Los Angeles

State: Children shouldn’t sleep in waiting room

Space-strapped foster care officials have been ordered to stop housing youngsters in the waiting room of the county Department of Children and Family Services’ downtown office.

The state ruled last week that the waiting room was an illegal foster home and ordered the practice stopped by May 20.

Los Angeles County records show children have been staying there since 2003, when an emergency children’s shelter was closed to settle a lawsuit claiming the county was dumping children with mental health problems there.

There have been more than 100 cases of juveniles spending nights in the waiting room this year, records show. In some cases, difficult-to-place teens, including gang members and youths with physical or emotional problems, sleep next to babies.

The waiting room has been equipped with toys, a microwave, refrigerator, television and a crib. Rollout beds are kept in a conference room.

Chicago

Car wash employees clean Virgin Mary image

A stain on the wall of an expressway underpass that some believe resembles the Virgin Mary is again attracting visitors after two car wash employees cleaned graffiti and brown paint off the image.

Rosa Diaz and Anna Reczek used a degreaser to clean the wall Friday on their lunch break.

Onlookers said they again could see the Virgin Mary. The Illinois Department of Transportation has said the stain was likely the result of salt runoff on the emergency turnoff area under the Kennedy Expressway.

A man had scrawled the words “Big Lie” in shoe polish on the image Thursday night, and authorities charged Victor Gonzalez of Chicago with criminal damage to state-supported property, a misdemeanor.

Gonzalez, 37, told relatives he believed visitors were worshipping a graven image in violation of the Second Commandment, said Mandy Gonzalez, who identified herself as Gonzalez’s niece.

On Friday, Chicago police directed transportation workers to paint over the image with brown paint for safety reasons.

Hundreds of people have flocked to the underpass since it was discovered last month to see the image.

Ohio

Highway shooting jury still without verdict

Jurors in the trial of a man charged with a string of Ohio highway shootings failed to reach a verdict Saturday, the third full day of deliberations.

Charles McCoy Jr. has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to 24 charges. The defense admits he was behind the 12 shootings over five months in 2003 and 2004 but says he did not understand they were wrong because of his untreated paranoid schizophrenia.

Jurors will resume deliberations today. There was no indication of the jury’s progress.

The panel asked on Thursday — the first full day of deliberations — if it must give decisions on both aggravated murder and murder counts for the death of Gail Knisley, a 62-year-old car passenger and the only person struck in the shootings.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Charles Schneider answered they must decide the charges separately, issuing verdicts on each.

Honolulu

Report: Fatal grounding could have been avoided

The crew of an attack submarine that struck an undersea mountain in the Pacific Ocean earlier this year did not adequately review navigation charts that warned of an obstacle in the vessel’s path, according to a Navy report released Saturday.

The USS San Francisco was en route to Australia when the accident occurred Jan. 8 about 360 miles southeast of Guam, killing one sailor and injuring 97 others.

Had the submarine’s crew “complied with requisite procedures and exercised prudent navigation practices,” the grounding could have been avoided, the 124-page report said. “Even if not wholly avoided, however, the grounding would not have been as severe and loss of life may be been prevented.”

The submarine hit the mountain while submerged 525 feet below the ocean’s surface. The mountain did not appear on the chart being used for navigation.