WWII soldier’s gift to mom comes home

WWII soldier’s gift to mom comes home

MILLVILLE, MASS.

This is the story of a loving tribute from a soldier preparing for war to his mother on the other side of the continent, who didn’t know if she would ever see her boy again.

The elaborate pillow sham he sent her, lost for more than 70 years, has finally come home, just in time for Mother’s Day.

The sham, emblazoned with the word “Mother” and sent in 1942 by Dominic O’Gara from his Army base in California to his mother in the small Massachusetts town of Millville, was discovered last month by a town native on eBay.

The hope is to put the sham on display in the town’s senior center, just yards from the house where the O’Gara family once lived.

Feds: Grandma ran, hid a pill-mill ring

KNOXVILLE, TENN.

To neighbors, Sylvia Hofstetter was a wealthy businesswoman and grandmother who threw extravagant pool parties and went all out to decorate her upscale suburban home on Christmas and Halloween.

That image was shattered when FBI agents raided the health care administrator’s Knoxville home in March. Federal prosecutors say the 51-year-old Florida native was running the largest illicit drug operation in the history of east Tennessee: a string of pill mills that raked in $17.5 million in four years.

Hofstetter has been charged with drug trafficking, several counts of money laundering and money-laundering conspiracy. She is awaiting federal trial.

Mubarak and sons sentenced to prison

CAIRO

A Cairo court sentenced Egypt’s deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak and his two sons to three years in prison on corruption charges Saturday — a punishment that authorities may deem as already having been served but one which, if it withstands appeal, would officially establish Mubark as a convicted criminal years after the 2011 popular uprising that toppled him.

The case — dubbed the “presidential palaces” affair by the Egyptian media — was a retrial charging that Mubarak and sons embezzled millions of dollars’ worth of state funds over the course of a decade, diverting money meant to pay for renovating and maintaining presidential palaces to instead upgrade their private residences.

Despite mistrial, family of missing boy gets answers

NEW YORK

For decades, the father of Etan Patz believed he knew who killed his 6-year-old son on the way to school in 1979, and it wasn’t the man whose trial he just endured.

But after hearing every word of nearly three months of testimony, Stan Patz is sure that Pedro Hernandez kidnapped and killed Etan — even if the jury wasn’t.

“The family of Etan Patz has waited 36 years for an explanation as to what happened to our sweet little boy,” his father said after a hung jury spurred a mistrial Friday. After hearing prosecutors’ case against the former corner-store clerk who gave what his defense called a false confession in 2012, Patz said, “I’m convinced. ... It makes sense, from beginning to end.”

Ozzy donates to kids

LOUISVILLE, KY.

Ozzy Osbourne has donated $10,000 to a Kentucky children’s percussion group after watching a video of the students performing Osbourne’s signature hit, “Crazy Train.”

The Courier-Journal reported that the rock star saw a YouTube video of the Louisville Leopard Percussionists, a group of more than 60 students, age 7-14.

The group is a community nonprofit organization funded by donations, performance revenue and album sales.

Associated Press