LOS ANGELES — More children have died in each of the last two years from abuse or neglect after being under the eye of Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services despite assurances by county officials that the problem was getting better, according to confidential county documents reviewed by The Times.

The number of deaths from abuse and neglect rose from 18 in 2008 to 26 in 2009, and 2010 so far is on track to be even worse, with 21 maltreatment fatalities in the first eight months of the year, according to the figures.

PASADENA ( KTLA) — A West Covina father was charged today with felony child endangerment after allegedly leaving his 3-year-old son alone for 25 hours in a car. Joe Louie Kurihara, 23, is scheduled to be arraignment after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Kurihara is charged with the felony child endangerment count, along with four misdemeanor charges. The misdemeanor counts are two of resisting, obstructing or delaying law enforcement, one of battery upon an officer and one of public intoxication.

WASHINGTON — Baby gear maker Graco is recalling about 2 million strollers after receiving reports that four infants died in the strollers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the recall Wednesday, said the four infants became trapped inside the strollers and were strangled. The deaths occurred between 2003 and 2005. The strollers being recalled are older versions of the Graco Quattro Tour and MetroLite strollers and travel systems, all made before 2007 and distributed by Graco Children’s Products Inc. of Atlanta.

I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

PHOTOBUCKET IS DETERRING OUR CHILD ABUSE ADVOCACY & MISSION BY “BANNING” ME FROM MY PRO PHOTOBUCKET ACCOUNT. PLEASE READ THE RESPONSE I GOT BACK FROM PHOTOBUCKET — THIS IS THE REASON THEY HAVE BANNED ME FROM ALL OF MY WORK THAT I HAVE ACCUMLATED OVER THE LAST 5-YEARS– MY ACCOUNT WHICH HOLDS ALL OF DREAMCATCHERS IMAGES, PHOTOS, BANNERS, LOGOS, SLIDESHOWS, ETC……ALL OF WHICH I HAD UNDER A PRO ACCOUNT & PAID AN ANNUAL FEE FOR AND KEPT PRIVATE FOR OUR USE ONLY. ALL OF MY IMAGES, PHOTOS & LINKS ARE NOW BROKEN ON ALL OF OUR 20 DIFFERENT NETWORKING SITES FOR CHILD ABUSE ADVOCACY.

A community is offering an outpouring of support for a Durham family impacted by murder. Police have charged the father of the family, Joseph Mitchell, in the death of his 4-year-old son, Blake Mitchell, and for allegedly trying to kill his other two children last month. Blake’s father remains at Raleigh’s Central Prison for safekeeping after a suicide attempt. While investigators won’t talk motive, records show the family was suffering financially and their home was in foreclosure. Shocked by the brutal murder, residents in the family’s north Durham neighborhood are pulling together for what they call, “A Hug from Blake.”

CHICAGO — Sixteen-year-old Daniel Kovarbasich had the opportunity yesterday to reach millions of people and tell children to speak out if they become a victim of sexual abuse. Daniel, his parents, Terry and Donna, and brother, Gregory, were guests on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where Daniel described to Winfrey the details behind the slaying of 55-year-old Duane Hurley.

Terry Kovarbasich told Winfrey he remembered Jan. 22, the day his son killed Hurley, as a typical day when he dropped his son off at Hurley’s home. About a half-hour after dropping Daniel off, he got a call from Daniel, who was “freaking out,” he told Winfrey. He would soon find out Daniel hit Hurley in the head with a pickle jar and stabbed him repeatedly.

The dusty strip of blacktop at the entrance of Pauline Rodriquez’s mobile home park in Pearsall has always been a barrier of sorts. Her two teenage daughters rarely ventured beyond it without letting their mother know where they were going and when they’d return home. When Rodriguez heard that both daughters — Joanna Arrisola, 14, and Felicia Martinez, 17 — had climbed into a plum-colored Pontiac and disappeared down the road with two men Saturday evening, she suspected something was terribly wrong. They’ve been missing ever since.

Friends and family worried that 10-year-old Zahra Baker was in danger. They saw bruises and a black eye. They questioned her parents. And they reported suspected abuse to the Department of Social Services. Now, police believe the missing Hickory girl whose story has captured worldwide attention is dead. They are investigating her disappearance as a homicide and last week jailed her stepmother, who they say admitted writing a phony ransom note.

Police are searching for a missing woman and her two children after officers in an Upstate county say–they disappeared. Concerned family is looking for Sarah Justice and her children, one and two years old. Police believe they may be with their father, Cornelius Farr of Spartanburg, who officers are calling a “person of interest”. The family has been missing for a week. Police say they were last seen walking with the father of the children on main street in Union. Just a few steps from Justice’s downtown apartment.

HARTFORD — — Police are looking for a man who they believe raped a 14-year-old family member in the fall of 2009 and is evading arrest. Police say that Jason Negron, aka “Drops,” 30, of Hartford is addicted to crack cocaine and heroin and knows that police have an active felony warrant for his arrest. Negron is 5-feet-10, 175 pounds and has noticeable teardrops tattooed on his left check, near the corner of his left eye. Police say that he frequents the Frog Hollow, Barry Square and Bellevue Square neighborhoods to buy drugs, but that he may be in New York, where he has family members. Negron has suicidal ideations and a history of firearms and drug arrests, according to police. Extreme caution should be taken by anyone coming into contact with him.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Police arrested an Oklahoma City man on suspicion of raping a 6-year-old boy.Lucifer Scott Hawkins, 30, was arrested on a complaint of raping a child under 16 and was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail, police said.Police received a Crime Stoppers tip about an unrelated incident, and officers were headed to that call when dispatchers relayed information about a rape in the same area, near the Harding Charter School. The officers responded to the rape call instead, in the 900 block of Northwest 33rd Street.

EVANSVILLE, IN – I’m itching to start watching a movie so this may the last story from me to day and it is pretty sickening. Timothy D. Montgomery, 52, has been accused of not only molesting a 7-year-old little girl on multiple occasions, he also gave her an STD in the process. After it was discovered that the girl had contracted genital herpes she was taken to Holly’s House, a shelter where victims of intimate sex crimes are interviewed by authorities. She told police Montgomery had touched her inappropriately and had her touch him in the same manner.

MATTHEWS, NC – Here’s a story out of North Carolina that will probably drive Athena insane. A couple were arrested and charged with drug possession after their 11-year-old took a couple of their joints to school and turned them in. Matthews Police say the kid snitched on his parents after a lesson about marijuana was delivered by a police officer in the D.A.R.E. program. Both the 40-year-old father and 38-year-old mother were arrested, charged with two misdemeanor counts each of marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police in Boulder, Colorado, want to talk to the older brother of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old girl slain at home on Christmas night 14 years ago, the Ramsey family’s attorney said. Supporters of the family call it harassment. The brother, Burke Ramsey, has no interest in once again answering questions he has answered for many investigators many times, said the attorney, Lin Wood, of Atlanta, Georgia. And yet the mere hint of activity in one of the nation’s most famous cold cases has headlines swirling.

So, what’s the story this time? Burke Ramsey was the 9-year-old brother of JonBenet who, by all accounts, slept soundly in his room that Christmas in 1996 while his sister’s skull was fractured and she was strangled elsewhere in the house.