Newspaper Heiress' Body Washes Ashore

Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, couldn't take the bullying any longer

(NEWSER) - As members of the US military were about to celebrate their right to serve as gays, one gentle New York gay student, 14, was ending his life because he could no longer face bullying at his school. "I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens," Jamey Rodemeyer wrote in his blog earlier this month. "What do I have to do so people will listen to me?" He was found dead outside his Buffalo home after he posted a final message on Tumblr, thanking Lady Gaga. In a heart-breaking "It Gets Better" YouTube video he recorded earlier this year, Rodemeyer said that things were "getting better" because friends were supporting him. More»

Tropical Storm Lee fallout has already killed 3

(NEWSER) - Pennsylvania officials have issued a mandatory evacuation order for the more than 100,000 people living along the Susquehanna River, one of several East Coast rivers flooding over thanks to the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, the AP reports. The river is expected to crest at 41 feet by 8pm. “We want people to heed our order and leave,” a county commissioner tells the Standard Speaker . “It’s significant. We want them to leave.” Elsewhere in the soggy Northeast: More»

He blames city, county for ex-girlfriend's suicide drive into Hudson

(NEWSER) - The sad story of a New York mother who committed suicide by driving into the Hudson River in April, drowning three of her four young children, now has a hefty lawsuit attached. The kids' biological father is suing the city of Newburgh and Orange County for a total of $80 million, the Times Herald-Record reports. Jean Pierre alleges that the city boat ramp where the incident took place is too dangerous and that county officials should have been keeping a closer watch on his estranged girlfriend and the children. More»

'I've made a mistake,' she says seconds before drowning

(NEWSER) - "If I'm going to die, you're all going to die with me," a distraught mom told her four children before plunging her minivan into the Hudson River. But seconds before Lashanda Armstrong drowned with her three youngest kids, she told 10-year-old son Lashaun: "I've made a mistake." With that, she released the boy's pants leg and he managed to wriggle from a window and swim to shore. Those heartbreaking last seconds of his family were recounted to cops by the sole survivor , reveals the New York Daily News . A passing good Samaritan quickly picked up soaking-wet Lashaun, who was frantically waving his arms from the New York riverfront after the deaths Tuesday. More»

Daily Beast ranks America's pot-loving locales

(NEWSER) - In honor of today's date, 4/20—and the pot-steeped lore of those numbers—the Daily Beast has ranked the nation's 40 "highest cities," where weed culture reigns supreme. To read the full list and see how it was compiled, click here . The top 10:

1. Eureka, California
2. Tallahassee, Florida
3. Manhattan
4. Boston
5. San Francisco