Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton received 11 write-in votes for an election in North Carolina, officials said. >> Read more trending news  Newton’s name was written in for the Mecklenburg County Soil and Water Conservation district position, according to the Board of Elections. The two people who won received more than 100,000 votes each. Newton has thrown for 2,086 yards and 17 touchdowns this season for the Panthers, who are 6-3 and trail the New Orleans Saints by two games in the National Football League’s NFC South division.

Fifteen years after tossing her twins off a bridge into the Mississippi River, a Minnesota woman is using her story to raise awareness about mental illness, KARE reported. >> Read more trending news  Naomi Gaines was 24 when she threw her 14-month-old sons, Sincere Understanding Allah and Supreme Knowledge Allah, into the river near St. Paul on July 4, 2003, and then jumped into the water, the Star Tribune reported in 2003. Sincere drowned, and Gaines was convicted of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder, KARE reported. Gaines, now 39, served 15 years in prison and spent time at a mental health treatment center,  After the death of her son, Gaines was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, bipolar and schizoaffective disorder, the television station reported.Now, Gaines is reaching out to help people with similar mental conditions. “If there is another Naomi Gaines out there, you are not alone. Mental illness is not a character flaw. It is not a weakness to ask for help. It is a strength,” Gaines told KARE. “What I wouldn't give to go back and say, 'I am not OK, and I need help.'” Gaines now works part-time at the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Minnesota. “I got the most help for my mental illness while incarcerated,' Gaines told KARE. 'That is when the prevention classes, groups, therapy and medication happened, after it was already too late for my son.

A load of space station supplies rocketed into orbit from Virginia on Saturday, the second shipment in two days. Northrop Grumman launched its Antares rocket from Wallops Island before dawn, delighting chilly early-bird observers along the Atlantic coast. The Russian Space Agency launched its own load of supplies to the International Space Station on Friday, just 15 hours earlier. The U.S. delivery will arrive at the orbiting lab Monday, a day after the Russian shipment. Among the 7,400 pounds (3,350 kilograms) of goods inside the Cygnus capsule: ice cream and fresh fruit for the three space station residents, and a 3D printer that recycles old plastic into new parts. Thanksgiving turkey dinners — rehydratable, of course — are already aboard the 250-mile-high outpost. The space station is currently home to an American, German and Russian. There's another big event coming up, up there: The space station marks its 20th year in orbit on Tuesday. The first section launched on Nov. 20, 1998, from Kazakhstan. This Cygnus, or Swan, is named the S.S. John Young to honor the legendary astronaut who walked on the moon and commanded the first space shuttle flight. He died in January. It is the first commercial cargo ship to bear Northrop Grumman's name. Northrop Grumman acquired Orbital ATK in June. SpaceX is NASA's other commercial shipper for the space station. Experiments also are going up to observe how cement solidifies in weightlessness, among other things. There's also medical, spacesuit and other equipment to replace items that never made it to orbit last month because of a Russian rocket failure; the two men who were riding the rocket survived their emergency landing. Three other astronauts are set to launch from Kazakhstan on Dec. 3.

Two California men living in a homeless camp acted swiftly to save a driver whose vehicle was involved in an accident with a truck, KSBW reported. >> Read more trending news  On Tuesday, a truck driver lost control of his vehicle in Santa Cruz and slammed into a car, the television station reported. The small sedan was pushed 150 yards down the road and was stuck to the truck’s bumper, KSBW reported. It hit several cars before bursting into flames, rendering the driver unconscious, the television station reported. Robert Woodlief and John Thompson saw the accident and immediately sprang into action. 'We heard the explosion. A big boom,' said Woodlief told KSBW. 'It sounded like someone dropping giant shipping containers,' Thompson told the television station. As flames intensified, the two men used a box cutter and pocket knife to cut the unconscious driver’s seat belt and pull him to safety, KSBW reported. 'It caught my hair on fire and that's when I had to fall to the ground and roll two or three times and then John ran into the car and proceeded to cut,' Woodlief told the television station. 'I had to basically stop thinking about the flames. I was thinking about anything,” Thompson said. “My focus was on what I was doing and I cut the belt.'  The driver of the sedan remains in critical condition, KSWB reported.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of a New Mexico author alleges that a Santa Fe hospital revived the woman in violation of her “do not resuscitate” directive while she was in the facility’s care in 2016, the Albuquerque Journal reported. >> Read more trending news  The lawsuit filed in New Mexico state district court against Santa Fe's Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center alleges that the hospital was negligent twice in its treatment of Jamie Sams, a writer known for her books about spirituality.  The lawsuit also alleges that Sams was given the painkiller Dilaudid, a medicine she claims she is allergic to, the Journal reported. Sams suffers from Dercum’s, a rare disease that produces tumors all over the body, the newspaper reported. According to court documents obtained by the Journal, Sams went into cardiac arrest after receiving the drug in the emergency room on Feb. 5, 2016, and the hospital’s negligence was compounded when she was resuscitated -- something she did not want. Sams had signed a “Double DNR (do not resuscitate)” form, the newspaper reported. “As a result of being revived, Plaintiff continues to experience severe pain, disability and limitations and further, will incur extensive expenses throughout the remainder of her life,” the lawsuit against the hospital and emergency room doctor Jamie Gagan states. “This condition is extremely debilitating and painful and, moreover, requires frequent hospitalization and medication at great expense.” Christus spokesman Arturo Delgado told the Journal that Gagan works for HealthFront, which does emergency services work for the hospital. He said he could not comment on the lawsuit. Sams is a Native American author who co-wrote “Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals.” According to her author biography on the Amazon website, she is a member of the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge. Sams is half French and half American Indian, with ancestors from the Cherokee, Seneca, Choctaw, and Mohawk tribes according to her profile at Spirituality & Practice. 

A photograph of a Utah police officer cradling a baby while the infant’s mother filed a domestic violence report has gone viral, KUTV reported. >> Read more trending news  One of the clerks at the West Jordan Police Department snapped a photo of Officer R. Lofgran holding and bottle feeding the baby and caring for the woman’s other young children, KSTU reported. “He spent hours on this call. Thank you for your service,” one person wrote on the West Jordan Police Department’s Facebook page. The photos and posts have been shared more than 370 times and have been liked by nearly 3,000 people since it was posted on Thursday.