The Trentonian's Strange But True Page

Work zone delay incurs $16 bill to Michigan

2008-08-05T12:12:00.001-04:00

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio woman has sent Michigan transportation officials a bill for the $16 she says she wasted on gasoline sitting in construction zone traffic.
Carol Greenberg tells The Blade there were no signs warning about the work on southbound Interstate 275 where it merges with I-75 near Newport, Mich., about 27 miles north of Toledo.
So, she says she got stuck idling for about 50 minutes on July 23 while trying to get home to the Toledo suburbs with her cat after a visit to a specialty veterinarian outside Detroit. She says her Maine coon cat Sammy disliked the delay and howled the whole time.
In response, the Michigan Department of Transportation wrote her it's unable to reimburse drivers for time, wages, or gas lost in work zone back-ups.
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Information from: The Blade, http://www.toledoblade.com

Fountain of Youth

2008-08-05T12:10:00.001-04:00

At the time that Alan Patton, 56, of Columbus, Ohio, made News of the Weird in 2006, he had already been consuming boys’ urine for 40 years, he said, and a 2007 jail sentence has had no apparent deterrent effect. He was arrested in June 2008 (and twice since then), accused of turning off the water in a recreation center restroom and placing plastic wrap inside the bowl to catch the nectar that, he says, enables him to “become part of their youth.” While no Ohio law prohibits collecting or drinking others’ urine, Patton violates his almost-perpetual probation by visiting any public restroom.

LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINAL: In the course of burglarizing Yaakov Kanelsky’s apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y., in July, Victor Marin, 20, accidentally left his wallet (containing ID, credit cards and photos) on the bed. After Kanelsky arrived home and called 911, Marin returned and knocked on the front door. From the hallway, he begged for his billfold back and began shoving Kanelsky’s money under the door, hoping to persuade him to trade. Unfortunately for Marin, $92 of his $217 cash haul was in $1 bills, and the crack under the door was tiny. Marin was still busy stuffing money in by the time police arrived.

THINGS YOU THOUGHT DIDN’T HAPPEN: People would hardly expect a brawl at the Guilford (Maine) Historical Society, but in May, member Al Hunt, who was irate that rare photographs of the town had been loaned to a local restaurant, might have bumped against the society’s secretary, Zarvin Shaffer. According to witnesses, Shaffer then punched Hunt in the face, Hunt’s wife grabbed a chair, and Shaffer’s son yanked Mrs. Hunt away by her hair. In April, the Sycamore (Ill.) City Council voted to quadruple the fine for overstaying a parking meter (from 25 cents to $1). The city’s 360 meters themselves will remain at a penny for 12 minutes, a nickel for an hour and a dime for two hours.

IT’S GOOD TO BE A BRITISH PRISONER: In June, Abu Qatada, a cleric described as one of Europe’s most dangerous terror proselytizers, was released from jail, where he has been awaiting deportation (for three years) to Jordan and confined to his home in London. British courts refuse to deport him because, when Jordan tries him on serious terrorism charges, it might possibly use evidence obtained by torture of Abu Qatada’s colleagues. Thus, he will remain in Britain, under heavy guard (estimated to cost the equivalent of $1 million a year), in his tax-abated home with his wife and five children, who receive the equivalent of about $90,000 a year in welfare benefits. (Abu Qatada himself receives the equivalent of $16,000 a year from the government, for a previous back injury.)

LACKING CREDIBILITY: A U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in July that officials at a junior high school in Safford, Ariz., should not have strip-searched a 13-year-old girl when all they wanted was to see if she was carrying ibuprofen. However, her “right” to privacy carried the day among the judges by only 6-5, as the dissenters pointed out that it was, after all, prescription-strength ibuprofen they were after and that officials proceeded based on information from an “informant.” (The majority apparently holds junior-high-age “informants” in lower regard.)

— News of the Weird

France's Fired Hands

2008-08-05T12:06:00.001-04:00

Among President Sarkozy’s recent moves to trim the size of the French government was the layoff of half of the 165 physiotherapists at the taxpayer-funded National Baths of Aix-les-Bains. The pink-slipped masseurs warn that the country’s health will be at risk if people are unable to get the mud wraps, thermal baths and deep-tissue massages covered by national health insurance (along with subsidized transportation and lodging for the visits). In fact, 27 of the physiotherapists immediately went on sick leave for depression. Among Sarkozy’s other targets of government bloat, according to a July Wall Street Journal dispatch: figuring out why France employs 271 diplomats in India but more than 700 in Senegal.

MOTHERS CAUSING DRUNKEN DRIVING: Edward Defreitas, 36, was arrested in Toms River in June and accused of causing a three-vehicle collision that injured two men in a car and sent two others (paramedics riding in an ambulance) to the hospital. Defreitas told police that he had been drinking and had decided to drive around until he sobered up: “He (said he) was afraid to go home and his mother finding alcohol on his breath.”

NEEDED STEPLADDER TRAINING: School custodian Anthony Gower-Smith, 73, was awarded the equivalent of about $75,000 in June in London’s High Court after suing Britain’s Hampshire County government when he hurt himself falling off a 6-foot stepladder. Gower-Smith claimed that he had not been properly “trained” on how to use it, despite his longtime experience with such ladders, and despite his signed acknowledgment that he had indeed received training, and despite his having blamed himself just after he fell. (He disavowed the self-blame by saying that, at the time, he was woozy and didn’t remember what he said.)

FLAMING IDIOT: Shannon Hyman, now 24, filed a lawsuit in July against the Green Iguana Bar & Grill in St. Petersburg, Fla., for medical bills and lost wages when she was badly burned four years ago drinking a “flaming shot” of Bacardi 151-proof rum (which normally is consumed without incident, but Hyman had spit out the drink, spreading flames to her head and upper torso). Hyman told the Tampa Tribune: “I’m suing because I should not have been let in (because she was under 21 at the time). If I weren’t let in, none of the events would have happened.”

AHHH, FRESH AIR!: In July, the new smoking ban for bars and restaurants in the Netherlands took effect, but it won’t curtail patrons’ right to smoke marijuana in Amsterdam’s coffee shops (where they can buy up to 5 grams a day to smoke on the premises). And, just as the ban became law, the Dutch special-effects company Rain Showtechniek began selling bars a machine (for the equivalent of about $900) that, for nostalgia, replicates the scent of traditional, cigarette-smoked air (but which does not damage health or linger in clothing or hair).

NOT QUITE REHABILITATED: A prominent anti-drug motivational speaker, who uses his own sordid life story to inspire troubled kids to turn their lives around, was arrested in May and charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting at his girlfriend and an old buddy from prison following a long evening of alcohol and methamphetamines. Said the prosecutor in Isanti County, Minn., of the rampage by Russell Simon Jr., 45, “We’re lucky we don’t have a multiple homicide on our hands.”

CRUEL & UNUSUAL DIET: Murder suspect Broderick Laswell, 19, filed a lawsuit in federal court in April against the Benton County (Ark.) Jail, alleging that he was being “literally” “starved to death” while awaiting trial, and complaining of “blurry” vision and of almost passing out. As evidence of his plight, Laswell pointed out that, in eight months behind bars, his weight had dropped from 413 pounds to 308.

— News of the Weird

Tourist survives 250-foot cliff slide

2008-08-05T12:00:00.000-04:00

BIG SUR, Calif. (AP) - A tourist is nursing only cuts and bruises after sliding 250 feet down a cliff on California's coast.

Twenty-year-old Jost Ben of Wilnsdorf, Germany, had been tossing a football with friends Sunday at a traffic pullout perched 400 feet above the Pacific. After a stray toss, he climbed over the edge to retrieve the football.

Monterey County Sheriff's Sgt. Garrett Sanders says Ben "just started sliding." A sheriff's team rappelled down, strapped Ben to a harness and helped him scale the cliff.

Ben was treated for a gash to his face and other cuts. He wasn't able to recover the football, but Sanders noted: "He's lucky he's alive."
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Information from: The Monterey County Herald, http://www.montereyherald.com

It pays to go to a public toilet

2008-07-08T15:53:00.001-04:00

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It pays to use a toilet in southern India, as residents are earning close to a dollar a month by using public urinals, a scheme launched by authorities to promote hygiene and research in rural areas.
Dozens of people are queuing up to use toilets in Musiri, a remote town in Tamil Nadu state, where authorities have succeeded in keeping street corners clean with the new scheme, The Times of India newspaper said on Sunday.
"In fact, many of us started using toilets for urination only after the ecosan (ecological sanitation) toilets were constructed in the area," said S. Rajasekaran, a truck cleaner.
The urine was also being collected and tested for its efficacy as a crop fertilizer, an official of the state's agricultural university added.
People relieving themselves in the open is a common sight in India's rural towns and villages, as basic sanitation still eludes millions.
(Reporting by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Jerry Norton)

People With Issues

2008-07-08T15:44:00.000-04:00

NEWS OF THE WEIRD - Since 2004 the Palmerton Area (Pa.) School Board has paid $45,000 for the special education of Rebecca Maykish, 17, who has an apparently devastating fear of "school," dating back to fourth grade. The mere act of spending time in a classroom, her mother says, causes her to cry nonstop for hours. The board, acknowledging her "generalized anxiety disorder," agreed to accommodate her illness by specially funding things broadly educational or therapeutic, and so far that includes not only tutors and software but modeling classes and travel, to build her self-esteem. The Morning Call of Allentown reported in May that, with the board's funds depleted, and Rebecca's continuing to drop out shortly after each school year begins, the government has begun to impose truancy fines on her mother. [Morning Call, 5-18-08]

Spitzer Scandal Call Girl Ashley Dupré Thanks Fans, Critics

2008-06-24T11:51:00.000-04:00

FOX News: Call girl Ashley Dupré is speaking out for the first time since the scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, thanking her fans and her critics alike.
"Thank you all so much for taking the time to send me a bit of strength and inspiration via e-mail or comment," Dupré, 23, writes on her MySpace blog, in which she calls her mood "Thankful." "Your words have touched me, and I thank you for that ... with all my heart, I love you guys!!! :)"
Dupre gained notoriety in March when it came out that she was the high-priced call girl named "Kristen" named in court documents who allegedly was hired by Spitzer for at least one tryst at a posh Washington hotel. Spitzer, known as "Client 9" in the documents, resigned as New York governor a few days after the scandal broke.
Dupré, an aspiring singer, also left a comment for her critics: "And to all the not so kind words ... I love you too, because it makes me push myself and want it even more. 'Hard times don't last ... only strong people.'"
In April, Dupré filed a $10 million lawsuit against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis, claiming that the company was exploiting nude images of her from when she was 17.

Woman finds brand new grenade in backyard

2008-06-24T11:38:00.000-04:00

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian military and police are investigating after a package containing a brand new hand grenade, belonging to the army, was found in a suburban backyard, police said on Monday.
A woman in the Western Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta, discovered the suspicious package on Sunday and took it to her local police station, where officers told her to carefully place it on the lawn.
Police called in the bomb squad, which determined the item was a grenade, still in its packaging and belonging to the Canadian military.
The technicians made sure the package was secure and called
military personnel in to dispose of the ordnance.
"It is quite unusual for someone to find a grenade in their
backyard, especially one that hasn't been spent," Edmonton police spokeswoman Patrycia Chalupczynska said.
"We want to advise people that if they ever do find something suspicious-looking, they shouldn't touch it -- just leave it alone and call police."
(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Rob Wilson)

Man in wheelchair charged with drunk driving

2008-06-24T11:27:00.000-04:00

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Police in Australia have charged a man for drink driving in a motorized wheelchair after he was found to be six times over the legal alcohol limit, local media reported on Monday.
Police in the tropical northern Queensland city of Cairns said the man had a blood alcohol reading of 0.31, and was so drunk he was asleep at the controls of his motorized wheelchair in a turning lane of a major highway.
"It beggars belief," Police Inspector Bob Walters told the Cairns Post newspaper, adding wheelchairs, bicycles, horses and skateboards were all considered to be vehicles under the state's road laws.
"It's unlawful, it is unacceptable and people should realize it could lead to a fatality," he said.
Other motorists on the four-lane highway had to swerve to avoid the wheelchair, police said.
(Reporting by James Grubel; Editing by David Fox)

Where's the bathroom?

2008-05-21T10:28:00.000-04:00

WEST BRADFORD, Pa. -- State police are investigating a man’s claim that he was severely beaten after he urinated on a kitchen floor at a party. The incident occurred about 2 a.m. on May 10 in the 1100 block of Jamie Lane, police said.

Trial ordered in alleged assault over chicken bucket

2008-05-16T15:21:00.000-04:00

By DENNIS J. WRIGHT, dwright@phoenixvillenews.com
PHOENIXVILLE — Charles Joseph Allen, arrested on felony aggravated assault charges after he allegedly beat up a woman last month, was ordered to stand trial in district court Thursday afternoon.
Allen, 48, of the 1st block of North Seventh Avenue, Coatesville, is charged with aggravated assault; recklessly endangering another person; simple assault; harassment; and terroristic threats.
According to court testimony, the woman, whose name is being withheld by The Phoenix, said she was “man-beaten” by Allen inside her residence along the 200 block of High Street around 4 a.m. April 28.
The victim said she was holding a bucket of chicken when Allen tried to grab a piece. She said when she prevented Allen from getting some chicken, a piece of chicken fell to the ground.
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“When I bent over to pick up the chicken, he punched me in the face five to six times,” she said. “My eye began to spasm. He cut my lip and busted up my face. When I covered up, he started kneeing me in the chest and elbowing me in the back.”
The victim testified that she felt like Allen was going to kill her.
“He said he should’ve killed me,” she said. “I have bruised ribs and lower spine injuries. My eyesight is bad and I have a concussion.”
Public Defender P.J. Redmond asked the woman if she had smoked crack cocaine that night, to which she replied, “No.”
Redmond asked the woman numerous times about when she had slept prior to the incident, and what drugs and/or medication she was on.
The woman said she was on medication but wasn’t on any kind of drugs.
Court documents state that the woman told police that the reason she was assaulted was that Allen was upset because she would not purchase crack cocaine for him.
When asked by Redmond how long the assault occurred, the woman said, “How long did it last? It felt like an hour, but it was around 20 minutes.”
Officer Bryan MacIntyre testified he was dispatched to
the 200 block of High Street for the report of an assault around 4:18 a.m. April 28.
MacIntyre said upon arrival, he met with the victim, who had obvious injuries to her face.
“There was a very large knot in the middle of her forehead with red abrasions all around it,” said MacIntyre. “Her left eye appeared red and swollen, and her lip was bleeding. She showed me her three front bottom teeth were loose.”
MacIntyre testified that the victim told him that Allen had beaten her up, but she was able to call 911.
After hearing all of the testimony, Magisterial District Justice Ted Michaels held the charges over for trial.
Allen was remanded back to Chester County Prison in lieu of $15,000 cash bail.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, May 29, 2008, at 9 a.m. at the Court of Common Pleas in West Chester.

Spray-painted turtle causes neighborhood outcry

2008-05-09T14:52:00.002-04:00

NEW YORK - The spray-painting of a Brooklyn neighborhood's beloved turtle has stirred up cries of animal cruelty and calls for justice.
Myrtle, as the turtle is known, was recently found roaming the backyards near Roebling Street and Union Avenue in the Williamsburg section sporting a fresh coat of garish orange paint on its shell.
"To me, it's beyond just being an inhumane act. To me, it's an abomination," said one resident and caretaker of the critter, Meredith Chesney, to a WCBS-TV reporter.
Chesney and other residents speculated that the turtle was sprayed as a prank at a nearby construction site where workers use paint of the same color.
Some bloggers who focus on Brooklyn real estate and development have latched onto the turtle's plight as a symbol of unscrupulous construction in the borough.
"I've probably done a thousand posts about illegal construction and violating regulations with impunity but this probably ticked me off more than anything," said Robert Guskind, founder of the Gowanus Lounge blog, in Tuesday editions of Newsday. "In the grand scheme I know it's symbolic, but it really makes my blood boil."
Chesney said she tried unsuccessfully to remove the paint from the box turtle's shell. "You can't use solvents or paint removers," she said. "That's not good for the turtle."

I want my french fries!

2008-05-09T14:43:00.001-04:00

BERNE, Switzerland - The Swiss government has agreed to ease restrictions on the importation of potatoes following fears that Euro 2008 soccer fans could face a shortage of French fries next month.
A spokesman for the country's department of agriculture told national radio on Wednesday that the government would allow an additional 5,000 tonnes of potatoes to be brought in.
The decision follows a request by Swiss potato industry association Swisspatat who warned that supplies were already running low in the buildup to the June tournament.
The association has estimated that 3,000 additional tonnes will be needed to make chips for foreign supporters, with the remaining 2,000 used for other forms of potato.
Switzerland has already been fretting over dwindling supplies of its beloved 'cervelat' sausage following a European Union ban on the Brazilian cows' intestines traditionally used to encase the meat.
Economics minister Doris Leuthard, who is also responsible for agriculture, told the national parliament in March there were enough cervelats in reserve to last at least through Euro 2008.
The tournament runs from June 7 to 29 and will be co-hosted by Switzerland and neighboring Austria.

Men charged using skull as bong

2008-05-09T14:40:00.001-04:00

HOUSTON - Authorities in Texas have filed corpse-abuse charges against two men who allegedly removed a skull from a grave and used it as a bong. The Harris County District Attorney's Office confirmed on Thursday that misdemeanor abuse of corpse charges have been filed in the case.
One of the men allegedly told police they dug up a grave in an abandoned cemetery in the woods, removed a head from a body and smoked marijuana using the skull as a bong.
Police found the cemetery and a grave that had been disturbed but are still investigating the rest of the story, officials said.

Sounds like a vacation to me

2008-04-21T14:25:00.000-04:00

NEW YORK - A time-lapse video of a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours has become something of an Internet sensation after surveillance camera footage emerged after nearly a decade.
"After a certain period of time I knew that I was in pretty big trouble because it was the weekend," Nicholas White said Monday on ABC-TV's "Good Morning America."
Video of his Oct. 15, 1999, ordeal in an elevator in New York's McGraw-Hill building was posted online to accompany an article in the April 21 edition of The New Yorker. It can be seen on the magazine's Web site and had been viewed more than 280,000 times on YouTube by Monday morning.
White said he understood why the video has captured people's attention: So many have wondered what they would do if it happened to them.
Edited to a soundtrack of classical piano music, the video shows him pacing, trying to climb the walls, lying down, curled up in a fetal position, prying apart the doors. (He said he relieved himself down the shaft when the doors were open.)
White sued the managers of the midtown skycraper and the elevator maintenance company and won an undisclosed settlement.
He was a production manager for Business Week when he left his office about 11 p.m. Friday for a cigarette break. According to the article, it was never determined exactly why the elevator stalled though there was talk of a voltage dip.

It's like the Cannonball Run

2008-04-16T13:45:00.003-04:00

LONGMONT, Colo. - A discharged patient was accused of stealing an ambulance, then speeding away at up to 100 mph while unknowing drivers yielded the right away was arrested Tuesday after he lost control and crashed.
Another ambulance took the man to a hospital under police guard, police spokesman Tim Lewis said. "We didn't want another ambulance driving away," he said.
Mickey Stevenson Terry, 35, had been released from a hospital in Lafayette when he apparently found an ambulance outside the emergency care department, Lewis said. The suspect jumped in the ambulance while its crew was taking another patient inside the building, he said.
Boulder County sheriff's deputies stopped the ambulance and spoke to the suspect, but he sped away with lights and siren on, driving 80 to 100 mph as other vehicles yielded to it, Lewis said.
The ambulance came within about 2 feet of hitting an officer on foot who tried to stop cross traffic so the ambulance wouldn't hit those drivers, Lewis said.
After officers called off the pursuit, the ambulance came to a clogged intersection on Colorado 119, lost control, glanced the front of a stopped car, left the road, hit a median and landed in boulders and broke an axle, Lewis said.
The suspect fled on foot and was detained by citizens. The suspect had leg and rib injuries and lost consciousness at the scene, Lewis said. He was being treated at a Longmont hospital Tuesday.
Lewis said Terry is from Montana. Lewis did not know his hometown, why he was in Colorado or the possible motive.
He said Terry had originally been taken to a hospital from Weld County on an "unstable mental health hold," Lewis said.

It's like the Cannonball Run

2008-04-16T13:45:00.002-04:00

And he's not even good looking

2008-04-16T13:45:00.001-04:00

COMMERCE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Police say a man dressed as a woman repeatedly crashed his car into a suburban Detroit lingerie store that had refused to hire him earlier this year.
Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe said Jeremy McIntosh, 27, was arrested Saturday night outside the Intimate Ideas store in Commerce Township, 25 miles northwest of Detroit. Damage to the store was estimated at $3,000.
McCabe said McIntosh was wearing "facial makeup, lipstick, blue Capri pants, red 'flip-flops,' a flowery blouse and a matching flowery women's bra." McIntosh told deputies he is homeless and wanted to go to jail because he had nowhere else to go.
McIntosh remained jailed after his Monday arraignment on charges including malicious destruction of property and reckless driving. McCabe says McIntosh doesn't have a lawyer yet.

A rose by any other name

2008-04-16T13:43:00.000-04:00

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Who lost it on Lost Temper Creek? What horror befell the village of Eek? Does it have anything to do with another town being Chicken?
Native traditions and colorful settlers have given Alaska an extra helping of oddly named places. Try Nunathloogagamiutbingoi Dunes or Dakeekathlrimjingia Point, unpronounceable and unexplained other than being of Eskimo origin. Then there's Sagavanirktok, a North Slope river named after an Eskimo word for strong current.
"It just rolls off your tongue — at least my tongue," said Donald Orth, a retired geographer and cartographer with the U.S. Geological Survey. He wrote the book on Alaska place names more than four decades ago, and now that book is getting freshened up.
"Dictionary of Alaska Place Names," published by the USGS in 1967 and reprinted with minor revisions in 1971, is an enormous guide though the mundane and the quirky.
An Anchorage-based publisher plans to create an updated version of Orth's long-out-of-print book. Flip Todd, owner of Todd Communications, hopes to have it out by 2009.
Supplements to Orth's thousand-plus-page monograph were published until 1994, listing additional place names recognized by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
All place names in the U.S. can be viewed online on the board's Web site, but there's no way to peruse the entire text for the simple pleasure of discovering the stories behind odd or whimsical names.
That's a deficiency that needs fixing as far as Todd is concerned.
"There are still too many advantages in this low-tech device called a book," he said.
In the original, Orth included variant names and sometimes humorous stories behind many geographic monikers.
Mishap Creek, aka Big Loss Creek, is Unimak Island stream named for a lighthouse keeper who stripped naked to cross the water, then tried to throw his clothes to the other side, only to watch helplessly as they landed downstream and disappeared.
There's Chicken, an old mining town established during the Klondike Gold Rush. A detailed history of the name is not in Orth's dictionary, but according to oft-told lore, miners wanted to call the community Ptarmigan after a bird common to the area, but no one knew how to spell it. So they settled on Chicken, since miners also called ptarmigans "tundra chickens."
Atlasta Creek was inspired by a remark uttered by the wife of the owner of a nearby roadhouse after the first building was completed: "At last a house."
Lost Temper Creek, an Arctic Slope stream, was named over a "camp incident." Eek, a western Alaska village, was derived from an Eskimo word that means "two eyes." Big Bones Ridge, in the Talkeetna Mountains, came from the large fossil mammoth or mastodon bones found at the site.
Orth's book came about as a centennial commemoration of the 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia. He led a team of researchers, but he had already begun collecting place names as a hobby during his time surveying Alaska's Brooks Range for the USGS in the 1950s.
Alaska is the focus of Orth's most extensive place-name work, but he has worked on projects covering all 50 states during his long career. The subject holds no end of fascination for the former executive secretary of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
"Language, history, geography, all of those things come together," he said during a phone interview from his Falls Church, Va., home. "Place names are part of the language, part of our psyche."
What stands out about Alaska for him are the numerous native names given by the state's indigenous people, besides other influences from explorers and settlers.
Also, Alaska is so vast and wild that a multitude of mountains, lakes, streams and other geographic features have no names, and might never get them.
That's as it should be, said state historian Jo Antonson, who works with the state board that considers new place-name proposals.
"There really has to be a good reason to name something in a designated wilderness area," she said. "The philosophical concept is that wilderness is untouched, unaffected by the technology of man."

Now that's a true fan

2008-03-31T10:16:00.000-04:00

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. - A fast-food cook and Seattle Seahawks fan has been accused of spitting on a hamburger ordered by a man wearing Pittsburgh Steelers attire.
Kitsap County sheriff's deputies say the 37-year-old customer was with his daughters at the Port Orchard-area eatery last Saturday. He reportedly traded remarks with an employee about Super Bowl XL in which the Seahawks lost to the Steelers.
When the customer opened his food container, he says there was spittle on the burger. He demanded a refund and called the fast-foot outlet's district manager.
The manager told deputies a 24-year-old man might be responsible. The next day, deputies went to his house and smelled marijuana. The man was released after being booked for investigation of fourth-degree assault and possession of marijuana.

Well, who doesn't like doughnuts?

2008-03-31T10:15:00.001-04:00

DULUTH, Minn. - Steven Seagull has returned to the Super 8 motel here, looking for his customary cake doughnut. Year after year, the ring-billed gull has tapped at the lobby's front door until a staff member gives him the doughnut, said general manager Jodi Chambers.
"If it's quiet in the lobby, you can hear him tapping on it," Chambers said. "But if we're busy, he starts squawking like crazy."
Steven returned Wednesday.
Chambers said she's sure it's the same bird because he behaves the same way every year. For one thing, Steven chases away other gulls looking for his food.
"We don't feed them if there's more than one, and he's figured that out," Chambers said.
Leslie Larsen, the education director of the Lake Superior Zoo, said Steven Seagull has learned to respond to positive reinforcement.
"What I do know is that animals, they don't necessarily have to be intelligent to respond to what we call operant conditioning," she said. "Without knowing it or meaning to, they've trained that gull. They've given him a positive consequence to come back."
Whatever the reason, Chambers said Steven is a hit. "The guests love it," she said. "I've had a few come in and say 'We came to check out your bird.'"

Lawmaking to follow

2008-03-31T10:13:00.000-04:00

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A 77-year-old Illinois state representative is happy to be alive after a man with a gun pushed his way into her home and robbed her of $7.
Wyvetter H. Younge was not injured in the robbery that occurred around noon Friday.
Younge said she thought her son had knocked on her door and opened it, but instead found an armed man. He told her to get on her hands and knees, then grabbed her purse and ran.
Younge, a Democrat, said she didn't recognize the man, who wore a red hat and red jacket and dark pants. She said she's going to pray for him.
"This robbery and what's happening to this community is the result of a lack of a supportive system for our youth. We need jobs," she said. "This happened in broad daylight at noon. We need a mental health support system. This is further evidence of that."

Crime stoppers 101

2008-03-31T10:12:00.002-04:00

LA CROSSE, Wis. - Police in La Crosse are a little red-faced right now.
They're apologizing after issuing an alert about a woman suspected of using a stolen credit card at a convenience store. They also helpfully issued surveillance video images of her.
Someone who works with the woman saw it and recognized her.
"The woman said her co-worker was kind of joking around and said, 'I thought I saw you on Crime Stoppers,'" said Officer Drew Gavrilos. "The woman hopped online and watched the video and found it was her."
But she hadn't done the crime.
Gavrilos said the mistake happened when police matched surveillance video with cash register information, trying to identify whoever used the stolen card.
They didn't realize there were two similar transactions about the same time.
"We had two very similar looking people come to the register about 10 to 20 seconds apart," each buying similar things, Gavrilos said. "It was a one-in-a-million type of thing."
They picked the wrong one for the Crime Stoppers information, and the public service announcement ran for three days before the mix up caused it to be pulled.
"We feel horrible about the mistake and want to do all we can to minimize any inconvenience or embarrassment this woman may have experienced," Gavrilos said.

Good morning

2008-03-31T10:12:00.001-04:00

MAGNOLIA, Ark. - Blake Icenhower got a one-ton wake-up call.
As the 19-year-old laid in bed Friday morning at a hotel, co-worker Hoby Armstrong went outside to start his Dodge diesel truck. Armstrong said he started the engine and stepped out of the cab.
That's when the lifted truck roared through the motel's brick-and-mortar wall, pushed aside a bed and went toward Icenhower. Icenhower said Armstrong was able to jump back into the cab and stop the truck a foot away from hitting him.
Armstrong suffered a scrape to his arm.
If the truck had struck two brick support beams less than five feet away, the top floor might have collapsed, motel owner Ken Patel said.

He was really trashed

2008-03-31T10:11:00.001-04:00

MUNCIE, Ind. - William M. Bowen woke up after a night of drinking with friends and realized he was inside a commercial trash-collection truck full of waste.
The driver had just emptied a commercial trash bin into his truck and was about to activate its compactor when he heard Bowen screaming.
"He looked up and this gentleman was standing out the top of our truck," said Larry Green, market safety supervisor for the Rumpke waste disposal company. Green said the only thing Bowen said to the driver was that he was cold.
"This gentleman was extremely intoxicated," he said.
Bowen told police he had been drinking with buddies at a Muncie bar until about 3 a.m. Thursday. But he said he didn't recall how he ended up inside the trash bin, and he wouldn't tell police who his drinking pals were.
Bowen was treated for minor injuries.
"I'm just glad it turned out the way it did," Green said. "We didn't have a body that was dead. We had a body that was talking."
There was no telephone listing for Bowen in the Muncie area.