DJ Peachez, whose real name was Terika Grooms, has died after a brief bout of meningitis.

The popular Richmond, VA radio DJ’s death comes days after she was hospitalized with the illness.

Grooms was an Honors Scholar graduate of James Madison University where she majored in Marketing, and minored in Music Industry. She began working for iPower 921 in 2006.

The radio station confirmed her death today, saying Peachez “will always be remembered as an inspiration to young women who aspire to be on air DJ’s and Mixers.”

DJ Peachez Myspace page

Tony Gonzalez, tight end for the Atlanta Falcons, and his wife October Gonzalez would “rather go naked than wear fur” according to their new PETA ad.

The couple have jumped on the campaign bandwagon to showcase the mistreatment of animals and bring greater awareness to what they see as the grave error many people are making when they purchase and don clothing made of animal skins.

Check out video footage from their nude PETA photos shoot below.

Shay Sorrells and Daniel Wright were eliminated from The Biggest Loser on Tuesday, November 10.    It was a double elimination week.  Daniel was the first to leave after falling below the red line, with only a five pound weight loss during a week when most of the contestants pulled amazingly high weight loss numbers.

Shay had a milestone week with a 17 pound loss, which brought her 9 week total to an amazing 100 pounds.  By doing so she set a record for women, smashing the old one set by Kristin Steede, who achieved her 100 pound loss in 12 weeks.

Below the yellow line with Shay was Amanda, who lost 5 pounds.  The votes were split but in the end it was Shay who was sent packing – thus eliminating both members of the original Orange Team in the same evening.

Daniel and Shay appeared live last night on The Jay Leno Show.  Shay told Jay that she has lost 150 pounds – a third of that at home since leaving the show.  She reports that she has six different trainers, and works out every day after work and 6-7 hours on the weekends.  Daniel reported to Leno that he has lost 230 pounds total – 33 of them since leaving The Biggest Loser campus.

With just four weeks remaining until the finale, the remaining six Biggest Loser contestants are headed to New York City for the popular makeover show, with a big reveal for their family members after they have been fluffed and buffed and outfitted in body flattering attire.

View more photos and video of Shay and Daniel on Leno video below.

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Ida on Sunday.  The declaration is a precaution that will enable state resources to be used for emergency and disaster situations.

The Louisiana National Guard, state Wildlife and Fisheries and LA State Troopers have all been placed on high alert, and have been ordered to maintain a state of readiness should they need to begin moving equipment and manpower.

Coastal stretches of southeast Louisiana are the main concern.  The area could see winds, rain and high tides that could lead to flooding.  On Sunday Hurricane Ida, moving across the Gulf of Mexico, was listed as a Category 2 storm.

We will keep this page updated as conditions change.  See Hurricane Weather Center tracker here.

See current video update and satellite imagery below.

Major Nadal Malik Hasan, a military psychiatrist, opened fire at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday at a Fort Hood military processing center, wounding 30 and killing 13, according to Lt. Gen Robert Cone.  Some of the victims at the readiness center were headed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The shooter, a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent, practices psychiatry at the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood.  The post is the Army’s largest in the U.S., with 40,000 troops stationed there.

Dr. Hasan, 30, a graduate of Virginia Tech, had two handguns, one of them a semi-automatic.  He was shot multiple times before being taken into custody.  He remains under military guard at an area hospital, unconscious and on a ventilator.  When asked of his chances of survival, Cone responded, “I would say his death is not imminent.”

The hero of the day was Killeen police sergeant Kimberly Munley, who exchanged gunfire with the suspect and disabled him.  She was injured during the exchange of bullets and remains in stable condition in a local community hospital.  See photos and video here.

He was transferred from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in July, after receiving a poor review.  There is some speculation that he feared an impending war deployment, and he was known to openly discuss his opposition to the war.  He reportedly gave away all of his furniture to a neighbor in the days leading up to the shooting.

View video reporting following a raid at the suspect’s home below.

Seven-month-old Shannon Dedrick was reported missing by her mother Chrystina Lynn Mercer at 11:23 a.m. on Saturday, October 31.  In a startling discovery, made at 9:55 p.m. Wednesday night, sheriff’s deputies found the healthy infant hidden under a bed at the home of her babysitter, Susan Elizabeth Baker and the sitter’s husband James Arthur Baker – photos below.

According to Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock, 100 law enforcement agents spent 5-days searching in and around the rural Panhandle town of Chipley, Florida.  Shannon Dedrick was found in a box that had been shielded from view by other items placed in front of it.

Authorities have determined that Baker and the child’s mother hatched a plot on Friday whereby the babysitter would raise the child.  Mercer delivered the baby to Baker’s home early Saturday morning and then called authorities ten hours later to report the child missing.

The infant was taken by law enforcement officials to Northwest Florida Community Hospital to be examined.  She was reported to be healthy, and it appeared she had been fed during the five day ordeal, though there was no evidence of a baby bottle in the box with the child.

Authorities indicate that the babysitter is a half-sister of the baby’s father James Russell Dedrick Jr.   She reportedly became very concerned about the baby’s welfare several months ago and penned a letter to Florida Governor Charlie Crist, asking him to save the baby from her drug-abusing parents.

The Florida Department of Children and Families, who had made several previous visits to the home, launched an investigation in August but did not find legal grounds to remove the baby from the parents.

Authorities narrowed their investigation to the home of Baker after they discovered that the woman has a criminal past.  It turns out she spent time in prison in 1987 for beating her husband’s six-year-old child.

She and her husband were also extradited from Florida to South Carolina in 2000 for the disappearance of his three-year-old Paul Baker, who reportedly went missing while Susan Baker napped.  Authorities never found the boy and a grand jury failed to bring down an indictment against the pair for lack of evidence.

Baker and Mercer remain in jail pending multiple charges.

View more photos and video press conference coverage below.

Meb Keflezighi became the first U.S. runner to win the New York City Marathon race since 1982 when Alberto Salazar took top honors.  In fact, six of the top finishers were Americans – the most in 30 years.

American men in the top ten were Ryan Hall finishing 4th place, Jorge Torres finishing 7th, Nick Arciniaga finishing 8th, Abdi Abdirahman finishing 9th, and Jason Lehmkuhle finishing 10th.  Best U.S. women’s finisher was Magdalena Lewy Boulet in 6th place.

The 34-year-old was born in Asmara, Eritrea and raised in San Diego, one of eleven children.  He became a U.S. citizen in 1998.

Meb ran the race today in a personal best time of 2 hours, nine minutes and 15 seconds, quite a feat considering he spent the past 18-months undergoing therapy for a stress fracture in his hip.

Watching Keflezighi from the sidelines, near the finish line, were his wife Yordanos Asgedom and their two young daughters.  They were recently photographed on a trip to Yosemite National Park – see photo below.

View more photos and video footage at the finish line below.

UConn football player Jasper Howard

John William Lomax, 21, has been arrested and charged with the murder of University of Connecticut football player Jasper Howard.

Howard was fatally stabbed during a fight on campus on October 18, after a University-sponsored dance.

Lomax was arrested and booked Tuesday morning on murder charges, and is being held on $2 million bail.

Two other men have also been arrested in connection with the crime.  Hakim Muhammad, 20, has been charged with conspiracy to commit assault, and James Todd, 21, is charged with pulling the fire alarm that evacuated students from the dance, triggering the fight.

Neither Lomax nor Muhammad were students at the school.

Two Northwest Airlines pilots claim they were in a heated argument and lost track of where they were when NW Flight 188 overshot Minneapolis International Airport by 150 miles on a flight from San Diego on Wednesday night.

The ground control center at Denver lost radio contact with the plane, carrying 144 passengers and five crew members at 6:56 p.m.  Denver air traffic controllers passed the NW188 to the Twin Cities at 7:45 p.m.  The flight reportedly overflew its intended destination at 7:58 p.m.

During the communication blackout, the FAA put Air National Guard fighter jets on alert at two locations, as they considered launching a four plane scramble.  A controller finally re-established contact with the plane at 8:14 p.m.  One of the pilots reported that they had become distracted while engaged in a heated discussion on airline policy.  He was then given approval to turn the plane around and head back to the airport, where it landed safely at 9:00 p.m.

Airport security immediately boarded the plane to determine whether criminal activity had caused the unusual set of circumstances.  The pilots were then interviewed by the FBI.  The A320’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been sent to the NTSB laboratory in Washington D.C.

NTSB officials aren’t buying the “heated argument” explanation.  Many veteran pilots believe that the cockpit crew members were likely sleeping.  Both pilots have been “relieved from active flying” pending a full investigation, according to a spokesman for Delta Airlines, which acquired the Eagan, Minnesota based Northwest last year.

UPDATE:  October 27, 2009: The FAA has revoked the licenses of two Northwest Airlines pilots who overflew a Minnesota airport last week.  Capt. Timothy B. Cheney, 53, and First Officer Richard I. Cole, 54, violated company policy by using personal laptop computers in the cockpit, and losing all situational awareness, ignoring communication attempts by air traffic controllers over a period of 80 minutes.

See video report below.

A body discovered on Wednesday night in a Georgia landfill has been positively identified as that of missing Orange Park, Florida seven-year-old, Somer Renee Thompson.  The child’s mother Diena Thompson was notified soon after the discovery.

Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler appeared this morning on the Today Show along with Thompson family friend Anna Brady.  He confirmed that the clothing that was worn by the deceased child as well as a birthmark allowed officers to quickly identify the remains as that of the missing girl.

Somer Thompson vanished on her mile-long walk home from Grove Park Elementary School.  She left the building at approximately 2:50 p.m. on October 19.  The second-grader left her twin brother and 10-year-old sister and continued walking alone after the siblings got into an argument.  Diena Thompson notified police when Somer could not be found.  A massive search was initiated and an AMBER Alert was issued 24 hours later.

Investigators followed garbage trucks from the Thompson’s neighborhood to a landfill near the Florida state line yesterday.  They discovered the child’s body last night at 9:00 p.m., after police searched over 100 tons of garbage.

Somer’s parents are in the process of getting a divorce.  Samuel Thompson, 41, told reporters, “I’m angry.  I’m so angry.  I’m so hurt.  My baby daughter laying in trash.  Discarded like a piece of trash.”

There are reportedly 70 registered sex offenders living in the area.  The Justice Coalition, a victim advocacy organization from Jacksonville, Florida announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.

View more photos and video below.