Police: Boy Killed Parents, Didn't Want To 'Disappoint' Them Anymore

FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- A 16-year-old boy told detectives he killed his parents because he didn't want to disappoint them anymore, according to a police documents.

Jacob Brighton said he shot his parents last month because he always felt like a disappointment to them because he didn't have a job, smoked marijuana and didn't share the same "qualities or interests" as his father, according to the recently released documents.

"So there's nobody, now there's nobody to be disappointed in me, try to make me lead ... their life," Brighton said.

Brighton pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Richard Brighton, 47, and Penny Brighton, 46, in their Fort Pierce home. He could get life in prison if convicted.

"There are some things in his young life that happened that will shock and disturb the community," said his attorney Darren Shull. "They are traumatic events that happened to Jacob."

Shull declined to elaborate.

Brighton was being held without bond.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

Seven Inmates Escape Tennessee Jail; Four Still On the Loose

MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — Seven inmates escaped from a county jail by telling a guard they needed ice and then attacking him when he brought it, authorities said.

Sheriff's officials say the inmates confined the guard and escaped late Tuesday night by pushing a button in the jail control room that opened an outside door.

Two of the inmates, Paul Edward Long, 23, and Joshua Lee Adkins, 26, were arrested separately Wednesday without incident, authorities said.

A third, 22-year-old Michael Curtis Long, was arrested late Wednesday at a Morristown residence without incident. Officials believe Long, a federal prisoner serving a nearly 12-year sentence on a firearms charge from an armed robbery, may have spearheaded the escape.

The other inmates who escaped from the Hamblen County Jail, about 40 miles northeast of Knoxville, were identified as Michael J. Banner, Nathan W. Carroll, Brandon S. Collins and Nicholas Kyle Short. They remained at large Wednesday night.

It was not immediately known if the Longs were related.

Authorities say all of the men are repeat offenders, but the rest were in jail on misdemeanors and none were considered dangerous.

There were 69 inmates in the 32-bed dormitory-style annex where the inmates overpowered the guard. But 62 inmates decided not to take flight, Chief Deputy Wayne Mize said.

"They're smart enough to put their time in and put it behind them rather than add an escape charge," Mize said.

Mize blamed severe overcrowding and design flaws for making it easier for inmate to escape. The jail is licensed for 197 inmates. On Wednesday morning it was holding 296.

"Just the fact that they're in there under terrible conditions makes them want to leave more than they ordinarily would," Mize said.

The jailer attacked by inmates, Josh Petit, suffered abrasions and a swollen hand. He was treated and released.

Nude Web Pics Dog Albion Mayor

A night after admitting to DWAI, Albion's mayor is now dealing with what he calls a personal attack.

It comes in the guise of nude pictures.

Mayor Michael Hadick was back to work Wednesday running a village board meeting. After conducting village business, he spoke out for the first time about his conviction and pictures posted on a local Website that claim to show Hadick naked.

It all comes as Hadick deals with calls from some residents for his resignation.

“No resignation whatsoever will happen,” said Michael Hadick, Albion's mayor.

Hadick told the village board and a large group of residents Wednesday that he wasn’t going anywhere. In June the mayor was charged with DWI. Tuesday, he accepted responsibility for a lesser DWAI charge.

“The case was closed last night and I pleaded guilty to DWAI. I’m moving forward and taking the punishment the court handed to me,” Hadick said.

On the same day he pleaded guilty Web pictures surfaced. The publisher claimed they are naked pictures of the mayor. Hadick says they were doctored and were likely taken before he was elected.

“So don’t believe everything you read, come see me, come talk to me anytime you like, I’m always here,” said Hadick.

Some residents say enough is enough.

“I ... suggest that you resign,” Albion resident Larry Harvey said as he read from a hand-written letter. “In my eyes, you are not qualified to run the business of mayor. Your lack of integrity and moral character has a lot to be desired.”

“We elected him and I think he needs to step down and listen to the people who put him in because I think we’re tired of it,” said Annette Finch of Albion, who doesn’t believe the mayor’s claims that the nude photos published online are doctored.

Hadick believes most village residents support him and he just wants to do the job he was elected to do.

“We need to work together as people, common people, and not divide each other. That’s all we’re doing is dividing,” said Hadick.

One village board member also asked Hadick to step down, but the majority of the board still supports him. Another trustee told R News off-camera that Hadick's drinking and driving conviction was a simple mistake and that Hadick has apologized, and should be allowed to continue.

Diet-conscious Los Angeles eyes moratorium on fast-food outlets

The city council is set to vote on a measure next week that would put a two-year moratorium on new outlets in South L.A. amid concern about high obesity rates there.

Los Angeles - Pointing south from the corner of Figueroa and Adams in South Central L.A., Tanisha Jackson says when it comes to fast food, her community "has it all."

"If you want it cheap and quick – McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken – we've got it," says the mother of two.

Some city officials see the myriad fast-food outlets as a health problem and are seeking change. "Fast food is primarily the only option for those who live and work here," says City Councilwoman Jan Perry. "It's become a public-health issue that residents be given healthier choices."

She has introduced a two-year moratorium on new fast-food outlets in this part of the city, where small, single-family homes dominate and gangs thrive in a rough urban landscape.

Many national food and health experts say the measure – which is slated for a vote on Sept. 18 – may be the first example of a health-zoning law in the United States. In 2006, New York City health committee chairman Joel Rivera lobbied against uncontrolled growth of fast-food chains, but did not introduce legislation. These observers are applauding the idea as a way to raise awareness about America's obesity epidemic, which hits poorer neighborhoods disproportionately.

"Limiting fast food could be a practical solution if it starts to address the imbalance of too many outlets with food that is not nutritious," says Mark Vallianatos, director of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Others say it is a well-meaning but misguided attempt by government to control social behavior, doomed to failure, like prohibition in the 1920s. "You can't regulate the supply side of a behavioral problem and expect results," says Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of Foodservice Strategies, a consulting firm for the restaurant industry.

Perry says she introduced the legislation because statistics show that residents here have higher incidence of diseases that doctors link to obesity than the rest of the city and the county. "The side effect of a constant diet of fast food is that society pays in the long run in medical costs," she says.

The ordinance would affect about 700,000 residents of South Central, where a recent Los Angeles Times survey found that 46 percent of restaurants are fast-food chains, compared with 12 percent on the west side of Los Angeles.

Perry and her supporters acknowledge that health zoning raises some questions: Will other healthier restaurants move into the region if new fast-food outlets are prohibited? Can the city government aid that transition? Will residents frequent restaurants with healthier options?

"We should always be very cautious about restricting food and dining options for other groups of people," says Barry Glassner, professor of sociology at the University of Southern California and author of "The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food Is Wrong."

He and others cite several benefits fast-food restaurants offer to those living in poorer neighborhoods: good, inexpensive food; a safe environment for kids; and fast preparation, which is particularly appealing to single parents, many of whom work more than one job.

"If a particular community wants to kick out certain kinds of food, that is one thing. For outsiders to do it is patronizing and demeaning," says Dr. Glassner. "Calling all fast food evil is just too simplistic."

Still, others hold more moderate views. Kathleen Hall of the Stress Institute of Atlanta agrees that healthier eating contributes to a longer, more satisfying life. Besides food zoning, efforts must include educating youths about food, countering media influences, and promoting the importance of families eating together in quiet environments, she says.

"We have to teach inner-city kids how to eat or they will find the less healthy foods even at the better restaurants," she says. "Many of these fast-food outlets are actually offering healthier items, but they don't promote them as much as the fattier stuff because they make more money off the big meals."

Burger King, for example, has announced it will roll out apple slices in French-fry cups for kids' meals this fall. Earlier this year, Subway introduced a healthy kids menu, offering raisins or sliced apples instead of chips.

But more needs to be done to encourage healthier eating. Education means giving a higher priority to the health hazards of eating the wrong kinds of foods. In this sense, the proposal in L.A. could help create a more enlightened civic environment about public health.

"Los Angeles's ordinance is helping the community face the fact that there is collective responsibility in this as well as personal responsibility," says Christine Ferguson, director of the Stop Obesity Alliance in Washington.

But Perry and other health officials say they are not trying to play father figure to residents or even eliminate fast food from the city scene.

"The grocery stores in this area are terrible if you want healthy fresh fruits and vegetables," says Lark Galloway-Gilliam, executive director of L.A.-based Community Health Councils, a health policy advocacy group, and also a resident of South Central.

After the Rodney King riots in 1992 devastated these neighborhoods, officials promised more supermarkets and restaurants, she says. But for a variety of reasons, that has not happened.

"Sure, I can get a healthy salad at Whole Foods, if I want to drive 10 to 12 miles and take half an hour. This is not about regulating business; it's about planning communities and giving people healthy choices," Ms. Galloway-Gilliam says.

Madison Twp. Man Uses Pocket Knife To Dig Himself Out Of Disaster

A Tri-state man is now safe after using a pocket knife to literally dig himself out of a disaster.

The 83-year-old Madison Township man says he was on his tractor outside his Keister Road home when the tractor flipped and he was trapped.

He's says it's amazing how much strength you get when you're in a life-and-death situation.

The tractor flipped as John Cockerham was trying to move a post on his property.

He ended up with his leg pinned and his entire body stuck under the tractor.

So, for two hours he struggled to free his leg.

Then, he says he pulled his pocket knife out and spent another two hours digging at the dirt under him to create room so he could squeeze out.

"I hollered, 'Lord, don't let me die here. I don't want to die under this tractor. help me to get out!,' and by the grace of God, he had given me the strength to get out," said Cockerham.

Cockerham has eight children, 21 grandchildren, 28 great grandchildren – plus one great-great grandchild.

So, a lot of people are grateful.

Cockerham spent one night at the hospital and has a lot of bruises, but he's doing fine now.

Palestinian bomber unlikely star of Israeli film

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - A Palestinian suicide bomber is the unlikely star of a new Israeli film billed by its director as an effort to destroy prejudices that fuel conflict in the Middle East.

Scheduled to be screened in early 2008, the film stands to make cinematic history in the Jewish state, where movie-makers tend to shy away from treating the controversy of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Its makers say that by personalizing the bomber -- named Tarek and portrayed as coming from the West Bank town of Tulkarm -- they hope to show Israelis the complex motives behind many such attacks in the Jewish state.

"Behind the belts and the suicide bombers and the victims, there are real people, with feelings, motives and fears," Israeli director Dror Zehavi told Reuters during a recent filming session in Tel Aviv.

Tarek is a Palestinian youth who infiltrates from the Israeli-occupied West Bank wearing a belt packed with explosives which he intends to detonate in a busy outdoor market in Tel Aviv.

The bomb's switch fails to operate, and he seeks the help of an unwitting Israeli electrician, whom he ends up befriending, in addition to another young Israeli woman who lives on the same block.

He never completely backs out of his plan, feeling compelled to carry out the attack to placate militants back in the West Bank who have threatened to kill his father if he reneges.

But he does make an effort to keep his Israeli friends out of harm's way, say the filmmakers, who have given the movie the working title of "Shabat Shalom Maradona" (Good Sabbath Maradona), a nod to Tarek's passion for soccer and Argentine superstar Diego Maradona.

"Our goal in making this film is to build a bridge between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, to allow for reconciliation despite the very explosive situation in which we live," Zehavi said.

Dozens of suicide bombings have killed more than 400 people in Israel since 2000, though the frequency of these attacks has subsided in recent years. In all some 4,200 Palestinians and 1,030 Israelis have died in fighting and armed attacks in a wave of violence since peace talks failed seven years ago.

STEREOTYPES

In the movie, Zehavi said the would-be bomber's explosives belt "symbolizes the stereotypes that we need to explode."

The bomber "isn't motivated by hatred of Jews or wanting to destroy Israel," Zehavi added. "He's trying to save his father's life."

The movie is based in part on accounts divulged by Israeli security agents, following several thwarted bombings in which suspects have said their motives were more personal than ideological.

While many Israeli films portray war and the hallowed military of a country that has fought seven wars and confronted two Palestinian uprisings over 60 years, Zehavi's is the first to tackle the sensitive subject of suicide bombings.

His film is sure to stir controversy in Israel. Critics have already panned the subject. A recent article in the Maariv tabloid newspaper denounced it as a "cultural bomb."

Israelis protested when the award-winning Palestinian movie "Paradise Now" -- about a suicide bomber pair -- was nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar in 2005, a prize it ended up losing to South Africa's "Tsotsi."

Shredi Jabarin, a young Israeli Arab actor who plays Tarek, expects to weather some criticism for his role: "I have to play a character that everyone hates, yet I have to try to make the audience love him. It's complicated," Jabarin says.

Zehavi cites recent Israeli-Palestinian efforts to renew stalled peace talks as a sign Israel is ready for such a film.

Producers also hope for a box office boost from at least one popular actor in a key supporting role.

Shlomo Vishinsky, a member of one of Israel's foremost theatre groups called the Cameri, will add populist punch in the role of the electrician who befriends Tarek.

Vishinsky's own son died two years ago in a gun battle with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. His personal tragedy hasn't shaken his conviction of a need to compromise for peace, the actor said in an interview.

He said he hopes the movie can drive home the point that both Israelis and Palestinians have shed too much blood in conflict.

"You never know what goes on in their (Palestinians') heads. We think they just want to be some religious martyr, but this guy is acting more on personal than political reasons," Vishinsky said.

"After all that has happened, most people just want peace."

Meat Now Blamed For Global Warming

LONDON (Reuters) - Eating too much red meat is not only bad for your health -- it is also bad for the planet, according to scientists.

Worldwide, agricultural activity accounts for about a fifth of total greenhouse-gas emissions and livestock production has a particularly big impact because of the large amount of methane emitted from belching cattle.

Tony McMichael of the Australian National University in Canberra and John Powles of the University of Cambridge, writing in the Lancet journal, said worldwide average meat consumption could be realistically reduced by 10 percent.

This would help in the battle against global warming and also reduce health risks associated with excessive consumption of red meat, they said.

Global average meat consumption is currently 100 grams per person a day but there is a tenfold variation between high-consuming and low-consuming populations.