A San Francisco real estate agent recently sold a parking spot a block from AT&T Park for $82,000.

Sean Sullivan, the real estate agent, told FoxNews.com that the building's location is ideal, with tech firms like Instagram popping up in the area. He pointed out that the area is flush with eateries and a marina is nearby for boating enthusiasts.

The 8-by-17-foot space was apparently sold by an apartment owner in the mixed-use building. It is otherwise unusual for owners to be able to turn around and sell the parking space that comes with the apartment, he said.

"The person who bought this spot can use it when he goes to Giants games or he can rent it if he wants," he said. "It could make for steady income."

Sullivan pointed out that there is another parking spot in the building that was sold for $95,000 a few years back.

Fox News' Edmund DeMarche contributed to this report

A Detroit police officer charged in the fatal shooting of a young girl has told jurors that he didn't intentionally kill the 7-year-old.

Officer Joseph Weekley paused and looked at the ceiling, seemingly to control his emotions, as his lawyer asked Thursday about his own two daughters. Weekley ran his tongue under his lower lip.

He's charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones. She was killed during a chaotic police raid to find a murder suspect at a Detroit house in 2010.

Weekley says his gun went off during a struggle with Aiyana's grandmother, Mertilla Jones. She denies it.

Weekley is not accused of intentionally killing Aiyana, but Jones made that accusation when she testified Monday.

The International Criminal Court has thrown out a longshot bid by clergy sex abuse victims to investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and other Vatican officials.

The Netherlands-based tribunal says the victims' complaints about church failures to stop abusive Roman Catholic priests seem outside the court's jurisdiction.

The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York filed the request two years ago, asking the court to investigate child rapes by clergy as possible crimes against humanity. Attorneys for the victims claimed Benedict and other Vatican officials created policies that allowed the abuse to continue.

A lawyer for the Vatican has called the complaint ludicrous. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, said Thursday it's collecting new evidence in other parts of the world to ask the tribunal to reconsider.

Injuries are reported after an explosion Thursday morning at a chemical plant southeast of Baton Rouge, La., Fox8Live.com reported.

The number of those injured at the Williams Companies Inc. Olefins plant was not immediately clear, but a few people were seen being taken by ambulances from the plant, the report said. There are no immediate reports of fatalities.

The plant said in a statement that the fire is greatly diminished and its emergency-response crews are at the scene. The unit, the statement said, is isolated and emergency shut-down valves are closed.

After the explosion, a fire apparently broke out at 8:37 a.m. local time at the plant located in the town of Geismar. The town is about 20 miles southeast of Baton Rouge.

The company's website says the plant puts out about 1.3 billion pounds of ethylene and 90 million pounds of polymer grade propylene a year.

Click for more from Fox8Live.com

A librarian in a small upstate New York village is back on the job two weeks after she was fired for closing the library 40 minutes early amid a tornado warning.

Theresa Marchione (mahr-shee-OHN') shut down the Round Lake Library on May 29 as nasty weather headed her way. Meteorologists later confirmed a tornado touched down 13 miles away.

The library's board fired Marchione two days later, and people in the village 20 miles north of Albany protested loudly.

On Wednesday night, seven of the eight library board members quit. A new board quickly reinstated Marchione with back pay. The decision was met with a standing ovation from the crowd gathered at the meeting.

Marchione hasn't spoken publicly and didn't attend the meeting.

A group of men have returned from a fishing trip off the New Jersey coast with new appreciation of the food chain.

They were about 30 miles southeast of Atlantic City on Sunday when they videotaped a great white shark circling their 28-foot boat for about 10 minutes

Rob Pompilio tells NBC10 in Philadelphia it was unspeakable and unlike anything he's ever seen. He believes the shark was at least 14-feet long.

The video shows the shark checking things out and seemingly ignoring bait on a line.

Pompilio says the shark came up, grabbed the boat and left some scratch marks with its sharp teeth before swimming away.

U.S. businesses increased their stockpiles in April, but their sales fell for a second straight month. The mixed report suggests economic growth could be slowing.

The Commerce Department says business stockpiles rose 0.3 percent in April from March. That followed a 0.1 percent decline in March from February.

Sales slipped 0.1 percent in April following a sharp 1.2 percent drop in March. It marked the first back-to-back sales declines in nearly a year.

More restocking helps boost economic growth because it means companies are ordering more factory-made goods. But the decline in sales could signal a slowdown in restocking in the coming months.

The economy grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate from January through March, a gain boosted by stronger inventory growth.

Kenner police say officers responding to a call about a sport utility vehicle being driven recklessly on Interstate 10 found a 10-year-old boy behind the wheel when they pulled the vehicle over later on a city street.

Two women in the vehicle were arrested. Police said both allegedly said that they told the10-year-old to drive because they were intoxicated.

The child's grandmother, 54-year-old Brenda Byrd, was arrested Wednesday morning, along with 48-year-old Sheila Joiner. They were booked with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and allowing an unlicensed driver to operate a motor vehicle.

The young driver and a 15-year-old passenger were placed in protective custody and later released to family members.

Lenders stepped up action last month against homeowners who had fallen behind on their mortgage payments, taking possession of more homes and initiating the foreclosure countdown clock on many others.

Completed foreclosures jumped 11 percent nationally in May from the previous month, with monthly increases taking place in 33 states, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

The monthly pick up reflects a rise in homes entering the foreclosure process last year. Many of those homes wound their way through the often lengthy process and ended up becoming bank-owned properties. Home repossessions, however, were down 29 percent from May last year, reflecting the long-term downward trend.

Banks also started the foreclosure process on more homes last month. Foreclosure starts rose 4 percent from April, but were down 33 percent versus May last year, the firm said.

The increases come as the U.S. housing market continues to gain strength, propelled in part by growing demand for homes at a time when there's a thin supply of available homes for sale in many markets.

That dynamic has helped push home prices higher. They climbed nationally on an annual basis by 12.1 percent in April, the biggest gain since February 2006, according to data provider CoreLogic.

The combination of a tight inventory of homes for sale and rising prices makes for an opportune market for banks.

"Home prices are rising and demand is stronger, so they can recoup more of their losses when selling a bank-owned home, and in most cases should be able to sell relatively quickly," said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac.

The prospect of more bank-owned homes hitting the market also is good news for homebuyers struggling with the short supply of available homes. But not so great for homeowners, Blomquist said.

"For homeowners who are current or own their homes outright, this could slow down the recent rapid rise in home price appreciation, which could mean the value of their home does not go up as quickly in the short term," he said.

That's an unwelcome development, particularly for homeowners who are underwater on their mortgage, or owe more than their home is worth.

As of the end of March, 19.8 percent of all U.S. homes with a mortgage were underwater, according to data provider CoreLogic.

Rising home prices have helped drive that number down from 21.7 percent at the end of last year, and returned roughly 850,000 homes to a state of positive equity in the first three months of this year.

All told, 38,946 homes were taken back by lenders last month. Repossessions increased on a monthly basis in 33 states, including North Carolina, Oregon and Wisconsin.

At the current pace, the nation is on track to finish the year with about a half million completed foreclosures, down from 670,000 last year, Blomquist said.

Foreclosure starts totaled 72,698 homes. They increased on a monthly basis in 26 states and rose on an annual basis in 14 states, including Maryland, Connecticut, Hawaii and Arkansas.

Florida led the nation last month with an overall foreclosure rate nearly three times the national average. Rounding out the top three were Nevada and Ohio.

Lawyers for a Fox News reporter who is being asked to name her sources for a story on last year's Colorado theater shooting urged a New York appeals court Wednesday to quash a subpoena that requires her to appear at a hearing in the state.

The lawyers for New York City-based reporter Jana Winter made the arguments in New York state's Appellate Division in Manhattan, saying the state's shield laws protect journalists' sources. An attorney for theater shooting suspect James Holmes said that the issue wasn't about press freedoms, but about the legal process, and that the subpoena requiring her to appear should be upheld.

Winter was subpoenaed in connection with a Colorado hearing about a leak concerning a notebook Holmes mailed to a psychiatrist before the attack at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in July. Media reports have said the notebook contains drawings depicting violence. Winter reported on the notebook, citing law-enforcement sources who were unnamed.

Twelve people were killed and 70 were injured in the attack. Holmes faces more than 160 counts of murder and attempted murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Holmes' attorneys say the leak was a violation of a gag order and want the sources identified.

On Wednesday, Holmes attorney Daniel Arshack argued to the five-judge panel that the issue was one of credibility. He said that a number of law enforcement officers had been asked whether they were the source of the leak, and that none had taken responsibility for it.

"Nobody knows except for Ms. Winter who that officer was," he said.

Christopher Handman, representing Winter, said allowing the subpoena to stand would take the power out of the state's shield laws if she were forced to identify her sources.

The panel of judges questioned both attorneys, asking whether the issue was over press freedoms or one of court process, as well as whether New York's public policy of protecting press freedoms had any place in the trial.

The Miami branch manager of a New York broker-dealer has been arrested on charges related to an international bribery scam being prosecuted in New York.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (buh-RAH'-ruh) said Wednesday Ernesto Lujan "pocketed millions" as part of the scheme authorities detailed last month after arresting two broker-dealers from Direct Access Partners and a senior Venezuelan banking official.

Maria de Los Angeles Gonzalez de Hernandez (mah-REE-uh deh-lohs ANG-heh-less gohn-ZAHL-ess deh err-NAN-des) was charged in May with receiving at least $5 million in bribes. Authorities say she was paid to direct business to two U.S.-based broker dealers while she worked in Venezuela's state economic development bank.

The Security and Exchange Commission also announced civil charges against Lujan Wednesday.

A lawyer for Lujan didn't immediately return a phone message and email seeking comment.

A Philadelphia man has offered a little gator aid — calling animal control authorities to help rescue a juvenile alligator he found near a sewer grate on his street.

Joe Malseed saw the 18-inch reptile this week in the city's Fishtown neighborhood and snapped its photo before calling for help. He says the alligator was in a puddle and appeared to be emerging from a nearby sewer. He says it was docile until a man tried to get a closer look and it hissed.

Police took the reptile to the city's Animal Care & Control Team. The reptile has been named Allie-Gator.

The animal control team said Wednesday despite the name it hasn't determined the alligator's gender because, "Who's going to do that job?"

Allie-Gator will remain with the team until a permanent home is found.

A 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl who battled for an organ donation successfully underwent a double lung transplant Wednesday and her family said doctors were "pleased" at her progress and prognosis.

Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from severe cystic fibrosis, received new lungs from an adult donor in surgery at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, spokeswoman Tracy Simon said. 

The Murnaghan family said it was "thrilled" to share the news that Sarah was out of surgery.

"Her doctors are very pleased with both her progress during the procedure and her prognosis for recovery," the family said in a statement.

During double-lung transplants, surgeons must open up the patient's chest. Complications can include rejection of the new lungs and infection.

Sarah went into surgery around 11 a.m. Wednesday, and the procedure lasted about six hours, her family said. She is expected to spend approximately two weeks recovering in hospital.

"The surgeons had no challenges resizing and transplanting the donor lungs -- the surgery went smoothly, and Sarah did extremely well," it said.

Sarah's family and the family of another cystic fibrosis patient at the same hospital challenged transplant policy that made children under 12 wait for pediatric lungs to become available or be offered lungs donated by adults only after adolescents and adults on the waiting list had been considered. They said pediatric lungs are rarely donated.

Sarah's health was deteriorating when a judge intervened in her case last week, giving her a chance at the much larger list of organs from adult donors. U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson ruled June 5 that Sarah and 11-year-old Javier Acosta, of New York City, should be eligible for adult lungs.

Critics warned there could be a downside to having judges intervene in the organ transplant system's established procedures. Lung transplants are difficult procedures, and some experts say child patients tend to have more trouble with them than adults do.

No other details about the donor lungs are known, including whether they came through the regular donor system or through public appeals.

Sarah's relatives, who are from Newtown Square, just west of Philadelphia, were "elated this day has come." However, they also expressed their gratitude to the family of the lung donor.  

"We also know our good news is another family's tragedy. That family made the decision to give Sarah the gift of life -- and they are the true heroes today."

The Murnaghan family received word about the donor lungs Tuesday night, family spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said.

Sarah's mother, Janet Murnaghan, said in a Facebook post that the family was "overwhelmed with emotions" and thanked all her supporters. She said the donor's family "has experienced a tremendous loss, may God grant them a peace that surpasses understanding."

The national organization that manages organ transplants, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, added Sarah to the adult waiting list after the judge's ruling. Her transplant came two days before a hearing was scheduled on the family's request for a broader injunction.

The network has said 31 children under age 11 are on the waiting list for a lung transplant. Its executive committee held an emergency meeting this week but resisted making emergency rule changes for children under 12 who are waiting on lungs, instead creating a special appeal and review system to hear such cases.

Sarah's family "did have a legitimate complaint" about the rule that limited her access to adult lungs, said medical ethicist Arthur Caplan, of the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.

"When the transplant community met, they didn't want to change that rule without really thinking carefully about it," he said. The appeals process that was established this week, he said, was "built on evidence, not on influence."

He added: "In general, the road to a transplant is still to let the system decide who will do best with scarce, lifesaving organs. And it's important that people understand that money, visibility, being photogenic ... are factors that have to be kept to a minimum if we're going to get the best use out of the scarce supply of donated cadaver organs."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An ex-police officer from Georgia who was injured in a train accident during a veterans parade in Texas is accused of lying about receiving a Purple Heart medal and was arrested Wednesday, Cherokee County sheriff's officials said.

Former Holly Springs police officer Shane Ladner, 40, was never awarded a Purple Heart and is charged with four counts of theft by deception, false swearing and giving a false statement to police, Cherokee County Sheriff's Lt. Jay Baker said.

Ladner presented a military discharge form claiming that he was the recipient of the honor when he applied for a free Purple Heart license plate in 2009, Baker said, adding that Army officials have no record of the form that Ladner presented to get the plate.

Ladner and his wife, Meg, were among those injured in a mid-November train crash in Midland, Texas, that killed four people. One of Meg Ladner's legs had to be amputated.

The Ladners made the trip to the west Texas city to participate in an annual event that honors wounded military veterans with a parade, a banquet, a hunting trip and more. The event was organized by Midland-based Show of Support.

It's unclear whether Ladner provided the event's organizers with the same discharge form authorities say he used to get the free license plate. A call to the organization Wednesday afternoon was not returned.

To get the free Purple Heart license plate, Ladner was required to swear that he was a recipient of the honor and went through a renewal process to keep the plate for the next three years, Baker said.

"He benefited financially all four years -- that's where the four charges of theft by deception come from," Baker said, adding the charge of giving false statements to police "stems from an interview in which investigators feel he lied."

Sheriff's officials said they only investigated Ladner's application for the free license plate, not the Army discharge form he used to get it.

The Stolen Valor Act, which was recently signed into law by President Barack Obama, made it a crime to fabricate military honors with the intent of benefiting personally or financially. The crime is punishable by fines, up to a year in prison or both.

A spokesman for the U.S. District Attorney in Atlanta said federal officials were not involved in the case as of Wednesday.

Ladner was in the Army between 1990 and 1994 and reached the rank of sergeant. He served for a year in Honduras, according to Army human resources officials. He transferred to the Army Reserve and was discharged in 1997 after completing his service obligation. After that, he served in the Army National Guard between 1999 and 2005.

Ladner was a recipient of nine different military awards, including the Army Achievement Medal, two National Defense Service Medals and the Humanitarian Service Medal, according to Army officials.

Nothing in Ladner's files or in the Army awards branch includes a record of him receiving a Purple Heart, or any documentation proving that he's entitled to one, officials said.

Ladner's Texas-based attorney, John Cook, said in a statement that his client did receive the military honor and would be owed an apology when all the information comes to light.

"We're disappointed that law enforcement authorities felt the need to arrest Shane Ladner today, especially in the manner that it happened, a traffic stop on the side of the road," Cook said. "This arrest serves no purpose other than to continue to traumatize Shane and Meg Ladner, both of whom are still recovering from last year's train accident."

Ladner was taken to the Cherokee County jail on $23,100 bond, which his wife posted Wednesday evening.

Authorities say they believe they've found the body of a cancer patient missing since a small plane crashed last month in upstate New York.

Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey tells local media outlets the remains found Wednesday near an ice cream stand a mile from the main wreck site are likely those of 64-year-old Frank Amerosa.

Amerosa was on the Angel Flight with his wife, 58-year-old Evelyn Amerosa. They were heading home to Rome, N.Y., after treatment in the Boston area when the Piper PA 34 went down an hour west of Albany in the rural town Ephratah on May 24.

The bodies of Evelyn Amerosa and 70-year-old volunteer pilot John Campbell of Stamford, Conn., were found the next day.

A preliminary federal aviation safety report says the plane broke up in flight. The cause remains under investigation.

A Texas man who confessed to killing five people during a six-month crime spree in 1998 has been executed.

Elroy Chester received lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the fatal shooting of Port Arthur firefighter Willie Ryman III.

The 38-year-old Ryman interrupted Chester as he sexually assaulted Ryman's two teenage nieces during a break-in at their home 15 years ago. Chester was on probation at the time, was arrested soon after and subsequently pleaded guilty to Ryman's slaying.

Evidence also showed Chester was responsible for three rapes and 25 home break-ins during his crime wave.

The execution was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal that raised questions whether a federal judge who ruled against Chester in an earlier was biased against him.

A Massachusetts man who escaped from prison has been convicted of killing a barbershop customer, wounding the barber and then injuring two officers during a shootout with police.

A Hampden Superior Court jury found 27-year-old Tamik Kirkland of Springfield guilty Wednesday of charges including murder and armed assault with intent to murder. He was sentenced to the life without parole.

Authorities say Kirkland escaped from a minimum-security prison in April 2011. Five days later he went into a Springfield barbershop and wounded a barber and fatally shot a customer. He was shot six times in a shootout with police. Two officers were injured.

Authorities have said Kirkland wanted revenge for the shooting of his mother. Prosecutors were not allowed to tell the jury about his mother's shooting.

A man who orchestrated a prison van ambush in 1987 in an attempt to free a prisoner has been executed. 

William Van Poyck died at 7:24 p.m. Wednesday by injection at the Florida State Prison.

The 58-year-old was convicted of murdering prison guard Fred Griffis. His case garnered international attention because Van Poyck published three books and maintained a blog while on death row.

Van Poyck and Frank Valdes ambushed a prison van outside a West Palm Beach doctor's office in a failed attempt to free James O'Brien. Prison guard Fred Griffis was fatally shot after he threw the van's keys into the bushes to foil the escape. Van Poyck and Valdes were captured following a car chase.

Young teens at a pricey private school on New York City's Upper West Side were asked to write first-person suicide notes — a macabre assignment that some of their parents have blasted as "inappropriate."

The English-class homework at York Prep required students as young as 14 to write goodbye missives from the perspective of a character who offs herself in "The Secret Life of Bees," a best-selling book and film.

The task included justifying why they had committed suicide, a grim process that rattled a few nerves.

"We were pretty stunned at the scope of the assignment," said a father of a ninth-grade student at the school. "We thought this was such an outrageous assignment for a 14-year-old to get." 

Tuition for high schoolers at the grade 6-to-12 institution on West 68th Street is slated to be $41,200 for the coming school year.

Newbie English teacher Jessica Barrish's assignment last month focused on having kids channel fictitious character May Boatwright by writing in first person — as if they were her — about her legacy and how they wanted to be remembered by her sisters.

"How would you justify ending your life? What reasons would you give?" the project asked.

Barrish, who previously taught for three years in the public schools, declined to comment.

Click for more from NYPost.com

 

Chief executives for the largest U.S. companies are more optimistic about sales over the next six months and plan to add more workers.

The Business Roundtable said Wednesday that its April-June quarterly survey found 32 percent of its members expect to expand payrolls in the next six months. That's up from 29 percent in the January-March survey. And 78 percent expect their sales to increase. That's up from 72 percent from the previous survey.

Consumers have kept spending this year, despite an increase in Social Security taxes. That's helped the economy grow at a modest pace.

Still, most of the CEOs don't expect growth to accelerate. They forecast growth of 2.2 percent this year, only slightly better than the 2.1 percent forecast in the first-quarter survey.

"CEOs see the U.S. economy still on a slow road to recovery," said Jim McNerney, chief executive of Boeing and the chairman of the Business Roundtable.

The better sales outlook reflects modest growth in the United States and "continued high growth in Asia" and other emerging markets, McNerney said, offset by continuing recession in Europe.

Small business owners are also a bit more optimistic, according to a separate survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, released Tuesday. The NFIB's small business optimism index rose for the second straight month to 94.4. That's the second-highest level since the recession began in December 2007. Greater confidence in future sales and economic growth drove the increase.

Employers added 175,000 jobs in May, the government said last week, nearly matching the average job gains of the past year. The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6 percent, but for a good reason: More Americans were confident they could find work and began searching for a job.

The economy grew at a solid annual rate of 2.4 percent in the first three months of the year. Consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in more than two years.

Economists worry that the federal spending cuts and higher Social Security taxes, which started Jan. 1, might be slowing growth in the April-June quarter to an annual rate of 2 percent or less. But many expect growth will pick up again at the end of the year.

The Business Roundtable represents CEOs of the 200 largest U.S. corporations. The latest survey results are based on 141 responses received between May 13 and May 31.

The group surveys CEOs about sales, capital spending and hiring. The results are combined into an index which gauges their outlook for the economy. That index rose to 84.3 from 81 in March and only 65.6 in December. Any reading above 50 suggests expansion. The current reading is above its long-term average of 79.2. The survey has been conducted for 11 years.