from WDIV Detroit TV 4
Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all. In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
A Florida homeowners group wants 3-year-old Kimberly Broffman to take her Big Wheel and hit the road. They've banded together to oust the toddler from their Tampa-area community, which bans residents under 18.
The child's grandparents, Judie and Jimmy Stottler, admit Kimberly's been living there in violation of homeowners' association rules for three years. They said her mother has a drug problem, and isn't capable of caring for the child. The grandparents said they live on a fixed income and can't afford to move until they sell their house. So far, there have been no takers to buy their house, even after they lowered the $189,000 asking price by $10,000 six months ago.
They also said they can't afford to hire an attorney. Judie Stottler supports the family with her $18,000-per year dishwashing job because Jimmy Stottler is disabled and is unable to work. Judie Stottler's friends told the St. Petersburg Times that they are worried.
The Lakes homeowners association filed suit to oust Kimberly last month.
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
Customers at some suburban Cincinnati pizza parlors are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms. pizzerias to add wanted posters of parents accused of skipping out on child support on pizza boxes.
The idea came to the agency's director while she was ordering a pizza. She said it suddenly dawned on her that most people running from the law don't eat out, they order pizza. It's just one of the innovative ways agencies are trying to get past-due parents to pay up. In California's Kern County, officials can auction parents' vehicles and give the proceeds to the children. Virginia subpoenas cell-phone records from service providers.
Other Ohio counties include similar fliers in water and sewer bills. An attorney who specializes in fathers' rights has criticized the fliers, saying it could hurt children to see their parent on a "wanted-style" poster.
from Breitbart
Two stray cats got into a North Platte, Nebraska house and attacked three people inside, then were euthanized and checked for rabies. The cats entered Melissa Breva's house through an open front door and attacked two women visitors and a boy.
Animal control officers responded to a 911 call for help finding that one woman was scratched and bitten on her legs; the other woman was bitten on her right calf. After talking to the women, the officer went to his truck for snares, then heard screaming from inside the house. He ran back inside and saw a young boy with blood all over his face. He had been bitten on his forehead, nose, left ear and right cheek. All 3 were taken to a local hospital.
The cats were found in a back bedroom, snarling. The officer shot them with a tranquilizer gun and then took them to an animal shelter where they were both euthanized.
from Breitbart
A helicopter is not necessarily a match for an angry Alaskan moose. Instead of lying down after being shot with a tranquilizer dart, a moose charged a hovering helicopter used by a wildlife biologist, damaging the aircraft's tail rotor and forcing it to the ground. Neither the pilot nor the biologist was injured, but the moose was maimed by the spinning rotor and had to be euthanized.
The wildlife biologists shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart and the pilot tried to maneuvered the helicopter to keep the animal from collapsing into nearby water and drowning. The moose then started to move, and then the helicopter began backing off and try to keep the moose out in the open but instead the moose charged the helicopter.
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
A New York state teacher was banned from classes after having his seventh-grade students draw male genitalia on the blackboard during health class. The teacher has been assigned to adminstrative duties and is expected to be terminated at a March 21 trustee meeting.
The state's seventh-grade curriculum calls for lessons in human anatomy and sexuality, but the teacher asking the students to draw male genitals on the blackboard was not within these guildlines and has been described as inappropriate.
from the Los Angeles Times
A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and slid it into an X-ray machine. The early Saturday accident — bizarre but not unprecedented — caught airport workers by surprise, even though the security line was not busy at the time.
A screener watching the machine's monitor immediately noticed the outline of a baby and pulled the bin backward on the conveyor belt. The infant was taken to Centinela Hospital, where doctors determined that he had not received a dangerous dose of radiation. The woman spoke Spanish and apparently did not understand English. She initially didn't want the baby transported to a hospital, but security officials called paramedics and insisted that the child be examined by a doctor. The grandmother and the child were subsequently allowed to board an Alaska Airlines flight to Mexico City.
from Breitbart
A fed-up Souht Carolina mother had her 12-year-old son arrested for allegedly rummaging through his great-grandmother's things and playing with his Christmas present early. The mother called police Sunday after learning her son had disobeyed orders and repeatedly taken a Game Boy from its hiding place at his grandmother's house next door and played with it. He was arrested on petty larceny charges, taken to the local police station in handcuffs and held until his mother picked him up after church.
Police did not release the boy's name. The mother said her son was diagnosed in the last year with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but his medicine does not seem to help. The boy's case will be presented to Department of Juvenile Justice, who will decide what happens to him. His mother hopes he can attend a program that will finally scare him straight.
from WBIR Knoxville TV 1o
Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning. American Flight 1053, from Washington Reagan National Airport and bound for Dallas/Fort Worth, made an emergency landing here after passengers reported smelling struck matches. The plane landed safely. The FBI, Transportation Safety Administration and airport authority responded to the emergency.
The passengers and five crew members were brought off the plane, together with all the luggage, to go through security checks again. Bomb-sniffing dogs found spent matches.The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal body odor. The woman lives near Dallas and has a medical condition.
The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane and has been banned from flying American Airlines for an undisclosed time period. No charges were filed.
from WCBS New York TV 2
from AP
Upset by the war in Iraq, Julia Wilson vented her frustrations with President Bush last spring on her Web page on MySpace.com. She posted a picture of the president, scrawled "Kill Bush" across the top and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand. She later replaced her page on the social-networking site after learning in her eighth-grade history class that such threats are a federal offense.
It was too late.
Federal authorities had found the page and placed Wilson on their checklist. They finally reached her this week in her molecular biology class. The 14-year-old freshman was taken out of class Wednesday and questioned for about 15 minutes by two Secret Service agents. The incident has upset her parents, who said the agents should have included them when they questioned their daughter. The teenager said the agents' questioning led her to tears.
Her mother, Kirstie Wilson, said two agents showed up at the family's home Wednesday afternoon, questioned her and promised to return once her daughter was home from school.
After they left, Kirstie Wilson sent a text message to her daughter's cell phone, telling her to come straight home: "There are two men from the secret service that want to talk with you. Apparently you made some death threats against president bush
Moments later, Kirstie Wilson received another text message from her daughter saying agents had pulled her out of class. Julia Wilson said the agents threatened her by saying she could be sent to juvenile hall for making the threat.
Spokesmen for the Secret Service in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., said they could not comment on the case.
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
An Ohio chiropractor who claimed to treat patients using time travel has surrendered his license to practice. State regulators had been investigating Dr. James Burda of Athens, who said he could take care of anyone, anywhere by reaching back in time to when the injury occurred. Burda said he discovered the skill six years ago when he hurt his own foot while driving. He said he gave the pain a command to stop and it went away.
He said he doesn't use force to realign bones, but he uses his mind to manipulate the body. But if that doesn't work, he said he travels back in time to fix the problem. He calls the practice Bala-Keem. State medical officials call it malpractice.
Burda's Web site offered long-distance healing service for $60 an hour.
Burda said that his practice is beyond chiropractic, and is beyond what "they understand." He
said that anything that's beyond what people don't understand scares them. The Ohio State Chiropractic Board accused him of being unable to practice due to mental illness.
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
Congress called for emergency preparedness plans that include helping individuals and families with pets, under legislation sent Wednesday to President George W. Bush. It was during Hurricane Katrina that people saw the images of anguished pet owners asked to abandon their animals to gain shelter or be rescued.
The bill calls for state and local emergency preparedness plans to make provisions for families with pets and individuals with service animals. It grants the Federal Emergency Management Agency the authority to help state and local governments develop emergency and evacuation plans that take pets and service animals into account. It also authorizes some federal financial help for states establishing emergency shelters for people and their pets, and it permits FEMA to assist individuals with pets and service animals after a major disaster. Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle said the change recognizes the fact that two-thirds of U.S. households have pets.
The House passed the bill by voice vote. The Senate had passed it August.
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
Attorneys report a growing number of pet owners are making plans for their animals. People have long left money and even homes to pets in their wills. But pets were considered property, so their status as beneficiaries rarely stood up to a court challenge. A pet trust, though, allows a benefactor to name a caretaker for a pet and a trustee who ensures the money is being spent appropriately.
Virginia has now joined 37 other states that have pet trust statutes. The new Virginia law lets one person be appointed to care for the pet and another put in charge of assuring the pet's money is used appropriately.
One lawyer reported that he had one Richmond, Va. client who left $2.5 million to a horse. Distant relatives objected and a judge reduced the horse inheritance to $150,000. Knight added that another client left $35,000 for the care of a goose.
from Breitbart
A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson. No injuries were reported although both vehicles were slightly damaged.
The woman said her dog "was fond of crouching on the steering wheel and often watched her drive." She thought she would let the dog 'have a try' while she operated the accelerator and brake. They did not make it far before crashing into an oncoming car.
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
Central Ohio grandmother fought for and won the right to keep her personalized license plate after allegations that they were profane.
Pat Niple, 74, said she wants to set the record straight about her problem, WCMH-TV reported.
"I'm not an obscene granny," Niple said.
Niple's personalized license plates are NWTF, an abbreviation of Northwood Tree Farm -- a business she owned with her late husband. It also means something else, officials said.
Niple went to an Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles office to get some answers. A clerk had to whisper what the acronym means to some people. Niple was told that her license plates she has displayed for 10 years would be taken away. She said she was astonished and appealed to keep the abbreviated reminder of her late husband's business
After weeks of debate and national media attention, Niple's plates were returned to her last weekend.
...and who says the media is so bad?
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
Meow. A Pennsylvania judge is being asked to decide whether that word is a harmless taunt or grounds for misdemeanor harassment. Police have charged a 14-year-old boy with that crime. Michael Loughner is accused of meowing whenever he sees his 78-year-old neighbor, Alexandria Carasia.
The boy's family got rid of their cat after Carasia complained that it was using her flower garden as a litter box. Now, she said, the boy makes meowing sounds every time he sees her.
He said he's only meowed at her twice and there is a history of disputes between the neighbors. We are currently waiting decision from the judge, who has elected to wait 90 days before delivering it.
from WDIV Detroit TV 4
Chicken was a part of the wedding of Terry Morris and Renee Biwer, but it had nothing to do with the menu or the name of a popular dance.
Henrietta the hen was a bridesmaid. She's also the pet of the groom.
Terry Morris has had Henrietta for 12 years, ever since the hen came into his wheel alignment shop in Olympia, Washington.
He said he kept the hen a secret from his bride-to-be at first because he didn't want her to think he was crazy. She didn't, and the couple now travel with Henrietta and keep her in hotel rooms with them.
The new Mrs. Morris said Henrietta is part of the family, and "like one of our children," it's important to include her.
