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In a story that made everyone's blood run cold, a resident physician specializing in pediatrics at the University of Michigan was arrested in December after investigators found child pornography on his computer. If that wasn't bad enough for you, it now turns out that another doctor found child pornography on a thumb drive at the hospital last May, determined to whom it most likely belonged, and reported it to her superiors, who assured her it was being dealt with according to protocol. It... Read Full Story

Everything about this story is wrong. Based on as yet very sketchy reports, here's what we know: An 8th grader at Cummings Middle School in Brownsville, Texas, showed a gun in the hallways at school this morning. Police were called. They ordered him to drop the gun. He didn't. He appeared to aim it at them. They shot him. He died. The gun turns out to have been an air pellet gun. When I say that everything about this is wrong, I don't mean to imply it's not true. It's just wrong. It... Read Full Story

The story unfolded in the local media, posted on my Facebook page this afternoon. A major street was closed due to police activity. Police were investigating a possible suicide. A note had been found and the family called police. Officers on the scene were seen wiping their eyes. And finally, the news that the Chief of Police at Eastern Michigan University killed himself today. This man was well known in the law enforcement community. In addition to the Eastern police force, he had been an... Read Full Story

Just over a month ago, I was blogging, as was pretty much every other blogger out there, about the Penn State child sex abuse scandal . I wrote about how hard it is to know what you don't want to know and see what you don't want to see. I wrote about breaking the silence and creating a world where things like this didn't happen and children knew they'd be believed and supported if they did. Today brings us a story that I would like to offer as exhibit A in my argument that this is a... Read Full Story

Video is all over the Internet this morning of a police officer at University of California at Davis walking up and down a row of seated, passive protesters, spraying them in the face with pepper spray. The video has sparked quite a bit of outrage in various circles across the political spectrum, including calls for an investigation and calls from the faculty association for the university's chancellor to resign. Last night, as the chancellor walked to her car, three solid blocks of... Read Full Story

By now, you probably know what happened. At least eight young boys were allegedly sexually assaulted and/or raped in State College, Pennsylvania over the course of 15 years. The alleged perpetrator was an assistant coach for the Penn State football team, which, let's face it, is the only reason those of us outside of the area even know about it. If the allegations aren't enough to outrage you, throw in the fact that two administrators were also arrested for allegedly covering it up and... Read Full Story

This week, the NPR show On the Media had an interview with Laura Amico, the founder of a website called Homicide Watch D.C. This website tracks every homicide in Washington, DC from the time the crime is committed through the investigation, trial and sentencing. It's a big job in a city that has already experienced 95 murders in 2011 (down from 106 at this point in 2010). One of the things that makes Homicide Watch interesting is that they often publish information that has not been made... Read Full Story

Halloween in a school is always an adventure. The best advice for school personnel on this day was shared with me by a senior teacher early in my career: "Stay more sugared up than the kids." Whether or not the school has particular activities or parties planned, there's a certain level of craziness that infects most kids the day of the biggest candy fest of the year. Several Halloweens ago, I was dressed as Greg from the Wiggles for Halloween. For those of you unfamiliar, the Wiggles are... Read Full Story

Imagine, if you will, that you are a protester at Occupy Maine, the Portland, ME off-shoot of the Occupy Wall Street protests. In the interest of economic equality, you have been camping in Lincoln Park in Portland for a few weeks. There aren't many of you, but you're committed. And while not everyone agrees with you, those who don't tend to brand you as harmless loons. Not a compliment, certainly, but if you can stand Portland nights in October you can stand a little ridicule. Then, early... Read Full Story

A dead lion on the Ohio game preserve. Zanesville, Ohio is basically under lockdown this morning after more than 40 animals escaped from a preserve . The owner was found dead, and the animals' cages were all open. So far authorities have shot and killed about 25 of the animals, which included lions, bears and wolves. Four local school districts have cancelled classes. My first impression when I heard this story was that someone had murdered the preserve owner had been murdered by someone... Read Full Story