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Suspect: I Beat Up White Boy Sun-Times Media Wire Maywood, Ill. - Alton L. Hayes III, a west suburban man charged with a hate crime, told police he was so upset about the Trayvon Martin case in Florida that he beat up a white man early Tuesday. Hayes and a 15-year-old Chicago boy walked up behind the 19-year-old man victim and pinned his arms to his side, police said. Hayes, 18, then picked up a large tree branch, pointed it at the man and said, “Empty your pockets, white boy.” The two allegedly rifled through the victim’s pockets, then threw him to the ground and punched him “numerous times” in the head and back before running away, police said. Hayes and the boy are black; the victim is white. After being arrested, Hayes told police he was upset by the Trayvon Martin case and beat the man up because he was white, Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said, citing court records. Martin, 17, was fatally shot Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., by neighbor...

With little public attention, dozens of universities and law-enforcement agencies have been given approval by federal aviation regulators to use unmanned aircraft known as drones, according to documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests by an advocacy group. Dozens of universities and law-enforcement agencies have been given approval by federal aviation regulators to use unmanned aircraft known as drones. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries reports on digits. Photo: AP. The more than 50 institutions that received approvals to operate remotely piloted aircraft are more varied than many outsiders and privacy experts previously knew. They include not only agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security but also smaller ones such as the police departments in North Little Rock, Ark., and Ogden, Utah, as well the University of North Dakota and Nicholls State University in Louisiana. The information, released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, came to light as the Federa...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - You can buy Fat Bastard wine in Alabama, but you'll have to go elsewhere for Dirty Bastard beer. The state alcoholic beverage control agency said Thursday it has banned the sale of that brand of beer in the state because of the profanity on its label. Beer and wine are commonly sold in grocery and convenience stores and anyone can see the labels, so staff members rejected the brand because parents may not want young people to see rough language on the shelves, said Bob Martin, an attorney with the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. "That's the whole reason for the rule, to keep dirty pictures and dirty words away from children," he said. "Personally, I believe the staff made the right call." Workers at the agency consulted sources including the Federal Communications Commission and Wikipedia to develop a list of objectionable words that should not appear on product labels, Martin said, and the list includes "bastard....

Thomas Beatie, the transgendered man who first made headlines back in 2008 when he became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy daughter, has separated from his wife of nine years, People magazine is reporting. Beatie, who has three children with his wife, Nancy, announced the news of the separation while taping an interview on the TV show "The Doctors." "Like all marriages, we have our ups and downs, and we're going through a rough patch right now. At the moment, we're separated." Also during that interview, Beatie revealed he'd had the final female-to-male gender reassignment surgery. The syndicated show will air Monday, May 7.

TORONTO (AP) Jonathan Frid, a Canadian actor best known for playing Barnabas Collins in the 1960s original vampire soap opera "Dark Shadows", has died. He was 87. Frid died Friday of natural causes in a hospital in his home town of Hamilton, Ontario, said Jim Pierson, a friend and spokesman for Dan Curtis Productions, the creator of "Dark Shadows." Frid starred in the 1960s gothic-flavored soap opera about odd, supernatural goings-on at a family estate in Maine. His death comes just weeks before a Tim Burton-directed version of Dark Shadows is due out next month starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins. Frid has a cameo role in the new movie in which he meets Depp's character in a party scene with two other original actors from the show. Pierson said Burton and Depp were fans of Frid, who played a vulnerable vampire in one of the first sympathetic portrayal of the immortal creatures. "Twenty million people saw the show at its peak in 1969. Kids ra...

NEW YORK - Starbucks Corp. says it will stop using a red dye in its drinks that is derived from crushed bugs. The Seattle-based coffee chain said in a blog post on its website Thursday that it made the decision to reformulate its drinks after feedback from consumers prompted a "thorough" evaluation. The company says it will swap out cochineal extract, which is made from the juice of a tiny beetle, and instead use lycopene, a tomato-based extract. Cochineal dye is widely used in foods and cosmetics products such as lipstick, yogurt and shampoo. Starbucks had used the coloring in its strawberry flavored mixed drinks and foods like the raspberry swirl cake and red velvet whoopie pie. The company says the items will be reformulated by the end of June. An online petition on Change.org asking the chain to stop using the bug-based dye had collected more than 6,000 signatures. The petition was started by a South Carolina woman who wanted to inform consumers that the chain...

Trayvon Martin's parents are participating in a Tampa forum on Florida's "stand your ground" law. Watch it live: http://tbo.ly/pHHsrx