By NOMAAN MERCHANT The Associated Press DALLAS — Miniature laundry detergent packets arrived on store shelves in recent months as an alternative to bulky bottles and messy spills. But doctors across the country say children are confusing the tiny, brightly colored packets with candy and swallowing them.Nearly 250 cases have been reported this year to poison control centers. Though they remain a tiny fraction of the thousands of poisoning calls received every year about household medicines and other cleaning supplies, doctors are concerned. The symptoms they see in connection with ingesting the packets — such as nausea and breathing problems — are more severe than typical detergent poisoning."We're not quite sure why it's happening," said Dr. Kurt Kleinschmidt, a Dallas toxicologist and professor at the ... Continue reading →

Chuck Shriner As Chuck Shriner crossed the stage on Saturday during Bishop Verot's graduation ceremony, he suddenly paused, dropped to one knee, and Tebow-ed his principal. Tebowing, the practice of publicly taking a knee in prayer, made famous by former University of Florida Gator, and now New York Jets backup quarterback Tim Tebow, is sweeping the country one YouTube video and Instagram photo at a time. Shriner, 17, a football player at the private Fort Myers Catholic school, didn't expect his trendy moment on stage to end in punishment and without his diploma in hand. But it did. "I just thought it was fun," Shriner said. "I was just doing it to make graduation memorable." While the audience — parents and students alike — erupted ... Continue reading →

By Frank Cerabino Palm Beach Post Staff Writer News item: Parents at a South Florida high school were surprised last weekend to learn that their teenagers' senior prom had been booked at a convention center that was also hosting a sex industry convention. The Miami Beach Convention Center hosted Exxxotica Expo, an event that features porn stars, erotic paraphernalia and sex seminars, at the same time that Miami Beach Senior High held its annual prom at the center. Extra security, separate entrances and a dividing wall were employed to make sure that participants in the two events didn't mingle. Dear Parents: In light of recent events, I wanted to assure you that we have developed a contingency plan in the unlikely event that our school ... Continue reading →

CLEARWATER, Fla., May 22 (UPI) -- Two 4-year-old boys were served daiquiris containing alcohol in a Florida restaurant mix-up that resulted in one child being hospitalized, police said. A Clearwater, Fla., Police Department report indicated the boys were having lunch with their mother on Mother's Day when two regular strawberry daiquiris were served to the siblings instead of the two virgin -- non-alcoholic -- daiquiris their mother ordered. The Frenchy's South Beach Cafe waitress "incorrectly entered the order and two daiquiris containing alcohol were made and served to the table," the police report said. "One child apparently tasted the drink and stopped drinking it, but [the other child] consumed more of the drink," the report said. The mother said she ordered two virgin daiquiris and ... Continue reading →

A vial said to contain a blood sample from President Ronald Reagan is being auctioned online. (Credit: PFCAuction.com) (CBS News) An online auction house is accepting online bids for a glass vial purportedly containing a blood sample of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan. According to PFCAuctions.com, the 5-inch glass vial contains dried blood residue from President Reagan, from a sample taken at the time of the assassination attempt on the president in 1981. As of Tuesday afternoon, bidding for the vial passed 7,000 pounds (around $11,000). The online auction ends Thursday at 2 p.m. ET. The Reagan Presidential Foundation expressed outrage. "If indeed this story is true, it's a craven act and we will use every legal means to stop its sale or purchase," ... Continue reading →

22 May 2012 Last updated at 13:29 ET TV remote control inventor Eugene Polley dies at 96 A 1955 advertisement for Flash-Matic, the first wireless TV remote control The inventor of the television remote control has died at the age of 96, his former employer has said. Eugene Polley passed away of natural causes on Sunday at a Chicago hospital, said Zenith Electronics. His 1955 invention, Flash-Matic, pointed a beam of light at photo cells in the screen, turning the set on and off and changing the channels. His invention was a luxury add-on in the days before hundreds of cable television channels. Born in Chicago in 1915, Polley began his engineering career in 1935. He worked at Zenith for 47 years, earning 18 US ... Continue reading →

By Frank Cerabino Palm Beach Post Staff Writer How did we let this happen? Florida is usually in the vanguard when it comes to fetishizing guns. We used to be able to take pride in knowing that this is where the NRA gets to act out its wildest fantasies. It's where the stand-your-ground law first took root, and it's the home of this year's Republican National Convention, where it will be illegal to have a long piece of string, a piece of wood or a squirt gun outside the Tampa convention hall, but OK to be there with your loaded firearm. So how could we let Utah, Arizona and Indiana get the jump on us when it comes to designating an official state gun? Especially ... Continue reading →

By Frank Cerabino Palm Beach Post Staff Writer News item: Florida's Department of State reported this month that there are more than 53,000 dead Floridians who are registered to vote in the upcoming presidential election. With Florida once again finding itself a pivotal state in deciding the upcoming presidential election, both sides will be doing their best to get any advantage in a statewide electorate that appears to be nearly evenly divided. Making inroads to any special interest group could prove decisive in garnering the state's coveted 29 electoral college votes, which could be dispositive in the national contest. This is why both the Romney and Obama camps will be expected to make significant overtures to Florida's dead voters - which, until this month's revelation, ... Continue reading →