School Bus Driver DUI – a Lovely Tale
School bus driver arrested on DUI charge while driving busload of children LEDYARD, Conn. — A school bus driver was arrested Tuesday on a drunken driving charge while transporting a busload of children to an elementary school. George Gillis, 65, of Norwich, was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, reckless endangerment and 23 counts of risk of injury to a minor, because there were 23 children on the bus at the time. The state police said a passing motorist reported to a trooper who was monitoring a construction site on Route 2 that a school bus in the area was traveling erratically.
The trooper pulled over Gillis’ bus on Route 117. The state police said he failed a field sobriety test, and a supervisor from his employer, Student Transportation of America, was called in to drive the children to Ledyard Center School, which has students from kindergarten to sixth grade. Gillis was held on $50,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in New London Superior Court on Wednesday. Messages seeking comment were left for officials at the bus company and school.
The Courteney Love of Chimps?
Chimp apes visitors’ puffing penchant
Beijing – Visitors to the Zhengzhou Zoo in central China’s Henan province who don’t enjoy passive smoking – let alone being spat on – had better avoid the monkey cage. Feili, a 13-year-old chimpanzee, has turned to smoking, begging cigarettes from visitors and spitting on them when they do not comply, the Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. Her fierce behaviour is in reaction to being paired with a male, 28 years her senior, who seems to lack either the interest or the capability to satisfy her sexual demands, the agency said. Feili’s behaviour may seem outrageous, but it is no more so than that of the people outside the cage, as she took up her new habits only after observing visitors to the zoo, according to Xinhua. – Sapa-AFP
Mississippi Burning: Always extinguish the joints before you go to bed
Three students die in fraternity house fire
OXFORD, Mississippi (AP) — A fire swept through a fraternity house at the University of Mississippi early Friday, killing three members, school officials said. Twenty other students and a house mother escaped the blaze at the two-story, brick- and wood-frame Alpha Tau Omega house, school spokesman Mitchell Diggs said. There were no reports of injuries. The fire broke out before dawn, and firefighters needed about two hours to bring it under control, chapter adviser Al Bell said. Hours later, smoke billowed out of where the roof had been, and much of the upper floor was in ruins. A fraternity member who lives off-campus and was not at the house when the fire occurred said fellow members told him they woke up coughing and found smoke “everywhere.” “They said they just ran out as fast as they could, to get out of that building as fast as possible,” said Sean Weidlein, 19, of Middleburg, Virginia. Fred Cummings, 19, a member of the Ole Miss cross country team who was out running at 6 a.m., said the smoke was so thick “it would choke you up” a mile away. “When we saw it, the flames were about two stories above the building,” he said. University spokesman Jeff Alford identified two victims as William Townsend, 19, of Clarksdale, and Jordan Williams, 20, of Atlanta, both sophomores majoring in accounting. Alford said the body of the third victim had not been identified. He said the last missing student was Howard Stone, 19, of Martinsville, Va., a sophomore political science major. Among the survivors, “things are pretty rough right now,” Weidlein said. Alford said authorities believed the fire started in the fraternity house’s living area. At least three fire trucks remained outside the house in the early afternoon, and students stood outside yellow police tape as authorities moved through the charred structure. Alford said the fraternity house had undergone a routine fire inspection August 17, before students moved in for the fall semester. Most classes began Monday. Problems found included a lack of fire extinguishers in the kitchen area, paint stored in the basement and doors blocked with mattresses. Alford did not know of any citation issued to the fraternity. The chapter has about 100 members, Bell said. Temporary housing was being found for displaced students, he said. “The entire student body is pretty upset about this. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Alpha Tau Omega chapter,” Gordon Fellows, Associate Student Body president at Ole Miss, said. Nearby fraternity houses were evacuated. ATO members were taken to one of them.
German Bartender fired for drinking on the job
German pub owner left crying into his beer by tribunal ruling
A German waiter who was sacked for drinking up to 100 bottles of beer every day has won a case for unfair dismissal. The 50-year-old, who had worked at the Unter Taschenmacher pub in Cologne for eight years, admitted that his managers had repeatedly warned him not to drink at work. The unnamed former employee agreed that he drank up to 100 bottles of free beer a day with friends while working at the pub. However, a tribunal awarded him $3,000 (£2,000) and three months’ salary and said the pub had been his ‘dream’ job. The man also told the tribunal losing his job had been devastating. Pub owner Rene Sion said he couldn’t understand why the court had been so lenient with the waiter.
Forget dodgeball, how about Whack the Iraq?
‘Wack The Iraq’ Game Causing Controversy
Players Shoot Paintballs At Human Target
WILDWOOD, N.J. — A boardwalk game with a catchy name is causing controversy at the Jersey shore. The game is called “Wack the Iraq” and is located on the boardwalk in Wildwood. Players shoot paint balls at live human targets dressed as Iraqis. Figures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden adorn the arcade. The game is creating mixed reactions. “I think it is very inappropriate and offensive to the Iraqi people,” said Kristen Steele from Hershey, Pa. Bryan Salsano from Allentown, Pa., had a different opinion. “It’s great. If my hands were full I’d whack him a few times.” The operator of “Wack the Iraq” said the game is just seaside fun and is not meant to offend anyone. There is a sign at the game that states “Wack the Iraq” is intended to insult only one person, Saddam Hussein.
DMB: The space between the bridge and river is filled with liquid refuse
Shit Happens – from above. And the funny thing is – it’ll all end up in St. Louis.
Illinois sues Dave Matthews Band
THE US state of Illinois is suing the Dave Matthews Band for allegedly dumping up to 360kg of liquid human waste from a bus into the Chicago River, dousing more than 100 passengers aboard a tour boat. The lawsuit announced yesterday accuses the band and one of its bus drivers of violating state water pollution and public nuisance laws. It seeks $US70,000 ($100,000) in civil penalties. “Our driver has stated that he was not involved in this incident,” band spokesman John Vlautin said in a statement. He said the band “will continue to be cooperative in this investigation”. According to the lawsuit, on August 8 a bus leased by the band was heading to a downtown hotel where members were staying. As the bus crossed the Kinzie Street bridge, the driver allegedly emptied the contents of the septic tank through the bridge’s metal grating into the river below. More than 100 people on an architecture tour were showered with foul-smelling waste. The attorney-general’s office said no-one was seriously injured. “This incident may be unique, but that does not lessen the environmental or public health risks posed by the release of at least 360kg of liquid human waste into a busy waterway and onto a crowded tour boat,” Attorney-General Lisa Madigan said in a statement. After the incident, the boat’s captain turned the vessel around and took passengers back to the dock. Everyone received refunds, and the boat was cleaned with disinfectant.
Britney’s DNA on sale now at ebay.com
Britney Spears’ well-used gum is for sale on eBay.
Chew on this, Spear(s)mint fans A little bit of Brit’s spit – yours, forever. For the Britney Spears fan with a taste for the tasteless, an item now on sale on ebay.com is a collectible in a class by itself. It’s a wad of gum, purportedly chewed and discarded by Spears herself. Dubbed “Britney Spearmint” by the anonymous vendor, the gum was purportedly taken from London’s Sanderson Hotel while the pop star stayed there in February. “It was put into a airtight container and has not been touched since it was inside Britneys mouth,” the seller claims on the website. There are pictures at the site of Spears in the hotel lobby and pictures of a well-chewed chunk of gum, but nothing to prove one came from the other. Still, bidding – which closes Sunday – had reached £255, or $597 Cdn., by 5 p.m. yesterday. After all, assuming some saliva remains, “Britneys DNA is all over this piece,” as the vendor notes – an excellent beginning to anyone’s efforts to clone her or to implicate her in crimes.
“This is the very first time that I have felt that God was in the White House.”
Only true believers need apply for entry to this campaign rally
A neurotic need for control and a profound sense of bad faith lies at the heart of Bush’s reelection campaign — and the scary thing is, it’s just so obvious By Sidney Blumenthal THE GUARDIAN , Washington Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004,Page 9 Before attending a rally to hear US Vice President Dick Cheney, citizens in New Mexico were required to sign a political loyalty oath approved by the Republican national committee. “I, [full name] … do herby [sic] endorse George W. Bush for reelection of the United States,” the form said. “In signing the above endorsement you are consenting to use and release [sic] of your name by Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President Bush.” President George W. Bush is campaigning at events billed as “Ask President Bush.” Only supporters are allowed in. Talking points are distributed to questioners. In Traverse City, Michigan, a 55-year-old social studies teacher who wore a Kerry sticker had her ticket torn up at the door. “How can anyone in the US deny someone entry?” she asked. “Isn’t this a democracy?” At every rally, Bush repeats the same speech, touting a “vibrant economy” and his leadership in a war where “you cannot show weakness.” He introduces local entrepreneurs who praise his tax cuts (more than 1 million jobs have been lost in his term). Then Bush calls on questioners. More than one-fifth of them profess their evangelical faith or denounce gay marriage. In Niceville, Florida, one said: “This is the very first time that I have felt that God was in the White House.” “Thank you,” Bush replied. Another: “Mr. President, as a child, how can I help you get votes?” In Albuquerque, he was told: “It’s an honor every day when I get to pray for you as president.” And this one: “Thank God we finally have a commander-in-chief.” Others repeat attack lines on Senator John Kerry’s military record, to which Bush responds with an oblique but encouraging “Thanks.” Bush’s overriding strategy is to bolster his credentials as a decisive military figure and to impugn his opponent’s manhood. In his latest TV commercial, he says: “We cannot hesitate, we cannot yield, we must do everything in our power to bring an enemy to justice before they hurt us again.” But, according to the Washington Post, in the last two years Bush has uttered the elusive Osama bin Laden’s name only 10 times, and “on six of those occasions it was because he was asked a direct question … Not once during that period has he talked about bin Laden at any length, or said anything substantive.” At “Ask President Bush” events, he mentions Sept. 11 only to raise the threat of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Cheney sneered at Kerry for even using the word “sensitive” with respect to counterterrorism. Not one war was “won by being sensitive,” Cheney mocked. Kerry, in fact, had called for fighting “a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history.” Cheney’s distortion is calculated to attempt to portray Kerry as somehow effeminate. At the same time, a Republican front group of Vietnam veterans financed by a major Bush contributor is running an ad campaign claiming Kerry’s account of his military record is false. But not one of these veterans served with him on his boat. During the Vietnam war, Bush famously used his father’s connections to get a posting as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard because it was filled with the sons of privilege. After refusing to submit to a routine drug test, he was suspended and never flew again. He got himself transferred to the Alabama National Guard, but didn’t turn up for his tour of duty. Since then, he has withheld his full military records. Now he encourages smears that a genuine war hero has lied about his service and is a coward. But this is more than a case of projection. The more profound issue is not who served in Vietnam and who dodged. It is whether the president is a sovereign. Since the birth of the US party system, presidential candidates have gone directly to the sovereign people to make their case. After the Democratic convention, Kerry traveled from New England to the northwest doing just that. Not one of the hundreds of thousands who attended his open-air rallies had to pledge allegiance to him, and he encountered organized Bush hecklers as part of the price. At his rallies Bush is a pseudo-populist. But these controlled environments reflect his deeper view of the presidency as sovereign, preempting democracy. Floundering in the polls, without a strategy for Iraq, unwilling to say the name bin Laden, he is secure in the knowledge that the cheering multitudes have been selected. “Ask President Bush” has crystallized the underlying issue, framed succinctly by the greatest American poet of democracy, Walt Whitman, who wrote: “The President is there in the White House for you, it is not you who are here for him.” Sidney Blumenthal is a former advisor to former US president Bill Clinton and Washington bureau chief of salon.com.
Arabs paying an “International” fee at UMass?
UMass fee denounced by arbiters
AMHERST – The $65 international fee that foreign students at the University of Massachusetts have been protesting since last fall has been deemed discriminatory by the American Arbitration Association. The association’s arbitrator has ordered the university to stop charging the international student fee to graduate student employees and to refund the per- semester fee to students who have already paid it. “It’s great news for us,” said Syrian sociology graduate student Yasser Munif, secretary-treasurer of the Graduate Employee Organization, this week. “It’s a very clear discrimination against a very vulnerable group.” United Auto Workers Local 2322 represented the Graduate Employee Organization in the grievance. Throughout the year, the union and students organized numerous protests of the fee, which they say is racist and discriminatory. Critics have called the charge a surveillance fee because about $10 of the $65 was to be used to help pay for the federally mandated Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. The Internet-based system was created to keep tabs on non-immigrant students, exchange visitors, and their dependents. Most of the fee would help offset last year’s $244,000 budget cut to the International Programs Office. Edward F. Blaguszewski, director of news and information at UMass, said that campus officials will meet early next week with a lawyer to discuss the decision and how to proceed. “We estimate the arbitrator’s decision will represent an annual loss of approximately $150,000″ for the International Programs Office, he said. Munif and more than 100 other international students who refused to pay the fee cannot register for classes for the fall because students who do not pay fees are withdrawn from the university. Munif said no one has so far been withdrawn and deported. “It wouldn’t be a smart move to postpone things and not abide by what the arbitrator said,” he said. “The right and wise decision is to end this issue and refund the people who paid.” Katherine E. Burton, director of corporate communications for the American Arbitration Association based in New York City, said she could not comment on specific cases, but that there are few opportunities to appeal decisions. “The decision of the arbitrator is final and binding,” she said. “It’s subject to limited appeal.” The fee was instituted during the 2004 spring semester. It affects about 1,600 international students on the campus, of whom 1,000 are graduate student employees. The ruling does not affect the other 600 international students who are either undergraduates or do not belong to the union. However, Blaguszewski said that administration of the fee and who is and who is not charged will be part of the discussion next week.
GTA3: Racist Stereotypes or Keepin it Real?
The Color of Mayhem, in a Wave of ‘Urban’ Games
By MICHEL MARRIOTT Published: August 12, 2004
THE screen crackles with criminality as a gang of urban predators itch for a kill. The scene erupts into automatic-weapons fire in a drive-by nightmare of screaming car engines, senseless death and destruction set to a thumping rap soundtrack. The action is not part of a new film, but of a video game in development – the latest permutation of Grand Theft Auto, one of the most popular game series ever. Partly set in a city resembling gang-ridden stretches of Los Angeles of the 1990’s, it features a digital cast of African-American and Hispanic men, some wearing braided hair and scarves over their faces and aiming Uzis from low-riding cars. The sense of place, peril and pigmentation evident in previews of the game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, underscores what some critics consider a disturbing trend: popular video games that play on racial stereotypes, including images of black youths committing and reveling in violent street crime. “They are nothing more than pixilated minstrel shows,” said Joe Morgan, a telecommunications executive in Manhattan who is black and is helping rear his girlfriend’s 7-year-old son, who plays video games. Mr. Morgan argues that games like the Grand Theft Auto sequel, which was described glowingly and at length in a game magazine the boy recently brought home, are dangerously reinforcing stereotypes. “A lot of young people are unable to discern between reality and satirical depictions,” he said. “It makes them very vulnerable.” His complaint echoes a concern that many civil rights and other groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have long raised about stereotyping in movies, and the detrimental impact it may have on racial understanding and relations. The issue, critics say, is not that the games’ representation of racial and ethnic minorities is as blatantly threatening as the sort found at hate sites on the Web, where players are asked to gun down virtual black or Jewish characters. Rather, the racial and ethnic depictions and story lines are more subtle, and therefore, some say, more insidious. “It’s not just the kinds of stereotyping people generally think of,” said Eileen Espejo, a senior associate at Children Now, an advocacy group in Oakland, Calif., that has studied video games. “It is the kind of limiting what characters of color can do and cannot do in the games that sends a message to kids.” Video game developers counter that no offense is intended. They say their games are simply parodies, or a reflection of a sort of “browning” of popular culture that transcends race and sells to all in a marketplace captivated by hip-hop styles, themes and attitude. Several games scheduled for wide release this fall or early next year are notable for their portrayal of urban black culture: Def Jam Fight for NY, from Electronic Arts, a sort of “MTV Raps” meets “W.W.E. SmackDown!” in which mostly hip-hop-style characters (one with the voice of the rapper Snoop Dogg) slap, kick and pummel one another in locations like a 125th Street train station in Harlem. 25 to Life, from Eidos Interactive, an “urban action game” set to a hip-hop soundtrack that allows gamers to play as police officers or criminals, and includes lots of images of young gun-toting black gangsters. Notorious: Die to Drive, described by its developer, Ubisoft, as featuring “gangsta-style car combat” with players seeking to “rule the streets of four West Coast neighborhoods.” Ubisoft’s Web site describes the payoff succinctly: “High-priced honeys, the finest bling, and millionaire cribs are just some of the rewards for the notorious few who can survive this most dangerous game. Once you go Notorious, there’s no going back.” The prominence of black characters in those story lines is all the more striking because of the narrow range of video games in which blacks have been present, if present at all, over the years. A 2001 study by Children Now, for example, found that of 1,500 video-game characters surveyed, 288 were African-American males – and 83 percent of those were represented as athletes. The portrayal of blacks as athletes has taken on a new wrinkle in NBA Ballers, released in April by Midway Games (with an “all ages” rating). It not only pits stars of the National Basketball Association, most of them black, in fierce one-on-one matches, but also encourages players to experience a millionaire lifestyle off the court – accumulating virtual cash that can buy mansions, Cadillac Escalades, yachts and attractive “friends.” The style of play emphasizes a street-edged aggression, sizzling with swagger and showboating moves on the court. John Vignocchi, a lead designer with Midway who worked on NBA Ballers, contends that the world portrayed in such games is one that gamers take for granted. “Hip-hop culture has kind of crossed over,” said Mr. Vignocchi, who is white. “Look at what everyone is wearing, at what everyone is listening to.” Racial stereotyping, he insisted, is “not the intention of the game.” Leon E. Wynter, a cultural critic and author of “American Skin: Big Business, Pop Culture, and the End of White America” (Crown, 2002), said that the infusion of popular aspects of black youth culture into the mainstream American media was a double-edged sword. On one hand, Mr. Wynter said, the game characters bristle with aspects “solidly associated with nonwhite people.” “The bad news is that the larger aspects of the humanity of people who happen to be nonwhite are not always transferred,” he noted. “This is an extension and reflection of what we’re seeing in other forms of entertainment, especially filmed entertainment aimed particularly at predominantly young male audiences.” As video games extend their prominence as a mainstream form of entertainment – the Grand Theft Auto series alone has sold more than 30 million games since 1998 – their share of consumer dollars rivals Hollywood box-office revenues. Video game sales in the United States reached $7 billion last year, according to the Entertainment Software Association. Game hardware, including consoles, added more than $3 billion to that total, industry analysts estimate. But with Hollywood-scale success have come Hollywood-style pressures, including the need for games to “open big” and achieve enough success to sustain lucrative sequels. “Games are attempting to drive market share beyond the traditional 8- to 14-year-old male player,” said Michael Gartenberg, research director for Jupiter Research, an Internet consulting firm. Part of that drive, he suggested, involves having video games reflect what has proved to work in popular films. And as in Hollywood, that may mean subject matter that drives sales even as it draws criticism for gratuitous violence, sexual exploitation or racial insensitivity. In any case, limiting content to realistic, multidimensional portrayals of racial minorities may be unfair to game developers, Mr. Gartenberg suggested. “Video games are fantasies,” he said, “and are not attempting to mirror any reality whatsoever.” But Esther Iverem, editor and film critic for www.seeingblack.com, a Washington-based Web site offering black opinion on cultural and political matters, said she worried about the effects of games like earlier versions of Grand Theft Auto on black youngsters, including her 11-year-old son. “These games don’t teach them anything about respect, tolerance and responsibility,” Ms. Iverem said, but are instead “validating a much-too-accepted stereotype, an accepted caricature.” Others, like the cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson, point out that racial stereotypes conveyed through video games have an effect not only on the self-image of minority youths but also on perceptions among whites. Dr. Dyson, a professor of religious studies and African studies at the University of Pennsylvania, describes some video games as addictive “video crack.” “They are pervasive, and their influence profound,” he said. Rockstar Games, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (to be released in October for the Sony PlayStation 2), is known for infusing its games with gritty yet cartoonish violence. Players were famously rewarded in earlier Grand Theft Auto games for killing prostitutes and, more recently, brutalizing Haitians. After repeated requests for an interview, Rockstar Games, responded with an e-mail statement that read in part, “Rockstar Games is a leading publisher of interactive entertainment geared towards mature audiences and makes every effort to market its games responsibly, targeting advertising and marketing only to adult consumers over the age of 17.” (While previous games in the Grand Theft series are rated Mature, for ages 17 and over, they have a wide following among younger players.) Those associated with the Def Jam games were more forthcoming. Kevin Liles, who recently resigned as president of Island Def Jam, which licensed the games, said they had been good for his company and for hip-hop. “We have a sense of responsibility, but we know that games are games,” Mr. Liles said. Def Jam’s co-founder, Russell Simmons, said the images of hip-hop culture, even those played out in video games, had been good for the country. “The most important thing for race relations in America in the last I don’t know how many years is hip-hop.” “Now Eminem and 50 Cent think they are the same people,” Mr. Simmons said, comparing a popular white rapper with a popular black rapper. “They’re faced with the same struggle, and they recognize their common thread of poverty.” Mr. Morgan, the telecommunications executive, rejects that argument. In fact, he limits the 7-year-old gamer in his household, Elijah Wilson, to the cartoonish games for Nintendo Game Boy to avoid exposure to content he finds objectionable. “They ingest these images,” Mr. Morgan said of racial stereotypes he had found in games like NBA Ballers. “The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy, something straight out of central casting.” “It won’t,” Mr. Morgan added emphatically, “happen in my house.”
Dog Plastic Surgery? Have we lost our minds?
August 19, 2004 (CALGARY, Alberta) – Plastic surgery isn’t just for the rich and famous — it’s now for their dogs, too. It seems that some rich owners of competitive dogs are springing to get Botox injections and even surgery for their pooches. Cathy Thomas, executive director of the Calgary, Alberta, Humane Society, calls it completely unnecessary and so over the top. The Canadian Kennel Club warns that any dog that’s been tampered with must be disqualified by the judge.
Lewinski can’t handle 12 inches
A foot long sausage is too long for Monica Lewinsky!
New York, July 27: For Monica Lewinsky, who skyrocketed to fame after her sexual liaisons with Bill Clinton, size does matter, especially when it comes foot longs! According to the New York Post, she celebrated her 31st birthday recently with her aunt, Debra Finerman, ordered a foot-long hot dog and gasped, “Oh my God!” when the waiter placed it on her table. (ANI)
Russell Crowe pulling a Mike Tyson
RUSSELL Crowe has reportedly bitten the ear of his bodyguard Mark “Spud” Carroll during a drunken clash while filming his new boxing movie. According to Britain’s Daily Mirror, the fiery Australian star’s “Mike Tyson” moment allegedly happened during a drinking session on the Toronto set of The Cinderella Man. Crowe allegedly turned on Carroll, a former Australian Test rugby league player, when the bodyguard told him it was time he went home to his wife Danielle Spencer and son Charles. “Something must have annoyed Russell,” a source told the Mirror. “He and Spud are so close, almost like brothers. And like some siblings, they ended up having a huge row. “Russell’s a great guy but he didn’t take too kindly to being told it was time to go home. He flipped. There was a scuffle then Russell bit Spud. It was incredible.” Crowe plays heavyweight legend Gentleman Jim Braddock in the film, opposite fellow Oscar-winner Renee Zellweger. Braddock was a Depression era fighter who defeated world champion Max Baer in 1935. Crowe’s friendship with Carroll stretches back to the rugby league star’s playing days with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Welcome to another episode of: Dumb Criminals
Thief lost shirt off his back — Man was wearing jersey stolen from Lynch Foundation By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News August 21, 2004 Broncos safety John Lynch not only has given his time and money to his charitable foundation, he has given several jerseys off his back. And it was one of those jerseys – an authentic Buccaneers’ No. 47 model signed by Lynch – that helped police snare the man who looted the downtown Tampa, Fla., offices of the John Lynch Foundation during the city’s evacuation just before Hurricane Charley made landfall last week. “They got him wearing it,” Lynch said. “It had my signature on it and everything. Hopefully, they eventually find everything else.” Tampa police arrested Paul Dana Doucette, 37, of Boston, in connection to an unrelated robbery and noticed what he was wearing. He then was charged with the burglary and grand theft Wednesday. Police say memorabilia, including jerseys, signed footballs and computer equipment – worth about $60,000 – was stolen from the office of Lynch’s foundation Aug. 13. -Doucette’s fingerprints were found at the foundation’s offices. Lynch said police also later found some of the other missing items, including an autographed football, in the home of one of Doucette’s relatives, where the man had been staying. “Obviously, our thoughts are with anyone who was in the path of that storm,” Lynch said. “It’s just hard to believe sometimes people would do something like loot when people are just trying to prepare themselves for a hurricane.” The signed memorabilia, which Lynch said usually includes handwritten letters from him, are used to raise money for Lynch’s foundation. The foundation, formed by Lynch and his wife, Linda, in 2000, aids children. “When I got the call they got him with the jersey on, you almost have to laugh a little bit at that,” he said. Lynch said some of the items that were stolen have not yet been recovered.
“What’s the last thing YOU’VE had in your mouth”
Pop beauty Britney Spears shocked TV presenter Simon Anstell on British music show “Popworld” when he asked her what the last thing she put in her mouth was, and she answered she had been intimate with a sex toy. Anstell says, “I was doing an interview with her and I had my normal set of silly questions. I got to one where I ask her what the last thing she put in her mouth was. I thought the reply would be something like ‘chicken escalope,’ but she just said, ‘a dildo.’ “Now that, I was certainly not expecting. I’d have been less shocked if she’s just said ‘penis’. Anyway her people stepped in and cut out the question. At the end I went and asked her if she’d gone a bit nuts and when she thought about that, a tear welled up in her eye.”
Driver missing and wanted for grand theft beer
54,000 cans of beer no longer on the wall. Police look for missing brew
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SAINT JOHN, N.B. – If someone offers you a cold Moosehead beer in a Spanish can it’s likely hot. The moose is literally on the loose, 54,000 cans of Moosehead lager have gone missing on the way to the Mexican market. A full tractor-trailor of Moosehead beer failed to arrive a warehouse in Toronto this week, leaving police looking for the suds and the driver who was due to deliver them.The empty truck was found in a McDonalds parking lot in Grand Falls, New Brunswick.There was no sign of the beer, nor the driver, 30-year-old Wade Haines. He drives for Brenway Transport of Fredericton. The company has no comment on the incident. “Inside the trailer were 4,200 dozen cans of Moosehead lager,” explained Joel Levesque of the brewery. “And because it was destined for Mexico, the labelling on the side was English and Spanish on the reverse side.”The Mounties said they are hoping the public will come forward with tips on the missing brew.Moosehead Breweries said the missing beer is worth around $75,000.
A Beer-drinking Bear – and it’s not LaBatts
BAKER LAKE, Wash. – Rain-eeeeer …. Bear? When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there were some clues scattered nearby – dozens of empty cans of Rainier Beer. The bear apparently got into campers’ coolers and used his claws and teeth to puncture the cans. And not just any cans. “He drank the Rainier and wouldn’t drink the Busch beer,” said Lisa Broxson, bookkeeper at the campground and cabins resort east of Mount Baker. Fish and Wildlife enforcement Sgt. Bill Heinck said the bear did try one can of Busch, but ignored the rest. “He didn’t like that (Busch) and consumed, as near as we can tell, about 36 cans of Rainier.” A wildlife agent tried to chase the bear from the campground but the animal just climbed a tree to sleep it off for another four hours. Agents finally herded the bear away, but it returned the next morning. Agents then used a large, humane trap to capture it for relocation, baiting the trap with the usual: doughnuts, honey and, in this case, two open cans of Rainier. That did the trick. “This is a new one on me,” Heinck said. “I’ve known them to get into cans, but nothing like this. And it definitely had a preference.”
Crack addict (err… Annorexists) Olsen Twins drop $7.3M on college dorm room
Report: Olsen Twins’ College Pad Cost $7M
The Olsen twins apparently won’t be hanging in the dorm with other students at New York University this fall. According to the New York Times, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are spending more than $7 million for four connecting penthouses in Greenwich Village where they’ll stay while they go to school. The paper said each master bedroom will have an adjoining study, bathroom and walk-in closet. The twins can also have friends stay with them in two guest bedrooms. In addition, they will reportedly have a screening room, kitchen, breakfast nook, dining room, living room, family room, laundry room — and another two and a-half bathrooms. The performers, who began their career sharing a role on the hit sitcom “Full House,” built a home video and merchandising dynasty while growing up. In May, they released their first feature film, “New York Minute” (interview) in theaters and celebrated their 18th birthday not long after. News surfaced in June that Mary-Kate Olsen began a stay in a treatment center, which her publicist Michael Pagnotta said was for “health-related issue.” The twins’ official Web site acknowledged later that it she was being treated for an eating disorder. Mary-Kate Olsen was released from treatment center in late July after roughly 45 days. Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Cricket fighting ring busted. Hong Kong Chefs happy.
HK feds bust illegal cricket fighting ring
Hong Kong punters with a penchant for the unusual will have to get their gambling jollies without the participation of giant insects after local police busted an illegal cricket fighting syndicate. Feds slapped the cuffs on 115 miscreants at what was apparently a sort of entomological Fight Club between belligerent crickets from Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou. The raid – in Kowloon’s Monkok district – netted 200 crickets, $HK8,000 (around $1,000), “small baskets that were used to house the insects and bamboo sticks used to agitate them”. Monkok police inspector Angus Yeung Fu-yin explained that while gambling on dogfights and clashes between birds is commonplace, “Gambling of this type is very rare here although it was very popular in the old days, so we were very surprised when we first heard about it.” The South China Morning Post points out that the venerable sport of cricket fighting “can be traced back to the Tang dynasty of 618-907 and had long been confined to aristocrats, senior officials and wealthy merchants. Winning brought honour while losing meant shame”. The paper adds that cricket coaches hunt down the stroppiest insects and devote much time and energy turning them into six-legged Mike Tysons. A champion cricket can secure up two thousand dollars for a KO and transfer fee of 20,000 yuan ($2,600). Mercifully, police confirmed that the busted betters did not have any known connections to organised crime. Presumably, the triads are too busy organising dogfights where a winning pooch can scamper off with a $HK1,000,000 (about $128,000) purse.
Crack is a dangerous drug. Distorts your priorities.
Man Drives Into Lake, Tries to Smoke Crack
NORTH PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — A police chase ended when a Long Island motorist drove into a backyard pond and tried to smoke a crack pipe just before his car sank, police said. Officers tried to stop Yasyn Abdul-Mattin, 32, after seeing him driving erratically at about 12:16 a.m. Friday, Suffolk County Police said. Instead of pulling over, Abdul-Mattin took off and went up a private driveway, continuing into a backyard pond, police said in a news release. Police said Abdul-Mattin refused to get out of the car and tried to light a crack pipe instead. Just before the car sank, he climbed out a rear window that an officer had broken, police said. Police said they were charging Abdul-Mattin, of Smithtown, with driving while impaired by drugs and several traffic violations.
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