4/11/2014::Leftover news already

Jose Manuel Martinez Confesses To 40 Killings

A suspected contract killer charged in Central California with killing nine people confessed to investigators that he carried out up to 40 slayings in a career spanning decades, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Errek Jett, the district attorney in Lawrence County, Ala., said that Jose Manuel Martinez, 51, told investigators he carried out the crimes working as an enforcer for a drug cartel. Jett said they believe Martinez because of the details he gave investigators.

Martinez was arrested last year shortly after crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona and sent to Alabama, where he awaits trial on one murder charge. Once word got out, a steady stream of investigators from across the country came to question Martinez, Jett said.

Tea Party Activist: 'Gay Supremacy Is Becoming A Monster That Carries Greater Evils Than White Supremacy Ever Did'

Mary Baker, leader of Conservative Moms for America and a speaker for the Tea Party Express, is warning in a blog post for Tea Party Nation that “gay supremacy is becoming a monster that carries greater evils than white supremacy ever did.”

Her post, which Tea Party Nation leader Judson Phillips emailed to members today, also makes the absurd claim that white supremacy was “quickly put down” in America and argues that the gay rights activists are motivated by “hate” and bent on their opponents’ “utter annihilation.”

Baker explains that gay rights advocates are worse than white supremacists because “I could disagree with the beliefs of white supremacist and still hold to Biblical views about life, marriage and sexuality. Many people in America fought against their own kind in order to rid us of this hateful group but Gay supremacist have bullied every sector of our nation and now sit as the giant bully against all Americans who disagree with their radical agenda.”

Couple Locks 4-Year-Old In Dog Cage For 14 Hours A Day: Cops

Police in Oklahoma arrested a couple who are accused of keeping a 4-year-old boy locked in a wire dog cage for 14 hours a day.

Suzanne Satterfield, 33, Johnathon Lee, 31, were both charged with child abuse Tuesday, News on 6 reports. Satterfield faces an additional charge of permitting child abuse, while Lee is also charged with the sexual abuse of another child.

Lee allegedly told deputies that for the past three weeks, the Chelsea couple would keep Satterfield's 4-year-old son in the cage at night, during nap time and when he needed to be disciplined. Lee estimated that all together, the boy would be in the cage for about 14 hours a day, according to Tulsa World.

There Are 10 Times More Mentally Ill People Behind Bars Than in State Hospitals

Severe mental illnesses, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are brain diseases—biological conditions like heart disease or epilepsy. Yet in this country, the institutions most likely to be treating people with these illnesses are not hospitals, but rather jails and prisons.

According to a new report from the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC), a nonprofit advocacy organization, the United States has fully returned to the 18th-century model of incarcerating the mentally ill in correctional institutions rather than treating them in health care facilities like any other sick people. In 2012, there were roughly 356,268 inmates with severe mental illnesses in prisons and jails, while only 35,000 people with the same diseases were in state psychiatric hospitals.

The numbers of incarcerated mentally ill have been growing, and TAC reports that their treatment in the corrections system is nothing less than abominable. Mentally ill inmates are more likely to become the victims of sexual assault and abuse. They're also overrepresented in solitary confinement, and they are much more likely than other prisoners to commit suicide.

Florida Family Fatally Shoots Home Intruder: Police

Police say members of a Winter Haven, Fla., family acted in self defense when they shot and killed a home intruder early Monday.

Mitchell Large, 40, allegedly entered the family's home through the back door at about 7 a.m. He ignored a warning shot fired at the door, Police Chief Gary Hester told Fox Tampa Bay.

Police said family members armed themselves. More than one shot was fired at the intruder as he made his way into the kitchen. The homeowner's 20-year-old daughter was also at home at the time, but not involved in the shooting.

Large appears to have been unarmed, but Hester said the family was within their rights.