ODDball news story thread

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Hooked by another state's success, Kentucky is gearing up for its first season of high school bass fishing.
   
Come next spring, a skillful flick of the wrist for casting a line or reeling in a big one could land students on school teams competing for the state championship. It won't generate the hoopla of football or basketball, but Kentucky High School Athletic Association officials think they've got a keeper with bass fishing as a sanctioned sport.
   
Adding bass fishing will give students a chance to turn a popular pastime into a school activity.
   
Kentucky becomes the second state to add bass fishing as a high school sport, following Illinois.
   
Now that KHSAA has offered the bait, the question is how many schools will bite - and form teams.

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HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A private collection of equipment and memorabilia devoted to industrial hemp could someday be housed in a museum in Hopkinsville.
   
The president of the Kentucky Hemp Museum tells WKMS in Murray (http://bit.ly/Ndvys7 ) that she hopes to bring the collection to the Jackson Purchase from its current home in Lexington.
   
Katie Moyer says the collection consists of various agricultural equipment and memorabilia. Kentucky once supplied 96 percent of the nation's industrial hemp.
   
Moyer says industrial hemp is as much a part of Kentucky history as horses and Bluegrass.

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BALTIMORE (AP) - A Georgia woman with no license to practice medicine has been sentenced for injecting customers' buttocks with commercial silicone in hotel rooms and using glue and cotton balls to prevent the substance from leaking out.
   
Forty-seven-year-old Kimberly Smedley of Atlanta was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday in federal court in Baltimore. She was also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and more than $8,000 in restitution.
   
According to her plea agreement, Smedley administered the injections in hotel rooms in several cities, using silicone intended to be used for metal or plastic lubrication, as an additive for paint and coatings, and as furniture or automotive polish. The customers, who wanted their buttocks enlarged, paid between $500 and $1,600 in cash for each session.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) - Las Vegas police say they had no choice but to kill one chimpanzee and tranquilize another after the agitated animals escaped a home.
   
Officer Marcus Martin told KLAS-TV (http://bit.ly/NrM6wT) that a caller reported a chimp atop a vehicle and another caller reported a primate banging on a police car after the escape was reported about 10 a.m. Thursday.
   
Martin said the chimps were very large and estimated they weighed 170 pounds or more.
   
Police sent out tweets calling the animal dangerous and urging residents to stay inside their cars or homes.
   
By noon, the chimps were both stopped. Video showed one of the animals lying face down in the middle of a road surrounded by animal control and police cars.

[nygsem]

Oregon farmer buys hundreds of water beds for his cows

At least four dairies in Oregon's Willamette Valley have bought into the "new thing" in dairy farming: buying waterbeds for their cows.
"There's four or five dairies in the Willamette Valley that have them. It's really beginning to catch on around here," Kevin Krous with NW Dairy Service told KGW
The cow waterbed trend reportedly first began in Minnesota but is now starting to catch on the West Coast. For example, the Van Loon Dairy has purchased more than 300 such beds for their cows, at a cost of more than $100,000.
"As the cow gets ready to lie down, water moves to the front bag where her knees will come first therefore cushion it more. Less sores, less cows being stuck. Happier cows, happier milk," said Ben Van Loon.
DCC Waterbeds is one of the companies producing the beds, "with cows specifically in mind." You can watch more videos of the cow waterbeds in action on DCC's site. The company says its business model has been going international, including a recent visit from Mexican farmers interested in improving their dairy stock's output and health.
Van Loon and other farmers say the waterbeds are sound investments, cutting down on the traditional and expensive grass seed normally used for cow bedding. And Van Loon says they're safer for his cows, too.
"Moisture and heat are your two enemies. Bacteria doesn't really grow on any rubber," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/oregon-farmer-buys-hundreds-waterbeds-cows-194230086.html

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(AP) - A helpful citizen offered Lexington Police not a hand, but a foot in catching a fleeing suspect.
   
Police told the Lexington Herald Leader (http://bit.ly/N4Z4kl) the officer was chasing 19-year-old Jamory Christian Dior Russell on foot Tuesday night after an offer to sell stolen jewelry. The victim was waiting downtown with a police officer to meet the suspect after an offer on Craigslist. When Russell saw the officer, he took off running.
   
Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts said a citizen, who police did not identify stuck out a foot, tripping Russell and allowing the police officer to catch up to him.
   
Russell pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of theft, resisting arrest and fleeing and evading an officer
   

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MAYSVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Police in northeastern Kentucky say a naked man bolted from a hospital in Maysville and stole a Jeep before fleeing to Ohio where he stole some clothing.
   
Maysville Police Sgt. Chris Neal says 34-year-old Justin Young didn't want to stay for treatment at Meadowview Regional Medical Center on Thursday, so he fled into a nearby corn field.
   
Neal told The Ledger Independent (http://bit.ly/PQIauU ) that Young took a Jeep from a farm and drove to Ohio. Once there, Neal says, Young went into a home and took some clothing.
   
Neal says Young left the Jeep behind at the home near Ripley, Ohio.
   
Neal says a felony theft warrant has been issues for Young stemming from his taking the Jeep.

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Ky. man charged with stealing book on ethics
Eds: APNewsNow.
   
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - University of Louisville police say a Prospect man is getting a tough lesson on ethics that probably can't be found in a book.
   
The Courier-Journal reported that (http://cjky.it/NyaO4G ) campus police arrested Terry J. Davis on Wednesday and charged him with stealing a textbook called "Resolving Ethical Issues" from the University of Louisville's Health Sciences Center.
   
Police say Davis later tried to sell the book to Gray's College Bookstore in Louisville.
   
The arrest report said surveillance video cameras captured the theft and attempt to sell the book.

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Hero Chihuahua
Chihuahua finds 2 girls lost in Georgia forest
   
NEWNAN, Ga. (AP) - A Chihuahua is being hailed as a hero after authorities say it sniffed out two girls who were lost in a Georgia forest.
   
The girls, ages 5 and 8, disappeared Monday for a couple of hours when they were walking on trails near their neighborhood about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta. As police and firefighters began to search for the girls, neighbor Carvin Young grabbed his 3-year-old Chihuahua and joined the search.
   
Young tells CBS Atlanta (http://bit.ly/QwAlwY) the dog, Bell, picked up the girls' scent and began running until she reached them.
   
Rebecca Parga, the girls' mother, says her children play with Bell almost every day, and the dog is very familiar with them.
   
The girls, Carlie and Lacey, were scared when they were found but were not hurt.

[nygsem]

Man Texts of Danger While Driving; Drives into Ravine

http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/04/texting-while-driving-accident-chance-bothe/

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BROOKSVILLE, FL -- The clerk at the 7-11 in Brooksville must have done a double take when Brittany Gariepy walked to the check out counter. She had an obvious bulge in her britches where there should not be one on a woman.

The clerk suspected shoplifting and called Hernando County Sheriff's deputies. Gariepy was arrested for shoplifting a Big Mama's pickled sausage.

According to a police report the sausage, "was clearly visible inside her pants as she walked out of the store. Upon contact with the suspect. . . she advised that this had not occurred and that she did not steal any items. Upon looking inside her vehicle, I was able to see the wrapper of a Big Mama pickled sausage, but the item had been eaten."

Confronted with the wrapper, deputies say Gariepy confessed she'd eaten the evidence.

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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.

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http://www.snopes.com/risque/penile/pool.asp

What can ya say? Every house has their pool filter...

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Fast food reach caused Mass. car crash
   
WESTFIELD, Mass. (AP) - State police say a Massachusetts teenager was reaching into a bag of fast food on her lap when her car collided with a trooper's cruiser over the weekend.
   
Authorities allege a car driven by 18-year-old Tia Grover, of Westfield, went through a flashing red light at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday just before she was struck by the cruiser driven by Trooper Daniel Moran, who had a flashing yellow light.
   
A state police spokesman tells The Republican (http://bit.ly/STtSb4 ) that evidence suggests Grover was eating from a McDonald's bag. Police say she told investigators that she doesn't remember how the accident occurred.
   
Grover has been cited for failure to yield to a traffic signal, failure to wear a seat belt, and impeded operation of a motor vehicle for having food in her lap.
   

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Homeland Security Department says "The zombies are coming."
   
The federal government, tongue firmly in cheek, is urging citizens to start preparing for a "zombie apocalypse." It's all part of a public health campaign to get people ready for genuine disasters and emergencies.
   
The Federal Emergency Management Agency figures if people are ready for a zombie attack, they'll be ready for a real disaster.
   
Among the government's recommendations are having an emergency evacuation plan and a change of clothes, plus keeping on hand fresh water, extra medications and emergency flashlights.
   
A few of the government's suggestions tracked closely with some of the 33 rules for dealing with zombies popularized in the 2009 movie "Zombieland," which included "always carry a change of underwear" and "when in doubt, know your way out."