Back Porch Breaking News

Falcon Heene, the 6-year-old kid who earned the nickname "Balloon Boy" when news outlets reported that he was stuck in a runaway helium balloon over Denver, Colorado, has been found safe at home. He was not in the balloon and had been hiding out at his house.

A 6-year-old boy whose family was known for loving science and seeking adventure reportedly got stuck in a giant helium balloon near Fort Collins, Colorado, leaving ballooning and aviation experts scrambling to determine how to rescue him before it crashed to the ground just after 1:30 PM local time. But when it hit the ground, rescue personnel said the boy was not inside.

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Tragedy struck at the Tacoma Dome on Friday night during a monster truck show when debris shot into the crowd, killing a six-year-old boy and sending another adult male to the hospital.

Earlier on Saturday, the Tacoma News-Tribune printed a statement from Jessie Hizey, whose six-year old son Sebastian died at a local hospital soon after being transported there from the arena:

A Frisbee-sized piece of metal slammed into the side of Sebastian's head and "took a chunk of his skull ... around 3 inches long and 3 inches wide," the father said. The accident occurred at about 9:30 p.m. Father and son were enjoying the noise, action and drama of the Monster Truck Jam when Sebastian was "struck by a large metal ring from one of the trucks," the statement said. Natural High was the truck that was performing at the time of the accident, but it's uncertain from where the piece came. An adult man also was hospitalized, but his identity and condition have not been disclosed.

Jessie Hizey described the shrapnel as about three-quarters of an inch thick, weighing between seven and 12 pounds.

The family is "grief stricken and angry" that no one from the show has contacted them or expressed condolences, the father said.

The Web site for the truck in question, Natural High, has been pulled down, though you can find the Google cache by clicking here. Not surprisingly, somebody was in the crowd shooting digital video at the time. Click here to see the raw video that KING-TV in Seattle posted of the truck doing what appears to be some tricks, but be sure to follow the video to the end, where you'll see an individual retrieving debris from the event floor. For the full report from KING-TV, one which includes a harrowing report from an eyewitness, click here.

The SmokingGun.com is notorious for -- among many things -- finding bizarre legal documents and mugshots of famous people. They are darn good at what they do and everyone loves them for it. But they scored one of their biggest coups yesterday when they stumbled upon pictures of a skier hanging from a chairlift by his pants in Vail, Colo.

Yes, it is the gentleman you see above in the left corner, and no, he is not comfortable. As I wrote elsewhere yesterday, I'm terrified of heights. So I can't imagine having to hang from a ski lift without knowing whether I would plummet to certain limb breakage or not. Add being, ahem, 100 percent fully exposed to the harsh chills of winter and the certain embarrassment of other skiers' eyes, and I'm fairly certain that I'd rather not even be brought down.

Pictures of said skier being rescued after the jump (They are SFW, but, yes, there is some male buttocks.)

In a world dominated by always on broadband Internet connections, it's hard for any athlete to sneak up on sports fans anymore. But over the past few weeks, with the sports world focusing relentlessly on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, a 19-year old Argentine may very well have put himself in the best position to win the Men's Singles Title at this year's U.S. Open.

The young man I'm talking about is 19th-ranked Juan-Martin Del Potro, and the reason to get excited about his prospects is that he hasn't lost a tennis match since he exited the second round of Wimbledon back on June 25. Toss in the fact that he's got the sort of looks that could win him a second career as a male model, and you can see why plenty of folks think he's ready to break out in a big way.

After an early exit from Wimbledon, Del Potro won a pair of clay court tournaments in Europe -- his first wins on the ATP Tour -- before decamping to the USA for the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles where he beat Andy Roddick in the final in two sets. Here all week in Washington at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, it's been nothing but more of the same, as Del Potro ripped through his side of the bracket as the tournament's second seed, running his consecutive win streak to 18 matches. Meanwhile on the other side of the ladder, #1 seed Roddick was upended in the quarterfinals on Friday night by the unheralded Serbian Viktor Troicki, Del Potro's opposition in today's final.