive training on the psychological and physiological effects of stun guns, and penalties are now tougher for inciting a violent flash mob or riot via social media.

Illinois also becomes the 13th state to prohibit handheld cellphones while driving. Meanwhile, school districts on Jan. 1 will be able to install cameras on school buses to photograph drivers who pass them when buses are stopped. And school-based sex education must include information about both abstinence and contraception.

Illinois is also home to tough new laws prohibiting unmanned aerial drones. Come Wednesday, it'll be illegal to use a drone to interfere with hunters or fishermen - and police must get a warrant to use a drone for surveillance, except in cases of terrorism or if a suspect is fleeing a crime scene. Even with the warrant, police must destroy information gathered within 30 days unless it's linked to a crime, says Ed Yohnka of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Lawmakers in both parties overwhelmingly passed the new surveillance prohibition, he says. "They understood that it was something that could occur in the relatively near future, and so there was a desire to get on top of it."

What's new Jan. 1

A sample of other state laws taking effect Jan. 1:

• Colorado: Drivers will see a new annual $50 fee for plug-in electric cars. Colorado is one of several states looking to capture revenue from alternative fuel, electric and hybrid vehicles.

• Connecticut: New gun-control laws in the aftermath of the school shooting in Newtown include mandatory registration of all assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines bought before April 2013, and creation of a statewide registry that will track parolees whose crimes involved weapons.

• Delaware: Sale, possession or distribution of shark fins prohibited.

• Florida: Expanded early voting.

• Maine: Becomes the 48th state to require a check-off for organ donation on driver's licenses to promote organ donation.

• Oregon: Privately run websites that feature police mug shots must take down photos for free if subjects can show they were not guilty or that charges were dropped.

• Rhode Island: Becomes the eighth state to enact a so-called "ban the box" law that prohibits prospective employers from inquiring into an applicant's criminal history on written job applications.

(USA Today)

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Forsyth County man dies after being hit by van

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. -- A 61-year-old Cumming man was hit by a van and killed over the weekend.

Johnie Baker was struck Saturday morning on Canton Highway near the Cherokee County line.

Forsyth County Sheriff's Sgt. Phil Alexander said Baker stepped in front of the Ford E-250. The driver stopped and tried to help, but Baker was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident is under investigation. Alexander said police do not believe drugs or alcohol were involved.

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Obamacare enrollment deadline is Monday

(Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)

(ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE) -- The deadline is Monday to sign up on HealthCare.gov for an insurance policy that will take effect January 1.

COMPLETE COVERAGE | The Affordable Care Act

There is a March 31 deadline to obtain a policy before people without coverage are subject to paying a penalty, Georgia Health News notes.

However, the Obama administration Thursday night slipped in a late loophole to help people who have had individual policies canceled. If you are among the people facing cancellations, you will be exempt from penalties if you go without insurance next year, the White House said.

People who have had their policy canceled will also be allowed to buy catastrophic coverage, which is generally designed for people under age 30, or those who qualify for a hardship exemption from the requirement to obtain coverage.

(Atlanta Business Chronicle)

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Neighbors push Atlanta to reopen Waterworks Park

ATLANTA -- Neighbors are beginning to see progress after years of pushing for more green space in Atlanta's Westside.

The Atlanta Parks Department and Watershed Management are finally talking about a plan to open up part of Waterworks Park, which has been off-limits for almost two decades.

"Good parks make for good neighbors," said Chris Palmer, who's part of a grassroots effort to restore Waterworks Park. "It sort of keeps the neighborhood tight-knit."

For most of the last century, Waterworks Park was open. It was the site of of cross-country runs and romantic weddings at the gazebo.

But city officials closed the park and put security fencing around it before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

They were concerned about the security of the city's drinking water, which comes from the reservoirs at 17th Street and Howell Mill Road.

"We don't want the fences down completely so anybody can run up and jump in the water," Palmer said. "We think there's a way to preserve the security of the water if we can just move the fences in."

The park has a gazebo, Lodge and pavilion area that are closed to the public.

But 11Alive's Jennifer Leslie stopped by and found a gate open and a defensive driving class for city employees going on inside the Lodge.

So why can't anyone else use it?

Neighbors have been asking and pushing for action for years.

They're hoping to see parts of the park reopened in 2014.

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Three shot and killed in Cobb County apartment

MARIETTA, Ga. -- Cobb County police are investigating a triple shooting inside an apartment.

It happened at around p.m. 2:30 Sunday at the Ivy Ridge Apartments off Bentley Road.

According to Cobb County Police Sgt. Dana Pierce, the whole incident was contained within one apartment.

"Everything was contained here inside the apartment. Initially there was speculation that people were missing from this immediate scene. That was not the case," Pierce said.

Pierce said there were "several witnesses" to the crime. They were taken to police headquarters to be questioned.

Neighbors say the victims are a husband and wife and another adult man. They said the victims are part of a close-knit Brazilian community in the area.

RELATED STORIES
* CRIME MAP | Track crime in Cobb County
* 2 found dead in East Cobb home
* Cobb man stabs wife, sets house on fire

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Rain leads to downed trees, flooded roads

(WXIA) -- The rain that swept through metro Atlanta Sunday caused several problems, including flooding and downed trees.

PHOTOS | Dec. 22-23 weather; add your own

In Forsyth County, two roads are blocked Monday morning. Dispatchers said Nicholson Road is flooded at Old Federal Road, and Church Road is shut down near Hopewell Road because of standing water.

A large tree came down on Old Alabama Road at Old Powder Springs Road in south Cobb County. It knocked out electricity to several homes in the Mableton area. Power is expected to be completely restored later Monday morning.

Another tree fell in a front yard on Eureka Drive in Buckhead, clipping two cars and taking down a power line. Georgia Power crews are performing a workaround fix to restore power to houses in the area.

MORE ABOUT MONDAY'S WEATHER
* Monday's forecast
* Some creeks, rivers, streams overflowing

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Delta plane slides off runway at Detroit airport

DETROIT -- A Delta Air Lines plane left the runway at Detroit Metropolitan Airport Monday morning.

The plane slid off the runway and onto a grass area at 6:40 a.m. local time.

Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said Delta flight 2283 was bound for Atlanta.

No one was injured. All 180 passengers were bused to the terminal to board another plane.

Durrant said Delta technicians are working to move and inspect the plane.

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Bank of America customer robbed at ATM

ATLANTA -- A Bank of America customer was robbed while using an ATM in Buckhead Monday morning.

The robbery happened at around 9:40 a.m. at the branch in the Buckhead Crossing shopping center on Piedmont Road at Sidney Marcus Boulevard.

Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said the suspect first tried to rob the bank, but was unsuccessful. He then targeted a customer using the ATM.

The robbery is under investigation. Jones said the suspect has not been caught.

Dispatchers originally reported that another Bank of America on Peachtree Road was robbed 10 minutes later, but that incident turned out to be a false alarm.

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Study: Louisiana has worst drivers in the US

(USA TODAY) -- Does Georgia have the worst bleeping drivers in the country?

Just about every year, one organization or another tries to provide an answer, based on factors as varied as how many people could pass their state's written driving test, how many citations are written for distracted driving and how likely people are to die in a motor-vehicle crash.

The latest such survey is from CarInsuranceComparison.com, a website for people to compare features of various automobile insurance companies. For its worst drivers rankings, the website compiles data on fatality rates per 100 million miles traveled, citations for failure to obey traffic signals and seat belt laws, DUI infractions, and tickets for speeding and careless driving. It collects data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Motorists Association and MADD.

And the winner is -- drumroll, please -- Louisiana. Georgia is No. 14.

According to CarInsuranceComparison.com, drivers in the Pelican State were propelled to No. 1 by finishing in the top five for failure to obey, speeding tickets and careless driving. Louisiana drivers also won this dubious distinction in last year's rankings.

Jeffrey Crews, vice president of CarInsuranceComparison.com, says the ranking generates lots of conversation and debate. "There are several reasons for that," he says. "One, it's the holiday season. People are traveling, and that comes into play. Plus, this is something that always comes up. Somebody is always saying, 'This is a horrible state to drive in.' And they can take this and say 'I told you so.'

"Plus, people use it as a little prod to kind of jab at each other," he says.

These kinds of rankings are seldom purely scientific, but they sure get people talking.

A 2011 ranking by GMAC Insurance (now National General Insurance) found that some of the nation's worst drivers weren't in a state at all but in Washington, D.C. The insurer based its rankings on how well -- or how little -- drivers understood rules of the road where they lived. It found that just 71% of drivers in the nation's capital were capable of passing a written driving test.

A 2010 ranking by The Daily Beast analyzed federal crash data and weighed fatal crashes in which driver error - such as DUI, running a stop sign or inattentive driving - was a factor. It found the worst drivers were in North Dakota, followed by Montana, Kentucky and Louisiana.

Another recent report, insurer Allstate's ninth annual "America's Best Drivers Report" in August, found that the USA's best drivers, based on Allstate crash claims data, are in Fort Collins, Colo.

The Best Drivers Report "was created to boost the country's discussion on safe driving," according to Michael Roche, the company's senior vice president of claims. "Best Drivers has generated a lot of attention, which we think is a very good thing."

The CarInsuranceComparison.com report has neither New Jersey nor New York in the top 10, which is going to be shocking for people such as David Alston, a New Jersey school bus driver who has long argued that his state, along with New York, wins the title hands-down.

Alston, who has logged more than 230,000 miles in each of his last two personal vehicles, says he has seen it all: In 2004, a drunk motorcyclist killed himself when he slammed into Alston's car at 65 mph, just months after Alston's mother was hit by an unlicensed driver in Montclair; he saw a motorcyclist decapitated in a crash near Newark International Airport.

"I see people driving with no lights on in pitch black, in snow, rain, fog," he says. "People tailgate me on my school bus. People blow through stop signs. It's unbelievable. New Jersey's got to be No. 1 or No. 2 for worst drivers."

States with the worst drivers:

1. Louisiana
2. South Carolina
3. Mississippi
4. Texas
5. Alabama
6. Florida
7. Missouri (tie)
7. North Carolina (tie)
9. Montana
10. North Dakota

(USA TODAY)

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Sen. Don Balfour's trial begins Monday

Georgia State Sen. Don Balfour (R-Lawrenceville, Snellville)

ATLANTA -- Trial is set to begin for a Georgia lawmaker accused of claiming per diem pay and mileage reimbursements for in-state work on days that he was out of the state.

The trial of state Sen. Don Balfour is set to start Monday before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk.

A grand jury indicted the Snellville Republican in September on felony charges of making a false certificate, theft by taking and a count of false statement and writing. He is accused of illegally claiming legislative expense pay and double-billing the state and his private employer for some expenses.

Balfour's attorneys have said their client may have made inadvertent mistakes but didn't intentionally misappropriate state funds.

Balfour has been suspended from the Senate and stripped of all leadership positions.

RELATED DON BALFOUR STORIES
* Judge denies Sen. Don Balfour's bid to drop state's case
* Balfour lawyer asks judge to toss out state's case
* Sen. Don Balfour suspended

(Associated Press)

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Ronald Reagan Parkway shut down by fatal wreck

SNELLVILLE, Ga. -- Both sides of Ronald Reagan Parkway in Gwinnett County are shut down by a fatal multi-vehicle accident Monday morning.

The wreck happened on the westbound side of the highway, near Five Forks Trickum Road in Snellville. Investigators believe it was caused by ice on the road.

Dispatchers said injuries were reported, with at least one person requiring a Life Flight ambulance.

Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Edwin Ritter later confirmed that one driver died in the accident. A child was transported to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. No names have been released.

There was no immediate word on when the road will reopen. Snellville police are asking drivers to avoid Ronald Reagan Parkway through the morning.

For the latest traffic conditions in metro Atlanta, visit 11Alive.com/Traffic.

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Sign up to Volunteer for #OfficerMorgan Day

COVINGTON, Ga. -- When he raised his little hand and placed the navy blue hat on his heart, five-year-old Morgan Steward officially became a Covington police officer on December 2^nd. His quick smile and polite "Thank You for making my dream come true" grabbed the hearts of viewers in Metro Atlanta.

PHOTOS | See his swearing in ceremony

VIDEO | Meet the boy behind the new badge

On 11Alive's Facebook page and Twitter accounts, you told us you wanted to do more. Something bigger. It's happening Tuesday, December 17^th. From 10:00am-1:00pm we're taking over Covington for #OfficerMorgan Day. He has a lot of little dreams: to write speeding tickets, help kids cross the street, give a speech to "bad guys". He also has some pretty big dreams. 11Alive's Help Desk is tackling all of them.

Here's what you can do to help:

1. Sign up below to Volunteer. Keep an eye out for an email explaining where you can report for duty Tuesday, December 17th.
2. Make signs with messages of support for "Officer Morgan".
3. Show up in downtown Covington from 10:00 to 1:00 (exact locations coming soon!)
4. Share this link. Get your friends, families, and community groups to participate. 
5. Spread the buzz. Use the hastag #OfficerMorgan on Facebook and Twitter. 

Sign up for #OfficerMorgan Day here:

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Andrea Sneiderman denied bond

Andrea Sneiderman on stand during sentencing

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- Andrea Sneiderman will not be released from jail on bond.

Her motion for bond was denied Monday by DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams.

READ | Order denying bond to Andrea Sneiderman

"Defendant has not satisfied this Court that (1) there is not a substantial risk she will flee, or (2) that any pending appeal has merit, is not frivolous or is not for the purpose of delay," Adams wrote in his decision.

Sneiderman appeared in court last week. She has appealed her sentence and asked the judge to grant her bond while the appeal works its way through the courts.

COMPLETE COVERAGE | Andrea Sneiderman

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Harvard evacuates buildings after explosives reported

Harvard University (Photo: Elise Amendola, AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Harvard University issued an alert on its website Monday morning citing "unconfirmed reports of explosives at four sites on campus: Science Center, Thayer, Sever, and Emerson. Please evacuate those buildings now."

The university said on its website and Twitter that university and Cambridge police were investigating. Faculty, staff and students were being updated through "Web, email and voicemail," the website said.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the buildings have been evacuated while the report is investigated," the website statement said. "Harvard's focus is on the safety of our students, faculty and staff. We will update the media when we have more information."

State troopers from the K9 and bomb squads have responded to the scene, Massachusetts State Police said.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay Harris told students gathered at Harvard's Annenberg Hall, the freshman dining facility, that Monday morning final exams had been canceled due to the bomb scare, The Crimson, Harvard's school paper, reported.

"Following announcement, students erupt in applause," the Crimson tweeted.

The main campus of the school, among the nation's most prestigious, sits on 210 acres in Cambridge. Harvard's student body includes about 6,700 undergraduates and another 14,500 graduate and professional students. Final exams were being issued Monday for scores of classes.

(USA TODAY)

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8-year-old boy foils car break-in

BROOKHAVEN, Ga. -- Brookhaven police are crediting an 8-year-old boy with helping them catch a serial car break-in suspect.

The child spotted the suspect breaking into his parents' car in their driveway on Sunday night. He told his mother, who called the police.

Investigators found a man who matched the boy's description of the suspect at a nearby construction site. He was arrested and charged with entering auto, loitering and prowling. His name was not released.

"This suspect would still be on the street without the tip we got from this little boy," Brookhaven Police Lt. Juan Grullon said in a statement. "He was so articulate, alert and detailed that it helped us find the suspect right away."

Grullon added that the suspect is also a person of interest in at least six other car break-ins.

The 8-year-old hero will receive a letter of appreciation from Brookhaven Police Chief Gary Yandura at an upcoming city council meeting.

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* 60 pounds of pot seized in Brookhaven
* Brookhaven bank robbed by old man

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Bobby Cox voted into Hall of Fame

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Three legendary managers who combined for 7,558 wins and eight World Series championships are entering the Hall of Fame together.

Contemporaries Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre, who rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively, on the career list for managerial victories, were elected unanimously to the Hall on Monday by the expansion-era committee.

PHOTOS | Braves former manager Bobby Cox 

All three managers surpassed 2,000 wins, a magical figure of sorts because no manager with at least that many has been excluded from the Hall.

Longtime players union head Marvin Miller, who came up a vote short of the 12 required from a 16-person panel during the last expansion-era balloting three years ago, failed to get elected on his sixth time on the ballot. Miller died in November 2012.

Iconic New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010, wasn't elected either.

Cox has a chance to be inducted in July with two of his ace pitchers: Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux are on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot for the first time and are expected to earn election.

La Russa, Cox and Torre began their careers on the bench within two years of each other, between 1977 and '79, and concluded their stay between 2010 and 2011 as three of the most successful managers the game has seen.

While Torre collected the most titles with four, La Russa went out on top when he guided the St. Louis Cardinals to the championship in 2011, then retired soon after. It was his second crown with St. Louis after winning one in 1989 with the Oakland Athletics. He joined Hall of Famer Sparky Anderson as the only managers to earn World Series rings in both leagues.

La Russa's impact went beyond that. While with the A's from 1986-95, he pioneered the use of the specialized bullpen and one-inning closer, staples of the game today.

The subject of two books, including George Will's "Men at Work'' in 1991, La Russa was known for his fierce competitiveness and innovative bent. He employed such unusual moves as batting the pitcher in the eighth spot, using a left-handed third baseman for several games in 1984 and briefly trying a three-man rotation while with the A's.

Cox piloted the Braves when they won 14 consecutive division titles from 1991-2005, although that dynasty claimed only one World Series, in 1995. He had two stints with Atlanta, first from 1978-81, before a four-year run with the Toronto Blue Jays that featured the franchise's first AL East title in 1985.

After that season, Cox returned to Atlanta as general manager, and in 1990 he went back to the bench. The Braves' string of division crowns, behind strong rotations that featured the likes of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, began the next year.

The excitable Cox also made an impact with umpires, who ejected him a record 158 times in his career.

Torre, now MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations, had an 894-1,003 managerial record over 11 seasons with three teams when he joined the Yankees in 1996, the beginning of a golden era that included four World Series titles in his first five seasons and six AL pennants in eight years.

Torre finished his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, winning two NL West crowns before retiring after the 2010 season.

MORE BOBBY COX
* Cox backing Bartow County sports complex
* Cox foils Braves imposter
* Cox receives Lifetime Achievement Award

23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Former DeKalb superintendent to be sentenced

Former DeKalb County School Superintendent Crawford Lewis

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- Former DeKalb County Schools superintendent Crawford Lewis will learn his fate Monday in a corruption scandal that rocked the district.

Lewis pleaded guilty in October to a scheme where he helped funnel about $80 million in construction contracts to a company owned by the ex-husband of Pat Reid, the district's chief operating officer.

He is expected to serve about a year behind bars for helping prosecutors convicted Reid and Tony Pope.

RELATED STORIES
* Crawford Lewis indicted by grand jury
* Lewis pleads guilty to obstruction

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Suspect attacks sheriff's deputies with machete

GAINESVILLE, Ga. -- A Gainesville man was shot and wounded by police after attacking several people, including four Hall County sheriff's deputies, with a machete.

The attack happened at around 7 a.m. Sunday at a house on Sailors Avenue in Gainesville.

PHOTOS | Mug Shots: See 'em to Believe 'em

Hall County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Mitchell said the suspect, 27-year-old Justin Matthew Bennett, attacked three people with a machete. When police arrived on the scene and tried to talk to Bennett, the suspect began coming after them.

A sheriff's deputy was forced to shoot Bennett, according to Mitchell. The suspect was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound at Northeast Georgia Medical Center before being taken to the Hall County Jail.

Bennett faces four charges of aggravated assault against a peace officer and one count of obstruction. More charges are pending.

Mitchell said the deputy who shot Bennett was placed on routine administrative leave.

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Protest: Stop using dogs at Ga. Regents University Dental School

Protesters outside Georgia Regents University Dental School asking that dogs no longer be used in dental research

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Dozens of animal rights activists gathered Sunday outside the dental school building on the Georgia Regents University campus.

They are demanding a change in current practices and have asked the federal government to consider pulling taxpayer money that goes to the university's research.

Kathleen Conlee with the Humane Society of the United States said their request is simple.

"We want them to stop these dental experiments on dogs. We want them to stop buying these dogs for what are known as random sourced dealers," Conlee said.

RELATED | Ga. Regents University accused of animal abuse

Last month, the Human Society released undercover videos from a three month investigation at the dental school.

They show a caged, underweight dog with injuries to its legs and paw.

Another caged dog is seen being set loose to run playfully down the hall of the facility.

According to the Humane Society, researchers pull the dogs' healthy teeth to experiment with dental implants.  The dogs are later killed so that a small sample of the jaw bone can be cut out. The video then shows the dead dogs being put into plastic trash bags to be disposed of.

The school issued a statement after that video was released saying in part, "the research being done with dogs is neither frivolous nor unnecessary ..."

It continued by saying, "all animal experiments at GRU are reviewed with great scrutiny by the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee ... whose board includes scientists ... veterinarians ... and community members."

The Humane Society is also asking the federal government to step in and no longer allow taxpayer money to fund such experiments at GRU.

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Spelman president awarded $500K Carnegie grant

Spelman College president Dr. Beverly Tatum speaks at Powered By Service Day on August 5, 2010 in Atlanta. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

ATLANTA -- The Carnegie Corporation of New York on Monday announced that Spelman College president Beverly Daniel Tatum is one of four recipients of its 2013 Academic Leadership Award.

Carnegie said each winner is an exceptional president of a U.S. college or university, and that the award is in the form of a $500,000 grant to be used in support of each honoree's academic initiatives.

RELATED | Identical twins named Spelman co-valedictorians

The 2013 honorees are:

* Richard H. Brodhead, President, Duke University
* Michael M. Crow, President, Arizona State University
* John L. Hennessy, President, Stanford University
* Beverly Daniel Tatum, President, Spelman College

The Academic Leadership Award, established in 2005, builds on Carnegie Corporation's long tradition of developing and recognizing leadership in higher education, Carnegie said in a statement. The award honors university presidents who are not only resourceful administrators and managers, but also have a keen interest in the liberal arts and a commitment to excellence and access, curricular innovation, reform of K-12 education, international engagement, and the promotion of strong links between their institutions and their local communities, Carnegie said.

Carnegie said of Beverly Daniel Tatum:

Since being named President of Spelman College in 2002, Beverly Daniel Tatum has shown that, with vision and commitment, access and excellence in higher education do not have to be mutually exclusive. The college is known for admitting and graduating a large percentage of low-income, first generation students. During her tenure, the percentage of students qualifying for federal Pell Grants has risen from some 30 percent to over 50 percent, about 87 percent of all students receive some form of financial aid, and scholarship support has tripled. President Tatum, the first African American female college president to receive this award has:

* Championed women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math); almost a third of Spelman students earn degrees in those fields, defying what President Tatum calls "the low expectations for women and minorities in science." The National Science Foundation reports that between 1997 and 2006, Spelman prepared more African American women to earn Ph.D.s in STEM than Georgia Tech, Duke, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill combined.

* Cultivated community service; each year, Spelman students contribute a total of more than 40,000 hours of service to their community through programs such as Project Impact. Students volunteer within a designated 1.7 mile area surrounding the campus with activities that focus on education, economic development, health, and environmental sustainability in partnership with some 40 community organizations, including 15 schools and education programs.

* Dropped intercollegiate sports in favor of a focus on student health. Concerned over the fact that an alarming proportion of young black women are prone to having serious health issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes, she invested the savings from the elimination of team sports in fitness and intramural programs that emphasize activities that career women are likely to maintain for a lifetime, such as tennis, golf, and yoga. Read Hall, the college's gymnasium built in the 1950s, is being renovated to serve as a state-of-the-art fitness facility.

Carnegie Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," Carnegie said. In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation's work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the strength of our democracy, the company added.

(Atlanta Business Chronicle)

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'127 Hours' subject arrested for domestic violence

Aron Ralston and wife Jessica Trusty arrive at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

DENVER -- Aron Ralston, who gained widespread attention when he cut off his forearm to free himself after becoming trapped by a dislodged boulder in a Utah canyon, has been arrested in Denver for domestic violence.

The 38 year old was booked into the Downtown Detention Center on Sunday on charges of assault and wrongs to minors. Police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez tells The Associated Press she can't release any details until she speaks with a domestic violence detective.

Ralston was hiking in 2003 when he became trapped by a boulder and was forced to cut off his own arm to free himself. He went on to detail his struggles in a book, and his story was later adapted into the movie "127 Hours."

Booking documents don't indicate if Ralston has an attorney. He's scheduled to appear in court Monday.

(Associated Press)

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Brenda Wood covering Mandela memorial

People gather around a pile of flowers and sage requiem messages offered to former South African president Nelson Mandela in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, on Dec. 7, 2013. (Photo: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, AP)

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- South Africa's parliament has begun a special session honoring Nelson Mandela.

The session began Monday afternoon in Cape Town, with an announcement that members of Mandela's family were sitting in the gallery.

Kgalema Motlanthe, South Africa's deputy president, began the proceedings with a speech. He described how Mandela's influence in South Africa and around the globe caused a "sweeping feeling of sorrow" worldwide following his death.

"He belongs to all humanity. ... Mandela's ideals saturate the face of the Earth," Motlanthe said.

Mandela died Thursday at age 95.

11Alive's Brenda Wood, Jon Shirek and photo journalist Steven Boissy are in South Africa to cover this week's events remembering Nelson Mandela.

They will have special reports all week long on 11Alive News.

More Coverage of Remembering Mandela:
- Timeline of Nelson Mandela's life and legacy
- SLIDESHOW: Mandela through the years
- PHOTOS: Nelson Mandela's visit to Atlanta
- Mandela to be Buried Dec. 15
- Atlanta photographer shares her candid photos of Mandela
- Atlantans mourn Mandela, fill monument with flowers
- Ex-US President Carter heading to Mandela memorial

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Witness says driver deliberately ran over, killed mother of 10

ATLANTA -- Police have arrested 63-year-old Alex Mason, and charged him with intentionally running over and killing 53 year old Marilyn Redding.  She was walking on a sidewalk.

Police say Redding and Mason were involved in an altercation some time before the incident. 

Witnesses told police that Mason revved the engine in his vehicle and drove it toward Redding after she walked out of a corner store.  The vehicle jumped the curb and struck Redding.

It happened around 5:30 p.m. on Gartrell Street in Northeast Atlanta on Sunday.

Bystanders rushed the car, pulled Mason out, and subdued him until police arrived.

Family members say Redding is a mother of ten children.

Arthur Jones, who witnessed the assault, said " I don't care what kind of argument they may have had, he didn't have to kill her that way."

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Atlanta leaders voting on money for Falcons stadium neighborhoods

Artist rendering of new $1-bil. Atlanta Falcons stadium

ATLANTA -- Monday, $30 million is at stake as the Atlanta City Council votes on an important part of the new Falcons stadium. 

That money will be used to help three communities near the site of the new stadium, English Avenue, Vine city and Castleberry Hill.

SLIDESHOW | New Falcons stadium designs

They were all promised financial help when the Georgia Dome was first built.

The areas received more than $100 million in community improvement grants, but Councilman Michael Bond says promises of development failed and those neighborhoods have struggled to recover. 

Bond says nearly all of that money went down the drain and he's vowing to not let that happen again.

More New Falcons Stadium Coverage:
- Stadium cost jumps to $1.2 billion
- Parking lot owner asks $12 million for stadium site
- Neighborhoods search for ways to spend stadium windfall
- No more broken promises for new Falcons stadium neighbors?
- Friendship Baptist votes "Yes" to stadium deal
- Mount Vernon church approves $14.5 million deal

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Dragon Con co-founder trial set to begin

Edward Kramer 2011 mug shot from Milford, Connecticut police

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- The long awaited trial for the co-founder of Dragon Con is set to begin Monday in Gwinnett County.

Ed Kramer was arrested in 2000 and charged with child molestation.

The trial was delayed several times because of his health problems.

The current organizers of Dragon Con say Kramer is no longer associated with the hugely popular sci-fi convention. 

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Autopsy today may confirm identity of Lucilla Harris

HENRY COUNTY -- An autopsy is expected today on the body found in Henry county, believed to be a missing Atlanta woman.

Friday night Henry County Police found the car of 72-year-old Lucilla Harris abandoned in a Stockbridge neighborhood.

Joey Smith with the Henry County Police says Saturday morning, officers continued searching the area and found a body.

MORE | Police find car of missing Atlanta woman
WATCH | Missing Atlanta woman seen on video days after she disappeared

Smith said "We cannot confirm but will assume that she is Lucilla Harris who is listed missing out of Atlanta."  Smith said the Atlanta Police Department is assisting with the investigation."

Harris is from Atlanta and her relatives reported her missing a week ago.

It turns out the Henry County Police department knew about the car on Monday, when a concerned neighbor reported seeing it.

But since Atlanta Police didn't enter information into a computer system about Harris and her car until Monday, Henry County officers did not know about the connection.

Harris was last seen on video from homeowner Archie Moore's security cameras.  It shows Lucilla Harris walk up to his back porch on Sunday, and leave two minutes later. 

Moore was not home at the time.

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Cyber Monday 2013: Every huge deal is right here!

ATLANTA -- Welcome to Cyber Monday 2013.... my second favorite day of the year! Unlike Black Friday where there are hundreds of individual reductions per stores, Cyber Monday is different. Today we see items and discounts that surpass what see Black Friday but the reductions are only on specific items, rather than entire aisles of a store.

I've been working around the clock to gather as many deals as I could find. And with the help of additional promotional codes from our friends at Offers.com, Couponcodes.com and Dealguppy.com, below are the best individual deals you'll find anywhere in the country. At the bottom of this page, you'll find the top store-wide sales.

WATCH | More online deals today

Want more deals? Follow @ValuesVal and @MattGranite.com on Twitter.

Please keep the following three golden rules in mind when shopping from this list:

1. These are the hottest deals in the country. Despite a lot of stock, items will sell-out. 
2. Stores have the right to adjust prices at any time, cancel orders at any time, delay orders at any time or discontinue a specific promotion. 
3. I do not make a dime for flagging any deal or company and neither does this TV station. The purpose of this segment is to save you money - that's it!

TOP DEALS:

50% off Nook Simple Touch + free shipping
Was: $79.00
Now: $39.00
**Incredible deal!!!

55% off Keurig B130 Deskpro Brewer + free shipping
Was: $149.99
Now: $66.99

88% off Restaurant.com Gift Certificates + free digital delivery
Was: $25.00
Now: $3.00
** Print from your computer

82% off Destinations 20" Hard Side Carry-On Suitcase + free shipping
Was: $179.99
Now: $31.99

70% off 7" Android (New version 4.2) Zeepad Tablet + free shipping
MSRP: $199.99
Now: $54.99
**Please allow up to 15 days for delivery

$50 off Starbucks Verismo Coffee Machines + free shipping
Was: $149.99
Now: $99.99

50% off Home Roam TV + free shipping
Was: $149.99
Now: $74.99
**Brand new open box unit, allow up to 15 days for delivery

$90 Off Asus Laptop Bundle + free shipping
Was: $369.85
Now: $279.99
**Includes: Laptop w/500GB HD, 4GB RAM, Windows, 8, Flash Drive, Laptop Sleeve, Logitech Wireless Mouse, Flash Drive Package, Internet Security Software

$150 off iPad w/Retina Display + Bonus Accessory Kit + free shipping - SOLD OUT
Was: $499
Now: $349

$15 off $100 iTunes Gift Card + free shipping
Was: $100
Now: $85

$149 off Studio Beats By Dre + free shipping
Was: $299.00
Now: $149.99

TOP SALES:

Dell: Up to 45% off Laptops, Desktops and Tablets + Extra $50 off over $599

The Body Shop: 50% off Sitewide + free shipping over $30

Calvin Klein: Extra 40% off entire order + free shipping

Bon-Ton: Up to 70% Off Christmas Decor + $50 off $100

6pm.com: Up to 75% off Almost Everything + free shipping

Kohl's: 20% off Sitewide + Over 300 Cyber Monday Deals + free shipping

Nordstrom: Up to 50% off Apparel & Shoes for the family + free shipping / free returns

Adidas: Up to $40 off Entire Purchase Cyber Monday Sale

Looking for more Cyber Monday Deals? Our friends at Offers.com have set up this fantastic live deal blog and our friends atDealGuppy.com are ranking and sorting through the best laptop and tablet deals in the country.

More Cyber Monday Stories:
- Cyber Monday Vehicle Sale
- Cyber Deals: Samsung Galaxy Tablet
- Walmart Cyber Week Deals

11Alive News

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rick Warren shares the good news about weight-loss plan

(USA Today) -- Pastor Rick Warren's life has always been an open book.

He spread the word about how to live a Christ-centered life in his best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life.

Over the years, he and his wife, Kay, have shared heartbreaking experiences, including her battle with breast cancer and, more recently, the death of their son, Matthew. He struggled with mental illness and committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in April. He was 27.

"2013 was the worst year of my life." Warren says. Matthew "had a tender heart and a tortured mind."

Now, in his new book, Warren, 59, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, is trying to help people heal their health. The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life (Zondervan, out Tuesday), written with doctors Mark Hyman and Daniel Amen, details a lifestyle program that helped Warren lose 65 pounds in 2011 and propelled members of his congregation to get healthier by dropping more than 250,000 pounds collectively that year.

It has five essential components: food, fitness, focus, faith and friends. "The last two components - faith and friends - are what I call the special sauce that makes the Daniel Plan unique," Warren says. Focus is also critical because "it's not just what you eat that makes you unhealthy, it's about what's eating you."

The program incorporates healthy eating, regular exercise, stress reduction, prayer and support from other church members in small home groups.

Warren was inspired to create the plan after he baptized more than 800 people one day in November 2010. After lowering more than 145,000 pounds of weight into the water, Warren says he thought, "Wow! Everybody's fat!"

He concedes that it wasn't a very spiritual thought for a pastor to have, but he also thought, "I'm fat, too. I'm as out of shape as everyone else is."

"That was the aha moment" that started the ball rolling, "but we didn't start the Daniel Plan right away." He tapped three well-known doctors who were all best-selling authors - Hyman, Amen and Mehmet Oz - to help him create the plan.

Then, in January 2011, Warren says he went in front of his congregation of 20,000 people and said, "Guys, I need to repent."

"I told them I had gained 2 to 3 pounds a year, and I've been your pastor for 30 years, so I needed to lose about 90 pounds."

He invited them to join him. "I figured maybe a couple hundred people, but that day, 12,000 people signed up." Warren's church, which has eight campuses in Southern California and several international campuses, has an average weekend attendance of 22,000.

The title of the Daniel Plan (danielplan.com) comes from the first chapter of Daniel, in which Daniel challenges the king's official guard to test some young men to eat the king's diet of rich food while Daniel and his three friends eat healthy fare including vegetables, Warren says. "We just took the title from that concept. It doesn't try to follow what Daniel ate, because the Bible doesn't tell us exactly what he ate."

The food portion of the plan involves eating "healthier, fresher and more natural foods," he says. "The line we use is: 'If it grows on a plant, it's healthy. If it's made in a plant, don't eat it.' My rule is no snacks, no sweets, no seconds."

Co-author Hyman, a family doctor who has written books including The Blood Sugar Solution and Ultrametabolism, says the message about food "is very simple: Eat whole, real, fresh foods, plant-based foods" and stop eating processed foods, junk food, fast foods, fried foods and artificial sweeteners.

At 6-foot-3, Warren weighed about 295 pounds when he began following the plan in January 2011. He lost 65 pounds by eating more nutritiously, cooking healthy recipes, drinking more water, getting more sleep and working out.

He was doing well on the program before his son died. Matthew suffered from mental illness his entire life, Warren says.

"When Kay was pregnant with Matthew, she got some kind of unusual rash or disease that left her bedridden for months. During that pregnancy, I had three fears: Is my wife going to live? Is the baby to going live? And is the baby going to be healthy? Kay lived. Matthew lived, but Matthew was not healthy. He had a tender heart and a tortured mind. Your character is not your chemistry. He had borderline personality disorder. He struggled with suicidal thoughts all of his life."

Warren says he gained "about 35 pounds back in six months of grieving my son's suicide."

The weight regain was tied to lifestyle changes. "My back went out, and I wasn't able to exercise for an extended period. I didn't feel like doing anything, and our members who are so loving were bringing us meals every night. They weren't necessarily healthy meals. They were rich in creams and enormous portions, far more than we could possibly eat. It was comfort eating. I wasn't making some good choices in terms of what I ate.

"I didn't sleep well for months, and when you don't sleep well, your hunger level goes up. I fell off the wagon. All those pounds I had lost kept finding me.

"But as anyone in recovery will tell you, setbacks are part of the process in long-term change. Rather than beat myself up, I simply asked God and my friends to help me get back on track," he says. "People often learn from their weaknesses.

"When I began to get a handle on the grief, I already knew what to do" to live a healthier life.

So far, he has lost about 25 pounds, and he intends to drop more. "I am going to prove that this plan works twice.

"I really do eat healthy," he says. He has a garden and grows 57 different kinds of vegetables from asparagus to zucchini to tomatoes. He does it "partly for stress relief," plus "there's nothing that beats the taste of something you pick right off the vine."

Warren says he's back to working out with a friend who is his trainer-accountability partner. "I have four different workouts so I don't get bored" - a hiking workout, a swimming pool workout, a treadmill routine and weight-training exercises.

Co-author Amen, a psychiatrist, member of Saddleback Church and author of numerous books including Use Your Brain to Change Your Age, says that "exercise is the fountain of youth in so many ways." You don't have to do marathons, he says. You can walk briskly for 45 minutes four times a week and lift weights two times a week.

But it's more than diet and fitness that are essential to making this program work, Warren says. He believes one of the main reasons for the Daniel Plan's success among church members is the support they received from their home groups.

Prayer is another key, Warren says. "We talked about not just eating right but thinking right. We were praying for health. I tell people if you prayed as much as you worried, you would have a lot less to worry about."

He is convinced that churches are the best place for people to come together to get healthier. There are more than 2 billion Christians around the world, so the church "is the largest distribution center on the planet," he says.

His program also includes a separate journal, out Tuesday, and a cookbook, out in April. There are additional resources, such as DVDs, for individuals and churches who want to use the plan at danielplan.com. Proceeds from the books go to Saddleback Church's charitable efforts, including one that helps care for the sick.

Some have questioned Warren's mix of church and health, but he says: "You think that God is only interested in your soul? No, he is interested in your body, mind and soul. Jesus went into each village teaching, preaching and healing. The Daniel Plan has to do with healing.

"The Bible says, 'God made my body; Jesus died for my body; the spirit lives in my body.' So I had better take care of it."

(USA Today)

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Armed police standoff with teen at Ohio school ends peacefully

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Police took an armed 14 year-old student into custody at a high school in Toledo, Ohio after a standoff Monday morning.

Police said they had received calls about the incident at 9:30 a.m., and sent officers and negotiators to the school.

Toledo Public School spokesperson Patty Mazur told NBC station WNWO that students were safe inside the building, which was placed on lockdown during the incident. Despite instructions from school officials to stay away, some parents came to the school for their own children.

Toledo Police said in a press conference that the student had never acted out before. Police said negotiations with the student were made in a hallway inside the high school. The teen was taken into custody after police were able to shoot him in the foot with a bean bag.

School officials said they would talk with students about the incident.

"Our responsibility is to take care of students inside," said Toledo Public Schools spokesperson Jim Gault. "We'll talk to the kids tomorrow, we'll have counselors on staff. Our job is to continue to educate children."

(WNWO Toledo contributed to this report)

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Suspect shot dead by police in Mableton

MABLETON, Ga. -- A gun-wielding man involved in a domestic dispute was fatally shot by Cobb County police Monday morning.

The incident happened shortly before 1 a.m. at a house on Donna Street SW in Mableton.

Cobb County Police Sgt. Dana Pierce said investigators responded to the house to look into an ongoing domestic incident.

While police were talking to a woman in the front yard, 53-year-old Clarence Dorris drove up, got out of the car and pointed a weapon at officers, according to Pierce. Police fired back, hitting the man.

Dorris was taken to Atlanta Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Pierce said no police officers were injured. The officer who shot Dorris was placed on routine administrative leave.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Black Friday 2013: Stock lists for every major store

(WXIA) -- 11Alive has been working on Black Friday coverage since June. This year, with the help of our friends at DealGuppy.com, we've gathered and verified Black Friday stock lists for major retailers.

LOCAL BLACK FRIDAY | Special Section of local store hours, deals and reviews

Join the conversation and let us know the deals you find.  Tweet @11Alivenews with #ATLblackfriday.

The lists showcase which products will be on sale Black Friday. The products marked (Early Bird) are limited quantity items. 

In some cases, items on "sale" are not even reduced. You'll find such items on the Lowe's stock list.

Please keep in mind that stock of the hottest items will sell out extremely quickly, may vary by location and stores sometimes make last-minute adjustments.

Unlike those circulating ad-scans, every price point is sorted for you and hand-checked, as we detail the deals by the thousands.

Plan your Black Friday shopping now by clicking the store names below and downloading our detailed stock lists.

• Ace Hardware
• A.C. Moore
• Bass Pro
• Belk
• Best Buy
• BJ's Wholesale Club
• Bon-Ton
• Cabela's
• Costco
• CVS
• Dick's Sporting Goods
• Dollar General
• Fred Meyer
• GameStop
• Gander Mountain
• Gordmans
• Harbor Freight Tools
• h.h. gregg
• J.C. Penney
• Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
• JustDeals.com
• Kmart
• Kohl's
• Lowe's
• Macy's
• Sears
• Target
• Walgreens
• Walmart

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Supreme Court upholds suspension of DeKalb school board members

DeKalb School Board members removed by Governor Deal on February 25, 2013

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- The Supreme Court of Georgia has upheld a statute that allowed Gov. Nathan Deal to suspend six members of the DeKalb County School Board, including its chairman.

In an opinion released Monday, Georgia's high court said the statute "does not violate the Georgia Constitution."

Board chairman Dr. Eugene Walker and five others were suspended in February, two months after the DeKalb County School District was put on accredited probation by the Southeastern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The suspensions occurred under Georgia's School Board Suspension Statute of 2010, which places school systems on a level of accreditation that's only one notch above complete loss of accreditation "for school board governance related reasons."

Walker and the school district filed a lawsuit in federal court, saying the suspensions violated both the U.S. and Georgia constitutions. In the lawsuit, Walker argued the legislature had no authority to suspend or remove school board members, and that it gave the government undue power to control local school systems.

"We are unpersuaded by these contentions," the Supreme Court of Georgia said in Monday's opinion. "(We) conclude that (the School Board Suspension Statute) is not an unconstitutional infringement upon the governing authority of local school boards, nor is it a violation of any other constitutional provision or right, as asserted by Walker in this case."

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End of tolls may mean more traffic on Ga. 400

ATLANTA -- Drivers who take Ga. 400 to work or school will save 50 cents this morning, but they may be faced with a different problem: more traffic than usual.

The tolls are gone, and because of this, Georgia Department of Transportation officials expect an increase in traffic. Drivers who once avoided Ga. 400 are now expected to flock to the busy highway.

MORE GA 400 COVERAGE
* Toll-free ride comes early on Ga. 400
* Where do your quarters go?
* Ga. 400 tollbooth workers witness wild behavior

All Ga. 400 traffic will now move in what used to be cruise lanes. There are currently three lanes instead of the usual two. The speed limit through the former toll plaza is 45 mph.

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Black Friday iPad Deals

A lot of people are hoping to find an iPad under the tree this Christmas, but finding the new iPad Air at a discount can be tough.
The retail price on the device starts at $499 and the Apple Store typically has discounts of about ten percent on Black Friday.

BLACK FRIDAY| Find local store hours, deals and store ads here

This year the better deal is at Target, where the brand new iPad Air is on sale for $479 but you also get a $100 Target Gift Card with it.

For those who prefer the iPad mini, it will be on sale at Walmart on Black Friday for $299, plus those who purchase it will receive a $100 Walmart gift card. Ebay will have the iPad mini on sale for $239 on Black Friday in limited quantities.

The iPad 2 will be on sale at Best Buy on Black Friday for $299. It is currently available for $319 at the Apple Store  in the refurbished section.

Too read about the best deals on non-Apple Tablets click here. 

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Dentist pleads guilty to Medicaid fraud

MARIETTA, Ga. -- An Atlanta-area dentist has pleaded guilty to defrauding Georgia Medicaid of more than $2.2 million.

Kenneth Morris Wiggins Jr. entered his plea Friday, and was sentenced to seven years in prison and three on probation. He must also pay $2,230,618.81 in restitution.

PHOTOS | Mug Shots: See 'em to Believe 'em

Wiggins owned Cosmetic and Family Dentistry of Roswell in Fulton County and Cosmetic and Family Dentistry of Marietta in Cobb County. Both businesses were providers in the Georgia Medicaid Program's Dental Services.

According to information presented in court, Wiggins billed Medicaid for procedures for 220 patients, even though he never actually performed the dental work.

Wiggins fled the U.S. for the Netherlands after being indicted in 2011. He was caught in Belize in February 2013 and was transported to Miami and then to Cobb County by U.S. Marshals.

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Winter Weather Advisory for North Georgia

ATLANTA -- A mix of rain and freezing rain is expected Monday night across parts of the northeast Georgia mountains, generally north of a line from Chatsworth to Jasper to Dahlonega to Cleveland.

LOCAL RADAR | See conditions and forecast for your community

Although only a light glaze of ice is expected on elevated surfaces, this could be enough for bridges and overpasses to become slick and hazardous.

For this reason, a Winter Weather Advisory has been issued for this area for Monday night.

A second round of winter precipitation is expected across portions of northern Georgia late Tuesday night and Wednesday. 

Rain will become mixed with snow after midnight Tuesday. The rain and snow mix will become all snow at elevations above 1,500 feet. 

Snowfall amounts of up to a half-inch on grassy areas are possible across north Georgia, with amounts of up to 1 inch possible in the higher elevations.

Strong low pressure moving in from the Gulf will bring widespread rain to Georgia beginning late this afternoon and continuing into Wednesday. 

On average, one to three inches of rainfall is expected. 

Locally higher amounts of rain across north Georgia will have the potential to create minor flooding.

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Insurance Mandates Commission to vote on autism, hearing aids

ATLANTA -- Members of the Governor's Special Commission on Insurance Mandates will vote on three critical issues during a meeting on Monday afternoon.

They'll decide whether private insurance companies in Georgia should be required to cover the cost of autism treatments, children's hearing aids and medical foods for children with severe allergies.

The commission's decision is non-binding, but it will set the tone for any debate by lawmakers in the new year.

Autism Treatments

Autism Speaks and parent advocates are pushing for a bill that would require insurance companies to cover the cost of autism treatment to include up to $50,000 a year for behavioral health treatment.

RELATED | Autism bill opponents make case against mandate

Documents produced by some members of the commission found that evidence supports the effectiveness of certain established treatments, but the cost of the mandate could be an issue.

The Affordable Care Act also makes the debate more complicated.

COMPLETE COVERAGE | Affordable Care Act

Even if the mandates commission recommends approval, and the bill eventually passes, it would not apply to any of the insurance plans offered through the insurance exchanges.

Children's Hearing Aids

Georgia law requires that all children get tested for hearing loss at birth.

If they need hearing aids, Medicaid will cover the cost, but private insurance companies don't have to pay for them.

RELATED | Children's hearing aid bill faces roadblock

A group called Let Georgia Hear is pushing for a bill to change that.

The bill would benefit working families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford children's hearing aids, which can cost as much as six thousand dollars every three to five years.

The bill is now before the special commission on insurance mandates. 

11Alive's Jennifer Leslie went through some of the research by members of the commission, who found that hearing aids are medically effective and lead to clinically significant outcomes.

But the cost of the mandate could be an issue, and the Affordable Care Act makes it even more complicated.

Children's hearing aids are not included as an essential health benefit offered by plans on the insurance exchanges, so the state would have to pick up the extra cost of any new mandates.

The commission estimates the cost of this mandate could range from $800,000 to $9 million a year.

Advocates for the bill are hoping the mandates commission will find the medical evidence outweighs the cost.

Medical Foods

Members of the Georgia Medical Foods Coalition have been rallying support for HB 73.

It would reimburse families for the cost of medical foods used in the treatment of certain metabolic disorders, gastrointestinal diseases and allergic conditions.

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Georgia DDS computers expose personal information

ATLANTA -- 11Alive's Center for Investigative Action went undercover to expose how a state agency that you trust to protect your personal information is putting people at risk for identity theft.

You can see the full investigation Monday at 11 p.m.

Your private information, available for anyone to see -- tax returns, Social Security numbers, you name it. It may not have been intentional, but it needed to be fixed.

"It was a little disconcerting that my complete tax returns were on the computer," said Michelle Hogan.

Hogan alerted 11Alive News to it, after going to a DDS center in Marietta to get her son's driver's permit. She needed to use the public computer to access her account in order to print out her tax return to prove he was a dependent. 

"Tried to delete it and wasn't able to off of the computer," she said.

She told 11Alive that a supervisor wasn't much help either, and that's why she contacted us. 

We went in with a hidden camera and discovered all kinds of private and personal information on the computer for all to see.

"We've got pay stub information," said investigative reporter Ross McLaughlin, while looking at the documents file on the public computer. "There's a bank statement here."

How'd you like the whole world to see the $12,000 you've got in your bank account? It was right there just as you walk in the door. We even saw tax returns, Social Security numbers and all! 

McLaughlin, along with producer Shawn Hoder, had not trouble finding it.

"What do you think of that?" McLaughlin asked a customer who was using the computer. "You see somebody's personal information is in here?"

"All kinds of it," the man responded, "looks like you can pull any of it up to."

The public computer was made available for customers who forgot the necessary identification documents, required under new Homeland Security rules. 

"Of all places that you're supposed to have secure information, you'd think that the DMV would be the place to have it!" Hogan said.

All the sign on the door says is to close the browser. But some information is getting stored. What is supposed to be customer convenience is putting them at risk. 

"Do you guys come in and periodically delete this at all?" McLaughlin asked the woman at the information desk.

"I try to delete it once a day," she said. 

However, we found all kinds of private information, as much as two weeks old. Jennifer Ireland's pay stub with identifying information was there, and that's how we found her. 

"Check that out. You know what that is?" McLaughlin asked.

"Yes. My pay stub," Ireland responded. 

"Guess where that is?" McLaughlin replied.

"Where?" she asked. 

"Sitting on the computer at the DMV" he said.

"Oh!" Ireland was stunned. "I specifically asked them ..."

She could hardly get the words out. She had asked the DDS folks to delete it.

"Yeah that makes me very unhappy, cause that's all my, I said that's very important information," Ireland said, taking a deep breath.

We found Ankit Patel's cell bill too.

"That makes me feel nervous now," Patel replied.

It wasn't just the Marietta location. We visited another DDS center on Roswell Road in Atlanta and found the sensitive information on another computer for all to use. 

All we had to do was ask where the public computer was to look up identification information. They pointed us it, no questions asked.

Lease agreements, private loan information, even a copy of a Social Security card were all easily seen. 

"Oh lovely!" responded a supervisor when McLaughlin showed her what was on the computer.

We learned there are 16 public computers at the Department of Driver Services in metro Atlanta and as far away as Columbus, Ga. 

"Well they're not supposed to download at all that's the thing. They're not supposed to download anything," the supervisor at Roswell Road location told us.

"Maybe this stuff needs to be deleted," McLaughlin pointed out. 

"Yeah," she responded.

"I'm just pointing it out," McLaughlin said. 

"Thank you," she replied as she walked back behind the counter.

We pointed out the security risks at the Marietta location too. 

"Well that's why we tell you when you exit out of the computer to make sure you exit out of all your information," the information clerk said.

However, the people we talked to didn't even realize they'd downloaded it and it was being stored. All they knew was to close the browser. 

"Are you going to clear that bin? That cache?" McLaughlin asked.

"I will. I can't clear it right this minute, 'cause I have a line," she said, walking away.

She told us it would be deleted. However, we when came back the next day to check, it was still there.

"Fix it, oh absolutely!" Ireland demanded.

She and Ankit Patel asked us to delete their information from the computer. We did. It wasn't difficult. In fact, it wouldn't be difficult for DDS to set up a system that would not allow that information to be downloaded or stored at all.

"They need to do it right," Hogan said. 

"What do you want us to do?" McLaughlin responded.

"Hold the powerful accountable," she stated.

We did. We sat down with Susan Sports, Public Information Officer for the Georgia Department of Driver Services.

"DDS takes the privacy and security of our customers personal information very seriously and I apologize," Sports said.

She says the public computers were just put in over the last year and she wasn't aware of the problems, until 11Alive brought it to her attention. 

"We are, have an action plan and we will ensure that all of the public computers are set up correctly so this won't happen again. So the documents can't be downloaded or saved. We'll also have an additional process in place, where the computers will be checked by management at the close of business every day, to ensure that nothing's left on the computer," Sports said.

"At every computer?" McLaughlin asked.

"Correct," she said.

"And make sure everything's cleared every time another user comes on?" McLaughlin inquired.

"Yes sir," she responded, making a promise to do it in less than a week. 

On Friday November, 15, Sports sent us an update and a plan:

Here are the enhancements we are adding this morning (Friday November 15th) to the DDS business center computers available for customer use:

- Desktop Data erased at login
- My Documents data erased at login
- Downloads folder data erased at login
- Recycle Bin bypassed
- Scheduled reboot every day at 8 pm
-Erase data routines runs after 10 minutes of inactivity

We're going to hold them accountable. We will check back at some of those centers.

|TUESDAY NIGHT AT 11, WE WILL REVEAL WHAT WE FOUND AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF IF YOU'VE USED ONE OF THOSE COMPUTERS.|

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Gwinnett man's 2008 murder conviction overturned

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- A man found guilty of murder in 2008 has had his conviction overturned by double jeopardy.

Christopher Roesser was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of shooting Keith Price to death during a botched drug deal in December 2006.

Roesser was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and a weapons charge. He filed a motion for a new trial and was granted one after a court found his original jury had been given erroneous instructions.

At the second trial, Roesser was acquitted of all charges except voluntary manslaughter, as the jury could not reach a verdict. The court declared a mistrial.

Roesser's attorney argued retrying him on the voluntary manslaughter count would violate the Constitution's ban on double jeopardy. Monday, the Supreme Court of Georgia wrote an opinion agreeing with the attorney.

"Because double jeopardy bans the prosecution from relitigating any issue decided by the jury's acquittal at the previous trial, we conclude that the doctrine of collateral estoppel prohibits the State from retrying Roesser for voluntary manslaughter," Georgia's high court said in Monday's opinion.

According to information presented at the original trial, Roesser met Price at the Lawrenceville truck depot where Roesser worked to sell marijuana to the victim. They argued about the price of the drug, causing Price to grab Roesser and demand money. When Price tried to walk away, Roesser shot him and then ran. He was arrested six weeks later at a friend's house.

Monday's decision means Roesser will be released from the Gwinnett County Jail.

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Death toll now 6 after tornadoes hit Ill.

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- A violent storm system pounded the Midwest on Sunday with tornadoes, strong winds and heavy rain, killing at least six people, injuring dozens and collapsing homes and other buildings.

PHOTOS | Tornado outbreak hits Illinois

National Weather Service officials confirmed that several tornadoes touched down in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the damage and was receiving regular updates. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had sent emergency teams and liaisons into affected states.

"Residents should continue to monitor weather conditions as they develop and follow the direction of local officials," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said. "Be prepared for power outages and dangerous road conditions as a result of downed power lines and flooding.''

Two people were killed when a storm, believed to be a tornado, struck a rural part of Massac County near Brookport, Ill., said Larry Douglas of the county's emergency services and disaster agency. No further details were available.

Washington County Coroner Mark Styninger said an elderly man and his sister died Sunday afternoon when a tornado hit their farmhouse in the town of New Minden, Ill., about 50 miles southeast of St. Louis.

Another person was killed in Nashville, Ill., said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

"The whole neighborhood's gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house," said Michael Perdun of Washington, Ill., a town of 16,000 about 140 miles southwest of Chicago. He said his neighborhood was wiped out in a matter of seconds.

Illinois State Police Trooper Dustin Pierce said the tornado cut a path from one end of Washington to the other, knocking down power lines, uprooting trees and rupturing gas lines.

Washington Alderman Tyler Gee told Chicago station WLS-TV that destruction was so great "I couldn't even tell what street I was on." He said hundreds of homes were "just completely flattened.''

Just how many tornadoes hit was unclear. According to the National Weather Service's website, a total of 65 tornadoes struck, most of them in Illinois. But meteorologist Matt Friedlein said the total might fall because emergency workers, tornado spotters and others often report the same tornado.

In Indianapolis, a historic post office, built in 1903, was demolished by strong winds and heavy rains.

"We had just acquired the building in December and taken out all the interior of the building, gutted it and solidified the structure a little bit," said Megan Bennett, a volunteer with the Irvington Development Organization. "Then bad weather comes along and blows it down. The reinforcement steel was set to be delivered tomorrow, so it's really heartbreaking."

A tornado hit near East Peoria in central Illinois, where photos from the area showed devastating damage.

"There are reports of significant damage in the towns of Washington and Pekin, Ill.," Thompson said. "There's been a wide disruption of communications in those areas also. We have dispatched staff and communications equipment to help support the local authorities. There are reports of people trapped (in collapsed buildings), and technical rescue teams have been dispatched.

"It's a pretty widespread event here in Illinois," Thompson said.

She did not have specifics on how many people were injured or on damages from the storms. Officials had opened a shelter in the Washington area, and the state's Emergency Operations Center had been activated.

Significant storm damage also was reported in Coal City in Grundy County, and in LaSalle County.

Heavy winds knocked out power to 140,000 customers in Michigan, including in the Detroit area.

The weather service had confirmed at least four tornadoes in Indiana by midafternoon, as central Indiana remained under a tornado watch until 8 p.m. The storms left at least 13,000 people across Indiana without power, according to Duke Energy.

"This is a very dangerous situation," Russell Schneider, director of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, told the Associated Press at midday Sunday. "Approximately 53 million in 10 states are at significant risk for thunderstorms and tornadoes."

Heavy rain and lightning in Chicago delayed the NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, but the weather had not caused any major emergencies in the city.

Severe weather forced play to be stopped and fans were evacuated from the field seating bowl with 4:51 remaining in the first quarter of the game.

The initial evacuation came at 1:31 p.m. ET. Five minutes later, referee Gene Steratore announced play would be "temporarily suspended" and both teams left the field. The game was restarted after a nearly two-hour delay.

Once the storm passed, the sun came out, giving some residents along the Chicago lakefront views of spectacular rainbows.

In Peoria, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, treated 24 tornado victims Sunday evening for injuries ranging from head wounds and broken bones to cuts and bruises, said hospital spokeswoman Kristen Johnson. Six of the wounded were trauma patients, meaning they were the most severely injured, she said.

Eight to 10 people were treated at and released from UnityPoint Health-Methodist Hospital, also in Peoria, hospital spokesman Duane Funk said.

Earlier Sunday, the National Weather Service issued a "high risk" alert of severe weather for eastern Illinois, Indiana, western Ohio and far southwest lower Michigan, with conditions favorable for a tornado outbreak and widespread damaging winds.

This is the first time in decades that a "high risk" area was issued so far north in the month of November, according to meteorologist Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground.

The agency says strong winds and atmospheric instability are expected to sweep across the central Plains during the day before pushing into the Mid-Atlantic states and Northeast by evening. The potential for strong and long-track tornadoes will continue in the Ohio Valley and adjacent Midwestern states.

The storms are expected to diminish in intensity Monday, but strong wind gusts will remain possible for parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, according to the Weather Channel.

(USA TODAY)

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Woman runs 40 races before age 40 for sick mom

ATLANTA -- Jessica Sherrill set quite a goal. She wanted to run 40 races by her 40th birthday. That's three races a month.

She started running 13 years ago. Since then, she's lost 130 pounds and gotten healthier. Her mother, on the other hand, has not. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

It's difficult for Sherrill to talk about the impact the disease has had on their family. Instead, she decided to lace up her shoes and do something about it.

"I decided to run 40 races in one year, and it started the day after my 39th birthday," she said.

She ran races with costumes and glow sticks and her friend, all for one cause.

"My great-uncle had Parkinson's so we knew it was in the family and my mother was diagnosed not too long ago. I thought, what better way to raise awareness than to incorporate my 40 races," she said.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS | Zumba instructor tailors workouts to Parkinson's patients

Running turned Sherrill's health around when she lost the weight. Now she runs for the health of her mother.

Sherrill has teamed with American Parkinson Disease Association to raise awareness about the benefits of exercise for Parkinson's patients.

She completed her 40th race on Saturday, just a few days before her 40th birthday.

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Parents in critical condition after domestic dispute

ROSWELL, Ga. -- Two parents were critically injured during a dispute in their Roswell home Monday morning.

The incident happened at around 6:20 a.m. in the family's unit at the Grande Oaks apartment complex on Legacy Oaks Circle off Old Roswell Road.

Roswell Police Officer Lisa Holland said the wife was stabbed and is in critical condition at North Fulton Hospital. The husband was found unconscious and was rushed to the same hospital to be treated for poison ingestion. No names were released.

The couple's three children, ages 16, 6 and 3, were home at the time, according to Holland. The 16 year old ran to a neighbor's unit to call 911.

The incident is still under investigation. Holland said the children were taken in by a relative.

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Suspected hit-and-run kills woman on I-285

Police investigating suspected hit & run on I-285 near Pleasantdale Road Monday morning

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - Police said the body of a woman was found on Interstate 285 near the ramp going to Northcrest and Pleasantdale roads at about 8:30 Monday.

Investigators said they believe she was the victim of a hit-and-run. No other injuries were reported.

View traffic maps & check traffic times on 11Alive.com's traffic page.

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2 killed in Henry County wreck

MCDONOUGH, Ga. -- Two people were killed and a third faces charges in an accident in Henry County over the weekend.

The wreck happened at around 3:30 a.m. Sunday on Highway 81 near Sowell Road in McDonough.

Henry County Police Sgt. Joey Smith said a Jeep Grand Cherokee was rear-ended while waiting for other cars to turn into a parking lot.

The force of the crash pushed the Jeep into oncoming traffic, where it was hit by a Chrysler Town & Country.

The driver of the Jeep, 20-year-old Michael Jacob Smith, was killed, as was his passenger, 21-year-old Chandler Nicole Ellenburg.

The Chrysler driver was taken to Atlanta Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

Sgt. Smith said the driver of the car that rear-ended the Jeep will be charged with following too closely and two counts of second-degree vehicular homicide. The driver's name was not released.

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Fired radio host breaks his silence

KENNESAW, Ga. -- In his Kennesaw home, Nick Cellini is playing with his 4-year-old son.

The two are digging into a bucket filled with Hot Wheels cars. After they play cars, it will be snack time, and then, if Cellini is lucky, nap time. This is the rhythm of his life now.

"I am a house husband," he says with a wry smile. It's not the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from a man who was a popular sports anchor for 25 years.

But Nick Cellini has a lot of time on his hands because of what happened on June 17 -- or rather, what commuters heard as they crept along Atlanta's clogged highways at 8:30 a.m.

"Joining us right now, Steve Gleason..."

It was a bit. Their show was filled with silly bits, and many times they were sorts of skits or jokes that pushed the envelope. It's part of what made this trio the most listened-to sports radio show on Atlanta mornings.

790 The Zone's 'Mayhem in the a.m.' was about to disintegrate in two minutes.

Co-host Cellini pretended to be Steve Gleason, the former New Orleans Saint now battling ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. Steve Gleason has lost the ability to speak and communicates with an voice automated device.

Cellini impersonated him, pretending to be Gleason calling into the show. Cellini says it was a split-second decision.

"About 40 seconds before we came back on, I decided to do the automated voice," he said.

Pretending to be Gleason, Cellini said, "Knock knock." The hosts answered, "Who's there?" Cellini responded, "Smother." The hosts said "Smother who?" And then Cellini answered, "Smother me. Do me a favor."

It went on for two minutes -- exactly how long it took to finish off a show that had been going for 17 years.

Cellini says, "I knew it about 10 seconds in. I could feel it in my gut."

He knew it was bad. He didn't know it was career-ending, not right away. That would happen after the show.

"I went on my Twitter page, then I went online, then I Googled my name. And at that point I realized, 'Oh boy this is a mushroom cloud,' and at that point I told my wife, 'I'm going to lose my job.'"

Cellini was right. He and co-hosts Steak Shapiro and Chris Dimino were fired that day by dinnertime. After 17 years together on the air, it was over.

And the days to come would be no easier.

"You put on CNN, there's a transcript of the bit. Your face is on just about every news channel. It was initially pretty scary. It was overwhelming," Cellini said. "I didn't leave my house for a couple of days. I was afraid to go any place, to the store. You start to get paranoid after a while. You feel like people are looking at you, people are judging you."

Cellini says he didn't really understand the disease ALS. He never meant to hurt anyone.

"I was just a victim of my own ignorance," he said.

A few weeks after he was fired, Cellini says he went to Louisiana to meet with members of Steve Gleason's family and his foundation. He asked for their forgiveness. And he says he got it.

"It was really amazing to find them to be as gracious as they were, to forgive us, to extend a welcome to us. His father-in-law said to us, 'If you need us to call anyone on your behalf just let us know.' Can you imagine someone being that gracious? I'm not sure I would have been," he said.

Five months later, Cellini is still out of work.

He laughs it off. "I am a carpool dad. I know all the shortcuts around Marietta now."

He records a podcast once a week. And last month, Cellini, Dimino and Shapiro were together again, at a walk in Atlanta to benefit ALS.

Shapiro continues to have his own show about Atlanta's food scene. Dimino has landed a job at 680 The Fan. Cellini is still looking.

"You have to admit you made a mistake but then, how do you overcome that mistake? All I can do is try to move forward and try to explain myself to people how I've changed through this, how I'm going to continue to be a better person through this and hopefully in time they'll forgive me as well," he said.

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