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US Airways flight 1549, en route from LaGuardia to Charlotte, crashed into the Hudson River in New York City after the plane hit a flock of geese. The reports at present are that all 148 passengers and 5 crew members that were on board were able to get off the plane safely. More from CNN

Some dads would give their lives to protect their daughters. Others will hire hitmen to beat their daughter to a pulp and leave her incapacitated and unable to take care of her child so they, the fathers, can then obtain custody of their granddaughters.

Police have arrested David Ward of Pacific Missouri for plotting to have his daughter beaten up. Ward tried to hire a hitman to carry out the task of beating his daughter near enough but not quite to death. Apparently his daughter wasn’t letting him see his granddaughter, so he figured he would pay someone to break a few of her bones.

He got to talking to the hitman, an undercover officer (naturally he didn’t know that part), explaining how he didn’t want his daughter killed, but he did want her pretty thoroughly hurt. He gave the hitman full details, including a map to his daughter’s house and three pictures of his daughter to help the hitman identify his daughter in a crowd. He figured beating up his daughter would help him get custody of his granddaughter.

What’s unfortunate here is that daddy dearest probably won’t spend very much time behind bars for conspiracy to beat someone to a pulp. It’s possible he won’t do any time at all.

The major of Racine Wisconsin has been arrested and is being charged with attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, child enticement and possession of child pornography. Gary Becker, 51, is also being accused of “exposing a child to harmful materials, using of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and misconduct in public office”. More  details on this

Arrested: Christopher Mitchell (age:25)

Reason for arrest: shooting his  two year old son in the head

Victim’s Name: Jacob Mitchell (age: 2)

Where crime occurred: Johnson City Tennessee at the Value Place Hotel in Boones Creek.

Details: A two year old boy is dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Police have arrested the boy’s father and charged him with first degree murder; however, the father insists his son’s death was an accident. He told police that he awoke at 10:30 Sunday night and heard a sound like a firecracker going off. Apparently he then found his son dead. He must have panicked and realized police were going to think he did it so he hid the gun. It is unclear who called police, but police were called and the child was transported to the hospital where he died.

Police are not convinced that Christopher Mitchell is telling them the truth about how his son died. They are treating the case like a homicide pending further investigation. Prosecutors say even if it turns out to have been an accident Christopher Mitchell could still face a major murder charge due to his negligence in storing his gun where he knew his child could reach it given the child had gotten into the drawer before.

Arrested: Candelaria Bradford (age: 48)

Reason for arrest: Killing a 2½ year old girl under her care at a daycare facility

Victim’s Name: Selenia Moreno

Where the crime occurred: Colorful Kids Preschool in Chandler Arizona

Details: According to a press release put out by the Chandler police department, back in November 2008, on November 5th exactly, police were called to 4939 W. Ray Rd. Suite 21, the location of Colorful Kids Preschool, because a child at the facility appeared to be unconscious. The child, Selenia Moreno, was transported to a hospital upon arrival of paramedics. Selenia Moreno was pronounced dead a short time later.

It was later determined upon investigation into the child’s death that the little girl died as a  result of asphyxiation. On January 13th 2009, police arrested Candelaria Bradford and charged her with 2nd degree murder. They allege that Bradford suffocated Selenia Moreno by leaning on her while she was lying on the floor with her face down.

Commentary: It is so unfortunate that some adults have so little control over themselves that tiny little children can drive them to such a point of frustration that they take an action which results in tragedy. With so few details it’s impossible to guess what transpried at Colorful Kids PreSchool on November 5th 2008. Perhaps Candelaria Bradford was trying to restrain Selenia Moreno and didn’t realize the little girl couldn’t breathe, which is not to attempt to lighten Bradford’s blame by any stretch of the imagination. She might not have been trying to kill Selenia Moreno, but she used inappropriate means to try to keep the girl under control and the girl died as a result. In life you get back what you put out. There’s never anything good that comes back at you when you’re impatient and mean and angry and when you strike out at  others because of your impatience and meanness and your anger. Accident or not Bradford did kill someone’s child and she should be shown no more mercy or understanding than she showed to little Selenia Moreno.

An 8-year old autistic girl was handcuffed and put in a police cruiser after she began to kick, bite and spit at her teachers at Kootenai Elementary school in Ponderay, Coeur D’Alene Idaho last week. Police arrested the girl and charged her with battery. The charges have since been dropped but her parents are now considering taking legal action against the school for calling police in the first place and for mistreating their daughter.

Spring Towry, the mother of Evelyn Towry says that her daughter was only fighting back againt the teachers restraining her in the first place. The teachers were refusing to let Evelyn participate in the Christmas party because she wouldn’t remove her cow costume (Note: the Christmas party was being held late because of school closings due to snow that prevented it being held in December). They locked her in a room. She tried to leave and they felt it necesary to physically stop her from leaving. She objected to being manhandled and began to kick, bite and spit at them.

Spring Towry says that while she is not excusing her daughter’s behavior, she does not believe it was necessary for the police to become involved and for her daughter to have been handcuffed and taken away in a police cruiser and charged with battery. She believes the teachers were rough in handling Evelyn, leaving bruises on the girl’s body, and her daughter was only fighting to prevent them from holding her down. She believes the school should be held accountable for their abusive treatment of a disabled student. Get more on this story from abclocal.go.com

Heath and Deborah Campbell, the parents who made news a month ago when a ShopRite store in New Jersey refused to write the name of their son Adolph Hitler Campbell on a birthday cake, have had their son Adolph and his siblings Joycelynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell removed from their home. The reason for the removal of the children is not known at this time. More from MSNBC.com

When their bank made an error and recorded a $1,772.50 deposit as a deposit of $177,250, husband and wife Randy and Melissa Pratt of Pennsylvania withdrew the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida. They are now both behind bars. Their crime? Failing to let their bank know about the error that was made, and essentially stealing nearly two hundred thousand dollars. Life is not a game of Monopoly. When the bank makes an error in your favor, remind yourself that it’s not your money, pick up the phone, give them a call and let them know about the error. Failure to do so could land you behind bars.

Arrested: Shane Michael Charlton (age: 41)

Reason for arrest: causing the death of his girlfriend’s (common law wife’s) daughter then trying to cover it up by burying the child in a shallow grave in the backyard and claiming she must have been kidnapped while he was sleeping

Victim’s Name: Katie Frye (age:16 months)

Where crime occurred: Titus County, Louisiana

Details: Barabara Tucker had an errand to run so  she left her 16-month old daughter Katie in the care of her common law husband Shane Michael Charlton ( there must be another story here given Katie was 16-months old and a couple usually have to be living together for a certain number of years to be considered married under common law terms; but let’s not digress). So Barbara goes off on her errand; and something goes completely haywire. Police don’t know the exact details yet. What they do know is that when Barbara returned home she found Shane Michaeal fast asleep. She went to the nursery to look in on Katie. She discovered Katie was not in her crib. Alarm bells begin to blare.

This is how we imagine the scene might have gone down

BARBARA: (UPON DISCOVERING KATIE IS NOT IN HER CRIB)

Shane! Shane! Shane wake up!

SHANE MICHAEL (WHO’S REALLY ONLY PRETENDING TO BE SLEEPING - DOING HIS BEST WAKING UP SUDDENLY ALL GROGGY AND DISORIENTED ACT)

What? What?

BARBARA

Where’s Katie? She’s not in her crib!

SHANE MICHAEL (RUBBING HIS EYES. STILL ACTING KINDA SLEEPY LIKE HE’S NOT FULLY AWARE OF ANYTHING)

Katie?

BARBARA (PANIC HEIGHTENING)

Yeah! Katie! Where is she?

SHANE MICHAEL

In her crib of course. Where else?

SHANE MICHAEL PROCEEDS TO WALK TOWARDS THE NURSERY TO SHOW THAT KATIE IS IN HER CRIB.

BARBARA (RUNNING BEHIND SHANE MICHAEL)

She’s not in her crib. I already checked. She’s not there Shane!

SHANE MICHAEL (REACHES NURSERY)

Of course she’s there.

(SHANE MICHAEL WALKS TO CRIB AND LIFTS UP BLANKET, TURNS DUMBFOUNDEDLY TO LOOK AT BARBARA.)

SHANE MICHAEL

Holy Shit! I think Katie’s been kidnapped!

Since this matter is in no way funny and we don’t want to appear to be making light of it, we’ll end the scripted dramatization here. What happened next was that Shane Michael Charlton then suggested Katie must have been kidnapped because he left her in her crib sleeping before he went to take a quick nap. Police were called. The kidnapping angle was explored. Who would kidnap little Katie. Probably her biological father. Police went looking in that direction but the biological father was found and it was determined he had not kidnapped Katie.

Just as a matter of course, to ascertain they check out every possibility, police brought in the dogs and went to search in the backyard; and according to Titus County Sheriff, Tim Ingram, they found Katie’s body almost immediately. She had been buried in a shallow grave in the back yard, her body in a garbage bag.

According to what Shane Michael Charlton allegedly told police, he gave Katie too much medication, accidentally, and she died. He panicked, put her in a garbage bag and buried her in the backyard as if burying a dead animal.

Commentary: It’s not all that easy to kill a child by giving the child too much medication. After the seventh or so teaspoon of Tylenol Kids, or whatever, you’re not so much trying to help the child feel better as trying to make little baby hush and never utter another word again; but who knows what really happened? Men make those kinds of mistakes all the time don’t they? Or is that just one of those ridiculous stereotypes? Perhaps it’s a good idea for mothers to exercise more caution in deciding to leave their boyfriends to watch their children, especially where the boyfriend is not the child’s biological father.