Well, in his defense, it *was* Foster’s, the “Amber Nectar”.

Constable Wayne Burnett said he was “shocked and appalled” when he pulled over the unregistered car Friday in the central Australian town of Alice Springs.

The 30-can beer case was strapped in between two adults sitting in the back seat of the car. The child was also in back, but on the car’s floor.

“The child was sitting in the lump in the center, unrestrained,” Burnett told reporters Tuesday.

“I haven’t ever seen something like this before,” he said. “This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child.”

He’s obviously never met our kids.

Belle Gunness, a notorious serial killer from Indiana at the turn of the 20th century, may have murdered children.

Investigators gingerly peeled back the brittle lining of the small caskets buried a century ago in a Forest Park cemetery, revealing the remains of three children—orange-stained ribs, leg bones, pieces of skull. They were jarringly mingled with hair and bits of charred tissue, hinting at the house fire that finally put authorities on the trail of a cunning serial killer.

“We couldn’t have asked for anything better than this,” said forensic anthropologist Stephen Nawrocki on the condition of the bones of a 5-year-old boy found in one of the metal caskets. “This is going to come out just beautifully.”

The exhumations were part of a broadening quest to shed light on the mystery of Belle Gunness, a wealthy widow accused of murdering as many as 30 men, women and children, often dismembering the bodies at her hilltop farm in LaPorte, Ind.

We don’t care if it was the most expensive makeup from Paris, toddlers routinely break stuff and it’s no reason to put the smackdown on them.

A Pasco woman who hit her 2-year-old son for getting into her makeup has been jailed for investigation of assault.

The 19-year-old appeared in court Monday and bail was set at $25,000 while prosecutors decide whether to charge her.

Police who were called Friday by the boy’s grandmother found scrapes and bruises on his face and bumps on his head.

An 11-year-old in Texas died suddenly from a disease that’s not generally known to be fatal.

Paul Roscoe, of North Richland Hills, Texas, died after collapsing at his home Saturday morning.

His death was triggered by Kawasaki disease — a condition that affects children, especially boys, under the age of 5, and causes aneurysms and blockages in the blood vessels.

Dr. Scott Alenick, a pediatric cardiologist in Northern and Central New Jersey, said Kawasaki disease is fairly common; however it is extremely rare for someone to die from it.

Our Thin Mints habit probably put her over the top. And apparently she’s a fan as well:

And now, with 17,323 boxes sold under her name, [15-year-old Dearborn girl Jennifer Sharpe] is believed to have sold more cookies in a single season than anyone in the U.S. ever has, according to Girl Scout officials who’ve planned a ceremony in her honor today.

Jennifer, a fan of the Thin Mints, used a retail-inspired strategy. She set up shop in a church parking lot from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Sundays, she sold cookies outside an auto parts store from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“When I was young, I knocked on doors,” said Jennifer, in her 10th year of Scouting. “Now that I’m older, I get too many rejections face to face. People don’t want to buy from a 15-year-old.”

Some good news comes out of the horrific tragedy of the recent earthquake in China. A 3-year-old girl has been rescued alive from under a massive pile of rubble after being there for over 40 hours.

She apparently survived because she had been protected by the bodies of her parents who died in Monday’s disaster, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The girl, Song Xinyi, suffered serious leg injuries but was able to talk when she was hauled out of the many layers of rubble this morning, 43 hours after the 7.9-magnitude quake struck south-west China’s Sichuan province.

“She explained the three Chinese characters that made up her name, and told everybody she loved painting and watching TV. Despite a coin-sized wound on her forehead, she still looked pretty,” Xinhua reported.

A version of Jessica’s Law in Utah may mean stiffer penalties for a man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl.

Don Dean Mander was charged Tuesday in 4th District Court with rape of a child and sexual abuse of a child, both first-degree felonies. According to a new law that became effective May 5, Mander could face a 25-year-to-life prison term if convicted of rape of a child. Sexual abuse of a child carries the potential for a prison term of six, 10 or 15 years to life.

A newborn baby was found dead inside a women’s restroom at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas. Hopefully with the 10 gazillion cameras they have in that town police can find out who did this.

Roberts said that when police arrived at the Excalibur, they found a baby boy wrapped in a pillowcase with some towels around him inside an Excalibur gift bag on the restroom’s floor.

He said tests are being done to determine whether the baby was breathing when he was born, but the investigation is being treated as a homicide.

Roberts said the infant had an intact placenta with an umbilical cord.

Police have no suspects, he said.

It’s Home Alone Part 6. Talk about “mommy brain” — a mom and dad hopped on a flight to Winnepeg, Canada, and oops! They forgot their toddler in Vancouver.

“We had 10 minutes before boarding,” [father, Jun Parreno] said. “We were running for the gate.”

Parreno thought his son, J.M., was with his wife and the boy’s grandparents, who were running ahead of him. Meanwhile, they thought he had the 23-month-old.

The family members were sitting in separate sections of the plane, and had no idea their son was wandering around Vancouver airport alone between the security checkpoint and the gates.

Rock on, Jack Dudley, you’re our hero of the day. His parents must be extremely proud.

Jack Dudley had been making the most of last Sunday’s sunshine by playing in the pool with Sam, three, as their parents watched nearby.

But when his mother went into the house and his father turned his back, the little boy slipped off his armbands to try to jump onto an inflatable lounger, but he missed and sank to the bottom.

Jack jumped into the pool and tried desperately to drag his brother to the surface but he slipped from his grasp the first time.

He dove down a second time before successfully bringing Sam up to the edge of the pool where he was pulled out by his mother Kim, 41.

A Dallas woman has been accused of grooming her daughter from the age of 12 to be a professional dominatrix, selling her services on the web since she was 14. And no, it’s not our very own Mominatrix, who endorses sex acts between consenting adults only!

The 44-year-old mother, whose name is not being published to protect the identity of her daughter, was arrested Friday. Also charged is Todd B. Barkau, 35, of New York state, who authorities say started advertising the girl on the Internet as a 19- to 20-year-old dominatrix when she was 14.

The mother is accused of encouraging and participating in the venture to exploit the girl, who is now 20.

Mr. Barkau and the mother once lived together in Blue Springs, Mo., where the business was allegedly run.

A pastor at a Baptist church in northern Illinois has been arrested for allegedly having some inappropriate contact with a young parishioner.

Forty-year-old Jonathon Christopher Powell faces two counts of criminal sexual assault of a victim between 13 and 17 years old.

According to the church’s Web site, Powell is a senior pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in the village of Machesney Park.

A telephone message left at the church after business hours Monday was not immediately returned. No telephone listing for Jonathon Christopher Powell could be found.

When you have potential evidence lodged in your skull, it is probably wise to cop a plea.

Investigators say that 19-year-old Joshua Bush was part of a group of gang members who broke into a Port Arthur used car lot in July 2006.

According to police, Bush tried to shoot businessman Alan Olive. Police say that when Olive returned fire, a bullet struck the teenager. Bush had claimed he had been accidentally shot by a friend.

Police and Jefferson County prosecutors wanted doctors to extract the bullet from Bush’s forehead. But Bush and his attorney fought the removal.