(Wednesday, 29 April 2009)   A Mexico City toddler dies in the U. S. from swine flu; President Obama marks his 100th day in office; an arenafootball2 team wants Michael Vick--wait, no, they don't.  Grade President Obama's first 100 days on today's KISS News Now!

• The swine flu outbreak has claimed its first victim in the United States: a 23-month old in Texas.  The toddler was Mexican, and traveled with family to Brownsville in south Texas. The boy was taken to a Houston hospital after falling ill, and died Monday night, reportedly from pneumonia caused by the flu virus. The number of confirmed swine flu cases is over 65 in the United States, none in Georgia. 
  
  

• President Obama opened his 100th day in office with Vice President Biden, welcoming moderate Senator Arlen Specter at the White House this morning.  He's defecting back to the Democrats after switching to the GOP in 1965.  The 79-year-old doesn't think he can win reelection in Pennsylvania next year as a Republican; he says the party's become too conservative.
  
  The president says the senator's decision required courage and is the hallmark of the independence he's shown since coming to Washington.
  
  "I don't expect Arlen to be a rubber stamp.  I don't expect any member of Congress to be a rubber stamp," said President Obama.  "In fact, I'd like to think that Arlen's decision reflects a recognition that this administration is open to many different ideas...that we seek cooperation and common ground, and that in these 100 days, we've begun to move this nation in the right direction."
  
  President Obama holds a town hall meeting in St. Louis, Missouri tonight, and a press conference follows.
  
  
  
  
• Moms and dads dropping your kids off at day care--lock your car door and keep valuables out of sight.  Bandits have broken into cars three times already at Cambridge Academy in Atlanta.  Chanequa Thomas found her window completely shattered, and says a witness told her the crook had been driving a white Monte Carlo.
  
  
• The Henry County woman accused of torturing and fatally beating her stepdaughter will not face the death penalty; prosecutors agreed not to push for death when Charlott Reaves requested a bench trial instead of a jury trial in the death of 11-year-old Joella Reaves.  A jury convicted Joella's father Rodney in February and sentenced him to life.
  
  
• Governor Sonny Perdue has filed a brief in support of a case out of Austin, Texas that's going before the U. S. Supreme Court today, challenging supervision under the Voting Rights Act.  He had a state Republican party lawyer draw up the brief after Attorney General Thurbert Baker refused to do it.  The Act was passed to prevent discrimination against people of color at the polls, but Perdue says times have changed.
  
   
• A 13-year-old girl is stabbed getting off the school bus Monday in east Cobb County; her injuries are described as non-life-threatening.  The 23-year-old suspect later surrendered to police, and authorities are checking Gedioney Ferreira's immigration status.
  
  
• A Loganville man's facing charges after being caught sneaking peeks up ladies' skirts at the Home Depot on Highway 78.  Joseph Davidson allegedly put a video cam in a flowerpot on a flat cart and then rolled it under a shopper's dress.  Her fiance caught on, chased him into the street and held him for the cops.
  
  
• DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis has appointed a new public safety director.  Assistant District Attorney William "Wiz" Miller is a 23-year veteran of the DeKalb police force.
  
  
• A hearing in LA today in the Chris Brown case--but he's not expected in court.   Among the issues to be discussed:  Rihanna's lawyers have filed paperwork to get back the earrings and rings she had on the night of the assault; they are loaners worth $1.4 million.
  
  
• An arenafootball2 team wants Michael Vick, if he gets reinstated by the NFL.  The minor league football team, the Albany Firebirds out of New York, are offering Vick a standard contract--$200 a week, plus $50 bonus for a win.  But the team's owner says he doesn't approve of the offer, which was apparently posted on the team website as a stunt. 
  
  "I'm a dog lover and I don't want anything to do with (Vick),'' Albany Firebirds owner Walter Robb told The Times Union for a story posted on its Web site Tuesday night. "That's a joke,'' Robb said.  "Can you imagine him playing for $200 a week? I think (the offer) was a big mistake.''
  
  One of the "contract's" stipulations was that Vick donate $100,000 to a local chapter of the Humane Society.
  
  
• The KISS 104.1 weather forecast:  partly sunny, highs 79-82, lows 58-62.  Tomorrow, partly cloudy to mostly cloudy, high 80.  Friday, partly to mostly cloudy, with a 30% chance of isolated showers and a high of 81.