NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Police worked Thursday to retrace the steps of a mother whose newborn son was snatched from her home by a woman posing as an immigration agent who stabbed her several times. Maria Gurrolla’s baby has been missing since Tuesday. Metro Nashville Police have released a blurry surveillance photo of a Kia Spectra that parked next to her at a nearby Walmart shortly before he was taken and may have followed her out of the parking lot. One of the first people to respond to the attack on Gurrolla was neighbor Eric Peterson, who said he heard a bang on his door and opened it to find her covered in blood. She pleaded with him to go rescue her children, whom she had left behind to seek help after a woman stabbed her with a kitchen knife. By the time Peterson got to the home, the baby was gone.
Soldier tried to sell weapons
Federal investigators in Tennessee have charged a U.S. Army soldier with attempting to sell four hand grenades and an anti-tank rocket and launcher to an undercover officer. U.S. Attorney Lawrence Laurenzi said at a Thursday news conference in Jackson that the Fort Campbell soldier, 29-year-old Pfc. Joshua Bartlett Etherton, was indicted Sept. 21 and arrested Wednesday night.
Florida: Threats on flights
The FBI is investigating similarities between two recent bomb threats made on American Airlines flights between Miami and Boston. FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said Thursday that agents are looking for common threads between the two cases. In the most recent incident Wednesday in Boston, a flight attendant found the words “bomb on board, Boston-Miami” scrawled on a bathroom cabinet. The aircraft was evacuated and luggage searched, though no bomb was found. Another incident occurred on Sept. 17, when a flight attendant found a note containing the word “bomb.” Again a search uncovered no explosives.
Texas: Award given, rescinded
Newt Gingrich’s conservative group gave — and then rescinded — a business award to a popular topless club in Texas, the proprietor said Thursday. Dawn Rizos said she was looking forward to receiving the promised Entrepreneur of the Year award at a Washington, D.C., banquet from American Solutions for Winning the Future, which the former U.S. House speaker chairs. After all, Rizos is the owner of The Lodge, which was named the best overall club in America last year by ED Publications, which sponsors the gentlemen’s club industry’s annual convention and trade show. But before she had a chance to dine with Gingrich at the Oct. 7 awards dinner, the honor was yanked away. The group apparently confused Rizos’ Dallas business, which is legally called DCG Inc., with one by the same name in Virginia.
Way cleared for gay divorce
A Texas judge has cleared the way for two Dallas men to get a divorce, ruling that Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional guarantee to equal protection under the law. The Dallas Morning News reported that a Dallas district judge’s Thursday ruling finds that the court “has jurisdiction to hear a suit for divorce filed by persons legally married in another jurisdiction.” The Texas attorney general has argued that because Texas doesn’t recognize gay marriage, its courts can’t dissolve one through divorce. Voters approved a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in 2005. Attorney General Greg Abbott says he’ll appeal the ruling.
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