iWon News:
"A car dealership in Ohio has decided not to run a commercial proclaiming a 'jihad' on the U.S. auto market, a Muslim activist group said on Monday.
The Ohio Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations released a letter from the dealership offering an apology and saying the radio ad, which had never been aired, was a misguided attempt at humor.
'We appreciate the dealership's constructive reaction to feedback about the proposed advertisements,' said Adnan Mirza, director of the group's Ohio's office. 'We accept the apology ... and hope that it and the decision not to air the spots will bring this incident to a close.'"
Calif. sues 6 carmakers over greenhouse gases - Yahoo! News:
"California filed suit against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and three other carmakers on Wednesday, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have cost the state millions of dollars.
State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California was the first of its kind to seek to hold manufacturers liable for the damages caused by their vehicles' emissions."
iWon News:
"An Australian woman nicknamed the 'Catch Me if You Can' thief was jailed for four years on Friday after an audacious crime spree across eastern Australia.
Jody Harris, 28, taunted police to try and catch her, telephoning detectives and offering up false promises to turn herself in before police finally trapped her in a 'sting' operation in July.
Harris pleaded guilty to 43 of 124 identity fraud charges after the eight-month fling. She was ordered to repay A$175,000 ($132,560) in compensation to banks caught up in her crimes.
Local media dubbed Harris the 'Catch Me If You Can' thief after the movie in which actor Leonardo DiCaprio played a master conman."
CNN.com - Phone telepathy: You knew it was true - Sep 5, 2006:
"Many people have experienced the phenomenon of receiving a telephone call from someone shortly after thinking about them -- now a scientist says he has proof of what he calls telephone telepathy.
Rupert Sheldrake, whose research is funded by the respected Trinity College, Cambridge, said on Tuesday he had conducted experiments that proved that such precognition existed for telephone calls and even e-mails.
Each person in the trials was asked to give researchers names and phone numbers of four relatives or friends. These were then called at random and told to ring the subject who had to identify the caller before answering the phone."
USATODAY.com - Pig withstands tasers, eludes officers on highway:
"A pig withstood taser shots from police officers and eluded authorities for more than an hour after wandering onto Green Bay's major highway.
The 150-pound pig was spotted by a passing driver on U.S. 41 at 6 p.m. Wednesday night, Green Bay Police Lt. Todd LePine said."
USATODAY.com - Woman paid thousands to rent rotary phone:
"A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as thousands of dollars for a now outdated phone.
Ester Strogen, 82, of Canton, first leased two black rotary phones — the kind whose round dial is moved manually with your finger — in the 1960s. Back then, the technology was new and most people had to rent telephones as part of their basic phone service. It was pre-AT&T when the telephone business was monopolized by the company known as 'Ma Bell.'
Bell was disbanded in 1983 and split into seven smaller companies and AT&T was given the right to handle long-distance and telephone-leasing services. From 1985 to 1986, customers who leased telephones were given the option to continue leasing, buy them or opt out of their agreements."
CNN.com - Hang 730: Surfers try to break record - Sep 18, 2006:
"Surfers around the world may complain about crowded conditions, but for dozens of South Africa wave riders it was the more the merrier as they lined up to break a world record by riding a single wave.
Organizers of an event on Sunday that saw 73 surfers -- ages 7 to 67 -- ride the same wave for five seconds say they broke a Guinness Book of Records best of 44 people in Ireland.
More than 1,000 onlookers watched from the beach near Cape Town and videographers documented the stunt, but the results have yet to be officially verified."
BBC NEWS | Americas | Women call off Colombia sex ban:
"The girlfriends of gang members in one of Colombia's most violent cities have called off a sex strike aimed at ending a deadly gang feud.
Women in the city of Pereira launched the 'cross-legged strike' 10 days ago.
Pereira's security chief hailed the strike as a success, saying the women had shown they could win with what he described as 'very noble weapons'."
CNN.com - Striptease heats up global warming conference - Sep 8, 2006:
"A saloon-style striptease, complete with corsets and balloons, at an Australian government-sponsored conference on global warming left some scientists hot and bothered and the organizers in boiling water.
The show was cut short and organizers issued an apology after some delegates at the Australia and New Zealand Climate Forum's dinner in Canberra walked out in disgust at what was intended as a lighthearted break from the weighty business of rising temperatures.
Rebecca Gale, who led the team of dancers from Miss Kitka's House of Burlesque, said the performance was in reasonably good taste and she didn't understand what the fuss was about."
CNN.com - Teacher won't shave until bin Laden caught - Sep 13, 2006:
"After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Gary Weddle followed the news so closely he forgot to shave. After a week he decided not to shave until Osama bin Laden was caught or killed.
Nor has Weddle, 46, who expected the al Qaeda leader to be caught within a month or so, trimmed his facial hair in the succeeding five years as he went from substitute teacher to science instructor at Ephrata Middle School.
At the start of each school year he gives students a brief explanation of his beard, which stretches more than a foot and has started turning gray."
iWon News:
"Couples in Amsterdam are writing out their dreams of passion for the chance to spend a night in a small car fitted with a bed and hoisted up on poles.
For a free overnight stay, couples must write to the Italian artist who converted the hatchback, and explain their romantic intentions -- ranging from marriage proposals to re-enactments of teenaged backseat fumblings.
Federico D'Orazio said he removed the seats of the Opel Kadett, squeezed a double bed into it and placed it on 13-foot-high poles to provide a place for 'real love' in a city famed for its sex trade."
KIROTV.com - Entertainment - Playboy Wants Victoria's Secret Workers:
"Playboy's Web site is looking for its own Victoria's Secret models.
Playboy.com wants to find employees of the chain willing to pose -- presumably without the company's lingerie -- for an upcoming 'Women of Victoria's Secret' online feature.
Playboy is asking everyone from part-time cashiers to the retailer's executives to send in sample photos."
USATODAY.com - Pizza delivery drivers form first union:
"Domino's Pizza delivery driver Jim Pohle could have quit when he saw a competitor offering an extra 25 cents an hour in wages and his bosses wouldn't match it. But he decided instead to form the nation's first pizza drivers union to successfully organize workers.
Now he represents 11 drivers as president of the American Union of Pizza Delivery Drivers at the franchise where he has worked off and on for more than a dozen years. Experts say he has created a model for fast food workers wanting to organize in other locations.
'When they declared us tipped employees and refused to pay us the Florida minimum wage of $6.40, I was kind of angry. I came home that night and I told my buddy, I said 'We are forming a union,'' he said."
ABC News: Calif. PC Thief Takes Court Computers:
"A man was convicted of various theft charges, after prosecutors say he stole computers from the courthouse while he was on trial for computer theft.
'It just amazed me that someone could be in the middle of a jury trial for a burglary involving computers and immediately get involved in another burglary at the Civic Center,' said sheriff's Sgt. Jerry Niess.
Jon Houston Eipp, 39, of Novato pleaded guilty Monday in three separate cases involving 10 different charges, including burglary, theft, drug possession, attempted auto theft and more."
iWon News:
"A large number of Britons would be prepared to give up sex if it meant they would live to be 100, according to a survey Friday.
The Mori research found that 40 percent would pass on the passion for longevity, although far more women (48 percent) were willing to make the sacrifice than men (31 percent).
However nearly all (94 percent) would not give up their friends or family in order to reach their century while a half thought scientists should keep trying to prolong people's lifespans."
BBC NEWS | England | Cornwall | 'Pirates' behind couple's death:
"The bodies of Peter Clarke, 49, and his partner Sharon Arthurs-Chegini, 46, are reported to have been found in a boat drifting off the coast of Senegal.
The authorities in Senegal believe the couple were killed by pirates.
The pair were wanted by Devon and Cornwall Police for the theft of a yacht from Mylor harbour near Falmouth, Cornwall last year.
The Foreign Office confirmed that two bodies had been found, but that formal identification was yet to take place."
Official Sues Students Over MySpace Page:
"A high school assistant principal is suing two students and their parents, alleging the teens set up a Web page on MySpace.com in her name and posted obscene comments and pictures.
Anna Draker, an assistant principal at Clark High School, is claiming defamation, libel, negligence and negligent supervision over the page on the popular free-access Web site.
Draker claims two 16-year-olds, a junior and a sophomore, created the page using her name and picture and wrote it as through Draker herself had posted the information, according to Draker's attorney, Murphy Klasing."
iWon News:
"A fee of 25,500 euros ($32,000) is way too much for a woman to charge a man for fondling her bosom, a Finnish district court ruled.
The court jailed a couple in their twenties for more than a year for charging a 74-year-old who suffers from dementia a total of 25,500 euros to enjoy the woman's breasts on 10 occasions.
'Based on general life experience alone, it is indisputably clear that a 25,500 euro charge is disproportionate to the compensation in question,' Judge Hasse Hakki, who heard the case, told Reuters Friday."
iWon News - TV Bounty Hunter Prepared to Take a Deal:
"TV bounty hunter Duane 'Dog' Chapman hopes to work out a deal to avoid extradition to Mexico to faces charges of illegal detention and conspiracy in his capture of a cosmetics company heir there three years ago, his lawyer said.
Bounty hunting is a crime in Mexico.
Chapman and his two co-stars on the show 'Dog The Bounty Hunter,' were arrested and jailed in Hawaii last week.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has until Oct. 16 to file papers in support of their extradition, but Chapman's attorney, Brook Hart, hopes to resolve the issue before then."
Woman, 79, allegedly tries to rob bank with toy gun:
"A 79-year-old woman bearing a toy gun and a visor that read 'Princess' has been charged with trying to rob a downtown bank.
Melvena Cooke was charged Wednesday with attempted bank robbery. She is free on $4,500 bond and was released into her daughter's custody.
Cooke walked into the Bank of America branch Tuesday morning and told a teller that she'd just come from the dentist and could only speak quietly, according to an FBI affidavit. "
TBO.com - News From The Associated Press:
"A saloon-style striptease at an Australian government-sponsored conference on global warming left some scientists and government officials hot and bothered.
The show was cut short and organizers issued an apology after some delegates at the Australia and New Zealand Climate Forum's dinner in Canberra walked out during what was intended as a lighthearted break from the weighty business of rising temperatures.
Rebecca Gale, who led the team of dancers from Miss Kitka's House of Burlesque, said the performance was in reasonably good taste and she didn't understand what the fuss was about."
via
Fark -
The Sun News | 09/02/2006 | Pipe bomb look-alike blown up at Pier 14:
"A device meant to measure Tropical Storm Ernesto's impact caused an evacuation at Myrtle Beach's Pier 14 restaurant and drew a crowd of onlookers Friday after it was thought to be a pipe bomb.
Myrtle Beach police were called about 10:30 a.m. by someone walking on the beach who noticed a metal box strapped to a pylon under the pier at 14th Avenue North, Myrtle Beach police Capt. David Knipes said. He said police checked to see whether the device was registered by some agency, but it was not.
Myrtle Beach police called the Horry County Police Department's Explosive Ordnance Disposal team. The team decided to blow the top off the box to reveal its contents, which turned out to be a device from the U.S. Geological Service that measures wave height and frequency and storm surge, police detective and team member Van Sissell said."
wfrv.com - Nude Teens Raising Eyebrows In Vermont:
"Nudity isn't new here. Usually it bares itself in more subtle places than a downtown parking lot, though.
This summer, a group of teenagers has disrobed near restaurants, bookstores and galleries, igniting a debate about whether this bohemian southern Vermont town should ban a practice that has been tolerated until now.
'Brattleboro tends to be a laid-back town and pretty accepting of the unusual, but this is really pushing limits,' said Police Chief John Martin."
wfrv.com - Rape Victim Spots Attacker On TV Date Show:
"A rape victim who spotted her attacker on the television show 'Blind Date' got a $20 million civil court judgment, although she will likely never see a dime from her imprisoned attacker.
Ulrick Kevin 'Ashwah' White, 32, of Santa Barbara was convicted by a jury of forcible rape and false imprisonment. Noting White didn't show any remorse for the 2003 crime, Superior Court Judge Kevin McGee sentenced him in February to eight years in prison.
White allegedly approached the then-35-year-old woman in a parking lot outside a Ventura bar as she waited for a cab and she reluctantly agreed to a ride home in his van, police Detective Russ Robinson said. She was taken to a remote area and attacked."
United Press International - NewsTrack - Airport embarrassment could lead to jail:
"A man who panicked out of embarrassment when asked about a suspicious object in his luggage at Chicago's O'Hare airport and said 'bomb' could go to jail.
Mardin Azad Amin made a preliminary appearance in court Wednesday, charged with felony disorderly conduct as a result of the Aug. 16 incident in which he was too embarrassed to tell airport screeners the suspicious object was part of a penis pump."
