NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
Child abuse: Authorities in Southern California say a teen who turned himself in to police has confessed to molesting some 50 children across the region. Joseph Hayden Boston, 18, was brought to a Riverside police station Saturday by his mother after he allegedly told her he had sexually assaulted two boys, ages 8 and 4, at a motel, police said. Officer Ryan Railsback said Boston confessed to the motel assaults. Boston also admitted molesting about 50 children since the age of 10 in different cities where he had lived, Railsback said. Boston was arrested on suspicion of two counts of oral copulation on a child under the age of 10 and jailed in lieu of $1 million bail.
Body found: The body of a missing 3year-old North Carolina girl was found in a creek less than a day after her mother’s boyfriend was charged with hiding her body after knowing she didn’t die of natural causes, authorities said. The body of Mariah Woods was found Saturday evening in Pender County about 25 miles from the home she shared with Early Kimrey in Jacksonville, FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in a statement. The girl’s mother, Kristy Woods, reported her missing last Monday. Woods had made tearful pleas for her daughter’s return.
Pedestrians struck: A man angry about a parking dispute stabbed two people Sunday and then drove into a group on a New York City sidewalk, leaving one person dead and several others injured, police said. Authorities said the incident happened around 4:30 a.m. Sunday outside a hookah lounge in Queens. It started with the driver of a sedan getting out of his car and stabbing two people in the chest. Police said the driver then got back into his car, drove off, jumped a curb and hit a group of pedestrians. One person was killed, and five others injured, one of them critically. The other people hit and the two people stabbed were in stable condition. The driver is in custody.
Pump prices: The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline dropped 7 cents nationally over the past two weeks to $2.54, the Lundberg Survey reported Sunday, despite a jump in oil prices. The current price is 34 cents above where it was a year ago. Fuel in San Francisco was the costliest among the cities surveyed at an average of $3.26 a gallon, while the lowest price was in Tulsa, Okla., at $2.18 a gallon.
Gun exchange: San Diego Police officers bought 164 unwanted guns from people in the region over the weekend — a no-questions-asked event that was so popular officers ran out of the gift cards they provided in exchange for weapons. “We ran out of money,” said police Capt. Alberto Leos. “We gave out $25,000 in gift cards.” He said officers had to turn away people hoping to swap their guns. Officers gave a $150 Wal-Mart gift card for every handgun or rifle turned in. Each assault weapon netted $250 in gift cards for people handing them over. Funding for the gift cards came from a partnership between police, prosecutors and the Casa Familiar community development agency.