Small Bits of News

Student booted from school after refusing to recite Pledge of Allegiance
A public high school student's refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance got her booted from class in Hamilton County until a lawyer explained that her actions are religious.
Eighteen-year-old Tyner Academy senior Quinesha Garrett was removed this week from daytime classes and ordered to night school, where the pledge is not recited. She said she's a devout Christian and believes she should not pledge her allegiance to anyone but God.
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Pets eat body left three years on floor
A partially mummified body lay on the floor for three years and was eaten by household pets in a house occupied by the dead woman's mentally ill sister. Responding to a neighbors's concern, police in the US city of Detroit discovered the body of the woman, thought to have died in her 80s, on the kitchen floor in a house shared with her sister.
A cat and a dog had apparently eaten part of the body which was partially covered with newspapers and had apparently been left lying by the sister for three years, police said. The sister, also in her 80s and suffering from mental problems, has reportedly been taken to a crisis center.
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Mom threw boiling water over daughter's boyfriend
A furious mother poured boiling water over a man as he slept - in revenge for dumping her daughter, a court heard yesterday. Steven Wade, 32, was left with red scald marks on his face, chest and shoulders after a week's treatment in a burns unit last August.
Marie Bell, 56, is alleged to have attacked him after he finished with her daughter Jemma Watts, 28. The court heard Bell turned up at 5am in the house where Mr Wade was staying, near hers in Swindon, Wilts. He recalled waking up in pain and said: "I saw Marie with a kettle in her hand. I was burning. I was shouting 'Why did you do that?' She said. 'You know why, you know why, because of my Jemma'." Bell denies causing GBH, saying she tripped over Mr Doyle's dog, Sacha, a nine-year-old Jack Russell. The trial continues.