Teacher Charged After Students Pierce Ear, Stomach in Class

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Photo Credit: Carl Bednorz

Photo Credit: Carl Bednorz

April Beard, a high school teacher in Pennsylvania, allegedly allowed a student to pierce Beard’s ear and then another student’s stomach — in class.

Beard, 34, was charged with endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors, police said. Court records show she also was charged with body piercing of a minor.

According to Carroll Township Police, on April 16, Beard took a “handful” of students into a project room, and left the rest of the students in the classroom. Chief Sean Kapfhammer said a student with a piercing kit was then allowed to pierce Beard’s left ear three times and then pierce another student’s belly button.

Police said Beard paid the student $20 and gave her a homemade necklace as payment for the piercings. Beard then told the students, “What just happen(ed) here does not leave the room,” according to charging documents.

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Animal Smuggling Ring Busted with 213 Bear Paws

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bear-pawsChinese customs officials have made a grisly discovery of 213 bear paws being smuggled in from Russia…

The horrific discovery came when officials checked the wheels of a van in Inner Mongolia.

Customs officials are said to have become suspicious by two Russian men acting strangely.

And when they scanned the vehicle they found the paws – thought to have come from brown bears – stuffed in the wheels and spare tires…

“The demand is huge because more people can afford them and the country has the tradition to treat bear paw as a rare ingredient for cuisine or as an expensive present,” [an official with Animals Asia Foundation] said.

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Video: Dog Pushes Owner in Wheelchair Through Flooded Russian Street

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

Earlier this month, central Europe faced some of the worst flooding in a decade. Several western Russian cities were hit hard, too.

In a clip posted on YouTube this past week, one resident of a Russian community uploaded a video of the severe flooding in his community.

As he was taping, his camera caught a disabled man, in his wheelchair, being pushed through the flood waters by his dog.

The amazing footage is shown below:

Bear with Head Stuck in Plastic Jar for 11 Days is Freed

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Photo Credit: Todd Huffman

Four central Pennsylvania residents said they used only a rope and a flashlight during a wild chase to rescue a young bear whose head had been stuck in a plastic jar for at least 11 days…

“I thought, `No one is going to believe us,”‘ said Morgan Laskowski, 22, the bartender at the Jamison City Hotel and a member of the impromptu bear-wrangling team.

Area residents first spotted the 100-pound bruin with its head in a red jar on June 3, but it eluded game wardens. The animal was attracted to the container because it appeared to have once contained cooking oil…

They cornered the bear in a resident’s backyard, where it ended up falling into a pool a couple of times. Eventually, they wrangled the animal into a position where [Jeff] Hubler could pull off the jar.

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Adult Stem Cell Discovery May Lead to Regrowth of Human Limbs

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Photo Credit: MICHAEL BODMANN / GETTY IMAGES

Mammals can regenerate the very tips of their fingers and toes after amputation, and now new research shows how stem cells in the nail play a role in that process.

A study in mice, detailed online today (June 12) in the journal Nature, reveals the chemical signal that triggers stem cells to develop into new nail tissue, and also attracts nerves that promote nail and bone regeneration.

he findings suggest nail stem cells could be used to develop new treatments for amputees, the researchers said. [Inside Life Science: Once Upon a Stem Cell]

In mice and people, regenerating an amputated finger or toe involves regrowing the nail. But whether the amputated portion of the digit can regrow depends on exactly where the amputation occurs: If the stem cells beneath the nail are amputated along with the digit, no regrowth occurs, but if the stem cells remain, regrowth is possible.

To understand why these stem cells are crucial to regeneration, researchers turned to mice. The scientists conducted toe amputations in two groups of mice: one group of normal mice, and one group that was treated with a drug that made them unable to make the signals for new nail cells to develop.

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Supreme Court Rules Human Genes Cannot be Patented

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Photo Credit: AP

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that companies cannot patent parts of naturally-occurring human genes, a decision with the potential to profoundly affect the emerging and lucrative medical and biotechnology industries.

The high court’s unanimous judgment reverses three decades of patent awards by government officials. It throws out patents held by Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics Inc. on an increasingly popular breast cancer test brought into the public eye recently by actress Angelina Jolie’s revelation that she had a double mastectomy because of one of the genes involved in this case.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the court’s decision, said that Myriad’s assertion — that the DNA it isolated from the body for its proprietary breast and ovarian cancer tests were patentable — had to be dismissed because it violates patent rules. The court has said that laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable.

“We hold that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated,” Thomas said.

Patents are the legal protection that gives inventors the right to prevent others from making, using or selling a novel device, process or application. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been awarding patents on human genes for almost 30 years, but opponents of Myriad Genetics Inc.’s patents on the two genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer say such protection should not be given to something that can be found inside the human body.

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Man Sets Home on Fire While Trying to Kill Bed Bugs

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Photo Credit: AP

A homeowner and four firefighters are recovering after investigators say he accidentally set his own house on fire while trying to kill bed bugs.

Police say the unidentified man was using a space heater, hair dryer and a heat gun to kill bed bugs inside his home on Penn Street in Woodbury, New Jersey. Heat guns are often used to strip paint off woodwork. They can reach temperatures, on average, of 1,000 degrees.

While doing this, police say he accidentally set fire to the second floor of his home.

The fire started around noon and firefighters were able to put the flames down soon after they arrived.

The firefighters were called back to the scene around 5:15 p.m. however after the fire rekindled.

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New Jersey Town Bans Saggy Pants on Boardwalk

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Photo Credit: AP

Hindsight will soon be punishable by a $25 fine in this Jersey Shore resort.

Wildwood on Wednesday passed a law banning overly saggy pants on the boardwalk, prompted by numerous complaints from longtime visitors about having to see people’s rear ends hanging out in public.

Subsequent violations of the law, which takes effect July 2, could result in fines as high as $200 and 40 hours of community service.

Civil libertarians say the law is unconstitutional and predict it will be overturned if challenged in court.

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Grandma, 72, Shoots at Home Intruder in California, Defends Actions

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Photo Credit: AP

A 72-year-old Southern California grandmother who shot at — and narrowly missed — a man trying to break into her home said Tuesday she was shocked at the attention her action was getting but does not regret defending herself and her husband, an 85-year-old World War II veteran who uses a wheelchair…

During a 911 call of the incident, Cooper can be heard begging with the dispatcher to send deputies and warns that she has a gun at the ready as her Rottweiler barks furiously in the background.

Minutes later, a breathless Cooper says the man has come to the back porch and is trying to get in the house through a sliding door. Through the vertical blinds, Cooper saw his silhouette just inches away through the glass as he began to slide open the door.

“I’m firing!” Cooper shouts to the dispatcher as a loud band goes off…

“You’d better get the police here. I don’t know whether I hit him or not. I’m not sure. He’s standing at my door, my back door. He’s in my yard,” she said.

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Mako Jumps in Boat, Stuns Anglers (+video)

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Photo Credit: Tom Rostron Jr.

Two anglers shark fishing east of Manasquan Inlet got a surprise when a 303-pound, 8-foot, 4-inch mako shark leapt into the bow of their 31-foot boat. Then [it] proceeded to eat the boat.

“It was epic. He back flipped right in,” said Clint Simek, of Brielle, who still sounded stunned by the shark’s theatrics as he retold the story Wednesday, a day after the wild encounter…

“At first we were in shock when he was in the boat. Then he started thrashing and we were like ‘Oh My God, we have a big problem, this thing is going to eat us,’ ” Rostron said.

The shark was way too green. From the time it was hooked to the time it jumped in the boat was only 25 seconds, Rostron said.

Once in, it took over the nine-foot wide bow eating anything in its path including two broom sticks, cushions, and speakers. It stayed alive for two hours.

Read more from this story HERE.