In the News; June 20, 2008

The Wrath of the Rain

The Mississippi River took over more farmland overnight north of St. Louis, Missouri, as officials warned that the swollen river could breach four or five more levees Thursday around the Gateway City .About 11 levees have been breached in the St. Louis area since the flooding began, said Officer Alan Dooly of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-St. Louis District. Floodwaters have compromised more than 20 levees from Iowa to Missouri, according to the Corps of Engineers.

The floods in six states have killed two dozen people, injured 148 and forced at least 35,000 out of their homes, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Paulison .......................................

Pregnacy Pact Among Teens.

A pact made by a group of teens to get pregnant and raise their babies together is at least partly behind a sudden spike in pregnancies at Gloucester High School, school officials said.

Principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine in a story published Wednesday that the girls confessed to making the pact after the school began investigating a rise in pregnancies that has left 17 girls at the school carrying a child. Normally, there are about four pregnancies a year at the school.

Then the story got worse. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," the principal says, shaking his head.

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Did you get your rebate check?

The IRS says it's still trying to reach some 5 million Americans -- primarily seniors and veterans -- who have not filed the tax returns needed to qualify for their stimulus checks.
The IRS is trying to reach people who do not normally file tax returns so they can apply for stimulus checks.

In all, the IRS has sent out more than 76 million stimulus checks, in amounts up to $600 for individuals, $1,200 for married couples and $300 per child for families.

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A woman who police said assaulted a 7 foot tall sex offender with a baseball bat said," I'd do it again if I had to," reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.


"She grabbed a bat, picked it up and started beating the crap out of me. She started beating me the way a man would with a bat", said the sex offender of the incident. "I've never even seen her before and she just comes over and accuses me of molesting her children and attacks me with a bat."

"I can't believe that he was allowed in our neighborhood", said the lady.

She often saw the 7 feet 3 inches tall offender talking with her 10-year-old daughter.

"Last year, on the Fourth of July, he was talking to my daughter. I got the flyer in the mail and I snapped. I went nuts," The offender had been convicted on two counts of first-degree child molestation in 1999 as well as other offenses.

On one occasion he had lured a 5-year-old girl into a doghouse in his backyard and sexually assaulted her. That crime was committed while he was on parole for another sexual assault in which he forced a different 5- year-old girl into a sex act with him.