If you type “black eyed children” into Google’s search, you get over 500,000 results. Black-eyed children, according to Wikipedia, are a paranormal phenomenon that started becoming prevalent in pop culture during the 1990s. Black-eyed children look anywhere from 7 to 16 years in age, with eyes that are solid black from iris to pupil. These children “seem to give off an eerie aura of menace merely by their very presence,” and according to one paranormal investigator, one of these creatures has recently reappeared in Staffordshire, England.

Of course, once you read the term paranormal investigator, you have to take this story with a grain of salt, but Lee Brickley says descriptions of this girl are identical to the firsthand accounts that circulated 30 years ago. Not only that, but there’s something different about this particular ghost that has him dishing out the following advice for anyone who sees her: start running while you still can.

Lee Brickley says he received a new eyewitness account of a black-eyed child in the Cannock Chase countryside of Staffordshire, England. A woman says she was walking through Birches Valley with her daughter when they heard what sounded like the screams of a child.

I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, but they definitely seemed in distress and sounded very close to us, so we instantly started running towards the noise. We couldn't find the child anywhere and so stopped to catch our breath, that's when I turned round and saw a girl stood behind me, no more than 10 years old, with her hands over her eyes, like she was waiting for a birthday cake. I asked if she was okay and if she had been the one screaming, she then put her arms down by her side and opened her eyes, which is when I saw they were completely black, no iris, no white, nothing. I jumped back and grabbed my daughter, when I looked again, the child was gone.

Brickley says this woman’s experience matches that of an earlier sighting from 1982, which involved, naturally, his own aunt. Hooboy.

She was also walking in the Cannock Chase area when she heard a girl’s voice calling for help:

Rushing to locate the sound, she stumbled upon a dirt track and caught sight of the girl, about six years old running in the opposite direction. When my aunt caught up, the girl turned around and looked her in the eyes, and then ran off into the dark woodland. Her eyes had been completely black with no trace of white. There was a police search but to no avail.

According to Brickley, U.S. reports of black-eyed children suggest that they often appear in groups, knocking at people’s doors and asking if they may come inside. Reddit has a healthy collection of black-eyed children stories, including one from a person who claims two of the spirits came to his door after midnight on Halloween and said, “Can we just wait in your house until our parents come get us?”

So, is there really such a thing as black-eyed children? This paranormal researcher says that while no one’s ever been able to prove they do exist, nor has anyone been caught in a hoax, so “the evidence isn't clear either way.” He does say, however,

In my opinion, black-eyed kids are nothing more than an urban legend sparked by one story many years ago that has taken on a life of its own.

As for Lee Brickley (who, it must be noted, is the comma-hating author of UFOs Werewolves & The Pig-Man: Exposing England’s Strangest Location -- Cannock Chase), he says there’s one creepy difference with the black-eyed child in England:

Only on Cannock Chase do the sightings consistently happen during the daytime.

What say you, ghost fans? Are black-eyed children real?

Image via anthonychristou/Instagram

Two women in Cincinnati, Ohio, are being hailed for chasing down and capturing a manwho allegedly tried to rape a 7-year-girl. The girl was reportedly playing outside of her apartment complex when the man lured her into a laundry room by telling her that her mother was looking for her. There, he allegedly took down his pants and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. It was then that her mom, with expert timing, came in to find the man trying to assault her daughter. He ran out, but mom wasn't about to let him get away.

Rasheeda Lawson says she was in her apartment building when she heard a woman yell, "Someone call the police, he just touched my daughter." She then said she saw a man run out of the laundry room while trying to pull up his pants.

The victim's mom then ran after the suspect, Terry Johnson, while Lawson decided to help and jumped in her car. Lawson told WLWT:

He was running, trying to get his pants back up, and couldn't never get them up.

This is a terrible thing to have happen, but I am really enjoying this image right now. But it gets even better.

Lawson says she finally caught up to him when he ran into a cemetery. Despite the fact that she had no idea how dangerous the guy was, or if he was armed, Lawson and the mom decided to take him down.

Lawson grabbed Mace and a stick from the back of her car and chased after him. She said:

Once I Maced him, he stumbled, looked which way he could go, and we started hitting him with the stick.

Luckily for the guy, cops arrived. Lawson said they arrested him with his junk still hanging out. "It was just gross, a gross mess," she says.

Johnson was arrested for attempted rape.

More from The Stir: Mom Breaks Into Home of Man Busted for Child Porn & Teaches Him a Lesson (VIDEO)

Innocent until proven guilty, but it sounds like a good thing Lawson and the girl's mom were so brave and fierce, or he could still be roaming around.

What would you have done?

Image via WLWT

Question: What would you do if you were eating your braised carnitas burrito at Chipotle when you looked over and saw a mother changing her toddler's diaper on the table next to you? If you're anything like me, you'd probably be a little disgusted and would likely change your meal from dine-in to to-go. Sadly, this isn't a hypothetical situation; this really happened recently. A Midwestern mom changed her child's diaper on a Chipotle table in front of a restaurant full of people. Her and her husband's reasoning? The restaurant didn't have a changing table in the bathroom. Oh. Okay.

Chad, the husband of the woman who made this wildly unsanitary decision, reportedly wrote a letter to Chipotle headquarters, defending his wife's choice and chastising the restaurant's employees, who he surmised must not be parents themselves since they were so shocked to see a nearly-2-year-old bare bottomed on a restaurant table. Consumerist claims that the employees asked the family why they couldn't go out to the car to change the child, and Chad's response evidently was:

[The employees had an] inability/unwillingness to empathize with parents who find [the car] a less convenient alternative even on a beautiful day like yesterday, much less a subfreezing day as we undoubtedly will have in [this region] this winter.

I'm sorry, but does anyone else find this bat-crap crazy?! As a parent, I get what it's like to be somewhere without a changing table when you need to change your child -- in fact, it happened to me just today. But in what world is it okay to plop your child on top of something people eat off of and change their diaper? That isn't punishing Chipotle, if that was the parents' intent; it's punishing the people who had to witness this while they were eating or, worse, the person who sits at their table next.

Being that Chipotle seems like a restaurant on the more progressive side -- and one with a kids' menu -- it is a little surprising that this particular location didn't have a changing table in the bathroom. But, still, it's no excuse to go Cro-Magnon on everyone. I mean, they were eating at Chipotle for god's sake -- how long does that take? If the child had peed, surely, she could have waited until they were done eating to get her diaper changed. And if she pooped ... wow.

What would you have done if you were the parents, or the other diners, in this situation?

Image © Frederic Cirou/PhotoAlto/Corbis

Someone found a shirt in the junior's department at Walmart and flipped out, because apparently it set the feminist movement back about 70 years. The shirt in question suggests that a girl might actually someday want to have a kickass husband.

It seems that one wannabe Batgirl was looking through the racks when she spotted a pink Batman symbol. She was horrified to find that the T-shirt read, "Training to Be Batman's Wife." Because God forbid anyone aspire to marry Batman.

I see the point that she's trying to make -- that girls should want to be awesome themselves, not just find their identity in a man. I fail to see how this shirt advocates for that though. It doesn't say, "I'm training to be some fictional superhero's doormat," after all. One has to wonder if the moms complaining about the slogan equate wifery with that.

Some may snidely wonder if training to be Mrs. Batman includes learning how to pick up dry cleaning or learning to deal with a husband with a wandering eye for the latest villainess, but why can't it mean training to be a female so fierce that she's the only one who can capture Batman's heart and keep it?

That she's training so hard to be awesome herself that the only man who can keep up with her is a comic book superhero? That's she's developing her own kick-assedness, so that she attracts an interesting and intelligent man with similar interests?

That she holds herself so highly that she's not going to settle for an ordinary Joe Schmoe?

A playful shirt for a girl saying she's in training to be an awesome wife to an awesome man is not what's holding our girls back, but the attitude that being a wife is somehow detrimental to girl power might be.

The only thing this shirt is missing is a companion for the boys' department that reads, "I'm training to be Wonder Woman's husband."

Would you buy this shirt for your daughter?

Image via Walmart.com

When you hear the term ISIS, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the terrorist group taking over the Middle East and beheading westerners. Absolutely gruesome stuff. But for a lot of people, they hear ISIS and think, Hey that's my name!

Like one little girl in Sydney, whose parents named her after the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis. Sheridan Leskien says that until a few months ago, people would remark on the unusual beauty of her 8-year-old daughter's name, but now that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham goes by the same moniker, Isis' name is threatening to tear her family apart.

"Every day there's some sort of reference in the media or brought up in conversation about fighting ISIS, about how ISIS is evil, and I'm worried that she's going to be targeted," Isis' mom shared.

She continued, "It's ruining our family and it's ruining Isis' future. I'm heartbroken for all the families being affected (by Islamic State), the journalists, the different people who are suffering, but my family is suffering too."

While some might call her melodramatic, Leskian says that "friends have abandoned" them, because they're "afraid to be associated with them." Isis' 13-year-old brother Maximus has gotten into fights defending his sister.

People have gone so far as suggesting that they change her name, but the family thinks that's ridiculous. "She's 8 years old, she'll hardly be told what to do at all," Leaskian said. "What people need to do is stop using this beautiful name for this evil group."

ISIS is already morphing into the Islamic State, or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), as President Obama has begun referring to it.

In fact, there's a group petitioning the media to stop using the term ISIS to refer to the terrorists by gathering signatures and raising awareness of all the lovely ladies in the world calling themselves Isis. So far they have over 30,000, including Sheridan Leskien's.

Do you think we should stop referring to the Islamic State as ISIS?

Image via iStock.com/nmaxfield

On Sunday night, the planets aligned, and the wickedly funny Ryan Case, Emmy-winning editor of Modern Family, was on a plane stuck behind "the worst person in the world." OK, so maybe the planets didn't align for her, but they did for the rest of us who enjoyed giggling at her live-tweeting of the whole ordeal.

It turns out that the passenger in question was drunk as a skunk (wait -- can skunks get drunk? Or do they just have the misfortune of having a name that rhymes with drunk?), terribly rude, questionably racist, and very pissed off that she wasn't in first class. Because of course.

Now some might argue that this chick didn't deserve to be mocked and ridiculed for her drunken stupor. I mean, haven't we all had situations in our past that we'd rather not have documented for the entire Internet to shame us with? 

Some of us may even have been drunk on a plane before, making the experience entirely unpleasant for our fellow passengers. Confession time -- once after a particularly nasty fight with my then-husband, I ugly-cried the entire five-and-a-half hours of a cross-country flight. Snotty, ugly-cried. I don't think the flight attendants realized they all were taking pity on me and refilling my drink, and the emotional turmoil of my crumbling marriage combined with a lack of sleep and three too many Jack and Cokes were just too much too keep the floodgates at bay. I was the worst person in the world on that flight, I'm pretty sure.

That being said, I try really hard not to judge, but dang, from what Case had to say about this chick, it's hard not to.

It started with a simple, "Sitting behind the worst person in the world," with further explanation, "She was watching Hawaii 5.0 so loudly in her earphones that her seat mate asked her to turn it down. Worst move he ever made ... She apologized in the loudest, drunkest voice ever 'SORRY ITS MY 1ST TIME NOT IN 1ST CLASS' & hasn't stopped talking since."

Poor precious had to ride steerage. The horror! The braggery continues, with tales of how traveled she is.

[code]

"I feel like in Dubai every car I sat in is a Range Rover." - this girl

— Ryan Case (@film114) September 29, 2014

She then insults her seatmate. Her Middle Eastern seatmate.

[code]

She said "I have a very racist view of all Middle East." She's talking to a middle Eastern man, also mocking his accent.

— Ryan Case (@film114) September 29, 2014

She tried to make up for all the racism though.

[code]

She keeps trying to take his photo & claims he looks just like her friend who's GORGEOUS.

— Ryan Case (@film114) September 29, 2014

Case got a short respite from this heinously inebriated chick when nature called.

[code]

She just went to the bathroom. My greatest hope is she passes out in there for the duration of the flight.

— Ryan Case (@film114) September 29, 2014

"I forgot the joy of silence," she remarked on the quietness.

There's more, so much more, 64 tweets in all detailing this awful experience, but to sum it up, it gets much worse before it gets better, and by gets better, I mean when the authorities had to be called to meet the plane when it landed to deal with Nadia, as her name turned out to be. She threatened people. She called the woman in front of her a bitch for asking her to please tone it down. She eventually tried to kiss the man sitting next to her, whom she racially insulted but somehow insisted was still gorgeous.

All being told, this girl was so rude and obnoxious, I'm going to say she was asking for it. Now all we have to do is wait for the Dunphy family to take a vacation somewhere that requires air travel. Who should "Nadia" be sitting next to on the show? Phil, Cam, or Mitchell?

Do you think Ryan Case should have kept her remarks to herself, or did Nadia deserve to have her episode made public?

Image via Frazer Harrison/Staff/Getty Images

Recently I was in the car when Maroon 5's latest single "Animals" came on, and I thought, Whoa, that is one naughty song -- I like it! I may not be a fan of Adam Levine personally, but his music is catchy, mmmkay? I like Maroon 5.

However, I am not a fan of this creeptastic music video for "Animals," and I dare say it may have ruined the song for me. Instead of being about the animalistic side of love, or even the toxic draw of some dysfunctional relationships, it's about ... actually butchering animals. Plus, Levine plays a stalker worthy of America's Most Wanted as he follows and photographs a chick played by his real-life wife, Behati Prinsloo.

More from The Stir: Adam Levine's Apologies to Ex-Girlfriends Are Purely Selfish

There are several images in the Samuel Bayer directed video of Levine covering himself in blood and hanging in a meat locker next to actual slabs of beef. I know this guy probably considers himself a beefcake, but somehow I don't think that's what the expression means.

Then later they have sex while blood pours down from the ceiling onto them. Because nothing says sexy like doing it while covered in blood. Hey -- even Sookie Stackhouse on True Blood had standards and liked to be clean before going to bed with a vampire.

Warning: Do not view this video if you have small children in the room, or actually like the song and don't want your head filled with gross bloody images every time it plays on the radio.

[code][/code]

What do you think Maroon 5's latest video?

Image via Adam Levine/Instagram

The search for a missing Arkansas real estate agent has concluded in a heartbreaking way. The body of Beverly Carter, who was the mother of two sons and grandmother to four grandchildren, was reportedly found overnight in a shallow grave 25 miles away from the last house she told her husband she was showing potential buyers before she vanished.

The 49-year-old reportedly called Carl, her husband of 30 years, on Thursday to tell him the address of the last home she would be working at that day. Hours passed and when Carl didn't hear from his wife, he says he drove over to the house and found her car parked in front. The door was left open. Carl entered to look for her but found the place abandoned.

After days of searching, police apprehended a suspect who admitted he kidnapped the woman -- but who was then able to get away because police didn't have enough evidence at the time to book him.

Arron Lewis, 33, was arrested Monday and police say he will be charged with capital murder. The man confessed to kidnapping Carter, cops said, but wouldn't divulge where the body was located.

The suspect, who was on parole, was involved in a bad car accident on Sunday, and when police arrived at the scene, they found him covered in blood. He claimed a driver ran him off the road, but witnesses say he was traveling at a very high speed. Police cited him for careless driving and not wearing his seatbelt.

And then the kicker: while being treated at the hospital and undergoing tests, Lewis reportedly took off. Since no criminal charges had been brought up against him yet, police had no reason to detain him.

Police aren't being clear about the next part of the story, but it may have led them to Lewis: the agent's cellphone was reportedly used -- and text messages were sent from it -- after she went missing.

Family and friends created a Facebook page for Carter after she disappeared. After news broke that the woman's body was recovered, someone posted:

We are incredibly heartbroken. Thank you all SO MUCH for spending hours researching, walking through fields, and spreading the word so fast about Beverly Lyn Carter's abduction. No words. #WeWearRed still today because we love her. #FindBeverly #RememberBeverly

So, so sad. And senseless. May her family find peace at this difficult time.

What do you think the motive was in this crime?

Image via Facebook

Missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham disappeared two weeks ago and police still aren't any closer to finding her whereabouts. Fortunately, however, they do have a suspect in custody: Jesse L. Matthew Jr., 32, who was arrested last week after he fled Virginia when he learned police wanted to speak with him. And now, horrifyingly, police think he may have had something to do with the murder of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, 20, whose body was found in 2009. And police are even beginning to wonder if perhaps the mystery of what happened to two other young women who went missing from the Charlottesville area might be solved now too.

Matthew was first seen on surveillance camera following Hannah around a mall in the early morning of September 13 and putting his arm around her. When tracked down and questioned, he said that he had merely bought the already intoxicated student drinks.

That was the last time she was seen.

Matthew's arrest provided police with the opportunity to test DNA against evidence in the Harrington case, though authorities would not elaborate on their findings except to call it a "significant break."

Harrington's mother, Gil Harrington, has gone five years without any break in her daughter's case, so this must be amazing news for that family. Of course, nothing will bring their daughter back, but any family would want justice for their loved one.

Harrington told the Washington Post:

And I know there is another missing girl out there that has brought this suspect to light. ... We have ridden this roller coaster and thought so many times, 'Could this be the person who killed Morgan?'

And what about the other girls who have disappeared in the area? Their families are waiting for justice too.

Police also said that DNA evidence from Harrington's case may help solve the 2005 sexual assault of a 26-year-old woman. But Matthew has not been charged in that case and police refuse to comment further on it.

Matthew is innocent until proven guilty, and he has not been charged in any of the cases except Hannah's, where he faces charges of intent to defile (sexually molest).

Matthew, according to friends and family, isn't at all the type of person anyone would expect to be a suspect in crimes like this. He's described as a "gentle giant" and worked as a nursing technician at University of Virginia hospital. He played football for the Liberty University team.

However, there was already a dark spot on his character: While at college, he was accused of raping a student. The charges were dropped when the victim refused to push the case forward.

If it turns out Matthew is guilty of these crimes, a dangerous and serial predator will have been taken off the streets. Tragically, it took Hannah's disappearance to make that happen.

[code][/code]

Image via Associated Press

Do you remember Yoselyn Ortega, the New York nanny who was charged with stabbing two small children to death? Yeah, it’s kind of hard to forget a horrific headline-grabbing story like that. Ortega allegedly killed 6-year-old Lucia Krim and 2-year-old Leo Krim last October while their mother was out picking up her third child from a swimming lesson, and last I heard, she was being found mentally fit to stand trial when a judge ruled that jailhouse phone calls proved she wasn’t too delusional to understand her case.

As if the Krim family hasn’t already been through enough, the New York Post reports that mom Marina Krim is being traumatized by seeing Ortega’s lookalike sister on a daily basis. In a truly unfortunate twist, Yoselyn Ortega’s sister Celia now babysits a schoolmate of the Krims’ only surviving daughter.

The Post says they’ve managed to get their hands on an email from Marina Krim in which she expresses her despair over facing Celia day after day:

Can you imagine my anxiety as I am walking out of school with Nessie and on a daily basis wondering if I am going to run into this woman? She introduced us to the defendant who murdered our kids and Nessie’s sister and brother. Making it all worse, we now find out she lied about the defendant’s background to improve the chances of us hiring the defendant.

Hmmmm. Does anyone else feel like this doesn’t really sound like an email someone would actually write? I somehow doubt she would refer to Ortega as “the defendant.” I can’t find any other reports of these emails, so I guess there are three possibilities:

• The Post is making the whole thing up.
• The Post is reporting a real situation but took liberties with the email text.
• This is all true, every word of it.

Well, assuming the truth lies somewhere in between the second and third scenario, here’s what supposedly happened: the Krim family relocated to Tribeca to try and start over after their unspeakable loss, but it turns out that the family that employed Celia Ortega moved as well, to the exact same neighborhood. Celia Ortega babysits the daughter of Henley and Xabi Vazquez, who now attends the same school the Krims’ daughter does.  

The school principal tried to ask the Vazquezes not to send the nanny to school pickups, but the family refused. A compromise of sorts was reached when they agreed for Ortega to pick up their daughter 15 minutes after everyone else, but Marina Kim has still been running into her. Another alleged email snippet:

My heart was racing, I was disturbed and angry ... Celia was practically wearing a disguise, wearing big sunglasses and an olive-green quilted coat, she basically grabbed the daughter and rushed away, looking to me like she knew she was breaking the bargain. I just cannot deal with this anymore, enough is enough.

According to the Post, Henley Vazquez declined to comment and Celia Ortega could not be reached.

Oof, I don’t really know what to think of this. If it’s true, I can absolutely see how Marina Krim would be upset. Celia Ortega has always said she was the one who gave the Krim family a reference for her sister, and when Yoselyn was arrested, Celia expressed guilt and sorrow over her recommendation, saying, “I would like to die. I would give my life for the children to come back.” But she also said something that came off a little weird at the time, which was this:

I can't talk to Marina now. Maybe when she is more relaxed. I will give her a hug.

Right. Just wait until the woman whose children were brutally murdered by your sister seems “more relaxed,” THEN go for the hug.

Anyway, I hope for the Krims’ sake, the story is exaggerated and that she’s not really having to face Celia Ortega every single day. That just seems hard, no matter how good Ortega’s intentions may be or how much remorse she may have. And if it’s true that she lied about her sister’s background, I’m not sure anyone should expect Marina Krim to forgive her.

What’s your take on this story? Do you think the family employing Celia Ortega should get a new babysitter?

Image via mugley/Flickr

Lisa Knoefel was only trying to do the right thing when she took in troubled teen Sabrina Zunich and became her foster mother and welcomed her into her family. Sabrina had been taken away from her caregiver, her grandmother, after she became unruly and it was determined her grandmother could no longer care for her. Before that, Sabrina's mother could no longer care for her because of drug and alcohol addiction. No doubt Sabrina had had a tough life so far. How lucky for her that Lisa was willing to help her out and give her a stable home with her husband, teen daughter, and toddler, in Ohio. Tragically, Sabrina paid Lisa back by killing her.

Sabrina, 19, was convicted of stabbing Lisa 12 times and cutting her 166 times with a serrated-edge knife while her foster mom begged for her life. What no one knew until after the vicious crime had been committed and Lisa Knoefel was dead is that Sabrina and Lisa's husband, Kevin, had been having an affair.

He had reportedly promised that he would divorce Lisa and marry Sabrina, but later convinced Sabrina to kill Lisa saying that he didn't want to share custody of their 3-year-old daughter with her if he simply divorced her. He also convinced Sabrina that the two of them could raise the girl together. Oh, and Lisa's insurance policy would be nice too. Just in case none of that was getting through, Kevin then threatened to kill himself if Sabrina didn't do as he asked.

Sabrina testified that Kevin showed her how to stab Lisa to death. He then made sure he was out of town that day. Kevin Knoefel was convicted and sentenced to life.

Sabrina pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison, with the chance of parole in 30 years -- which she only got because of her cooperation in testifying against Kevin.

The judge said there was "no question" that Sabrina was "manipulated and used" by Kevin.

Unfortunately, Lisa was a victim not only of her own depraved husband, but also of a young woman who couldn't overcome her own demons of abandonment. If drugs and alcohol destroyed Sabrina's mom's life, and also Sabrina's, they also had a hand in killing Lisa.

Lisa is the type of person we need more of in this world -- someone willing to take on a troubled teen and not only give that person the homelife she deserves, but create a better person for society. Tragically, this very good-heartedness was her downfall.

It is NOT always like this. I personally know a woman who took in two foster teens, and they are her daughters now and the lights of her life. We don't hear those stories. We hear these kinds of stories.

But unfortunately that is not comfort for Lisa's family.

Image via Willoughby Hills Police

When you hear of celebrities getting arrested for driving under the influence, it's always frustrating. Their faces are known to (almost) everyone, they have riches beyond belief, they (most likely) have assistants and PR people or at least a whole host of minions at their beck and call. Perhaps that's all just part of the fantasy, because celebrities continually put their lives and others' lives at risk by driving while intoxicated. Most recently? Olympian Michael Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence Tuesday morning, according to the police.

The 29-year-old was also charged with excessive speed as well as crossing double lane lines within a tunnel on I-95 in Baltimore, Maryland. Apparently he was going 84 mph in a 45-mph zone.

Not too dangerous or anything. Thank goodness it seems no one was injured thanks to this hotheaded recklessness.

Many of us who imbibe most likely have thanked our lucky stars that nothing tragic happened after getting behind the wheel after one too many. But it doesn't take away from the fact that poor decisions were made and people could have gotten hurt. Phelps speeding and crossing lanes in a tunnel clearly shows what little regard he had for anyone else driving that morning. He was driving in a white 2014 Land Rover and was stopped at around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday morning.

"He was unable to perform satisfactorily a series of standard field sobriety tests," the police statement said. Reports say his blood alcohol level was almost twice the legal limit. According to driving laws in Maryland, you are charged with a DUI if your blood alcohol level is .08% or higher and a DWI if your blood alcohol level is between .04% and .08%.

Scarily enough, this isn't the first time he's been charged with DUI. In 2004, Phelps was arrested for drunken driving and sentenced to 18 months probation back when he was just 19 years old.

"I recognize the seriousness of this mistake," Phelps said in 2004 before a judge in a courtroom. "I’ve learned from this mistake and will continue learning from this mistake for the rest of my life."

Um, nope, you haven't.

(And we also can't forget about that infamous bong photo either.)

Considering Phelps came out of retirement and was hoping to return to the 2016 Rio Olympics, it's hard to say what effect if any this arrest will have on those aspirations. It would be a shame yet rather well deserved if he has to cut his Olympics journey short all because of one very stupid, rash decision.

Do you think Phelps deserves the maximum punishment for his second DUI?

Image via Maryland GovPics/Flickr

What are some of the most powerful, enduring life lessons you remember from the Julia Roberts movie Pretty Woman? Let’s see ... johns are always going to be super-hot silver foxes who are insanely rich so prostitution is a totally viable career choice, shopkeepers should never make assumptions about how much money you have (“Big mistake. Big. Huge.”), and if you’re a high school student wearing jeggings, you’re a dirty whore.

Hang on, that third one doesn’t seem quite right. Regardless, this is basically the message a North Dakota assistant high school principal sent students recently after forcing kids to watch Pretty Woman as an example of why they shouldn’t wear leggings, jeggings, or tight jeans.

According to reports that I swear I am not making up, school officials called an assembly for all girls at Devils Lake High School and presented the new dress code policy. In order to reinforce their message, the assistant principal said they had the girls watch two clips from the movie Pretty Woman and compared their attire to Julia Roberts’ character, who was, as you likely remember, a prostitute.

Here is an intriguing quote from parent Candace Olsen:

A lot of the parents went on Facebook and we were discussing it. They were talking about how they think the boys should be able to control themselves and the girls should be able to wear the leggings and the jeggings and you know, the squirts and stuff. And, when I was in high school, I think we wore a little bit more provocative clothing.

The squirts and stuff? I have been thinking about this all morning and the best I can come up with is that she’s talking about skorts. Like those things that look like a miniskirt but they have shorts underneath. Unless “the squirts” is some hip new slang I’m unaware of. In which case what the hell, gross.

Anyway, squirts aside (how unlikely is it that there would be a part of this story that’s even crazier than “school makes kids watch Pretty Woman to understand how their clothing creates value judgements about who they are as people,” and yet here we are), one student says she wishes the school would focus on more important social issues:

Like online stuff and people tweeting about each other. They should be focusing more on that and not dumb stuff like yoga pants. We should be able to wear whatever we want.

Apparently one of the school’s English teachers even made a reference to the girls looking like prostitutes. The assistant principal admitted that that the teacher “probably shouldn't have said what she did,” but that the new policy is meant to stop both teachers AND boys from being “distracted.”

Dude, I don’t even know where to start with how wrong this is. If I were a parent of a kid at this school, I would be losing my ever-loving MIND over the fact that the officials are drawing comparisons between female students and prostitutes, and that they’re blaming the girls for the fact that the boys (and apparently at least some teachers?) are objectifying horndogs.

In general, I’m not opposed to schools having dress codes and enforcing them. But I have a huge problem with a school slut-shaming girls and making them culpable for the boys’ behavior. Not to mention the fact that Julia Roberts’ thigh-high patent leather boots look NOTHING LIKE JEGGINGS, for crying out loud.

Would you freak out if you were the parent of a student at this school?

Image via Touchstone Pictures

Eating SpaghettiOs got a woman more than a month in jail. The 23-year-old Georgia woman, Ashley Gabrielle Huff, was pulled over in Gainsville, Florida, for a routine traffic violation, and when the officer spied a spoon with a dried substance on it in a plastic bag, she insisted it was spaghetti sauce, as she said she liked keeping a can of SpaghettiOs in her car and eating it. Not buying her spaghetti eating story, she was booked for possession of methamphetamine.

The officer reportedly conducted a "field test" on the spoon and it came back positive for meth, despite Huff, who had no criminal record, sticking to her story.

Huff was arrested anyway and brought to jail. Huff told the Gainesville Times:

Nobody believed me. I said I had SpaghettiOs on my spoon. Nobody believed that. Everybody thought it was hilarious, but that was exactly what it was.

After being released from jail, she was ordered to take drug counseling classes, but when she couldn't make all of the appointments, she was put back in jail, this time staying from August 2 until September 18 because she couldn't pay bond.

There, she says she missed her children's birthday parties and was fired from her job at Waffle House.

After a month in jail, tests finally confirmed that the substance contained no drug.

Yes, this is why we have public defenders, people. Here we have a completely innocent woman, no track record of drug usage, no nothing, and she's put in jail because of spaghetti sauce. Freaking frightening.

As soon as the test came back, all charges were dismissed and she was released. Good god, why did that test take so long?

This really makes you wary about driving with any utensils in your car, doesn't it?

I hope this poor woman is at least able to get some money out of this fiasco, considering that she couldn't pay her bills during this time and lost her job.

On the plus side, at least she wasn't left in solitary confinement for two years over a bogus DUI charge.

Image via Hall County Sheriff's Office

These days, flying can be a huge headache and not just because of all those delays and cancellations. It's our fellow passengers that can make the experience miserable. Among the many horrors we have faced: body odor, drunkenness, and poop-filled Pampers to name a few. Someone was genius enough to start chronicling this traveling freak show with the Instagram account passengershaming. Take a look at the 12 worst airline passengers you'll ever encounter.

What's the worst thing you've ever seen on a flight?

Image via passengershaming/Instagram

While reporter Cameron Polom was reporting about a missing Tampa, Florida, boy, he inadvertently became a part of the story. While shooting his segment, he actually discovered the missing 10-year-old child.

Little Paul Ezekial Fagan had been gone for 14 hours when Polom began his story in the early morning hours. Police had been searching for him overnight using search dogs and helicopters but failed to find him.

Then, around 7 a.m., the WFTS-TV reporter spotted the child hiding in bushes near his grandmother's house. “He’s looking at me and I’m thinking, ‘Could this possibly be this kid? Is this really happening?’ It was a very surreal moment,” he said. “When I saw him, he looked not only tired, but he looked scared he might be in trouble. He’s 10 years old and he’s a smart kid -- he knew he was in a little bit of trouble for what he had done.”

Polom immediately took Fagan to the cops still in the midst of their search. Apparently, he ran off in order to get away from his bothersome little brother. Then he took a little "cat nap," which lasted much longer than he anticipated. The video below shows the moment he is reunited with his tearful and grateful family. Clearly his grandmother is relieved and overjoyed, but boy will this kid probably get an earful ... if not a major punishment.

[code][/code] 

Would you punish your child if they did this?

Image © Laura Doss/Corbis

A Pennsylvania mom was arrested last week, after allegedly staging a fistfight between her daughter and classmate. Supposedly, the high school girls had been arguing about boys (what else?), so mom decided that the best way to resolve the issue was to arrange a cat fight between the two.

Nicole Edna Holton, 36, is accused of arranging the physical altercation and witnessing it, and faces charges of "disorderly conduct, endangering the welfare of children and two counts of corruption of minors."

Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood commented sarcastically on the whole ordeal, and immediately became my favorite policeman of the moment. He said, "This mom sends a really great message."

Chitwood continued, "She knew they were squabbling and said she was going to take care of it. The woman brought her daughter to the parking lot to commit a crime. Who knows what could have happened? One of them could have been seriously injured. This is stupid parenting."

The police chief said both girls attended Upper Darby High School, and were spotted and stopped by law enforcement.  "Officers passing saw the two juveniles engaged in a fist fight and stopped the fight," Chitwood said.

According to the affidavit, Holton not only watched the fight and condoned it, but set the whole thing up! She told police, "If the school can't do anything about it we will handle it ourselves. These girls have been having issues at the school with each other, so I let them handle it. Me and my daughter met her here and I let them handle their problem because the school did not do (expletive)."

Dang. It has to be frustrating as a parent when you feel like your child isn't getting the attention they need for conflict resolution with their peers at school, but come on! Fighting is not the answer. What did she think would happen? Whichever girl came out on top would win whichever boy they were fighting for?

Maybe instead of teaching teenage girls to use their fists to duke it out over a boy, we should be teaching them Sisters Before Misters. I mean, call me old fashioned, but boys come and go. I think we can empower our girls much more by teaching them to stick together, or ignore the ones they can't get along with, rather than teaching them that violence solves problems.

Would you ever encourage your child to fight?

Image via Upper Darby Police Department

Holy. Crap. So there's this marketing campaign going on, and it's offensive to pregnant women, social drinkers, pregnant women who occasionally have a sip of vino, all people who drink, pregnant women who don't drink, and basically the entirety of the human race.

There's a storefront in the East Village in New York City that is claiming to be the "first bar for pregnant women." Their advertising includes a giant billboard with an image of a pregnant woman with a bare belly, holding an exploding bottle of champagne, and the tagline, "You're drinking for two now."

What the what? This hardly even seems like it could be real. And it's probably not, thank the heavens.

Gestations (yes, that's the name, no, we can't make this up) proudly proclaims, "All you mothers-to-be should come check out our trimester specials and our 9-month happy hour because now you’re drinking for two!"

Their Facebook page states, "The bigger the belly, the more you can drink. True for men and pregnant women #gestationsny," and "#gestationsny will have free pregnancy test kits when you buy a pitcher. Check out our profile on #BARTRENDr to see what else we’ll carry."

Sticking my fingers in my ears and yelling, "Lalalalalalala!" as loudly as I can. Because somehow I'm convinced that will keep me from un-reading what I just read.

Let's get real here for one sec -- if Gestations is a thing, they're likely not going to be serving alcohol, seeing as they haven't even applied for a liquor license. Or any other kind of permit. Community Board 3 leader Susan Stetzer said, "They’re saying it’s a bar, but they haven’t applied for a liquor license. At this point it’s nothing ... Maybe it’s going to be a milk bar or a juice bar."

I don't even want to know what a milk bar is.

Whatever this Gestations place ends up being -- a hangout for preggos, a sham, or (please no) an alcoholic bar for pregnant women -- this advertising is just tacky, awful, and makes everyone feel icky.

I'm of the firm opinion that there's nothing wrong with a healthy pregnant woman enjoying a half a glass of wine here and there. No. Judgment. There's also nothing wrong with abstaining completely. I've had two full-term pregnancies, and I've done it both ways. But this sort of gimmick takes a sensitive, sometimes controversial topic and basically just mocks the hell out of it.

It's insulting, degrading, and downright uncomfortable.

What do you think of Gestations' marketing gimmick?

Image via Gestations/Twitter

A California woman has been released from police custody after she reportedly shot her husband multiple times and killed him during what she says was a heated domestic dispute.

Her husband wasn't just anyone -- he was Daniel Crespo, the mayor of Bell Gardens, California, who was a probation officer for 15 years prior to holding public office. And the details surrounding his death are especially heartbreaking because they reportedly involve the couple's 19-year-old son, Daniel Jr.

Crespo and his wife, Levette Crespo, who were high school sweethearts and had been married since 1986, were at their house when the two began fighting. Daniel Jr. reportedly stepped in and tried to intervene -- at which point the mayor allegedly punched him in the face.

It isn't clear whether Levette allegedly shot her husband multiple times in the torso because he had hit their son or if something else happened that made her feel threatened. But we do know that the 43-year-old mother of two was held for questioning by police and then released. She has not been charged with a crime, though police say there is still a possibility that criminal charges will be filed after the facts of the case are presented to the DA's office.

According to the mayor's brother, William Creso, Daniel "loved [his family] more than life." His colleagues also have only good things to say about him as they offer their condolences and called his death "a shocking and tremendous loss."

None of us actually know what went on behind closed doors at the Crespo residence and whether Levette felt her life was in danger because of something that may have taken place that evening at their house. It's absolutely horrendous to think their son's last memory of his father will be of him being shot dead by his mother.

For now we'll have to wait and see if details emerge that give police reason to charge this wife with a crime.

What would have had to happen to make you believe this wife was justified in fatally shooting her husband?

Image via City of Bell Gardens

A Texas mom has been arrested for allegedly biting her baby repeatedly. She also allegedly struck him with an object and threw him to the ground. Dawn Elizabeth Greene, 24, is accused of biting her baby boy several times, as well as other forms of abuse. A man claiming to be the baby's father says, "She gets like that when she's drunk."

It's unclear whether or not Greene WAS drunk when she allegedly bit the child, but reportedly police found her passed out near him. The baby, who reportedly had bruises and teeth marks all over his body, was rushed by helicopter to the hospital. He was treated for internal injuries but has recovered and is with relatives.

Reportedly, Greene bit the child because he wouldn't stop crying. But the man who says he's the baby's father and is fighting for custody (though he is not on the birth certificate) says that Greene most likely bit the baby when she was drunk because "she gets like that." He also said it was something he feared would happen because she did the same thing to him!

He says that Greene wouldn't let him see the child over the weekend and finally "mumbled" that she had bit him. It's unclear if he is the one who called police.

Someone can act out of character and do things they would never do sober -- but biting a baby? That just seems like the kind of thing you wouldn't do drunk if you couldn't do it sober. But who knows, everyone is different. Some people definitely do strange and horrible shit when they're drunk that they wouldn't otherwise do.

It sounds like Greene would need years of sobriety under her belt before she should be trusted with her baby again -- and even if she had that, it's still a risk since someone with alcohol issues can always relapse.

More from The Stir: New Mom Kills Mother-in-Law Who Moved In to Help Her With Baby

Hopefully this baby is with caring relatives now who will keep the mom away from him.

[code][/code]

Image via KHOU