The 19-year-old son of a convicted murderer is now facing a murder charge himself, accused of beating a Jefferson Township mother of two to death with a dumbbell in her Lake Hopatcong apartment this past January, authorities said today.

Demetrius Diaz-Bridges is charged with murder and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose in the Jan. 30 killing of Elizabeth O’Brien, authorities said. He was arrested Saturday in his mother’s home in Raleigh, N.C., police and a family member said.

Police say Diaz-Bridges, a former neighbor and friend of the victim’s older son, admitted to killing O’Brien and stuffing her body in the first-floor closet where it was found. Read more »

A video posted on YouTube.com is causing a lot of concern among Memphis City School parents.  Now were trying to find solutions.The clip labeled, “Mitchell High School Memphis … Rape Dat Ho,” was posted last month.  It was flagged as offensive then taken down, but not before News Channel 3 recorded the clip on tape.

The images are disturbing.  They are graphic and hard to watch.  It shows young men and women engaging in what one parent described as “sex with clothes on.” Read more »

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - The No. 2 police officer in a Mexican border city across from Texas was shot dead Saturday, the latest high-ranking official killed in an onslaught of attacks blamed on gangs resisting a crackdown.

Gunman sprayed Juan Antonio Roman Garcia’s car with bullets outside his home in Ciudad Juarez, officials said. The attack came months after his name appeared at the top of a hit list left at a monument for fallen police officers.

Mexico has been shaken by a wave of drug-related violence as gangs battle security forces and each other for control of trafficking routes north. Read more »

An East St. Louis police officer faces charges for keeping officers from another department from doing their jobs.

Belleville police say they were trying to break up a teen fight when Debra Simpkins arrived and identified herself as an officer.

A police report says she then used profanities, accused the Belleville officers of being racist and allegedly agitated the crowd, who then rallied behind her.

Simpkins is due in St. Clair County Court July 10th.  more>>>

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville high school student was recently beaten and battered at school by three students he said he didn’t even know.

Witnesses to the attack told police Forrest High School sophomore Karl Koch Jr. was targeted because of the color of his skin.”They started closing in, and all I remember is getting hit,” Koch said.

Read more »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration appears set to offer Israel a powerful radar system that could greatly boost Israeli defenses against enemy ballistic missiles while tying it directly into a growing U.S. missile shield.

President George W. Bush is expected to discuss the matter during a visit to Israel on Wednesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state amid mounting U.S. concerns about perceived threats from Iran, people familiar with the matter said.

This is “probably the No. 2 issue” on Bush’s agenda for the visit, second only to the Middle East peace process, said Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican who has spearheaded calls in Congress for tighter U.S. missile-defence ties with Israel. Read more »

Police plan to review surveillance footage of a fatal encounter between two Pittsburgh police officers — one of them a K-9 officer — and a Knoxville man with a history of arrests.Cameras outside a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center facility on the border of Knoxville and Mt. Oliver might have captured the Tuesday evening shooting that left Justin James Jackson, 19, dead.

Jackson died from a gunshot wound in the head and one in the chest, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said. The K-9 officer’s dog, a 6-year-old German shepherd named Aulf, died of chest wounds at a veterinary hospital. Read more »

Shortly after moving into their new home, an African American family was welcomed by someone burning “KKK” in their yard.

In a bustling neighborhood off Bonnabel Boulevard – near Lake Pontchartrain – one that was everything that this couple was looking for.  Last Saturday, they moved in.  They were proud to be on the block. Read more »

Moments before her ex-boyfriend was arraigned Friday on murder charges, 21-year-old Laci Green of Westland was described by family friends as a church-going, ambitious young woman who had ended a bad relationship and immersed herself in her nursing studies at Schoolcraft College.

“She went to church all the time,” said Sheila Noon, who worked with Green’s mother, Barbara, at the MotorCity Casino buffet.  [Her church probably recommended inter-racial relationships.]

Green, who worked at the casino hotel while attending school, had broken off a six-year relationship weeks ago with a 25-year-old Dearborn Heights defendant identified by police as Robert James-The-First Howard, accused of strangling Green to death early Wednesday morning near her home on Westland’s southwest side. Read more »

The San Diego Minutemen asked a federal judge yesterday to allow the group to reclaim a piece of Interstate 5 as its assigned spot in Caltrans’ Adopt-A-Highway litter cleanup program and to restore the state road sign with the group’s name.The anti-illegal immigration activists were granted a northbound stretch of the highway near the Border Patrol’s San Clemente checkpoint in November. They were reassigned to state Route 52 near Santee in January after complaints to the agency about the group’s controversial nature and the location near the checkpoint.

The agency cited safety concerns; the group, alleging free-speech discrimination, sued Caltrans the following month. Read more »

LOS ANGELES - A memorabilia dealer who profited from O.J. Simpson for many years is the latest former crony to write a tell-all book, this one alleging a groggy Simpson, high on marijuana, confessed to killing his ex-wife after he was acquitted.

Mike Gilbert also claims he helped his former friend wiggle out of the murder charges by suggesting how to bloat his hands so they wouldn’t fit the notorious bloody gloves.

Gilbert’s book, “How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of Violence, Loyalty, Regret and Remorse”, is due in stores Monday. It was released to The Associated Press in advance. Read more »