Tragedy unfolded around 7:30 this morning in the small Ohio town of Chardon, as an armed gunman entered the city’s high school and began firing shots in the cafeteria. The suspect, believed to be a student at Chardon High School, is currently being held in police custody. Five people were injured, including at least four students, the names of whom have not yet been released. The suspect is currently in police custody.
Students evacuating Chardon High School after the shooting
Student Heather Ziska said she and other students began hearing popping noises in a nearby hallway shortly before the day’s classes were about to begin. Next, she said she saw a boy she recognized as a student enter the cafeteria with a gun and begin shooting. Students and teachers attempted to flee the school or find shelter in nearby buildings and classrooms. The suspect was chased from the school by a teacher before being apprehended by law enforcement officials.
An FBI SWAT team is currently on the scene at Chardon High, which remains on lockdown. The identity of the shooter has not yet been released, but students report that he posted a threatening message on Twitter before the shooting. “I think he said that he was going to bring a gun to school, and I think that everyone just blew it off like he was joking,” one said.
After a highly-publicized domestic violence incident in 2009, music stars Rihanna and Chris Brown have now released two remixes together. Monday, Brown tweeted a remix of his song “Turn Up the Music” featuring vocals from his ex-girlfriend. Rihanna retweeted the post, and also tweeted a remix of her own song, “Birthday Cake,” that features Brown.
Rihanna (left) after being attacked by Brown (right)
Many were outraged at this year’s Grammy Awards, as Brown, a convicted felon serving five years of probation for his attacks on Rihanna, was not only asked to perform twice, but was even awarded the prestige of Best R&B Album. In her widely shared piece “I’m Not OK With Chris Brown Performing at the Grammys, and I’m Not Sure Why You Are,” writer Sasha Pasulka makes a moving argument against the music industry’s endorsement of such an individual:
As most of us learn with age, the holiday season can often be a time of tragedy despite its promises of cheerfulness and new beginnings. Residents of Washington State experienced this firsthand yesterday, January 1, 2012, when a gunman shot and killed a ranger in Mount Rainier National Park. The woman, 34-year-old mother of two Margaret Anderson, had been serving as a park ranger for four years.
Authorities examine a vehicle believed to belong to suspected gunman Benjamin Colton Barnes
Her husband, also a Mount Rainier park ranger, was working elsewhere in the park at the time of the shooting. Around 10:20 A.M., the gunman sped past a security checkpoint making sure vehicles had tire chains for the snowy conditions. While another ranger followed, Anderson blocked the road to stop the driver. The perpetrator began firing shots, and Anderson, who should have been armed, was hit before she even left her vehicle.
Country singer Mindy McCready, who has been singing since 1996, tragically boasts more fame and fortune for her legal troubles than for her artistic career. She has spent time in jail for assaulting her mother, and has also been busted for drug charges and DUI. Hospitalized multiple times for suicide attempts, she also claims to have had an affair with baseball legend Roger Clemens.
One of McCready's numerous mugshots
In an attempt to reconcile these personal problems, she appeared on Season 3 of “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” alongside Dennis Rodman, Heidi Fleiss and Tom Sizemore. This past weekend, however, McCready made the news yet again for actions that will undoubtedly land her in back in jail.
McCready, who is six months pregnant with twins, intentionally violated a court-ordered custody agreement when she took her five-year-old son Zander from her father’s residence in Florida, fleeing north. Shortly thereafter, the pair was reported missing, and FBI fliers circulated calling the incident a “parental abduction,” deeming Zander “missing.” On Friday, the mother and son were found hiding in the closet of her boyfriend’s lake home in Heber Springs, Arkansas. There was no ensuing struggle, but McCready was reportedly quite emotional.
An almost unprecedented tragedy unraveled this week in a rural town in Ohio when sheriff’s deputies were forced to shoot and kill almost 50 exotic animals. Terry Thompson, 62, owner of Muskingum County Animal Farm, flung open his animals’ cages late last Tuesday before committing suicide. Schools were closed and residents of Zanesville were warned to stay in their homes until Wednesday afternoon, when officers with high-powered rifles and orders to shoot-to-kill had managed to hunt down the 56 animals
Motorists in Ohio were warned to be on the lookout for animals and to stay in their vehicles
that had been turned loose from the farm. Among the animals killed were 18 endangered Bengal tigers, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzly bears, a wolf and a baboon. Six animals were saved and taken to the nearby Columbus zoo.
If you live long enough, you can see just about anything.
I wonder if that was what actor Peter Fonda was thinking Wednesday when he came upon a man’s body inside a parked car. Fonda called 911 Wednesday afternoon to report the death, according to reports from the Los Angeles Police Department. Fonda was cruising Sunset Boulevard when he noticed the man slumped over the wheel of his car.
Police do not suspect foul play and the cause of death is under investigation. Police also made it a point to say that Fonda was not a suspect.
Peter Fonda is best known for his leading role in the film “Easy Rider,” a story of two bikers who set out on a highway journey. Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson also had roles in te film.
Odd incidents involving celebs seem to fade away quickly and there is no reason to believe that Fonda’s brush with a dead man will linger in the news much longer. Besides, at 61-years-old, he still seems to have a lively acting career. He has roles in two movies coming up for release, “Easy Fifth Bliss,” and “Banker to the Poor.”
Maybe Wesley Snipes will try out the prison boxing moves he used in "Undisputed" in real prison? On second thought, that's probably a terrible idea. Like not paying taxes.
Former famous person Wesley Snipes finally ran out of jail-avoiding tricks and reported to prison in Pennsylvania today. The actor, who you may recall was quitefamous in the 1990′s, had been trying to avoid jail since being convicted of not filing tax returns back in 2008. (He was acquitted of much more serious charges, however.)
Apparently the IRS doesn’t like it too much when you earn $40 million since 1999 (considering Wesley’s career choices since then, this is really impressive), and then fail to pay–and some years even file–taxes.
Of course, the rankings aren’t without controversy. The FBI, for one, says their data shouldn’t be used this way, and criminolgists say that the rankings use the data unfairly. Another major flaw is that the rankings omit Chicago, because certain numbers “were not available.” We’re not sure whether being ranked is worse than being not ranked due to lack of data, and it’s hard to believe that Chicago wouldn’t be near the top.
We were at work here at Juggle HQ, just like any other Tuesday. Here in the St. Louis area, it was an unseasonably warm day. It felt more like late spring than the end of fall. It was the kind of day that makes you smile just being outside. The kind of day when death is the farthest thing from your mind.
Outside of this kind of rare, executive-level interaction, people are advised to avoid bears at all costs. Seriously.
Since we’re in the midst of summer vacation season and camping is high on a lot of vacation lists, we thought it only fair to warn you about the dangers of bears. Though they’re presented by the mainstream media as cute rascals who only want a taste of your “pic-i-nic basket”, the truth is far closer to what Stephen Colbert has been warning us about: they’re cold-blooded killers. Just yesterday they struck at the heart of American camping at Yellowstone National Park. Attacking a crowded group of campsites in the Montana portion of the park in the middle of the night, the bears were merciless, killing one camper and injuring two more. As much as we joke about it, it’s really important to be safe when camping, and although it looks like these folks had done everything right, safely locking up their food (bears do love hotdogs), it ultimately failed to protect them from the wrath of an angry bear.
You’d think that with so many people camping that fatal bear attacks would be fairly frequent, but as this chart shows, lately there haven’t been more than two or three a year, although geographically the encounters stretch from places like Tennessee and Pennsylvania to Wyoming, New Mexico and all across Canada. It seems that out in the wild, there’s nowhere to hide. Let’s be careful out there.
Encyclopedia & Reference Resource