Turtle Assists in Pot Bust

Park officials, police plan search-and-destroy mission

(NEWSER) - The National Park Service has found wild marijuana growing in a northern Indiana federal park, the Chicago Tribune reports. Officials don't know how many plants are spread throughout the 15,000-acre Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, on Lake Michigan about 30 miles southeast of Chicago, but said they will work with local police to eradicate the illegal crops. More»

2011 marks a disturbing first for police departments

(NEWSER) - The New York Times takes a look at the rising number of police officers getting shot, according to FBI stats. A few of the details:

• Spike in 2011: 72 officers were fatally shot last year, up 25% from 2010 and 75% from 2008.
• Bad milestone: That marks the first time more cops were shot to death than killed in car accidents.

The National Park Service will enforce rules beginning Monday

(NEWSER) - One of the Occupy movement's longest-standing camps will soon no longer be a place to lay your head: Occupy DC protesters will be banned from camping in the two parks they have occupied since October as of noon on Monday. The National Park Service has alerted the demonstrators they must stop camping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, both blocks away from the White House, reports Reuters . There are as many as 100 protesters currently living in McPherson Square. More»

Conditions as bad as refugee camps, city's health chief says

(NEWSER) - Washington DC's health chief says the explosion in the rat population at the two Occupy camps in the city may force him to advise the federal government to close the camps. Mohammad Akhter says conditions in the McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza camps remind him of refugee camps he has visited in the Middle East and Africa. He has ordered a review of sanitation at the camps, where inspectors have seen rats nesting below the hay-stuffed pallets protesters are sleeping on. More»

He had two guns, including semiautomatic, say police

(NEWSER) - Cops busting a suspected fare beater at a midtown Manhattan subway station made an unusual discovery: The guy was packing a loaded semiautomatic pistol. South Carolina resident Reggie Allen, sporting a "me against the world tattoo" on his neck, had an Intratec Luger Tec-9 gun with 34 bullets, extra ammo in his backpack, plus a loaded .45-caliber Smith and Wesson tucked into his waistband, say cops. Allen has been slapped with an array of weapons charges, reports the New York Daily News . More»