COPS: MOM PULLED GUN AT CONN. CHUCK E. CHEESE'S: NEWINGTON, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut mother has posted bail after being charged with pulling a gun and threatening another woman at a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant.
Police say 30-year-old Tawana Bourne brandished a .380-caliber handgun and chambered a round during an argument at the children's game and pizza restaurant in Newington on Monday night. Police say both women were at the restaurant with their children.
Restaurant workers called police, who charged Bourne with reckless endangerment, risk of injury to children, threatening and breach of peace. She was freed after posting $50,000 bail and was ordered to appear in New Britain Superior Court on Feb. 19.
MIAMI WOMAN JAILED AFTER FLIPPING OFF JUDGE: MIAMI (AP) — A Miami woman has been jailed on contempt charges after flipping off a judge during a drug possession hearing.
Miami television station NBC 6 reported that 18-year-old Penelope Soto laughed Monday when Circuit Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat asked how much her jewelry was worth as he inquired about her financial assets.
The judge told Soto to be serious and Soto said she was being serious.
He set Soto's bond at $5,000 and said bye-bye. Soto laughed again and replied, "adios." He summoned her back and reset her bond at $10,000.
Soto asked whether the judge was serious and he said, "I am serious. Adios."
Soto flipped him off and blurted an expletive as she walked away.
The judge summoned her again and sentenced her to 30 days in jail.
COACH SHOOTS TEEN DURING ROBBERY NEAR MICH. SCHOOL: DETROIT (AP) — A 70-year-old high school basketball coach shot and killed one teenager and wounded a second as they attempted to rob him outside the school, Detroit police said.
Ernest Robinson, an assistant girls' basketball coach at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, was accosted by two males Friday evening while walking two members of the girls' team outside King High, said Officer Cassandra Lewis, a police spokeswoman.
"They announced a robbery, a struggle ensued and he pulled a weapon and fired," said Lewis, who added that Robinson is a reserve police officer and licensed to carry a concealed pistol.
Michael Scott, a 16-year-old ninth-grader at the east side school, was shot and killed, according to Steve Wasko, a spokesman for Detroit Public Schools.
A 15-year-old male was wounded. His name was not released.
Detroit police homicide investigators submitted a warrant request this week to the Wayne County prosecutor's office. Prosecutors were reviewing the case Wednesday to determine whether to file charges, spokesman Mark Bernardi said
3 WOUNDED IN SHOOTING OUTSIDE VEGAS MOVIE THEATER: LAS VEGAS (AP) — An overnight shooting in a parking structure outside a Las Vegas Strip movie theater left two people critically wounded and one person with a minor injury, police said Wednesday.
Police don't believe the shooting just after midnight was a random act, but Officer Laura Meltzer said the shooter or shooters hadn't been identified. She added initial reports from a police spokesman at the scene that the shooting happened in the theater lobby were incorrect.
Investigators believe the shooting stemmed from an ongoing conflict between members of two groups that squared off in the parking structure near the UA Showcase 8 theater, Meltzer said. The parking structure lobby has entrances to the theater and to Las Vegas Boulevard.
FOAM CUPS, CONTAINERS EYED AMID NYC RECYCLING PUSH: NEW YORK (AP) — Could plastic foam containers get 86'd from the menu of takeout food options in the nation's biggest city?
A sanitation official said Wednesday the idea is under discussion but it's too soon to say what will get recommended in an upcoming report on increasing recycling rates.
Polystyrene foam, sometimes sold under the brand name Styrofoam, has long been popular among restaurateurs for lightweight, heat-retaining containers, but environmentalists complain it takes years to break down in trash. Some communities around the country have barred eateries from using to-go containers made of it.
As New York City officials prepare a report on how to double the city's residential recycling rate, the foam is "one of the things that you have to look at," Department of Sanitation Deputy Commissioner Ron Gonen said by phone Wednesday.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg last year set a goal of recycling 30 percent of the city's household trash by 2017, up from about 15 percent now. City Hall is "always willing to take a look at new ways to reduce waste that can't be recycled or reused," spokesman John McCarthy said Wednesday.
TEXAS PRISON ESCAPEE CAUGHT AFTER 16 YEARS: HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas prison escapee on the run for almost 16 years has been captured by authorities in Mexico and awaits extradition to the U.S. to finish serving his sentence on charges of attempted capital murder of a police officer, state Department of Criminal Justice officials said Wednesday.
Juan Salaz was apprehended last week. The 37-year-old American citizen had been sought for years by authorities on both sides of the border.
Salaz escaped the night of March 22, 1997, from the Garza East prison in Beeville in South Texas by climbing over three 16-foot fences all topped with razor wire.
At the time, he was serving three concurrent 35-year sentences for aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer for a 1995 incident involving two Houston officers.
UP, UP AND AWAY: RACERS CLIMB NYC'S EMPIRE STATE: NEW YORK (AP) — It was a double win for Australians at the annual Empire State Building Run-up.
Australian Mark Bourne raced up the 86 flights of stairs Wednesday night in 10 minutes, 12 seconds. It's his first win.
Fellow Aussie Suzy Walsham won the women's division in 12 minutes, 5 seconds. It's the fourth time she's won the race.
Runners from around the world took part in the vertical dash up a total of 1,576 steps, starting at the lobby and finishing at the observation deck.
