Peanut Butter News

Full Story at msnbc.com

Kansas City, Mo., plans to close nearly half its public schools by fall. Illinois’ governor wants to raise state income taxes by 1 percent to continue funding schools and prevent the layoffs of thousands of teachers. Hawaii, President Barack Obama’s home state, has whacked 17 days from the school year and says it’s not done with educational cost-cutting.

From Maine to Wisconsin, Florida to California, school districts across the country are taking drastic measures to deal with school budget cuts made severe by the recession and its aftermath. Msnbc.com asked readers how their school district is coping, and one clear lesson emerged — cuts in education make no one happy.

Full Story at CNN.com

CNN) — A man apparently angry over a poor performance evaluation entered an Ohio State University maintenance building early Tuesday and opened fire, killing a manager before turning the gun on himself, police said.

Larry Wallington, 48, a building services manager at the OSU Maintenance Building, was pronounced dead at the scene of the 3:30 a.m. ET shooting, Ohio State University Police Chief Paul Denton said. Wallington was a 10-year university employee, he said.

Full Story at CNN.com

New York (CNN) — “Unauthorized and unprofessional” is how an internal memo describes the conduct of an air traffic controller, who allegedly allowed his two young children to speak with pilots on an air traffic control frequency, and his supervisor, who allegedly allowed it to happen.

The memo, dated February 25, was written after the facilities manager for the air traffic control tower at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport learned about the incident, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Full Story at CNN.com

Denver, Colorado (CNN) — During emergency drills at Deer Creek Middle School, teacher David Benke used to tell his students that if anything ever happened, he wanted to be able to “do something about it.”

When he saw a man shooting at students as they were leaving the Littleton, Colorado, school on Tuesday, “What was going through my mind,” Benke said, “was that I promised.”

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — A close relative of a missing Southern California family fears they may have been kidnapped.

“My gut feeling is telling me that they are being held against their will in some way,” said Michael McStay, brother of Joseph McStay. “That’s my personal opinion. That’s what I think.”

Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianna, 4, and Joseph, 3, have not been seen or heard from since February 4. Concerned relatives contacted authorities, who then conducted a welfare check of the family’s home on February 15, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said.

Full Story at msnbc.com

SUWANEE, Ga. – Police in Georgia say a man stabbed his estranged wife to death in a Walmart parking lot where they met to exchange custody of their children.

A Suwanee police news release says the couple began arguing Sunday outside of the store in the city about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Full Story at msnbc.com

PHOENIX – A malnourished Phoenix girl was locked in a bathroom without running water for two months, beaten with metal rods and forced to exercise until exhaustion because her father said she had stolen food and cheated on a home-school test, police say.

Full Story at CNN.com

New York (CNN) — More than 1,000 people in New Jersey and New York, many of them adolescent Orthodox Jews, have been sickened with mumps since August, health authorities said Monday.

Orange County, New York, has confirmed 494 cases since early November, county spokesman Richard Mayfield told CNN. Almost all of those infected with the virus are of the Orthodox or Hasidic Jewish population, and their average age is 14, he said.

Full Story at WPTZ.com

LEBANON, N.H. –
He’s not even 3 years old and he faces the fight of his life. Neighbors are meeting to see if a simple test could save a boy who needs a bone marrow transplant.

Last November, Hunter Morgan had a fever. When the fever hadn’t broken after several days, his mother took him to the hospital, and soon found out that her 2 1/2-year-old had a rare, life-threatening disease.

Full Story at news.yahoo.com

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A newly released video shows the mother of the 6-year-old boy purported to be in a runaway balloon finally acknowledging to authorities it was all a hoax — contrary to her husband’s repeated public denials just before reporting to jail.

The video interviews obtained by the Fort Collins Coloradoan Friday show Mayumi Heene telling sheriff’s officials that the Oct. 15 event was a hoax that she and her husband orchestrated to gain notoriety and land a reality TV show.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — About 635,000 cribs sold at major discounters nationwide have been recalled by Dorel Asia SRL for strangulation and suffocation hazards that killed one child and injured 10 others, the government said Tuesday.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said that the hardware holding up the side of the crib can fail, causing the drop side of the crib to detach, which could trap and suffocate a child.

Full Story at CNN.com

10:37 p.m. — Two children were pulled alive Tuesday night from the rubble of a two-story building in Port-au-Prince. The 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl, rescued by a team from the New York City fire and police departments, were taken to an Israeli tent hospital.

10:31 p.m. — Rescue teams on Tuesday stopped searching the rubble of Port-au-Prince’s Caribbean Supermarket, where five people were rescued over the weekend. “You have to accept the realization that the potential for survivability is extremely low,” said Capt. Joe Zahralban of the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue team