The recent mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., both rattled the senses of America in 2012. Twenty-six people – 20 first-graders and six teachers and school officials in Newtown, were murdered in the elementary school on Dec. 14 when a troubled 20-year-old man…

In early December 2011, a 53-year-old mother in West Richland, Wash., drove her 9-year-old daughter to a bank with another child so her daughter could deposit her $5 weekly allowance. But as they each got back into the woman’s large, boxy 2006 Cadillac Escalade SUV, the woman saw the neighbor boy sitting in the backseat…

Starting Dec. 24, the fines for underage drinking in Pennsylvania rose from $300 for a first offense to $500, and for subsequent offenses the fine soared to a cool $1,000, all in a new attempt to reduce underage drinking in the Commonwealth. The law, which was passed by the state Legislature and signed by the…

The holidays are here and sadly, alcohol-related vehicle accidents, fueled by holiday parties where drivers drink too much and then get behind the wheel, are already taking their deadly toll on America’s roadways. Four people were killed Dec. 23 in Cincinnati, Ohio, “when a minivan carrying a family leaving a Christmas party went the wrong…

When the power went out in her house in June 2009, Carrie Goretzka, an Allegheny County, Pa., mother of two children looked outside and saw flames in some pine trees in her backyard. Frightened by the power-related tree fire, she went out to her car to get her cellphone so she could call the electric…

The family of a boy who suffered severe brain damage during childbirth in Philadelphia in 2009 was awarded a $12.6 million verdict after a jury ruled that the negligence of their midwife contributed to the baby’s injuries. The child, Braydon Hoffer, the son of Roseann and Donald Hoffer, suffered from a lack of oxygen to…