Thursday, Dec 22, 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday my friend!
Anna Marie is out till Tuesday, so there'll be no more local news updates here until then. Today's news is below.

SIX YEAR-OLD LEFT HOME ALONE KILLED IN FIRE
Firefighters are investigating today after a 6 year-old boy, left home alone, died in a house fire in east Nashville early yesterday morning. The fire may have started from a sofa left near a heater.

SAINT THOMAS DISCONTINUES HEART TRANSPLANTS
Nashville's Saint Thomas Hospital, where the state's first heart transplant was performed, says it'll no longer perform the procedures. More people are going to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for them. So Saint Thomas says it'll switch focus to ventricular assist device therapy, a battery-powered pump option for heart patients.

WAL-MART BABY FORMULA RECALL
Wal-Mart is pulling a batch of baby formula off its shelves.. that may be contanimated. A ten-day-old Missouri baby died from a rare bacterial infection which can come from contaminated infant formula, so Walmart is recalling all 12-and-a-half ounce cans of Enfamil Newborn powder with a certain batch number, as a precaution. (Batch number Z-P-1-J-7-G)

JOHNSON AND JOHNSON PULLING MOTRIN
And Johnson & Johnson is pulling millions of bottles of Motrin pain reliever from store shelves. Not because of a safety issue, but because the outer layer of the pill may not dissolve in your system like it's supposed to, which means you'd take the Motrin, but you wouldn't get pain relief very fast.

PATERNO SUPPORTERS WISH HIM HAPPY 85TH
Former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno turned 85 yesterday and dozens of his supporters showed up at his house last night to wish him happy birthday. Paterno was fired by the university after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal broke.

WHITE CASTLE TESTING ALCOHOL SALES
You may be able to have a brew with that slider soon. White Castle is reportedly testing selling beer and wine at an Indiana store. Company representatives say the idea was inspired by customer suggestions.

MISSING ARIZONA STUDENT FOUND ALIVE AFTER A WEEK
A missing 23-year-old Arizona State University student has been found safe ... after spending more than a week in her snowbound car. Forest Service workers found her in a remote area of eastern Arizona. She'd been missing since December 11th.  

METRO POLICEMAN FIRED FOR IPOD THEFT
Metro Police sergeant Don Long has been fired ... for allegedly stealing an iPod from a Robertson county pawn shop. Long had already been decommissioned after the incident in October... but the city had been investigating. 

HASLAM SEEKS REVIEW OF TEACHER EVALUATION PROCESS
Governor Bill Haslam is asking for an outside review of the new Tennessee teacher-evaluation process. A Tennessee Education Association lobbyist agrees that the process needs immediate review, but he says it should be from the people on the 'front lines', the educators.

LAWYER PLEADS 'INBREEDING' AS MURDER DEFENSE
This may be a first: a lawyer is using 'Inbreeding' as a murder defense. The attorney for a man who kidnapped and killed a young boy, says his client may have schizophrenia due to inbreeding in the Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn where he was born.

POWERBALL WORTH 77 MILLION GOES UNCLAIMED
And there's an unclaimed Powerball Lottery prize that's about to EXPIRE! It's worth 77 MILLION dollars, and it has to be claimed today! The ticket was sold six months ago in Georgia. and the state's lottery headquarters in Atlanta will be closed Friday through Monday for Christmas.

RECALLS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
There are some product recalls you need to know about. One is not dangerous, but if you're hurting it'll matter to you! It's a batch of Motrin in which the outer layers of the pills may not dissolve right, so you don't get your pain relief.
And Wal-Mart has pulled a batch of Enfamil baby formula off its shelves as a precaution... after a Missouri baby died from a rare bacterial infection that can come from formula.

IT'S ILLEGAL TO LEAVE RUNNING CARS UNATTENDED
http://www.wkrn.com/story/16366043/law-makes-it-illegal-to-leave-running...
Before you start your car to let it warm up in the morning, police want to remind you that it's ILLEGAL to leave your car running, unattended. It's like loading a gun, then leaving it lying around. If someone steals your car and it's involved in an accident, YOU could be responsible for the damages.

EIGHT SOLDIERS FACE CHARGES FOR ROLES IN SOLDIER SUICIDE
Eight Army soldiers are facing charges for their roles in the apparent suicide of a fellow soldier in Afghanistan. Family members say the eight soldiers hazed and used racial slurs against 19 year-old private Danny Chen incessantly, until Chen finally killed himself. 

VIRGINIA WOMAN FACES GRAND LARCENY CHARGES FOR BABY JESUS THEFT
A 25 year old Virginia woman thought it'd be funny to steal the Baby Jesus from the Nativity Scene in Fredericksburg's Central Park... but she got caught... and is now charged with a FELONY... She could get 20 years in prison if she's convicted.

HOBBIT MOVIE TRAILER OUT A YEAR AHEAD OF MOVIE RELEASE
http://www.thehobbitblog.com
The next movie in the Lord of the Rings franchise.... doesn't come out till Christmas of NEXT year, but the Trailer for the movie "The Hobbit: There and Back Again," has already been released! SEE IT HERE.
Peter Jackson, who produced the Lord of the Rings movies, produced this one, too. It's about Bilbo Baggins and how he came to possess the ONE ring. The Hobbit will  be broken into two parts: the first comes out in December of 2012... the second part, in December of 2013.

OBAMA SPEECH TODAY TO FOCUS ON PAYROLL TAX CUT
President Obama gives a speech today, in which he's expected to criticize House Republicans for failing to pass the payroll tax cut extension... that'd keep about 40 dollars more in most people's paychecks each week. (One site says 400 a year) 

BOMB PACKAGE DISRUPTS PORT OF LOS ANGELES
A package with the word "bomb" spray-painted on it disrupted operations at the Port of Los Angeles yesterday. There was NOT a bomb in it, however, and police are investigating today. 

DEADLY DAY IN IRAQ
It's another deadly day in Iraq with at least 63 people dead and more than 180 others wounded in a wave of coordinated explosions across Baghdad.  Insurgents used car bombs and improvised explosive devices to attack markets, grocery stores, schools and government buildings in a dozen neighborhoods.  

RON PAUL WALKS OUT OF CNN INTERVIEW
A CNN interview irks GOP White House hopeful Ron Paul and he walks out.  Paul left after reporter Gloria Borger asked him questions about racist newsletters sent under his name in the 1990s.  Paul insisted that he never wrote the newsletters.  When Borger continued to press him, Paul removed his microphone and left.