Across the Southeast

LOUISVILLE, KY. - A federal judge has temporarily suspended Kentucky's law forbidding protests within 300 feet of military funerals and memorial services.

U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell said Tuesday that the law goes too far in limiting free speech. The law aimed at Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., which is known for its anti-gay protests, is too broad, the judge said in issuing an injunction.

"The zone is large enough that it would restrict communications intended for the general public on a matter completely unrelated to the funeral as well as messages targeted at funeral participants," Judge Caldwell wrote in a 37-page ruling issued in Frankfort.

The Kentucky General Assembly passed the law earlier this year prohibiting nearly all protests near military funerals.

Lili Lutgens, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which filed the suit, said Judge Caldwell's ruling protects the First Amendment.

Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo said he was considering an appeal.

ORLANDO, FLA. - A Leesburg woman named as the primary suspect in the disappearance of her 2-year-old son killed herself because of fears she wouldn't be a good parent after he was found, she wrote in a note investigators released Tuesday.

In the note, apparently addressed to her grandparents, 21-year-old Melinda Duckett wrote, "The main reason I'm doing this is because even after my baby is found, I would not be a good mother with two jobs and full-time school. I tried my hardest, but always slacked in some area. Trenton should of had my full attention at all times. I'm sorry."

Police also released a shorter note addressed to her parents, which asks them not to bother trying to understand her.

Last week, police named her the main suspect in Trenton's disappearance. She reported him missing from her home Aug. 27 and was the last person known to see him. She killed herself with a shotgun at her grandparents' home Sept. 8 after coming under intense media pressure, including with CNN Headline News' Nancy Grace.

DEMOPOLIS, ALA. - More than a dozen cars and trucks piled up in a series of collisions on a foggy, smoky highway in rural west Alabama early Tuesday, killing two people and injuring others - at least two critically.

Alabama State Trooper spokesman Cpl. Chris Ellis said 14 vehicles were reported involved in the crash, which might have been caused in part by smoke that had drifted onto U.S. Highway 80 from an adjacent field that was being cleared with fire.

- Edited from wire reports