ODDball news story thread

[drakew]

Cupcake Confiscated
Mass. woman disputes TSA portrayal of her cupcake
Eds: APNewsNow.
PEABODY, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts woman says federal safety officials are mischaracterizing a frosted cupcake in a jar that was confiscated from her at a Las Vegas airport.
   
The Transportation Security Administration says it considered the icing on the cupcake a gel exceeding the 3-ounce limit for airline carry-on luggage. The limit is designed to stop terrorists seeking to evade detection by using explosives made of plastics, liquids or gels.
   
The TSA says in a blog post the cupcake taken last month had a thick layer of icing inside the jar.
   
But Peabody (PEE'-buh-dee) resident Rebecca Hains said Wednesday her jar consisted of three layers of cupcake, each topped with a medium layer of icing, not a thick layer.
   
The bakery that makes the red velvet cupcake has renamed it National (Security) Velvet.

[LennG]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45965848/ns/health/

[dasher]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/tampon-used-for-arson-985412

[dasher]

Reality TV makes an ass of itself.

http://www.tmz.com/2012/01/26/fear-factor-donkey-semen-stunt-nbc/

[drakew]

Cow On Loose
Cow escapes NJ slaughterhouse, will be spared
Eds: APNewsNow.
   
PATERSON, N.J. (AP) - A cow that escaped from a New Jersey slaughterhouse will be spared.
   
The black-and-white bovine was running through the streets of Paterson sometime after 8 p.m. Tuesday.
   
Animal control officer John De Cando tells The Record newspaper (http://bit.ly/IqWC6F) it was like "Dodge City" with police cars trying to corral the 750-pound animal. But the cow managed to break loose.
   
De Cando tranquilized the cow after it became trapped between a fire hydrant and a truck.
   
De Cando says the slaughterhouse owner has promised to take the animal to a farm.
   
No one was injured.

[drakew]

Sagging Pants-Jail Sentence,1st Ld-Writethru
Ala. judge orders man to jail for sagging pants
Eds: APNewsNow. Adds comment from judge. Removes member attribution.
   
PRATTVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Authorities in central Alabama say a man has been given a three-day jail sentence for contempt of court for wearing so-called saggy pants.
   
Twenty-year-old LaMarcus D. Ramsey was in Autauga County Circuit Court on Tuesday to enter a plea on a charge of receiving stolen property.
   
Circuit Judge John Bush told Ramsey his blue jeans were sagging too low and gave him the three-day stint. The judge told Ramsey to buy pants that fit or a belt when he gets out of the county jail.
   
The judge says he finds it disrespectful and a disruption when people wear pants below their waistline in his chambers
   
Calls to Ramsey's public defender were not immediately returned.

[drakew]

Owner claims diamond ring found in Idaho sewer
Eds: APNewsNow.
   
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A Boise woman says she believes in miracles after sewer workers found the $6,000 diamond wedding ring she accidentally flushed down the toilet 18 months ago.
   
Mechelle Rieger claimed the seven-diamond ring Thursday morning at City Hall in Kuna, bringing with her a photo and the March 2001 appraisal from the jeweler that made it.
   
Rieger thanked city workers Travis Fleming and Carey Knight, who spotted the ring along with loose coins in a filtration basket while doing routine maintenance last week.
   
Rieger said she freaked out and "just started screaming" when the ring accidentally fell in the toilet. She says there was more screaming involved when she got a voice message from a friend relaying the news about a ring being found in the sewer in her old neighborhood.

[drakew]

Mystery Object
Trooper, motorist: Mysterious object fell from sky
Eds: APNewsNow.
   
LITCHFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Authorities in northwestern Connecticut say they didn't find anything after a state trooper and another person reported a large object falling out of the sky in Litchfield.
   
The Republican-American of Waterbury reports (http://bit.ly/HEwTYZ ) that a person driving in Litchfield at about 2 a.m. Tuesday reported that a green, glowing object the size of a whale fell from the sky and crashed into Bantam Lake. Officials say that at about the same time, a state trooper 10 miles away in Warren called dispatchers to report that something fell out of the sky and landed near Bantam or Morris.
   
Morris fighters made several passes up and down the lake in a boat looking for a possible plane crash, but didn't find any debris.
   
Authorities called off the search, leaving the mystery unsolved.

[drakew]

1 man, 9 hours, 12 charges
Eds: APNewsNow. Corrects charges count in headline. Will be updated.
   
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Nashville police say a visitor in town just nine hours racked up 12 criminal charges.
   
Police told WSMV-TV (http://bit.ly/IaPgCn ) that 24-year-old William Todd got in trouble during a bus layover on March 25.
   
They say Todd, a Kentucky fugitive, first broke into a tourist attraction, stealing a revolver, shotgun and stun gun.
   
He is also suspected of holding up four nightclub patrons with the stun gun and revolver, carjacking a cab, posing as a hotel worker to rob guests and breaking into an office where he smeared feces on framed law degrees.
   
He was arrested after taking a cab to another hotel, pulling a knife on the driver and refusing to pay the fare.
   
He remained in jail Thursday, awaiting trial. Jail records don't indicate if he has a lawyer.

[weeze]

what no cross burning?

[drakew]

This from an editorial"

   
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, April 15
   
As if voracious Asian carp swimming up the Mississippi River seeking to invade the Great Lakes ecosystem via Chicago's shipping channel weren't bad enough, now they're coming north on trucks.
   
Not one or two, but thousands of pounds of them.
   
After swimming circles around the clueless carp czar John Goss and his wishy-washy White House handwringers, the fiendish filter-feeders have lucked upon this even more insidious offensive, one that eschews the waterways for the highways.
   
In the first four months of this year, Canadian customs officials in Windsor, Ontario, have seized 23,000 pounds of live Asian carp apparently on their way to Chinatown in Toronto, according to The Toledo Blade.
   
Those three shipments were discovered after the trucks had crossed the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. ...
   
These illegal fish traffickers are breaking the law on both sides of the border. ...
   
For the ongoing aquatic assault, a hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins remains the only plausible defense. As for the land attack? Perhaps undercover carp agents are needed.
   
Online:
   
                http://bit.ly/HXXVZf             

[drakew]

JENKINS, Ky. (AP) - There it was on Facebook for all to see - Michael Baker with a gas can, a siphon hose stuck into a police cruiser and a middle finger raised defiantly.
   
Among those who saw it were Jenkins Police officials. They arrested 20-year-old Michael Baker on Monday and charged him with theft by unlawful taking.
   
Baker told WYMT-TV (http://bit.ly/HUTwfV ) in Hazard there wasn't much fuel in the car to siphon and the stunt on Friday was intended as a joke. Baker's girlfriend snapped the photo and posted it.
   
Police didn't laugh. Chief Allen Bormes said if Baker would steal from police, he'd steal from "just about anybody."
   
Authorities say they plan to buy lockable gas caps.

"If you could tax stupid, no other tax would be needed"
   

[Jim143]

"Ya can't fix stupid"

In a way, I have to disagree with that statement Drake. . .while we, ourselves can not (legally) fix stupid, the stupid can fix themselves.  The only bad part about this fix is that it usually ends in the infamous Darwin Award Candidate status.  On rare occasions, they might just get off with a Darwin Award Honorable Mention Status - but more times than not, they are still stupid. . .

[nygsem]

Woman dies of coke overdose - Coca Cola

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/woman-coca-cola-habit-cited-death-161323721.html

[drakew]

CUDJOE KEY, Fla.-- Florida Highway Patrol officers say Megan Barnes crashed into the back of a pickup truck because she was distracted while driving, but not because of talking or texting or changing the radio channel.

She was distracted, according to officers, because she was driving while shaving her "bikini area."

But wait, there's more.

Barnes was in the driver's seat, quite literally on the razor's edge, while her ex-husband steered from the passenger seat. She was driving in Cudjoe Key, Fla. to meet her current boyfriend, presumably the reason for the 65 mph "landscaping," as officers called it.

She crashed into the pickup, then drove another half mile before finally being pulled over.

Barnes was also driving with a suspended license, just one day after she was convicted of driving under the influence.

Her hair-raising - or rather, removing - highway antics now have her charged with reckless driving, driving with a revoked license, leaving the scene of a crash with injuries, and driving without insurance. No one was seriously hurt.

Trooper Gary Dunick tried to explain the shaver caper.

"She said she was meeting her boyfriend in Key West and wanted to be ready for the visit," Dunick said.

Just in the knick of time.