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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