CHICAGO - A federal investigation of the nation's largest single-site county jail has uncovered serious sanitation and medical care problems, as well as violence against prisoners who clashed with guards or failed to follow commands, officials said.

Among the problems cited in the 98-page report: Old or mentally ill inmates struck by guards for dressing too slowly; inmates burning milk cartons to heat food in their cells; and prisoners rigging a dumbwaiter to move homemade weapons.

Three Cook County Jail inmates committed suicide in the first four months of 2008 alone, and others have died because of inadequate medical care, according to the report, prepared by the civil rights division of the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney's office after a 17-month investigation.

The husband of slain North Carolina mother Nancy Cooper has not been named a suspect in her killing, but the fact that a judge agreed with her family that Bradley Cooper “posed a danger” to their two children suggests police may be investigating the spouse, a legal expert said Friday.

“To take the kids away from a biological parent is a big deal,” NBC chief legal correspondent Dan Abrams told TODAY’s Natalie Morales. “It tells us that they’re looking at the husband.”

The Cary, N.C., housewife was found dead on the morning of Saturday, July 12. Her body was lying in a small pool of water near a storm drain at a construction site near her home. Brad Cooper, who has asked the public to help find her killer, said that h

The husband of slain North Carolina mother Nancy Cooper has not been named a suspect in her killing, but the fact that a judge agreed with her family that Bradley Cooper “posed a danger” to their two children suggests police may be investigating the spouse, a legal expert said Friday.

"To take the kids away from a biological parent is a big deal," NBC chief legal correspondent Dan Abrams told TODAY's Natalie Morales.  "It tells us that they’re looking at the husband."

The Cary, N.C. housewife was found dead on the morning of Saturday, July 12. Her body was lying in a small pool of water near a storm drain at a construction site near her home. Brad Cooper, who has asked the public to help find her killer, said that his wife h

People should remember slain North Carolina mother Nancy Cooper as a “wonderful person, not somebody befallen by tragedy,” her sister, Jill Dean, told TODAY’s Ann Curry Friday. Agreeing with the contention of Cooper’s family that her husband “posed a danger” to her two children, a judge awarded custody to the family — even though Brad Cooper has not been named as a suspect in her killing.

The North Carolina judge's decision is an extraordinary ruling that indicates police are looking at Cooper as a potential killer, according to Dan Abrams, chief legal correspondent for NBC News. "To take the kids away from a biological parent is a big deal," Abrams told TODAY's Natalie Morales in a later segment Friday. Despite police state

SEATTLE - Nearly 50 metal spikes were mysteriously planted in the shallows of an urban lake popular with swimmers, alarming Seattle residents and leading to a police investigation.

"We're horrified, because we can't think of any reason anyone would have placed these except to hurt people," said Dewey Potter, a spokeswoman for the city's Parks Department. "We've never encountered anything like this. It's very bizarre."

Patrick Boltz was wading in Green Lake on Sunday with his wife and 18-month daughter when something cut his foot. He discovered a spike and yanked out 10 spikes in a matter of minutes. He then alerted the parks department.

"It's pretty sickening and depraved," said Boltz, who suffered a small cut between his toes.

The rods were about a quarter-inch