VEGAS MOM GIVES BIRTH TO HEALTHY QUINTUPLETS: PHOENIX (AP) — A Las Vegas mother is resting Wednesday after delivering a healthy set of quintuplets in a suburban Phoenix hospital, bringing five new additions to her family's already full house.
Evonne Derrico, 33, gave birth to three girls and two boys after carrying the babies for eight months, about four weeks longer than the national average for quints.
Deniko, Dariz, Deonee, Daician and Daiten were being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit. Each infant weighs less than 3 pounds, but their father, Deon Derrico (duh-REE'-koh), said that all are healthy.
For he and his wife "to be blessed with this type of gift is just magnificent," he said.
The babies, born Friday morning, join the Derricos' 7-year-old daughter, 3-year-old son and 1-year-old twin boys. All of the children's names begin with the letter "D."
He said the prospect of caring for such a large family occasionally causes him anxiety, but he says he's ready.
"To go from four for nine, that's a level of preparation that requires you be a billionaire," Deon Derrico said. "But whatever has to be done to take care of my children, I'm going to do it."
ZIMMERMAN PROBE ON HOLD UNTIL EVIDENCE SURFACES: LAKE MARY, Fla. (AP) — The investigation of a domestic dispute between George Zimmerman and his estranged wife is on hold because there is no clear evidence to charge anyone and neither side wants to press the case, a police spokesman said Wednesday.
That could change if new evidence surfaces or technicians are able to extract video that recorded the dispute from Shellie Zimmerman's smashed iPad, said Officer Zach Hudson. Law enforcement analysts are having difficulty obtaining the video because the iPad is in bad shape, he said.
"We have concluded the investigation with what we have to work with right now," Hudson said.
The dispute took place Monday, just days after Shellie Zimmerman filed divorce papers. In the papers, Zimmerman, 26, said she had separated from her husband a month after he was acquitted in the 2012 fatal shooting death of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin.
TSA SCREENER INVOLVED IN THREATS: LOS ANGELES (AP) — An airport security screener was charged Wednesday with making threats, and authorities were scrutinizing a website linked to the suspect that contains rambling letters criticizing America as evil and promising something more devastating than the 9/11 attacks.
The letters were posted on a website apparently operated by Nna Alpha Onuoha, 29, who was arrested late Tuesday, hours after he quit his Transportation Security Administration job at Los Angeles International Airport.
Onouha was charged with one count each of making a false threat and making threats affecting interstate commerce. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
The threats prompted a brief shutdown of parts of LAX on Tuesday, and a package mailed to a TSA office near the airport briefly prompted an evacuation Wednesday afternoon.
The office was emptied for more than an hour but a bomb squad found that the package contained only "miscellaneous papers," said a statement from Los Angeles Airport Police Sgt. Belinda Nettles.
GIRL WHO SURVIVED RARE INFECTION GOES HOME: LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A 12-year-old Arkansas girl who survived a rare and often fatal infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba went home Wednesday after being hospitalized since July.
Kali Hardig was diagnosed with a devastating infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis after a trip to an Arkansas water park this summer.
There were 128 such infections reported in the United States between 1962 and 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before Kali, doctors could only point to one known survivor in the U.S. and another in Mexico.
During a news conference Wednesday, even Kali — whose name is pronounced— acknowledged the odds against her. "I'm lucky to be alive," she said.
Her doctors and parents agreed.
"The first 22 days being in ICU, you just never knew," her mother, Traci Hardig said. "You're told the worst news possible, and then to go from that outcome to ... get to actually take her home, I mean, I got to watch a miracle unfold right in front of my eyes."
Health officials believe Kali became sick after a trip to a now-shuttered water park that features a sandy-bottomed lake.
A brain-eating amoeba called Naegleria fowleri is often found in warm bodies of freshwater, such as lakes, rivers and hot springs. The amoeba typically enters the body through the nose as people are swimming or diving. It can then travel to the brain, causing primary amebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM.
Initial symptoms usually start within one to seven days and may include a headache, fever, nausea and vomiting. The disease progresses rapidly, and other symptoms can include a stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, seizures and hallucinations.
POLICE INSTALL 37 CAMERAS ON LAS VEGAS STRIP: LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities announced Tuesday they have installed 37 high definition cameras along the Las Vegas Strip in an effort to catch criminals and deter crime.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department purchased the cameras with a federal grant. They will monitor areas concealed from patrol cars and will be watched by police currently working desk jobs because of occupational injuries.
The cameras, which can tilt, pan and zoom, have been placed about two stories off the Strip. Police hope the prominent cameras will serve a deterrent and also allow them to monitor large crowds. They join eight previously installed police cameras on the Strip.
The cameras will monitor the tourist corridor from the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign by the airport to the Circus Circus casino toward the north of the Strip.
The Strip has seen several high-profile incidents of violence this year, including a carjacking that left two people dead, a gun battle that ended in a fiery explosion and a stabbing between two hotels.
The ACLU of Nevada did not immediately returns calls and emails seeking comment.
