(AP) — An international rights group says children as young as 7 are working long hours in U.S. fields harvesting tobacco under sometimes hazardous and sweltering conditions.

The Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday details findings from interviews with more than 140 children working on farms in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

The group acknowledges that most of what it documented is legal under U.S. law. The group is trying to highlight the practice and urge both governments and tobacco companies to take further steps to protect children.

Children interviewed by the group reported symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning from workers absorbing nicotine through their skin while handling tobacco plants.

The children said they worked long hours without overtime pay or sufficient breaks and wore no, or inadequate, protective gear.

(AP) — Authorities say a family of five who died when a van landed on top of their sedan in Southern California was headed to Disneyland to celebrate a young girl’s birthday.

Coroner division spokeswoman Sandy Fatland said Tuesday that relatives of the victims told her the family was making the drive from Hesperia, a desert town east of Los Angeles, to celebrate Cindy Jimenez’s upcoming fourth birthday.

Fatland says the victims were 25-year-old Angelica Garcia; her boyfriend, 30-year-old Gerardo Jimenez; their children, 2-year-old Ivan Jimenez and 3-year-old Cindy; and Garcia’s 9-year-old son, Freddy Garcia.

Authorities say the sedan was parked at a stop sign early Sunday when a van hit and landed on top of it.

The driver of the van had minor injuries. Sheriff’s officials have not released the driver’s name.

(AP) — A New Jersey man is considering suing for the right to use medical marijuana in an Atlantic City casino.

Daniel Price’s lawyer, Michelle Douglass, says that Revel Casino Hotel failed to accommodate his disability when a security guard told him he could not take his marijuana into the casino last month.

The 23-year-old Atlantic City resident is a registered medical marijuana patient. He tells The Press of Atlantic City that he uses the drug to treat seizures and irritable bowel disease.

State guidelines encourage patients to smoke cannabis at home. But they are not barred by law from using it in private businesses.

Revel, like all Atlantic City casinos, has a smoking area. Lisa Johnson, a Revel spokeswoman, declined to comment to the newspaper.

No lawsuit has been filed.

(AP) — Firefighters say they still have a grip on a Texas Panhandle wildfire that has destroyed 156 structures, including at least 89 homes.

No injuries have been reported from the fire that has scorched a 4-square-mile area around Lake Meredith, between the towns of Sanford and Fritch.

Texas A&M Forest Service spokesman Troy Duchneaux (doosh-NOH’) says about 2,100 people remain evacuated from roughly 1,300 homes as of late Monday.

He says the fire is still about 65 percent contained and the prospects for continued success are good, with early morning temperatures in the upper 30s expected and relative humidity expected to reach 60 percent. He says a house-by-house search and damage assessment is planned for Tuesday.

(AP) — Health officials have confirmed a second U.S. case of a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East.

A news conference to discuss the case has been scheduled for Monday afternoon by the Florida Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus is MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. It is a respiratory illness that begins with flu-like fever and cough but can lead to shortness of breath, pneumonia and death. A third of those who develop symptoms die from it.

Most cases have been in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. But earlier this month a first U.S. case was diagnosed in a man who traveled from Saudi Arabia to Indiana.

Officials did not immediately release other details about the newest case.

(AP) — Twin girls born with a rare condition in Ohio were breathing on their own and their mom said she and her husband were able to hold them on Mother’s Day.

Sarah Thistlethwaite said babies Jillian and Jenna were removed from ventilators Sunday afternoon after they were able to breathe comfortably. She told The Associated Press that she and her husband Bill both held them for a while on Mother’s Day.

“It’s just hard to put into words how amazing it feels to know the girls are OK,” she said. “It’s great to know that they’re doing so well, and being able to hold them.”

The identical twin girls shared the same amniotic sac and placenta. Such births are called monoamniotic, or “mono mono,” and doctors say they occur in about one of every 10,000 pregnancies.

They were born Friday at Akron General Medical Center, grasping each other’s hands when doctors lifted them up for their parents to see after delivery.

Thistlethwaite told the Akron Beacon Journal (https://bit.ly/1hG517d) that was “the best Mother’s Day present ever.”

“They’re already best friends,” said Thistlethwaite, 32. “I can’t believe they were holding hands. That’s amazing.”

Jenna was born first at 4 pounds, 2 ounces and 17 inches, with Jillian following 48 seconds later at 3 pounds, 13 ounces and 17.5 inches.

They were moved temporarily to Akron Children’s Hospital because they needed breathing assistance. Thistlethwaite expects to be released from Akron General on Tuesday, while the girls will remain in the hospital two to four weeks.

Dr. Melissa Mancuso helped deliver the twins, one of several amniotic pairs she has helped deliver in 11 years. She said the twins are at risk during pregnancy of entanglement of umbilical cords, which can cause death. Another woman at Akron General is expected to give birth later this week to monoamniotic twins.

Sarah and Bill Thistlethwaite, of Orrville, Ohio, have a son, Jaxon, whose first birthday was Jan. 27. That’s the day they also found out she was carrying twins.

“All I could do was laugh,” said Bill, 35.

They rushed to prepare their home for the twins, and Sarah was soon on bed rest.

A middle school math teacher, she went into the hospital on March 14.

“It’s hard, it really is,” she said of extended bed rest. “It was very mentally challenging knowing I have to sit here all day.”

Besides television, books and “trashy gossip magazines,” she viewed YouTube to learn how to crochet baby hats.

The girls were born at 33 weeks and two days. Mancuso said there were only minor issues during the pregnancy.

Sometimes the girls would kick the monitors off.

“I don’t know what they’re doing to each other,” Sarah said jokingly of her “sweet girls.”

(AP) — Officials in a small Central Texas town have decided to fire a police officer who shot and killed an armed 93-year-old woman during a confrontation at her home.

The city council unanimously voted Saturday to fire Officer Stephen Stem, who shot and killed Pearlie Golden on Tuesday. The vote took less than 30 minutes.

Hearne Mayor Ruben Gomez had told demonstrators he would recommend Stem’s dismissal.

Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting.

Golden’s nephew, Roy Jones, told KBTX-TV on Friday that his aunt became upset when she was denied a driver’s license renewal, and she armed herself.

Jones says he called 911 and his aunt fired two shots before the officer shot her.

Stem’s attorney has said his client’s actions were justified.

(AP) — Health officials say syphilis has reached its highest level since 1995 with the increase all in men.

Syphilis remains far less common in the U.S. than many other sexually spread diseases. But there has been a steady rise in gay and bisexual men catching the disease. They account for most of the recent infectious cases.

Since 2005, the rate in men has nearly doubled. It is much lower in women and hasn’t changed much.

Syphilis is a potentially deadly bacterial disease that surfaces as genital sores. It was far more common until antibiotics became available in the 1940s, slashing the number of annual cases to below 6,000.

Last year, there were nearly 17,000 cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the numbers Thursday.

(AP) — The Texas high school made famous in the book “Friday Night Lights” says a longtime teacher who was among five former staffers accused of having improper relationships with students committed suicide a day after the allegations surfaced.

Mark Lampman taught government and coached girls’ golf at Permian High School in Odessa for 17 years. School officials didn’t detail his alleged relationship with a female student, but called it improper.

School district spokesman Mike Adkins says the school learned of the accusation Tuesday and that Lampman resigned after being questioned.

The Ector County sheriff says the 47-year-old died Wednesday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A woman who answered the phone at Lampman’s home declined comment.

Two accused former staffers are awaiting trial, and police are investigating allegations against two others.

 

(AP) — A 5-year-old German shepherd named Lexy has a special job at the Robinson Health Clinic at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

As the Army struggles to address the broad swath of stress disorders and mental health problems brought on by more than a decade of war, Lexy helps soldiers to put aside the bravado and seek treatment.

For psychiatrist Maj. Christine Rumayor, Lexy is a partner, a conversation starter and a living, breathing medical tool who can calm a patient and make a therapy appointment a little more enjoyable.

Dogs like Lexy are being used almost as co-therapists in a few Army installations, including Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Others work as service animals and are used for animal-assisted therapy, visiting patients in hospitals.