Tripp Halstead returns to hospital

Tripp Halstead (Courtesy Bill and Stacy Halstead) (Courtesy Bill and Stacy Halstead)

JEFFERSON, Ga. -- Bill Halstead said Monday his son Tripp is returning to the hospital.  He said Tripp had a "rough night" and a nurse suggested a hospital stay would be a good idea to be safe.

Tripp was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital at 9:30 a.m. Monday. 

The 2 year old spent five months in the hospital after being hit in the head by a tree branch in October during Superstorm Sandy. He underwent more than a dozen surgeries, and was just released for the first time Friday evening, when the family posted a personal video showing him being carried through the door for a homecoming party. 

A Facebook page updating his progress is being followed by nearly 400,000 people.

Monday is Tripp Halstead Day in Paulding County. Chick-fil-A restaurants in Dallas and Hiram will hold fundraisers for the Halstead family from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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Indicted APS educators must turn themselves in

Dr. Beverly Hall (Flickr:Metro_Atlanta_Chamber)

ATLANTA -- The teachers and administrators indicted in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal must turn themselves in to the Fulton County Jail by Tuesday.

The 35 educators, including former superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall, face charges of racketeering, theft by taking, influencing witnesses and making false statements.

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A grand jury hearing the APS case suggested a $7.5 million bond for Hall.

According to a jail spokesman, the 35 people will be processed as individuals. Because they were already indicted, they will not have first appearances, but they will have bond hearings.

Upon arriving at the jail, the educators will be fingerprinted, have mug shots taken and given an opportunity to post bail.

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Are you ready for baseball?

ATLANTA -- The Braves kick off the new season Monday against the Phillies.

There are a bunch of new things at Turner Field this year.

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Here are some helpful tips from the Braves for those attending the home opener.

• Parking lots will open at 2:00 p.m. and the Turner Field gates will open at 2 ½ hours before first pitch.
• Fans must pre-purchase parking as Braves parking lots will be PERMIT ONLY. 
• If fans have not pre-purchased their parking, the Braves are encouraging everyone to take alternate transportation to Turner Field. The MARTA Braves shuttle begins its run 90 minutes prior to first pitch from the Underground Atlanta/Five Points MARTA station to Turner Field until one hour after the final out. 
• For those fans who may want to arrive at the ballpark before the MARTA Braves shuttle begins its game operation MARTA recommends catching any one of three other available bus routes - the #32, the # 49 or the # 55. All three bus lines may be caught at the Five Points MARTA station and all three routes stop at points adjacent (i.e. Hank Aaron Drive, Pollard Blvd) to Turner Field.
• Braves ticket windows will open at 9:30 a.m. on Opening Day for fans who would like to purchase standing room only tickets ($17 in advance/$21.00 the day of the game) or pick up pre-purchased tickets in advance and will remain open until the end of the 6th inning. 
• Fans are encouraged to be seated by 6:20 p.m. for the special pregame ceremonies that will welcome the 2013 season and their Atlanta Braves.

Here are the Opening Day activities: 

• National anthem performance by country music star, Rodney Atkins. He will also perform pregame in Fan Plaza.
• Special pregame ceremony to introduce 2013 Atlanta Braves, including a special performance by the Georgia Southern University Southern Pride Marching Band.
• A flyover across Turner Field by four T6s of the historic Dixie Wing of the Commemorative Air Force.
• Former third baseman Chipper Jones will throw out the ceremonial first pitch and Dale Murphy will be the game's Honorary Team Captain.
• Atlanta Opera singer and Turner Field favorite, Timothy Miller will perform God Bless America, followed by the reigning 2013 Miss America, Mallory Hagan, who will lead the fans in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch. 
• Foam Tomahawk Giveaway - The first 45,000 fans through Turner Field's gates will take home a Braves foam tomahawk. 

RELATED | More MLB News

MORE | Grant Park residents question "homeplate" parking plan

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Mom, daughter escape car before train crash

Authorities say a mother and her daughter in northwest Georgia managed to escape from their car on railroad tracks moments before the train slammed into their vehicle. (Rome News-Tribune)

ROME, Ga. (AP) - Authorities say a mother and her daughter in northwest Georgia managed to escape from their car on railroad tracks moments before the train slammed into their vehicle.

The Rome News-Tribune reports that the collision happened Sunday on East 12th Street in Rome, where the car stalled on the railroad tracks.

Laterica Finley said she was going over the tracks when her front axle broke. As she got out to survey the damage, she heard someone say "I think I hear a train coming."

About a minute later, she said, the Norfolk Southern engine rammed the passenger side of the car. She had just gotten her 4-year-old daughter out of the back of the car and were both a safe distance away when the train slammed into the car.

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'Married to Medicine' is Atlanta's latest reality show hit

Toya Bush-Harris and Kari Wells are two cast members from Atlanta in "Married to Medicine" on Bravo TV.

ATLANTA -- Nearly two million viewers tuned in to the March 24th premiere of "Married to Medicine," Bravo TV's latest reality show that's set in Atlanta.

It was the network's highest-rated series premiere since "Bethenny Getting Married?" in 2010 and was the most-watched non-spinoff series premiere in network history.

"I thought it was all play until I got into this thing. I thought it was all fake," said cast member Kari Wells, who lives in Buckhead. "No. I was wishing it was fake everyday."

"I was going home praying, 'Who are these people?'" added fellow cast member Toya Bush-Harris, who lives in Cascade.

Wells and Bush-Harris are among the four women in the cast who are married to doctors. Two other cast members are OB-GYNS.

"It's a very small circle, and you end up meeting each other somehow," said Bush-Harris of the medical community in Atlanta. 

The reality show explores how the women juggle their careers, children and Atlanta's social scene.

Wells said she's taken a lot of heat for giving viewers a surprisingly intimate look at her marriage. The premiere episode shows Wells lighting candles and putting on a negligee as her husband arrives home from work.

"The point of the whole thing was that my husband and I like to have date nights. We have two children, and we like to have time together. We value our marriage," Wells told 11Alive's Jennifer Leslie. "And unfortunately, with him being a doctor, often intimacy gets broken up from a call from a patient. We're not doing that every day of the week, but you've got to put it on the calendar."

"So true," added Bush-Harris

Both women admitted they were reluctant to do a reality series but said the best of the show is yet to come.

"I would definitely say you are going to be so shocked," said Bush-Harris. "You're going to feel like you're on a roller coaster."

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Prosecution to seek death penalty against Holmes

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) - After a week of legal twists and turns, James Holmes will find out Monday if he could face execution if convicted in the Colorado theater attack that killed 12 people.

Behind-the-scenes maneuvering erupted into a public quarrel between prosecutors and the defense over Holmes' public offer to plead guilty, but the two sides could still come to an agreement that would spare Holmes's life in exchange for spending the rest of his life in prison.

"Even if they give notice on Monday that they are seeking the death penalty, they can come off that and enter into a plea bargain any time," said attorney Dan Recht, a past president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.

As the tangled and bloody case returns to court, survivors and families of the victims are uncertain about what happens next.

If the case goes to trial, "all of us victims would be dragged along potentially for years," said Pierce O'Farrill, who was shot three times.

"It could be 10 or 15 years before he's executed. I would be in my 40s and I'm planning to have a family, and the thought of having to look back and reliving everything at that point in my life, it would be difficult," he said.

Holmes is accused of a meticulously planning and brutally executing a plan to attack a Colorado movie theater at midnight during a showing of the latest Batman movie, killing 12 people and injuring 70. 

Defense lawyers revealed in a court filing last week that Holmes would plead guilty if prosecutors allowed him to live out his days in prison with no chance of parole instead of having him put to death.

That prompted an angry response from prosecutors, who called it an attempt to gin up public support for a plea deal.

Prosecutors also said the defense has repeatedly refused to give them the information they need to evaluate the plea agreement.

Prosecutors want to know how persuasive an insanity case Holmes could make before they agree to give up the death penalty, said Mimi Wesson, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School.

"To the prosecution, it's clear what they're giving up, but less clear what the defendant is giving up, because it's hard to know how strong his claim of insanity might be," she said.

If prosecutors do accept a deal, they will want to ensure that it's air-tight, said Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor who is now an adjunct professor at the University of Denver law school.

Holmes would give up his right to appeal by pleading guilty, she said. And although he could ask to change the plea if new evidence surfaces or if he claimed his lawyers were ineffective, "it's very, very hard to withdraw it," she said.

District Judge William Sylvester would want assurances from defense lawyers that Holmes is mentally competent to plead guilty and accept a life sentence with no parole, Steinhauser said.

The judge could order a mental competency evaluation before accepting a guilty plea, but Steinhauser said that's unlikely unless Holmes showed some sign of incompetence.

She said Sylvester would probably accept the word of Holmes' lawyers.

If Holmes is sentenced to prison, the state Department of Corrections would determine what kind of mental health care he gets, said Alison Morgan, a department spokeswoman.

A third of the state's inmates have moderate to severe mental illness, and the prison system has an extensive mental health division with a 250-bed facility for the acutely mental ill, she said.

Inmates can be sent to the state mental hospital in Pueblo - where people found not guilty by reason of insanity are committed - but the stay is temporary, and they are returned to the prison system after treatment, she said.

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Google, other companies get into April Fools' action

(USA Today) -- Tired of all those vowels clogging up your tweets?

Twitter announced a solution late Sunday night, saying it will shift to a two-tiered service, dubbing its basic, consonant-only plan "Twttr."

The April Fools' Day joke kicked off with Twitter tweeting out, "Trd th nw Twttr yt? Mr tm fr mr twts!" (Translation: Tried the new Twttr yet? More time for more tweets)  

The social media service says for a mere $5 a month, you can keep your vowels by using the premium "Twitter" service.

"We're doing this because we believe that by eliminating vowels, we'll encourage a more efficient and 'dense' form of communication." the company said on its blog. "We also see an opportunity to diversify our revenue stream."

In the announcement - which the company says was partially inspired by Wheel of Fortune - Twitter said that "Y" will remain free and other languages will be unaffected by the change.

The company is also offering a single character extension, allowing the length of a tweet to extend to 141 characters. "The price of the extra character is based on a bidding system reflecting the popularity of the character you would like to add," the company's blog states.

Twitter also announced a site that automatically transforms your tweets into a Twttr friendly format.

Joan Rivers got in on the action early, tweeting "Twyttyr? Why byy vywyls whyn yyy gyt "Y" fyr fryy? Syckyrs! #nvwls" (Translation: Twitter? Why buy vowels when you get "Y" for free? Suckers!

Google introduced a new "scentsation" with its search as part of a two-prong April Fools' Day prank with Google Nose. The feature incorporates smells into Google's search function, with a whopping 15 million scentibyte database of smells.

"In the fast-paced world we live in, we don't always have time to stop and smell the roses," says Jon Wooly, Google product manager in a YouTube video promoting the feature. "Now, with Google Nose Beta, the roses are just a click away."

Google describes the feature as a "flagship olfactory knowledge feature enabling users to search for smells."

Through "intersecting photons with infra-sound waves, Google Nose beta temporarily aligns molecules to emulate a particular scent."

And if you're afraid of what a particularly query may cook up, just use the SafeSearch feature.

Feeling like digging for buried treasure? The search giant also released a "Treasure Mode" overlay on its maps site.

In a YouTube video, Google explains the mysterious paper maps its Street View Team found off the coast of Madagascar in 2012 and later digitized belonged to Captain Kidd, who hid his treasures around the globe. Google calls on watchers to help decipher the maps and find the long-lost treasure.

A variety of techniques can be used to reveal hidden symbols, including applying sunlight to the maps, piecing multiple tablet and mobile devices together or aligning the map perfectly by skydiving over a specific landmark. The heat responsive ink is likely to get the most laughs, as Google shows some symbols can only be revealed by placing your laptop over an open flame (with the disclaimer do not attempt at home!).

To access the feature, visit Google Maps and click on the "Treasure" picture icon in the top right corner. The overlay even contains street-view, applied with a sepia-toned filter to give it that historical feel. The maps contain a number of Easter eggs including a separate URL with a live pirate ship tracking map and symbols hidden around the globe that spell out "April Fool." Treasure Island near San Francisco, Calif., has a mini-map with an X marking the spot, and New York City is marked by a pirate's skull with mysterious numbers in its eyes.

Users can share what they find on Google+ using the hashtag #treasuremap.

Google might have some trouble getting the word out on its treasure maps through its video since YouTube announced on Saturday that it will shut down the site on April 1, saying "It's finally time to pick the winner."

In keeping with the April Fools' Day fun, YouTube said it would "no longer be accepting entries." The website said that after 8 years, it was time to review all the videos uploaded to the site and select a winner.

"We are all storytellers. That's what pulled me into this contest: stories of how to photoshop and stories about The Hobbit trailer HD." YouTube judge Antoine Dodson said. "I encourage everybody to watch as many videos as possible before YouTube deletes everything."

YouTube celebrities also pop up in the video, making their case for winning the prize.

"I better win otherwise all the years traveling the world were just an expensive waste of time," says Matt Hardin, of "Where the Hell is Matt? 2012."

Rafi Fine, who submitted "Kids React to Grumpy Cat," tells viewers to continue to push themselves.

"We challenge ourselves every day to think of groups of people who could react to some video people already know about," he says. "Hopefully the judges appreciate the risks we take as artists."

Every video uploaded to the site will be reviewed by the site's 30,000 technicians who will narrow down the submissions for a panel to select the best video. The team of judges include YouTube commentators, and you can guess quickly how conversations with them will turn out.

The punchline? The winner of the contest will be announced when the site goes back online ... in 2023. When the site comes back, it will only feature the winner of the competition.

Viewers can weigh in on the contest on Google+ using the hashtag #bestvideo.

YouTube says it will begin announcing the nominees for best video in a livestream starting at noon ET on Monday. Presenters will then announce all the nominees for 12 hours every day for the next two years.

Other companies got into the April Fool's act Monday.

Chick-Fil-A tweeted about their "new" Chick-A-Strips and Chick-A-Sticks -- nasal strips and chicken flavored gum that can help "curb Sunday cravings."

Southwest Airlines announed new service on board their new fleet -- of hot air balloons. In a blog entry, Southwest says that a scenic trip from Boston to Denver will provide "a full 31 hours of seemingly neverending ground-peeping, star-gazing and gusty nap time."

In a tweet, Delta Air Lines showed off their new "double-decker armrest" for middle seats, allowing more arm space and "less elbow rubbing" for passengers.

Sir Richard Branson, CEO of Delta partner Virgin Atlantic Airways touted a "glass-bottomed plane" in a Monday blog entry, allowing passengers to get an "unrivaled view" of the ground passing by underneath airplanes.

Sony announced it's "Animalia" line of products, which promise "in-cage speakers" for hamsters, headphones for cats and dog-friendly television remotes.

For those of you looking for really tiny photos, Kodak announced their "wrist kiosk" which they said provides "all the functionality of a full size Kodak Picture Kiosk in a compact wearable wrist device."

Catalog site Think Geek has their annual list of fake products, including the "Eye of Sauron Desk Lamp" which has an eye that follows you around your room, much as the evil Eye of Sauron did in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

(USA Today)

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