Josiah Tate (Source: WYFF)

Coroner rules toddler's death an accident

ANDERSON, SC (AP) - The Anderson County coroner's office has ruled the shooting death of a 2-year-old boy earlier this week an accident.

The Anderson Independent-Mail reported that Deputy Coroner Don McCown completed an autopsy Thursday and ruled the death of Josiah Tate an accident.

McCown says Tate picked up an Anderson County sheriff's deputy .38-caliber handgun on a table and shot himself in the head Tuesday.

Chris Rock 'White People's Day' July 4th Tweet Sparks Controversy

 
Chris Rock seems to have tweeted up a bit of controversy over the July 4th holiday.

The comedian, whose latest project is executive producing Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell for FX, ruffled more than a few feathers after sending out this message to his followers: "Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks."

Uruguay Marijuana Legalization Proposal To Be Presented To Congress

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Uruguay's president has made it clear that his plan for legalizing marijuana in the South American nation does not mean he favors legalizing any other illicit drugs.

 

President Jose Mujica said in an interview Thursday with Colombia's RCN radio network that he does not yet know when his government will present Uruguay's Congress with the legislative proposal. Mujica's party dominates Congress.

He says the plan is for the government to sell marijuana at a cheap and reasonable price then monitor what each consumer uses. The idea is to take drug profits out of the hands of criminals.

West Virginia swelters amid new storms, prolonged outages

A girl runs through a spray of water leaking from a hose outside the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall July 5, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

(Reuters) - Weary West Virginians dumped rotting food from their refrigerators and tried to clear fallen trees from the roads on Friday as new storms prolonged the power outages that have already lasted a week.

The forecast called for more record-breaking heat and triple-digit temperatures across the Midwest and into the Eastern United States during the weekend, with heavy rains and severe storms in the upper Midwest, the National Weather Service said.

At least 406,000 people were without electricity on Friday in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Ohio, power companies said. New storms knocked out power to parts of West Virginia on Thursday, while other areas have been without electricity since violent storms hit a week ago.

The weather was blamed for two deaths in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Thursday.

A man riding a motorcycle was killed in a crash blamed on the weather, and a woman died after being struck by a falling tree, said park spokeswoman Melissa Cobern.
Utility companies warned that some residents in the worst-hit areas could be without power and air conditioning until early next week.