Using an online registry, the Belleville News-Democrat investigated the over 4,000 day care centers in Illinois and found that 786 centers had at least one registered sex offender living within 500 feet of their front door, despite a state law intended to keep offenders from such close proximity.

The newspaper said the intent of the 2006 law has been thwarted partly because it was worded in such a way that it fails to cover home day care, which accounts for 74 percent of the state’s licensed day-care centers.

The legislation covers home day care that is licensed for nine or more children. But data provided by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services shows that none of the state’s home day-care centers are licensed for more than eight children, according to the News-Democrat. Those with more than eight are required to hire a helper, which would make the small centers more expensive to operate.

The News-Democrat said police would have trouble enforcing the law even if it covered the home day-care centers, because the state agency doesn’t give them updated day care addresses.

Informed of the investigation’s findings, agency spokesman Kendall Marlowe said it was working to address the situation and might develop an online program that could be updated daily for police. “You’ve identified a gap in communication between DCFS and local law enforcement that we will now correct,” he told the News-Democrat.

Sponsors of the 2006 law criticized the agency for making the legislation essentially worthless.

Our son received Guitar Hero 3 from grandma for Christmas, and we’ve rocked out on it way more than he has (even beat Satan handily in the guitar battle, bitches). So we weren’t a bit surprised when we read this story about adult women addicted to the game, some playing so much they develop painful tendinitis. Speaking of which, hey Activision, would it kill you to come out with a full-size guitar for us Wii playing grownups?

Tami Amati admits that sometimes, after she drops her two boys off at school, she comes home and plays the video game “Guitar Hero” … for hours.

“I can play by myself then,” said the 36-year-old stay-at-home mom from Woodstock. “I don’t have to share.”

Fourth-grade teacher Anni Whitaker, 29, of Roselle, lined up at Best Buy at midnight on a school night to buy the new “Guitar Hero III” — for herself.

Whitaker, who is expecting a baby, recently had a pregnant friend over. They balanced the video game’s plastic guitars on their protruding bellies and jammed to the game’s ZZ Top and Guns ‘N Roses songs.

We have mixed feelings about the Boy Scouts of America here at Minor Topics. Some of us think they are a harmless organization that gives kids some camaraderie and a chance to hone their s’mores making skills. While others think that, while one could argue that they have a legal right to require Christian allegiance and discriminate against homosexuals under the umbrella of “religious exemption”, they should then forfeit collecting any taxpayer funds and stop using public schools as promotional venues. Texas Governor Rick Perry certainly falls into the former camp, and he thinks the Boy Scouts are the bees knees. In fact, he thinks they are so great he wrote a book about them.

In his new book, Texas Gov. Rick Perry uses the Boy Scouts to draw a battle line in a “culture war,” defending them against the American Civil Liberties Union and what he sees as a moral struggle for the country’s future.

He was to be in New York today to launch a tour promoting On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.

The book extols the virtues of the Boy Scouts and its impact on a young boy growing up in rural Paint Creek, Texas. “Life revolved around school, church, and – for most boys – the Boy Scouts,” wrote Mr. Perry, who eventually became an Eagle Scout.

It traces a 30-year history of litigation involving the Scouts – most of which they won – and Mr. Perry, a Republican, targets the ACLU as the primary force behind a leftist push to accept homosexuality and challenge Scouting’s duty to God.

Well this ought to make for some interesting fodder on the feeding choices debate boards. Researchers in London found that premature infants that were fed enriched formula consistently outperformed other preemies on IQ tests. The other infants were fed either regular formula, “bank” breast milk, or a mix of the breast milk and formula.

Their latest study, published in Pediatric Research, shows the benefits continue into the teenage years.

It also found a particular part of the brain is better developed in those given the enriched milk.

The team from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the UCL Institute of Child Health note that while nutrition has been linked with behaviour, their findings are among the first to show how early feeding may even alter brain structure.

Lead researcher Dr Elizabeth Isaacs said: “It is not clear whether this just relates to preterm infants, who have very specific development issues.

“But obviously a next question would be if there are any wider implications, both for feeding beyond those first few weeks, and for babies who are born at term.”

A woman in Canley Heights, Australia, tucked her two dead children into bed, then lay down next to them waiting to die herself. Her husband discovered the grizzly scene in time to call an ambulance. The woman is currently recovering in the hospital. While police have not announced an official cause of death for the children, it surely can’t be ruled out that this was possibly a murder/suicide attempt.

A neighbour of the family, who wanted to be known only as Wendy, had followed the distraught father into the house after he had pleaded with her to call an ambulance.

She said she was overcome with a “sickening sadness” when she pulled back blankets on the bed where the woman lay to reveal the children’s cold and blue bodies. Wendy said there were prescription pills and pill packets lying about the room.

“The mother had cut wounds to her arms,” she said. “The two kids were blue, they were cold. The mother was blue as well, but not as bad as the two kids.”

The children bore no obvious signs of injury, a police spokesman said.

Well, this guy is either incredibly stupid, or incredibly narcissistic to think he wouldn’t be caught. Thank you school administrators and teachers for being observant and on the ball.

A convicted sex offender remained jailed Tuesday after the 25-year-old man, posing as a teenager, was caught taking a 14-year-old girl to a dance at her middle school, Athens authorities said.

Athens Middle School faculty members stopped Gregory Ray Brooks at the gym door because he appeared to be much older than his date at the Friday dance, Athens Superintendent Orman Bridges Jr. said.

“He didn’t look like the 17-year-old he said he was,” Bridges said. “The faculty did an excellent job of monitoring who was coming in and catching this guy. They kept him from other students and maybe helped this young lady out of a bad situation.”

Police Capt. Marty Bruce said Brooks was convicted in Limestone County in May 2004 for first-degree sodomy on an 8-year-old victim.

What’s with all the horny female teachers lately? A former teacher in South Carolina has been sentenced to six years in prison for having sex with her students. A forensic psychiatrist says the woman is not a pedophile, but “rather a childlike victim suffering from personality disorders and a repressed childhood.” Could you imagine trying to float that excuse out there if the teacher was male? There would be cries for public hangings.

Authorities said Allenna Ward, 24, met 14- and 15-year-old boys at the school where she taught as well as at a motel, a park and behind a restaurant.

“I apologize from the depths of my heart,” Ward said in court.

Police began investigating last year after school officials found a note believed to have been written by Ward to one of the boys. Some of the victims were students at Bell Street Middle School in Clinton, where Ward taught. She was fired about a year ago.

Ward pleaded guilty in September to three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three lewd acts on a minor.

Fortunately we live within walking distance of school, because we admittedly have a overly active imagination which leads to paranoia about sticking our kid on a school bus for a lengthy ride. And a tragic story like this one from Cottonwood, Minnesota doesn’t help that one bit (even though the bus driver does not appear to be at fault):

A school bus and several other vehicles crashed in southwestern Minnesota on Tuesday, killing four students and injuring more than a dozen others, authorities said.

The bus was hit by a van around 3:25 p.m. on a highway south of Cottonwood. The bus then hit a pickup and tipped on its side, State Patrol Lt. Mark Peterson said.

At least 14 people were hurt. Thirteen students were treated at nearby hospitals.

News of the crash swept through Cottonwood, a small town of about 1,000 people about 121 miles southwest of Minneapolis.