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Monday, October 31, 2005
· Update: Man charged in flu shot scam. The owner of a Houston health care company remains behind bars today after his company issued more than 1,000 fake flu shots to local Exxon Mobil workers during a safety fair last week. 
· Teen Girls Protest Abercrombie & Fitch Shirts. About two-dozen teenage girls in Allegheny County are trying to create a "girlcott" against popular youth retailer Abercrombie and Fitch. They say some of the company's T-shirts degrade women and point to shirts with sayings such as "Who needs brains when you have these" or "I had a nightmare I was a brunette."
· Couple finds first home padlocked. A couple preparing to move into their first home arrived to find it padlocked and all of their belongings gone due to a real estate company's foreclosure error. Aaron and Lanell Yoder discovered that First Preston, a real estate management company, was supposed to foreclose at a home with the same numbered address on West LaSalle Avenue. Their home is on located on East LaSalle Avenue.
· Kabbalah guru arrested for fraud. A woman suffering from cancer was talked into paying $36,000 to the Israeli Kabbalah Center, on the pretext that the donation would help improve her condition. After her death at the age of fifty, the woman's husband filed a complaint against the head of the center, Shaul Youdkevitch, who was consequently arrested by the police Sunday.
· Jury gives man forced from store $7.7 million. Jurors awarded $7.7 million yesterday to the former owner of a cigar store who was forced to move by the city to make way for a new hotel. The city used its powers of eminent domain so a developer could build a Marriott Renaissance Hotel.
· Chrysler on bathroom breaks: Take your time. If assembly-line workers at Chrysler Group plants gotta go to the bathroom, they can take their time, according to a Web posting by a top executive. The statement is an apparent response to the Detroit News disclosure last week that trips to the lavatory are being monitored at a Ford Motor plant in Wayne, Mich., in an effort to cut costs at the beleaguered automaker.
· Jay & Dave: Talk-show hosts who still aren't speaking. If David Letterman felt an odd twitch around noon Friday, it may have been because Jay Leno was in town. The L.A.-based "Tonight" host doesn't venture into "Late Show" country too often. But it's safe to say that, even if he spent more time here, you wouldn't see his lantern jaw anywhere near his gap-toothed rival. Talking with Leno, it seems clear their relations are chilly as ever. "We haven't spoken in 13 years," he told us, stonily. "Everything is the same it has ever been."
· Stewart Planned to Bump Trump From Show. Before her version of "The Apprentice" began, Martha Stewart thought she was saying "you're fired" to Donald Trump. While "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" hasn't done well in the ratings, Stewart initially had much higher hopes - even that her NBC show would eclipse Trump's original. "I thought I was replacing The Donald," Stewart says in the Nov. 14 issue of Fortune magazine. "It was even discussed that I would be firing The Donald on the first show."
· School Evacuated After Pipe Bomb Explodes. A middle school in Orlando, Fla., was evacuated Monday after a pipe bomb exploded in the girls' locker room. Investigators said the device was thrown though the window of the locker room at Memorial Middle School and caused a small fire sometime over the weekend.
· Pastor electrocuted while performing baptism. A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning when he adjusted a nearby microphone while standing in water, a church employee said. The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was stepping into the baptistery as he reached out for the microphone, which produced an electric shock.
· The Tooth Fairy is dead. Doctors refused to let a little girl take her pulled teeth home for the tooth fairy - claiming they are now classed as body parts. Last night four-year-old Kimberley Cumming's mum hit out: "A stupid rule has basically killed the magic of the tooth fairy for my little girl. "My daughter was hysterical when she left the hospital without her teeth."
· Nurse Mistakenly Arrested, Charged As Drug-Dealing Stripper. For three weeks, police said she was a stripper named Gia who sold marijuana and had ties to a Columbus gang. But Tanya Robinson, 31, an emergency-room nurse and mother of two, was cleared of those charges when officers realized they'd nabbed the wrong woman.
· Never surf a tsunami, California town says. An exclusive California beach enclave has raised eyebrows by passing out tsunami safety brochures that warn residents, in capital letters, that they should never try to surf one. The pamphlets, part of an emergency preparedness campaign, inform residents of Malibu that tsunamis often follow large earthquakes and advise: "NEVER GO TO THE BEACH TO WATCH FOR, OR SURF, A TSUNAMI WAVE!"
· 'Saw II' Cuts Down 'Zorro' at Box Office. Horror swung a sharper blade than Zorro at the box office. With Halloween at hand, the bloody "Saw II" won the weekend with $30.5 million, almost double the $16.5 million opening of Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones' swashbuckling sequel "The Legend of Zorro," according to studio estimates Sunday.
· Whose Life Is It Anyway? A company president announced, "As of January 1st, 2005, anyone that has nicotine in their body will be fired,” one employee remembers. “And we sat there in awe. And I spoke out at that time. ‘You can't do that to us’ And then he said, ‘Yes, I can.’ I said, ‘That's not legal.’ And he came back with, ‘Yes, it is.’” And it was legal: in Michigan, there’s no law that prevents a boss from firing people virtually at will. At Weyco, that meant no smoking at work, no smoking at home, no smoking period.
· Bush nominates Alito to Supreme Court. Moving quickly to pick a Supreme Court nominee after his last selection withdrew her name, President Bush on Monday nominated Circuit Court Judge Samuel Alito - a favorite of conservatives - to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
· The $25 trillion land grab. There has been an impressive amount of construction in the United States over the last three centuries: All told, we've built more than 300 billion square feet of homes, offices, factories and other structures. But according to new studies from the Brookings Institution and Virginia Tech urban planning professor Robert Lang, we're about to pick up the pace - it will take just 25 years to erect the next 200 billion square feet, which we'll need to accommodate 70 million more people and to replace homes and offices erased by everything from disasters like Hurricane Katrina to plain old obsolescence.
· Willie Nelson Fundraiser Nets $170,000 for Friend's Texas Gubernatorial Campaign. Willie Nelson opened up his central Texas ranch and private golf course Sunday, raising an estimated $170,000 for his friend Kinky Friedman, an independent candidate for Texas governor. Friedman, an author and entertainer, will need up to $5 million just to get his name on next year's ballot.
· Officers Accused Of Having Sex In Police Car. Two Philadelphia police officers are in hot water after allegedly being caught on tape having sex while on duty. According to police sources, the men got out of their police vehicle and then let two females out of the back seat of their patrol car. Allegedly, the officers then removed their police belts and guns and, moments later, the women performed oral sex on the officers.
· How do our brains keep track of time? Your brain is a time machine with three modes that control everything from instantaneous tasks such as moving, to maintaining long trains of thought and ultimately staying in synch with night and day.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
· 4 fraternity members sentenced in hazing death. Four fraternity members pleaded guilty in the death of a college student who was forced to drink large amounts of water during an initiation rite. Under the plea deals reached Friday, all four men will serve time.
· Some churches are embracing teaching methods devised by the Church of Scientology. 13 teenagers gather at the Glorious Church of God in Christ, a predominantly African-American church in a working class neighborhood of East Tampa. The teens bow their heads and pray Jesus will make this a productive evening. Then one hands out pamphlets titled The Way to Happiness, by L. Ron Hubbard.
· Caped Teen Kills Two, Then Self in California. 19-year-old in a black cape and a paintball mask went on a shooting rampage Saturday in his upscale Southern California neighborhood, killing a man and his daughter before committing suicide.
· Did Getty museum purchase looted art? The board of the J. Paul Getty Trust has formed a special committee to investigate claims that its world-renowned museum purchased looted art and its chief executive spent lavishly with tax-exempt funds. The $9-billion trust and its J. Paul Getty museum are under intense scrutiny: The Greek and Italian governments have claimed the museum bought ancient artworks that had been smuggled out of those countries.
· Kid with fake ID now suing bars that served him. Robert E. Nunez II got into a horrific car crash in Malden after a night of bar-hopping during which he says he had eight drinks of vodka and soda. The accident left him a paraplegic. Nunez, a 2001 graduate of Revere High School, acknowledges in court papers that he was driving drunk and also carrying a phony ID card because he was just 19 at the time, too young to legally drink in Massachusetts. Nevertheless, a state judge has ruled he can sue two bars for negligence on the grounds that they allegedly breached their duties by serving an underage customer.
· Homeland Security Misses Many Deadlines. The Bush administration has missed dozens of deadlines set by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks for developing ways to protect airplanes, ships and railways from terrorists. A plan to defend ships and ports from attack is six months overdue. Rules to protect air cargo from infiltration by terrorists are two months late. A study on the cost of giving anti-terrorism training to federal law enforcement officers who fly commercially was supposed to be done more than three years ago.
· Tips for avoiding speeding tickets. The National Motorists Association offers the following information on possible ways to avoid getting a speeding ticket from local law enforcement agents. The association warns that the information is not legal advice but merely tips.
· Jack LaLanne, still strong at 91, attacks child obesity. The kids in the audience had little clue that the man on stage was a fitness legend, but they were enraptured, nonetheless, with the dynamo that is Jack LaLanne. Wearing a blue body suit and looking impossibly fit and energetic at age 91, the man who invented the TV exercise show exhorted a gathering of children at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum to get on their feet and exercise.
· Islamic Militants Claims Responsibility For India Blasts. A caller claiming to represent a small militant group said the organization is responsible for three deadly bombings in India Saturday.
· Police run over man on bicycle in chase. A 38-year-old man was critically injured early Saturday after an officer ran over him in a patrol car, police said. Detectives said Darrell L. Ward was pedaling away on a bicycle as they tried to arrest him for burglarizing a gas station.
· Indicted judge in classroom teaches criminal law course. He has been charged with grand larceny and is suspended from the bench, but that hasn't kept an indicted Brooklyn judge from teaching criminal justice and other civics courses at CUNY, the Daily News has learned. State Supreme Court Justice Michael Garson, who allegedly stole nearly $500,000 from the savings of an elderly aunt, has been teaching at Kingsborough Community College for years.
· Fires raise fraud suspicions at flooded homes. Some of the New Orleans homes drowned by the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina have been damaged by a second calamity - fire. Both Louisiana investigators and insurance companies are starting to look into the blazes amid reports that some may have been set by desperate people who had no flood insurance but want to collect on their policies.
· Generator destroyed when lit candle used to check fuel level. Two Florida residents narrowly escaped injury after causing a flash fire and destroying their portable generator Thursday night at a home near Fort Lauderdale, the Broward Sheriff's Office said on Friday. One resident was attempting to re-fuel the generator in the dark on the 2900 block of Northwest Seventh Court and decided to peer into the gas tank using a burning candle for light.
· U.S. Investigates Sale of MREs on eBay. Uncle Sam has tried to feed millions of hurricane victims this year with Meals-Ready-to-Eat, or MREs, only to fear that some of them have become Meals-Ready-for-eBay.
· Car Once Owned By Pope John Paul II Sells For $690,000. A light blue 1975 Ford Escort GL once owned by Pope John Paul II sold for $690,000 Saturday to a Houston multimillionaire who said he plans to put it in a museum he wants to build in his hometown.
· Don't Forget To Set Your Clocks Back. Sunday morning marks the end of daylight-saving time and the return to standard time, in all areas except Arizona, Hawaii and the parts of Indiana in the Eastern time zone.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
· New Jersey Cop Caught In Beer Shakedown. A police lieutenant has been suspended and others are being investigated after a cable television station filmed officers drinking on a city parking deck, smashing the windows of a vehicle, and bragging about shaking down a local business for free alcohol.
· 3 New Delhi Explosions Kill at Least 49. Coordinated explosions in India's capital ripped through at least two markets jammed with evening shoppers ahead of an upcoming Hindu festival and a bus, killing at least 49 people.
· Bar Owner Sent To Prison After Drink Kills Patron. The former owner of a bar in Kansas has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison, for the death of a woman who died of alcohol poisoning. Prosecutors said Juanita Goodpasture, 31, died after she was served a red, yellow and green concoction called the "Stoplight Challenge."
· Marion Barry Pleads Guilty in Tax Case. Former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry pleaded guilty Friday to two misdemeanor counts stemming from his failure to file tax returns in 2000. Barry, 69, told the court that he was not sure how much money he earned between 1999 and 2004, conceding that tax forms provided by his employers may support the government's contention that he earned $534,000.
· 'Bragger' defense. Canadian Superior Court judge Margaret Eberhard must decide whether to believe a 21-year-old accused who says he could not have committed a sexual assault because his private part is too big. The prosecutor scoffed at the defense, referencing his size as a "two-by-four" is an exaggeration.
· Hit-and-run suspect claims discrimination. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is discriminating against the suspect in a fatal hit-and-run in Mesa because of her Arab descent, the woman’s defense attorney said Thursday.
· IRS has to pay Buffett firm $23 million. A federal judge ordered the Internal Revenue Service yesterday to pay billionaire Warren Buffett's investment company more than $23 million in taxes and interest for disallowing certain deductions.
· New Orleans police fire 51 for desertion. Fifty-one members of the New Orleans Police Department — 45 officers and six civilian employees — were fired Friday for abandoning their posts before or after Hurricane Katrina. Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina.
· Biggest kick of his life nets a million. A 25-year-old mechanical engineer won $1-million when his 50-yard field goal attempt snuck just over the crossbar at Rogers Centre last night, clinching the ultimate prize in the Wendy's Kick for a Million promotion.
· Actress Slain in Gang-Related Shooting. Teen actress Tara Correa-McMullen, who portrayed a former gang member in the TV show "Judging Amy," was shot to death amid gang violence, police said.
Friday, October 28, 2005
· Exxon-Mobil Employees Got Fake Flu Shots. Federal investigators say fake flu shots were given out last week during a health fair at Exxon Mobil's complex in Baytown. An Exxon Mobil spokeswoman said a doctor provided the shots and that it was the company's first use of an outside contractor to administer them. The spokeswoman said the FBI told the company it was "definitely not the flu vaccine," but doesn't appear to be harmful.
· Courtney Love sued by law firm. Courtney Love is in legal trouble again, this time with the Seattle law firm that helped her obtain the publishing rights of Nirvana's songs. The Seattle law firm says they were told Love didn't have the money to pay the legal fees she owed them for helping her receive more than $7 million in advances on material from her late husband Kurt Cobain.
· Grassley 'embarrassed' but committed. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, played a key role in procuring $50 million in federal money for a $180 million enclosed rain forest in Iowa, but said he was embarrassed after a spate of devastating hurricanes and the need for massive federal aid to rebuild the ravaged areas.
· Registered Sex Offender Helps Run Haunted House. Police officials and child protection advocates say they are concerned about a haunted house drawing children to the rural home of a registered sex offender.
· 'Speak English' sign ruling appealed. An Ohio tavern owner is asking a state agency to reconsider a controversial ruling that declared as discriminatory a sign that says, "For Service Speak English."
· Halle Berry 'sells' Bruce Willis on film. Two former neighbors are now future co-stars. Bruce Willis says Halle Berry brought him the script for the thriller Perfect Stranger, which is expected to start shooting in January. "She knocked on the door and said, 'I'd like you to take a look at this,' and I'm doing it," Willis said.
· Judge refuses to drop R. Kelly porn case. A judge Friday refused to dismiss child pornography charges against Grammy Award-winning vocalist R. Kelly, rejecting arguments that the period in which the offenses were supposed to have occurred was too vague. Judge Vincent Gaughan of the Cook County Criminal Court said the 14-count indictment against the 36-year-old entertainer would stand and “the evidence is sufficient for Mr. Kelly to prepare a defense.”
· "Scooter" Libby indicted; Karl Rove not named. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, indicted by grand jury on charges of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury in CIA leak probe.
· Phil Spector loses key court ruling. Phil Spector's potentially damning statements to police about the shooting death of an actress at his home can be used against the record producer at his upcoming murder trial, a judge ruled on Thursday. Most damaging to the defense may be testimony from a police officer who says that after Spector was shot with a stun gun, wrestled to the ground and hog-tied in his foyer, not far from Clarkson's body, he said: "I didn't mean to shoot her. It was an accident."
· Woman Used Stolen Card in Lottery. A woman bought a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million with a stolen credit card and could wind up with nothing if convicted, police said. Christina Goodenow, 38, of White City in southern Oregon faced numerous theft-related charges, forgery and possession of methamphetamine, said authorities, who searched her home Thursday. The card belonged to a deceased relative.
· Chocolate maker challenges nursing-wear name. The Hershey Company says the name's too familiar. Hershey makes Milk Duds - spelled D-U-D-S - the chocolate covered caramel. But there's a California company that sells clothing for nursing mothers under the name of Milkdudz - spelled as one word and ending in D-U-D-Z. The Patriot-News newspaper says Hershey's has complained to the U-S Patent and Trademark Office.
· World Series is lowest-rated ever. The Chicago White Sox's first world championship in 88 years was also the lowest-rated World Series ever. Chicago's four-game sweep of the Houston Astros averaged an 11.1 national rating with a 19 share on Fox. That's down about 7 percent from the previous low.
· Firefighters work to rescue base jumper. Elk Grove firefighters late Thursday night continued to work on rescuing a man who became trapped on a 2,000-foot television tower in this south Sacramento County town after attempting to base jump from the structure.
· Murder suspect's mother arrested. The mother of a 16-year-old charged in the brutal slaying of an attorney's wife was arrested Thursday on a charge of accessory to murder for allegedly telling her son not to come home because police had blocked off the neighborhood following the killing. Scott Edgar Dyleski, who will be tried as an adult on first-degree murder charges, was arraigned Thursday. He did not enter a plea.
· Lawsuit Dismissed in 'Wrong Beer' Case. A lawsuit filed by a man who alleged a Budweiser distributor wrongfully fired him after he drank a competitor's beer during his off-hours has been dismissed. Ross Hopkins, a former warehouse supervisor for American Eagle, alleged he was fired for sipping a Coors after a relative of the company's president spotted him in a Greeley bar in May 2003, according to court documents.
· Brooke Shields Pregnant With Second Child. Actress Brooke Shields, who turned a battle with postpartum depression into a book, is pregnant with her second child, her publicist said Thursday.
· Exxon Mobil, Shell Post Record Profits. High prices for oil and natural gas propelled Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC to their best quarterly results ever on Thursday, with Exxon becoming the first company ever to ring up quarterly sales of $100 billion.
· Texas Co. Hired Illegals to Make MREs. A Texas employment agency was sentenced to five years of probation for hiring illegal immigrants to work at the nation's top producer of military battlefield rations, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
· Vice President's Colorado Daughter To Join AOL. America Online Inc. has hired Mary Cheney, the daughter of the vice president, to a newly created position. Cheney will report to AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis and assist in managing the advertising, e-commerce and search engines considered AOL's core functions.
· Florida Power ignored state warnings on distribution pole inspections. Florida Power & Light Co., which experienced widespread failures of its distribution poles during Hurricane Wilma, dismissed warnings from state regulators earlier this year that its system for inspecting poles was inadequate. As of Thursday afternoon, about 1.8 million customers in South Florida remained without power.
· Lawyer plans to sue MLB over Minute Maid Park roof mandate. The World Series may be over, but the case to keep the roof of Minute Maid Park open is far from being shut. Houston attorney Lisa Sechelski is planning to file a class action lawsuit against Major League Baseball and Commissioner Bud Selig. She claims some fans got sick because they weren't given adequate notice that the roof would be open and therefore, weren't prepared for temperatures in the 50's. Some think the lawsuit is a joke, but Sechelski says she's serious.
· House Cracks Down on Frivolous Lawsuits. The House passed a bill that would take away lawyers' licenses if they repeatedly file frivolous lawsuits, the latest in a Republican drive to crack down on what they consider costly abuses of the legal system.
· George Takei Discloses His Homosexuality. George Takei, who as helmsman Sulu steered the Starship Enterprise through three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual in the current issue of Frontiers, a biweekly Los Angeles magazine covering the gay and lesbian community. Takei told The Associated Press on Thursday that his new onstage role as psychologist Martin Dysart in "Equus," helped inspire him to publicly discuss his sexuality.
· MIT Fires Professor, Alleges Bogus Research. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Thursday it fired a biology professor for falsifying research data.
· 9 ATMs Stolen. Nine Omaha businesses have had their ATMs stolen in recent months, and Omaha police think it is the same crooks making the hits.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
· Los Angeles tell gay community to take their 'last drag.' County officials concerned about high smoking rates in the gay community launched a campaign Thursday to encourage gays and lesbians to take their "last drag."
· Senate authorizes Rosa Parks honor in Capitol. The late civil rights icon Rosa Parks will be the first woman to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, a tribute usually reserved for presidents, soldiers and politicians.
· Male pro golfer wants to play in Women's British Open. French pro golfer Jean Van de Velde will attempt to enter next year’s Women’s British Open because he is upset women may qualify for the 2006 British Open. “I’ll even wear a kilt and shave my legs,” he said Thursday after shooting a 7-over-par 78 in the first round of the Volvo Masters.
· Handsome men have edge in election wins. Beauty may only be skin deep but it's apparently enough to carry an election, a new study says. Handsome male candidates had a 56 percent chance of winning an election while their less dashing counterparts had a 44 percent chance, according Daniel Hamermesh, the study's author and an economics professor at the University of Texas.
· Heavy drinking may harm male fertility. Problem drinking may dampen both a man's sex life and his chances of having children, according to a new study. Researchers in India found that men being treated for alcoholism had lower testosterone levels and more sperm abnormalities than non-drinkers did. They also had a far higher rate of erectile dysfunction (ED) — 71 percent, versus 7 percent of abstainers.
· Woman accused of leaving her infant in apartment. A woman charged with criminal abuse is accused of hiding her 7-month-old son in her apartment for up to 17 hours a day so she could party with friends, police said.
· After safe emergency landing, pilot crashes on takeoff. A pilot who had landed safely on a busy highway after running out of fuel hit two parked vehicles and crashed in front of television crews when he tried to take off again.
· Head of New Orleans' Levee Board Quits. The head of the Orleans Levee Board has quit amid questions about no-bid contracts to his relatives in the days after Hurricane Katrina.
· Fertility clinic gets green light for sex selection trial. A clinical trial into the effects of allowing couples to choose the sex of their babies has been given the go-ahead at a fertility clinic in Texas. The controversial study was given the green light by an ethics committee after nine years of consultation. The purpose of the study is to find out how cultural notions, family values and gender issues feed into a couple's desire to choose the gender of their child.
· NJ Mom Arrested For Running One-Woman Brothel. Police say a 50-year-old single mother of three was operating a one-woman brothel out of her home. But Meryl James says she’s an ordained minister and massage therapist who practices holistic methods.
· Columnist compares NBA dress code to Rosa Parks. Columnist Drew Sharp says Rosa Parks' death offers a timely reminder of the power of conviction. The idea of one person taking a stand for their beliefs above all else transcends the relative value of the fight itself. NBA players disgruntled about the league's newly legislated dress code have a legitimate complaint. A business that has feverishly courted the young, hip-hop market - and its burgeoning advertising influence - happily squeezes dollars from the do-ragged, baggy denim crowd, and then in the next minute preaches its contempt of the hip-hop image to its more mainstream, buttoned-down corporate partners, according to Sharp.
· Jolie says she wants more kids. Angelina Jolie, often photographed with her two children in her arms, says she wants to adopt again. "It's a very special thing," the 30-year-old actress told People magazine at the recent Worldwide Orphans Foundation benefit in Manhattan.
· Hanging Mistaken for Halloween Decoration. The apparent suicide of a woman found hanging from a tree went unreported for hours because passers-by thought the body was a Halloween decoration, authorities said. The 42-year-old woman used rope to hang herself across the street from some homes on a moderately busy road late Tuesday or early Wednesday, state police said.
· Presley Tops Forbes' Dead Celebrities List. Elvis Presley tops the annual Forbes list of celebrities who are the top moneymakers from beyond the grave. The singer, who died in 1977, made an estimated $45 million in the past year. Cartoonist Charles Schulz (2000) is next on the list with $35 million, followed by musician John Lennon (1980), who raked in $22 million.
· Woman Sees Husband Off to War, Gets Fired. A woman who took an unpaid leave of absence from work to see her husband off to war has been fired after failing to show up for her part-time receptionist job the day following his departure. "It was a shock," said Suzette Boler, a 40-year-old mother of three and grandmother of three.
· Kids will say the darndest things. Largo police went to the Clearwater home of a suspect in a prescription fraud case, but Barbara King's boyfriend told police she wasn't in. According to the police, however, her 4-year-old boy quickly contradicted him. In a burst of truthfulness, he piped up: "Mommy's in the closet, Mommy's in the closet."
· Ford cracks down on rest room breaks. You know things are tense at work when management starts timing rest room breaks. But beleaguered Ford Motor Co. is doing just that. In a memo that was distributed Tuesday to workers at Ford's Michigan Truck plant in Wayne, plant managers said too many of the factory's 3,500 hourly workers are spending more than the 48 minutes allotted per shift to use the bathroom.
· Ex-cop is given probation. A Wayne County judge sentenced a former Detroit police officer on Wednesday to two years' probation for killing a man while driving drunk, ignoring pleas from the victim's family that Steven Compton receive prison time.
· Pot not a major cancer risk. Although both marijuana and tobacco smoke are packed with cancer-causing chemicals, other qualities of marijuana seem to keep it from promoting lung cancer, according to a new report.
· Jury Duty Scam Spreading. The newest form of identity theft is targeting one of America's least favorite obligations, jury duty. Scammers pretend to be court officials taking victims' private information over the phone. Scammers call their victims at home claiming to be a jury coordinator. They say that you didn't show up for jury duty and a warrant has been issued for your arrest.
· Wis. Bridge Begins Raining $20 Bills. It was a clear morning in Green Bay — and then it began raining money. Traffic came to a halt on the congested bridge Wednesday after $20 bills from a money bag that had been accidentally dropped from an armored truck began blowing around and down to the Fox River banks below.
· Oil-for-food panel to finger Iraqi bribes to firms. More than 2,500 companies from at least 60 countries that did business with Iraq in the U.N. oil-for-food program were the target of bribes and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government, a report on the program is expected to disclose on Thursday.
· Teacher Arrested at School for Being Drunk. Virginia Beach parents and students are reacting with shock and surprise after a 6th grade English teacher, with almost 20 years in Virginia Beach schools, was arrested at school for being drunk in public.
· Church Agrees to Ban Swallowing Goldfish. The First Assembly of God Church has agreed to discontinue its practice of swallowing live goldfish as part of its Fear Factor ministry.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
· Federal Agent Accused Of Exposing Self In Mall. A 49-year-old special agent-in-charge with the elite Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Central Florida was arrested on suspicion of exposing and fondling himself in front of a 16-year-old girl at the Mall of Millenia, according to Orlando police.
· Man Kills Air Traffic Controller After Family Dies In Crash. A Russian architect will serve eight years in prison, for killing an air traffic controller who had been on duty when the killer's wife and children died in a mid-air plane collision. The controller was fatally stabbed in front of his wife in the back yard of their home.
· Nicollette Sheridan Splits With Fiance. Nicollette Sheridan is keeping the title of "Desperate Housewife," but she's no longer a fiancee. Sheridan, who plays Edie Britt on the hit ABC show, and Swedish actor Niklas Soderblom have called off their engagement, People magazine reported Wednesday.
· Wal-Mart memo: Unhealthy need not apply. An internal memo sent to the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. board proposes numerous ways to hold down health care and benefits costs with less harm to the retailer's reputation, including hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from seeking jobs, the New York Times said Wednesday.
· Janet Jackson Denies Having 'Secret Child.' Janet Jackson says she is not a mother. In a terse statement released Wednesday, the 39-year-old singer denied a former brother-in-law's claim that she has a "secret" 18-year-old daughter. "I do not have a child and all allegations saying so are false," Jackson said in a statement.
· Lawsuit Number Two For Kravitz Leaky Loo. Lenny Kravitz's leaky toilet has sprung another lawsuit. The rocker is being sued, for the second time, in connection with an overflow incident last August in his swanky Manhattan penthouse. In a New York State Supreme Court complaint filed Monday, Allstate Insurance contends that Kravitz owes it $9387, the amount the firm paid to policyholder Daniel Pelson for damage to his 4164-square-foot, third-floor loft (purchased in 2001 for about $2.5 million).
· Activists Decry 'Get Rich' Billboards. Activists want Paramount Pictures to take down billboards promoting the upcoming film "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," claiming the advertisements promote gun violence. The billboards depict Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson holding a gun in his left hand and a microphone in his right. One of the advertisements is next to a preschool.
· Actor Hunter Reflects on Past in Memoir. Tab Hunter writes about being a closeted gay actor in the spotlight of 1950s Hollywood in his new memoir, "Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star." When Confidential magazine published a story in 1955 that implied he was gay, "I wasn't angry, I was more fearful," Hunter told AP Radio in a recent interview. "I had very, very few close friends and even a smaller number knew what my sexuality was."
· Man dies 12 days after being freed from death row. Clarence David Hill was freed after about 15 years on death row earlier this month after his first-degree murder conviction and death sentence were overturned. Hill, 57, won his release after a Mohave County Superior Court judge vacated the conviction and sentence based on DNA testing completed a year ago.
· Mom Arrested For Pushing Son In Front Of Trolley. A San Diego woman has been charged with pushing her 2-year-old son into the path of an oncoming trolley. Witnesses told police the woman led the toddler by the hand onto the tracks and then pushed him in front of the trolley Tuesday night. The driver was able to stop before hitting the child.
· Blake returns to the crime scene. Robert Blake returned to the scene of the last supper Tuesday morning. The ex-Baretta star walked jurors in his wrongful-death civil trial through a fateful evening out with wife Bonny Lee Bakley, who was gunned down shortly after she and Blake dined at Vitello's, an Italian restaurant in Studio City, California.
· Chicago city council panel backs foie gras ban. Amid comparisons to the mistreatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, a City Council committee agreed Tuesday to ban the sale of the liver delicacy known as foie gras in Chicago restaurants.
· Popular WNBA Player Comes Out Of Closet. Houston Comets forward Sheryl Swoopes is opening up about being a lesbian, telling a magazine that she's "tired of having to hide my feelings about the person I care about." Swoopes was honored last month as the WNBA's Most Valuable Player. "Do I think I was born this way? No," Swoopes said. "And that's probably confusing to some, because I know a lot of people believe that you are." Swoopes, who was married and has an 8-year-old son, said her 1999 divorce "wasn't because I'm gay."
· House panel wrestles with analog cutoff. The House Commerce Committee on Tuesday began consideration of legislation that would shut off broadcasters' analog TV signal at the start of 2009, sparking rancorous partisan debate over just how much federal help people should get when the switch is made.
· Hollywood heavyweights love their guns. Pistol-packing Joe Mantegna is blasting a chink in the politically correct armor of some Hollywood heavyweights — he says they love to own and shoot guns. The "Joan of Arcadia" star says that such left-leaning showbiz types as Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio and playwright David Mamet are all avid shooters. "Lots of guys in Hollywood love to shoot," Mantegna, a longtime gun sportsman, tells Fade In magazine. "But they ain't gonna talk to you."
· Watchdog says FBI violated surveillance rules. A government watchdog is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate at least 13 occasions of alleged improper use of FBI surveillance, including searches and seizures of e-mail and bank records.
· IRS Says Unclaimed Tax Refunds Total $73 Million. Thousands of people have money sitting at the Internal Revenue Service that could be claimed if they would just tell the tax collectors where they live. The IRS said Tuesday that $73 million in tax refunds that were sent to taxpayers this year did not reach the destination. In most cases, the post office returned the checks as undeliverable because the taxpayers had moved. The money belongs to more than 84,000 taxpayers, some of whom have more than one check waiting to be claimed.
· Close Shave for Razor Bandits. Police have trimmed the crime rate in Mifflin County, PA, nabbing four suspects in the theft of electric razors from the Lewistown Wal-Mart. The four buzzed out an emergency exit at the Wal-Mart with more than $1,200 worth of electric razors.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
· Parents upset at schools in wake of rape arrest. Parents criticized the School Committee and Superintendent of Schools Stephen Foster last night for ineffectively handling the release of information about Susan Clickner, a school teacher accused of raping a male student.
· Singer, voice of Jolly Green Giant dies. Len Dresslar was familiar in Chicago-area entertainment circles as a jazz and popular music singer since the 1950s, and his deep baritone voice is known by virtually everyone in America who has turned on a radio or television since the mid-1960s. And that's for singing just three little words: "Ho Ho Ho," in a commercial for Green Giant food products that featured the Jolly Green Giant character.
· Smoking can lessen IQ, thinking ability. The poorer mental function seen among alcoholics, many of whom also regularly smoke cigarettes, may be partially due to the long-term effects of nicotine, new research suggests.
· Nail Gun Used in Fatal Nevada Shooting. A Nevada woman died over the weekend after being shot with a nail gun in what investigators are calling a murder and attempted suicide.
· U.S. military death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000. The war in Iraq saw two milestones Tuesday that reflect the country's path toward democracy and its human toll as officials said the referendum on a draft constitution passed and the number of U.S. military deaths reached 2,000.
· Heinz Kerry settled suit for $15 million. A lawsuit filed by Teresa Heinz Kerry after her first husband died in a midair collision in 1991 was settled for $15 million, according to newly unsealed court records. Heinz Kerry sued the owners of the airplane on which her husband, U.S. Sen. John Heinz, was traveling, as well as the owners of the helicopter involved in the crash. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, errors in judgment by pilots of both aircraft caused the crash that killed Heinz, a Pennsylvania Republican and six others - including two first-graders on the ground.
· Threat Prompts Closure of Calif. Airports. Airports in Long Beach and Orange County were shut down early Tuesday because of bomb threats, officials said. The bomb threats were made by telephone.
· Unfair boss could shorten your life. That crummy boss in the window office could be slowly killing you, according to a study of British workers published on Monday.
· Tax crusader Irwin Schiff found guilty on all counts. Irwin Schiff, the Nevada man who has made a career out of telling Americans that payment of federal income taxes is voluntary instead of mandatory, was convicted on all 13 counts by a federal jury in Las Vegas yesterday.
· Owner of comics store accuses IRS agent of theft. An Internal Revenue Service agent accused of stealing comic books from a Las Vegas store was previously suspected of swiping other books from the store without paying, the store's owner testified in court Monday.
· Mom gets 110 years in rape of kids. A woman who said she was forced to aid her husband in his rapes of two of their children was sentenced Monday to 110 years to life for her role in the crimes. The victims of the rapes were her son, now 18, and one of the couple's daughters, now 10.
· Aspen Car Dealership Sues Over Protest Signs. An Aspen man who took his frustration with a new car dealer to the public is being sued by the dealer after the man mounted a protest campaign. Seth J. Turok bought a $40,000 Audi A6 from Elk Mountain Motors in 2000 and said he has had problems with the car ever since. When he didn't get satisfaction from the dealer, he attached signs to his car saying "Friends don't let friends shop at Elk Mtn Motors."
· Report: Cheney Cited as Source in CIA Leak. Notes in the hand of a federal prosecutor suggest the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney first heard of the covert CIA officer central to a leak investigation from Cheney himself, The NY Times reported.
· Arkansas Attorney Jailed After Appearing in Court Drunk. An attorney appealing his second drunken driving conviction was jailed Monday after he came to court intoxicated, officials said. A Saline County Circuit Court judge ordered 59-year-old Jerry Stewart jailed for contempt of court.
· Piggy banks stopped because they may offend Muslims. British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims.
· So, Frasier Crane, how come your show lost $200 million? One year after the final episode of Frasier was aired, the award-winning sitcom starring Kelsey Grammer is at the center of a Hollywood-style dispute over how it failed to turn a net profit. The show's co-creators are demanding to know why Frasier ended up $200 million in the red, despite being one of the most successful shows in television history, which ran for 11 seasons.
· Slaying suspect had 8 felony convictions - no prison sentence. Scott McAlpin stalked, harassed and threatened his former girlfriend for three years, once even carrying her down the street in an attempted kidnapping until someone maced him, authorities say. On Monday, the 24-year-old El Sobrante man was accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend.
· Potty peeper escapes jail sentence in New Hampshire. A man arrested after he was found peering at a teenage girl at a rest-stop outhouse pleaded no contest to criminal trespass, and a judge urged him to seek help for whatever drove him to climb into the waste-filled toilet. Gary J. Moody was given a 30-day sentence that will be suspended if he maintains good behavior for two years.
· UPS Agrees to End Cigarette Deliveries. The world's largest shipping carrier, UPS Inc., will stop delivering cigarettes to individuals in the United States under an agreement announced Monday with state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
· Girl, 8, Bags First Bear of Maryland Season. An 8-year-old girl bagged the first black bear of Maryland's 2005 season Monday, downing the 211-pound adult male with two rifle shots about an hour after dawn, the Department of Natural Resources said.
· Spokane County deputies suspended without pay. Three Spokane County Sheriff's deputies were suspended without pay Monday morning after Sheriff Mark Sterk reviewed administrative and criminal reports about their involvement in an on-duty driving prank. According to the Sheriff's Department, a uniformed deputy began chasing two plainclothes deputies who were driving an unmarked Ford Mustang on October 3. The fake pursuit ended when Spokane Police disabled the Mustang with a spike strip. City police officers thought they were stopping a real pursuit.
· Judge Tosses Most of Suit Against Eminem. A judge tossed out most of a lawsuit filed by Eminem's aunt and uncle who claim the rapper is unjustly evicting them from the home he had built for them.
· Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks, 92, Dies. Nearly 50 years ago, Rosa Parks made a simple decision that sparked a revolution. When a white man demanded she give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, the then 42-year-old seamstress said no.
· Newark Pays Paper To Print Only Good News. Call it pay for praise, or bucks for beneficial publicity. The Newark City Council has awarded the Newark Weekly News a $100,000 no-bid contract to publish positive news about the city.
· Wal-Mart looks to get even bigger. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open 270 to 280 supercenters in the next fiscal year and add more than 60 million square feet to its total retail space, an increase of more than 8 percent.
Monday, October 24, 2005
· Music teacher receives probation for bomb threats. A 28-year-old former music teacher was given five years' probation for making bomb threats at the school where she worked.
· "Whites Only" Barber Shop. A "whites only" sign at a barber shop in Lafayette, LA might grab your attention and take you back to the Civil Rights era. Barber shop owner Herbert Leger put the sign up Saturday morning after having to continuously turn down customers he says he's not qualified to help.
· Rape victim: 'Morning after' pill denied. Although it is safe, effective and legal, emergency contraception - the "morning after" pill - can be hard to find. After a sexual assault, a young Tucson, Arizona woman spent three frantic days trying to obtain the drug to prevent a pregnancy, knowing that each passing day lowered the chance the drug would work. When she finally did find a pharmacy with it, she said she was told the pharmacist on duty would not dispense it because of religious and moral objections.
· NBC's Al Roker takes a fall during another Today Show stunt. As a crewmember held his ankles, Roker attempted a live report from Naples, Florida. He had just started when a gust of wind suddenly blew him off his feet.
· Why Women Feel More Pain. Women feel more pain than men, studies have shown. New research reveals one reason why. Women have more nerve receptors, which causes them to feel pain more intensely than men. On average, women have 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin. Men average just 17. "This study has serious implications about how we treat women after surgery as well as women who experience chronic pain."
· Janet Jackson's Secret Child Finally Confirmed. After almost two decades, the existence of Janet Jackson’s child with former husband James DeBarge has finally been validated. James’ younger brother, Young DeBarge, revealed on a New York radio station that Janet and James have a daughter named Renee who is 18-years-old.
· Stern's Ratings Fall in Many Major Markets. Howard Stern’s year-long commercial for Sirius Satellite Radio, and continuous rant against traditional radio and the FCC, may be costing him a few of his 6.5 million weekly listeners. Or, it may be that the 50 plus-year-old graying shock jock’s schtick needs to take a new turn.
· Kentucky lands grant to protect bingo halls from terrorists. Kentucky has been awarded a federal Homeland Security grant aimed at keeping terrorists from using charitable gaming to raise money. The state Office of Charitable Gaming won the $36,300 grant and will use it to provide five investigators with laptop computers and access to a commercially operated law-enforcement data base, said John Holiday, enforcement director at the Office of Charitable Gaming. The idea is to keep terrorists from playing bingo or running a charitable game to raise large amounts of cash, Holiday said.
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· Bernanke Picked by Bush to Succeed Greenspan at Fed. Ben Bernanke, chairman of Council of Economic Advisers and a former Federal Reserve governor, was named today by President George W. Bush to succeed Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman. Bernanke ``commands deep respect in the global financial community,'' Bush said as Bernanke and Greenspan stood by his side in the Oval Office. ``Ben Bernanke is the right man to build on the record Alan Greenspan has established.''