It’s the law: No sagging pants in Chicago suburb

LYNWOOD, Ill. (AP) — Be careful if you have saggy pants in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood.
Village leaders have passed an ordinance that would levy $25 fines against anyone showing three inches or more of their underwear in public.
Eugene Williams is the mayor of Lynwood. He says young men walk around town half-dressed, keeping major retailers and economic development away. He calls the new law a hot topic.
The American Civil Liberties Union says the ordinance targets young men of color.
Young adults in the village, like 21-year-old Joe Klomes, say the new law infringes on their personal style. He says leaders should instead spend money on making the area look nicer.

Bees swarm motorists on N.J. Turnpike

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — Drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike have to cope every day with traffic jams, pollution and even the occasional deer.
They ran into a new obstacle Saturday as thousands of honeybees swarmed around their vehicles.
Turnpike Authority spokesman Joseph Orlando said the swarm came from a beekeeper’s beehive that apparently fell beside the highway in Cherry Hill.
The Turnpike Authority was looking for a beekeeper to deal with the problem.

Treasure in the trash: $20K earrings found in NYC

NEW YORK (AP) — Diamonds in the rough? Try a $20,000 pair of the glinting gems in a reeking truckload of trash.
A Staten Island jeweler has gotten her 3-carat diamond earrings back after she, her husband and city sanitation employees sorted through a smelly heap of garbage. The studs were in a small jar of cleaning solution, which a worker at the couple’s jewelry store had accidentally thrown away.
The earrings were recovered Thursday at the site of the former Fresh Kills landfill. The giant dump closed in 2001, and the earrings were in a load of trash destined to be compacted and shipped out of state.
Owner Haya Sharon is calls the find ”a miracle.“ The earrings were an anniversary gift from her husband.

Pastor gets into motorcycle crash - during service

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) — A pastor brought out a dirt bike during a church service to demonstrate the concept of unity. Now he’s demonstrating the concept of healing.
Jeff Harlow, the senior pastor at Crossroads Community Church, broke his wrist when he lost control of the motorcycle at the start of Sunday’s second service, driving off a 5-foot platform and into the vacant first row of seats. He underwent surgery on the wrist Monday.
”Jeff has already laughed a lot, so he’s OK. I think his pride was bruised,“ said his wife, Becky.
Becky Harlow said her husband had recently attended a motorcycle race in Buchanan, Mich.
”He had this idea that he would bring this bike out onstage and show people how the rider would become one with the bike,“ she told the Kokomo Tribune. ”He was going to just sit on it and drive it out. He was just walking the dirt bike out onstage and somehow it got away from him. It was not intended.“
No one else was hurt.
Jeff Harlow had performed the demonstration at earlier services Saturday night and Sunday morning without incident.

Pig caper: Police investigate swiped swine in Iowa

EMMETSBURG, Iowa (AP) — Where’s the pork?
Authorities in western Iowa are looking for a thief with a very big payload — 120 market hogs.
The Palo Alto County Sheriff’s Office says that someone swiped the swine from a hog confinement in Silver Lake Township sometime between May 29 and July 10.
The theft was reported this week.
Chief Deputy Todd Suhr says his agency is investigating but has ”no hot leads right now.“ The missing hogs are valued at $19,000.
The owner of the confinement is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information in the case.

Arrest made in stolen N.J. horse statue

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — Police say a bronze horse statue stolen from a now-defunct New Jersey racetrack has been broken up and sold to a salvage yard for a fraction of its value.
At the going rate, the bronze from the 1-ton statue sells for about $4,000. As a piece of art, it was worth about $500,000.
The statue was cut off its base outside the old Garden State Park horse racetrack. Part of it was found nearby, the rest at a Camden salvage yard.
Police say a tip led to Saturday’s arrest of 33-year-old Ian MacDonald. He is charged with theft and conspiracy. Police are looking for three other suspects.
MacDonald is being held in lieu of $55,000 bail. Messages left with the police spokesman and at MacDonald’s home weren’t immediately returned.

Florida man wins Hemingway look-alike contest

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — A white-bearded Florida man won an Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest, a highlight of a festival that ended Sunday honoring the late Nobel Prize-winning author.
Tom Grizzard, 69, of Leesburg bested 141 other contenders in the competition at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, Hemingway’s favorite watering hole when he lived in Key West throughout the 1930s. The competition’s final round was held late Saturday.
”I relate to his love of the sea and love of people,“ said Grizzard. The eight-time competitor wore a cream-colored turtleneck sweater suggesting Hemingway’s garb in an iconic 1957 photo portrait by Yousuf Karsh.
Look-alike contenders in sportsman’s attire paraded across the stage at Sloppy Joe’s during preliminary rounds Thursday and Friday before a judging panel of former winners.
Twenty-five prospective ”Papas“ made it to Saturday’s finals.
Other Hemingway Days events included the Drambuie Key West Marlin Tournament, writers’ readings and a short story competition directed by author and Hemingway granddaughter Lorian Hemingway.
Ernest Hemingway’s grandson Edward Hemingway, a writer and illustrator who showcased his new children’s book at the festival, said he thought Hemingway Days would appeal to his late grandfather.
”I imagine my grandfather would get a kick out of the festival,“ he said. ”The spirit of his life is here in Key West.“
During his 10-year residence on the island, Ernest Hemingway penned literary classics including ”For Whom the Bell Tolls,“ ”The Snows of Kilimanjaro“ and ”To Have and Have Not.“
Hemingway would have turned 109 on Monday.

Gun advocacy group tours Idaho zoo while armed

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho members of a group that advocates for the right to openly carry handguns in public are turning heads by touring Zoo Boise while packing guns on their hips.
Ten members of OpenCarry.org were allowed into the zoo Saturday after some initial confusion at the entrance about whether it was legal to bring an unconcealed handgun inside.
Group member Carol Schultz of Nampa says: ”Coming to the zoo was something we could do together, like any family would.“
Schultz says she’s never without her handgun that she keeps in a holster attached to a heart-studded belt.
Zoo visitor Alex Lundgren of Boise questioned the group’s decision to bring firearms.
He says: ”Legal and appropriate are two different things.“

Apparent conjoined barn swallows found in Arkansas

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press Writer
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An apparent set of conjoined twin birds — an incredibly rare find — has been discovered in Arkansas, authorities said.
The bodies of the barn swallows, which are attached at the hip by skin and possibly muscle tissue, are being sent to the Smithsonian Institution for examination and confirmation, Arkansas wildlife officials said Friday.
”I can’t even say it’s one in a million — it’s probably more than that,“ said Karen Rowe, an ornithologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. ”There’s just very little to no records of such a thing.“
The birds, found by a landowner in White County, fell out of a nest as a healthy sibling flew off to learn how to hunt with its parents, Rowe said. The birds first appeared to have only three legs, but further examination found a fourth leg tucked up underneath the skin connecting the pair.
Rowe said the landowner likely kept the birds for a day before calling wildlife officials. By the time officials arrived, the birds were not eating. One died early Friday and a veterinarian later euthanized the other.
Finding conjoined birds is rare because they likely die before being discovered, Rowe said.
X-rays of the pair found each bird was fully formed, Rowe said. She said the birds would have had to come from a double-yolk egg.
Barn swallows can live for several years, though the conjoined twins might not have lived that long even if they had been separated. Rowe said it would have been difficult to teach the birds to fly.

Blessed are the boxers, altered for wounded troops

CASCO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Blessed are the boxer shorts.
Members of the St. James United Church of Christ in Michigan plan to take 150 boxer shorts to the altar Sunday for a blessing. The shorts have been modified for wounded veterans who wear bulky prosthetics or braces on their legs.
About 15 women at St. James replaced the shorts’ side seams with a fabric fastener for easy access.
Volunteer Kris Dombrowski says: “If you have the need for special pants, you have the need for special boxer shorts.”
The boxers will go to an Ohio distribution center of Sew Much Comfort, a national volunteer group that adapts clothing for wounded troops.

Dallas police find cocaine in car used by officers

DALLAS (AP) — Police didn’t have to go far to find $400,000 worth of cocaine — it was in an undercover car they’d been driving for two months.
An officer cleaning the car at a patrol station Wednesday discovered the nearly 50 pounds of cocaine carefully hidden in hydraulically controlled compartments.
"These compartments have recently been more and more popular with drug operations," said Deputy Chief Julian Bernal, commander of the narcotics division.
Dallas police put the two-door 2004 black Infiniti into police service on May 7 after seizing it at a drug house. It had been found at a drug house earlier this year along with a 1999 Honda.
Bernal said the narcotics division searched both the vehicles and found nothing unusual after the seizure. The Honda was sold at auction.
Bernal said police plan to contact the person who bought the Honda to find out if drugs are hidden in that car, too. And, they are also trying to find out who owned the cocaine they have been secretly driving around with.

Wash. judge tells verbose lawyer to make it snappy

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge in Tacoma has told a lawyer he needs to make it snappy.
Judge Ronald Leighton balked at a 465-page lawsuit that made its way onto his desk. He invoked a rarely used rule that requires a "short and plain statement" of allegations.
The title of the racketeering lawsuit filed by attorney Dean Browning Webb was eight pages long.
The judge issued his order in a limerick:
"Plaintiff has a great deal to say,
But it seems he skipped Rule 8(a).
His Complaint is too long,
Which renders it wrong,
Please rewrite and refile today."

Naked man arrested after hijacking Las Vegas bus

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Maybe he lost his shirt at a casino. Police in Las Vegas say they arrested a naked man who stole a beer and then hijacked a bus several miles northeast of the Strip.
A police spokesman says the man fled from a convenience store when an officer arrived to investigate a report of a shoplifter Tuesday.
The man allegedly punched in a back window of a Citizens Area Transit bus, climbed aboard, forced the driver off, drove the bus about 200 yards and then jumped off the moving vehicle.
A police officer climbed aboard the bus and stopped the vehicle.
Police say the man was arrested on felony charges and given clothes and a mental evaluation.

$55,000 found in St. Louis County Jail bathroom

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — Someone at the St. Louis County Jail was flush with money.
A correctional officer at the intake facility at the St. Louis County Justice Center last week found $55,000 stuffed behind a toilet paper dispenser.
The bundle of money was in $100 and $50 bills, said Clayton Police Chief Thomas Byrne.
Officials interviewed inmates about the money, but none admitted knowing anything about the stashed cash.
The money was placed in a special bank account until the owner can be determined, Byrne said.

Ark. suspect leaves behind cell phone for police

FORREST CITY, Ark. (AP) — Forrest City police weren’t able to catch their man after a high-speed chase through town, but the cell phone he left behind gave away his identity.
The chase started just before 11 p.m. Monday after officers received a call about people "fighting in the street with guns," police said. When police arrived, they managed to block one car from getting away. The man in that car spoke briefly with officers before speeding away — and the chase was on.
The man crashed his Toyota Camry into a house and ran away, police said. But as officers searched the car, the man’s cell phone rang and the caller asked for the suspect by name.
Officers said a search of the car uncovered a set of scales and two plastic bags, one containing marijuana and the other containing crack cocaine.
Police declined to name the man Tuesday but said they were still searching for him.

Truck rams Concorde, knocks off its nose in NYC

NEW YORK (AP) — An embarrassed museum official says a two-week nose job should reverse the damage a Concorde supersonic jet suffered when a truck rammed it.
The retired Concorde is normally on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. It has been at a recreational facility in Brooklyn while the USS Intrepid and its home pier in Manhattan are repaired and renovated.
Early July 1, a truck hauling equipment away from a Jamaican soccer-and-cricket festival bumped into the Concorde’s distinctive nose and knocked it off. Museum President Bill White says the cone is salvageable and will be reattached and repaired to original standards.
White is apologizing to British Airways, which owns the jet. He says the recreational facility should have provided better security for the plane.

Fashion bug: Teens turn dead cicadas into jewelry

SANDWICH, Mass. (AP) — Two 17-year-old jewelry makers from Cape Cod, Massachusetts are hoping swarms of customers will want their latest creations: earrings and necklaces made from dead bugs.
Katheryn Maloney and Brady Cullinan are selling jewelry made out of the cicadas that swarmed their town of Sandwich this summer.
The pair charges $10 for earrings or necklaces made out of the bugs’ lacquered carcasses.
They tell the Cape Cod Times that some people find the jewelry gross, but others are impressed with its uniqueness.
Maloney and Cullinan began making the bug jewelry in mid-June after Cullinan’s mother suggested the idea.