Weird News

Gay marriage gets recognition _ in the dictionary

SAN FRANCISCO -- Same-sex marriage might not be recognized in most states, but it is in the dictionary. Merriam-Webster included a secondary definition of marriage to recognize same-sex relationships several years before gay couples were allowed to tie the knot anywhere in the United States, but the change had gone largely unnoticed until the conservative World Net Daily news site reported it Tuesday.

"One of the nation's most prominent dictionary companies has resolved the argument over whether the term 'marriage' should apply to same-sex duos or be reserved for the institution that has held families together for millennia: by simply writing a new definition," World Net wrote in an online story published Tuesday.

In its Web and print editions, Merriam-Webster defines marriage as "the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law."

But in a nod to evolving ideas of love and English usage, the Springfield, Mass.-based company in 2003 added a secondary meaning for "marriage" as "the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage."

Merriam-Webster said in a statement Wednesday that the edited entry merely reflected the frequency with which the term "same-sex marriage" had popped up in print and become part of the general lexicon.

"Its inclusion was a simple matter of providing dictionary users with accurate information about all of the word's current uses," the company said, adding that it was surprised by the recent attention because it was "neither news nor unusual."

"We were one of the last ones among the major dictionary publishers to do this," said Merriam-Webster spokesman Arthur Bicknell.

Boston-based Houghton-Mifflin, publisher of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, modified its definition of marriage in 2000, adding a fourth example to the entry: "A union between two persons having the customary but usually not the legal force of marriage: a same-sex marriage."

The Oxford English Dictionary this month added in a draft version that the term sometimes refers to "long-term relationships between partners of the same sex." Its editors also have proposed updating the primary sense of the word to mean "the condition of being a husband or wife; the relation between persons married to each other; matrimony."

The dictionary's main entry for marriage, last updated in 1989, reads, "The condition of being a husband or wife; the relation between married persons; spousehood, wedlock."

Only two states in the country legally recognize gay marriage: Connecticut and Massachusetts.
 
Woman accused of biting, punching son's principal

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A Rhode Island woman is accused of punching and biting her 11-year-old son's school principal after she was told the boy was being suspended. Police say 30-year-old Aleyda Uceta also bit an officer trying to arrest her after Friday's incident at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence. She is charged with assault on school officials, assault on police officers and resisting arrest.

Police say Uceta punched Principal Rudolph Moseley Jr. in the face and bit his left arm after he told her that her son would be suspended for three days for refusing to go to a room for misbehaving students. Attempts to reach Uceta by phone for comment were unsuccessful.
 
NC woman hopes to cash in after dog's deposit

APEX, N.C. -- A North Carolina family's dog didn't eat the children's homework, he ate mom's money. Kelley Davis said she had an extra $400 in cash to deposit after working extra hours as a physical therapist. She told the News & Observer of Raleigh that on Friday she planned to deposit the money, but it wasn't in her pocket.

She remembered leaving it in the bedroom and it occurred to her that the family's 2-year-old greater Swiss mountain dog, Augie, might have eaten it. Davis, 42, said when she took Augie for a walk Saturday, she found parts of three $100 bills and five $20s in his leavings. She washed them with a garden hose and hopes to find enough pieces to exchange them for cash.

A professor at the North Carolina State University Veterinary School said the money shouldn't hurt the dog.
 
NJ scraps plans to ban genital waxing

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey is smoothing out differences over a plan to ban bare-it-all bikini waxing. The state on Friday decided to reverse course on the proposal after angry salon owners complained about losing business ahead of swimsuit season. "It was an unnecessary issue," said spa owner Linda Orsuto. "In New Jersey especially, where the government has been picking our pockets for so long, it was like, 'Just stay out of our pants, will you?'"

The state Cosmetology and Hairstyling Board proposed banning so-called "Brazilian" bikini waxing after two women were hospitalized for infections following the procedure. On Friday, Consumer Affairs Director David Szuchman effectively killed the plan. In a letter to the board, Szuchman says he won't support the ban, and since his office oversees the board, the ban would never be approved.

"Many commenters have noted that the procedure can be safely performed. I, therefore, believe that there are alternate means to address any public health issues identified by the board," Szuchman wrote the board. He encouraged the board to "to begin an immediate review of the training necessary to safely provide this service, and to establish appropriate protocols and safeguards." The ban was considered after the women complained to the board about their injuries; one woman filed a lawsuit.

Technically, genital waxing has never been allowed in New Jersey - only the face, neck, abdomen, legs and arms are permitted. But because bare-it-all "Brazilians" weren't specifically banned, state regulators didn't enforce the law. No other state is known to explicitly ban the procedure, according to cosmetology experts.

Genital waxing can be dangerous because the hot wax can irritate or tear delicate skin in the bikini area, resulting in infections, ingrown hairs and rashes, according to skin care experts. Despite such risks, millions of American women - and some men - choose to have the hair down there ripped away, and a majority of salons in New Jersey offer the procedure for $50 to $60.

Salon owners worried that customers would travel across state lines to get the popular - and painful - procedure, or try to wax themselves. Orsuto, who owns 800 West Salon & Spa in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb, said was relieved. Orsuto estimated that bikini waxing brought in about $90,000 last year. That's a substantial amount of business for her salon, which performed about 1,800 treatments - most of which were Brazilian-style. "We were panicking," she said.
 
Rhode Island strip club to host job fair

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Here's a job opportunity you won't need to buy a new wardrobe for. Hoping to take advantage of Rhode Island's floundering economy, owners of the Foxy Lady strip club in Providence plan to hold a job fair on Saturday.
They say they're looking to fill around 30 positions(So am I), from strippers and waitresses to disc jockeys and bartenders, at that club and two others in Massachusetts.

"I need more managers, I need more competent staff, and I need more attractive waitresses to go along with the ones I have right now," said co-owner Tom Tsoumas. The naked truth is that Rhode Island's economy is among the worst in the nation, with an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent in January. The Providence club isn't immune from the recession but is still drawing customers willing to drink and pay for lap dances, said manager Bob Travisono.

"It's taken a hit," he said. "It's not as bad as restaurants and stuff like that. In times like this, they seem to drink their sorrows away." Tsoumas said he hopes some who might shun strip clubs when the economy is good might consider shedding their clothes now - or at least working as a floor host or bartender.
 
Colorado woman with flammable water fears blast

FORT LUPTON, Colo. -- A woman said she lives in constant fear and is terrified her home could blow up because of natural gas that has managed to seep into her water supply. Amee Ellsworth can turn on a faucet in her kitchen or bathroom, flick a lighter and watch flames shoot up from the sink. And Ellsworth said she's afraid she or her neighbors are at imminent risk of an explosion.

Dave Neslin from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said the gas is likely coming from a leaking well, but there are eight wells located within a half-mile of Ellsworth's home. The wells are owned by two different energy companies. Ellsworth said she's scheduled to meet Friday with officials from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Noble Energy Inc.
 
Woman accused of church theft blames Satan

ARLINGTON, Wash. -- A woman accused of taking more than $73,000 from the Arlington church where she was an administrative assistant blames the devil. Papers filed with a theft charge Wednesday in Snohomish County Superior Court say the 62-year-old Arlington woman told detectives "Satan had a big part in the theft."

The Everett Herald reported the woman was accused of forging the pastor's signature on 80 checks from the Arlington Free Methodist church. She was fired in February 2008. She told detectives she used the money to cover household expenses because she couldn't stand the thought of losing her home.
 
Man loses tooth as bowlers brawl over etiquette

ROCKLIN, Calif. -- Police said a dispute over bowling etiquette led one man to assault another with a 16-pound ball, knocking out one of the man's teeth. They said a 24-year-old man hit a man in the face with the bowling ball during a melee involving six bowlers at the Rocklin AMF Lanes. Two groups got into a fist fight about 12:40 a.m. Thursday after two bowlers approached the lane at the same time. They couldn't agree which should go first.

Rocklin police Sgt. Terry Jewell said the victim was treated for facial injuries at a local hospital. Doctors reinserted the tooth, hoping it will reattach itself. The suspect was being held on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon in Placer County Jail.
 
Special Olympics bowler: I can beat the president!

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- So President Barack Obama thinks he bowls like a competitor in the Special Olympics? He's obviously never met Kolan McConiughey, a mentally disabled man considered one of the nation's top Special Olympics bowlers, with five perfect games to his credit. He'd like to go to the White House and show the president a thing or two about how to roll strikes. "He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily," McConiughey said Friday.

His challenge to Obama followed the president's offhand remark on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" Thursday comparing his famously inept bowling to "the Special Olympics or something." Recognizing his blunder, Obama apologized to the chairman of the Special Olympics before the show aired. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Friday said the president believes that the Special Olympics are "a triumph of the human spirit." Gibbs added that Obama understands that the athletes "deserve a lot better than the thoughtless joke that he made last night."

During an interview with The Associated Press, the 35-year-old McConiughey quickly rolled several strikes with his left-handed hook in a short demonstration of his prowess at Colonial Lanes in Ann Arbor. In addition to five perfect games since 2005, McConiughey has also had an 800 series and carries a 212 average. He laughed as he joked about the popular president's apparently poor game. "I'd tell him to get a new bowling ball, new shoes and bring him down to the lane," said McConiughey, who speaks with a serious stutter. "Keep his body straight, his arm straight and keep his steps straight. He has to practice every single day."

Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver was quick to respond to the president's apology. "He expressed his disappointment, and he apologized in a way that was very moving," Shriver said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Obama, Shriver said, wants to have some Special Olympic athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball.

Still, Shriver said: "I think it's important to see that words hurt, and words do matter. And these words that in some respect can be seen as humiliating or a put-down to people with special needs do cause pain, and they do result in stereotypes."
Shriver is the son of Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics and has championed the rights of the mentally disabled.

His sister, Maria Shriver, wife of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a longtime Obama supporter, said laughing at the president's comments "hurts millions of people throughout the world." "People with special needs are great athletes and productive citizens," Shriver said. After a White House meeting with the president, Schwarzenegger was asked about Obama's remark and said he knew the president's heart.

"He loves Special Olympics, and he would do everything he can to help Special Olympics," the governor said. With an IQ less than half of the 100 considered average, McConiughey lives with his foster mother and has held the same job at a grocery store for 16 years. He greets customers, sweeps floors and maintains the store's break room. "He can't read much, can't do math, can't do bill-paying," said his foster mother, Jan Pardy. "Kolan faces all these challenges, but he has an area of genius, and his genius is bowling."

McConiughey has been bowling since about age 8. And he still finds time to bowl in three leagues. "It would be an honor for him to bowl with the president of the United States," said Lois Arnold, president of the Special Olympics in Michigan.
Pardy said she saw Obama's comment on TV Friday morning and was not offended. "Everybody has missteps," she said. "I don't think it was a slam against the Special Olympics."
 
Alaska and Florida consider bans on bestiality

JUNEAU, Alaska -- It's a subject that can cause nervous snickering, a little uneasiness and even a few bad jokes. But many in the southeast Alaska community of Klawock, population 800, weren't laughing last April after a 26-year-old registered sex offender was accused of molesting a local family's pet dog. The man was spotted by a local woman coaxing the Labrador retriever into the woods near a ball field. There he allegedly tied it to a tree, taped its muzzle shut with duct tape and had sex with it, witnesses told police at the time.

The man had been twice convicted of raping a young boy and more recently had served probation for assault after lunging at a child. While the incident with the dog was reported to the police, Klawock Mayor Don Marvin said nothing happened for two days while fearful parents escorted their children home from school. "When this incident happened, we had a community that was scared," Marvin said. Because Alaska has no law against such an attack, Ketchikan District Attorney James Scott eventually charged the man with two counts of criminal mischief, which was later changed to a theft charge.

In requesting a $10,000 bail, Scott told the court that the state was concerned that if a small child had been available and unattended that day, "the small child would have been found taped (and) tied in the woods." Shocked by that and other similar cases of involving humans having sex with animals, lawmakers in Florida and Alaska are considering bans on bestiality. They are among 15 states where the practice is not explicitly illegal.

Alaska's House Judiciary Committee on Friday heard testimony on a measure that would expand the state's animal cruelty law to include sexual conduct. It would make the practice a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine. In Florida, a bill that would make sex with animals punishable by up to five years in prison has been unanimously approved by two Senate committees and has two other committee stops before reaching the full chamber.

Florida Sen. Nan Rich, a Democrat, has a thick folder in her office containing news clippings of cases around the state of people having sex with animals. While the act is sickening enough, she says research has shown that people who molest animals are likely to rape or molest people. "There's quite a number of cases," said Rich, holding up an article. "This one is, unfortunately, a man having sex with his guide dog. This is about a goat's death, a female goat in Walton County that had been sexually assaulted. Unfortunately it's not an isolated incident. We need a mechanism to prosecute."

The Walton County case in 2006 helped bring the problem to light. There were at least four goat rapes in Mossy Head, including one that resulted in the animal dying. Instead of being charged with a sex act, a suspect was charged with stealing two goats, said Dee Thompson, the director of Panhandle Animal Welfare Society. Authorities in Tallahassee, Fla., also struggled in 2005 to find charges that would fit against a blind man accused of having sex with his guide dog. The man was initially charged with felony animal cruelty, but prosecutors dropped that charge and recharged him with "breach of the peace."

In Tennessee, bestiality was banned in 2007. Arizona did so in 2006 after a Mesa deputy fire chief was accused of bestial acts with his next-door neighbor's lamb. Washington state also banned sex with animals in 2006, after a man died of a perforated colon from having sex with a horse on a farm in rural King County. In Alaska, state Rep. Bob Lynn's measure is backed by the Department of Corrections, the Alaska Farm Bureau, the Humane Society of the United States and the Alaska Peace Officers Association.

Rachel Dzuiba, a veterinarian at the Gastineau Humane Society in Juneau, said it would not only protect animals but also protect the public against a cycle of abuse and violence. "The act of forcing a living creature to engage in a sexual activity without the ability of consent cannot simply be viewed as a personal choice - no more than forcing a child or an impaired adult would be," Dzuiba told the judiciary committee. The society's executive director, Chava Lee, said she has received several complaints at the Juneau animal shelter about sexual deviancy against animals.

"In each case that has come to my attention, coercion, abuse, threat of physical harm or terrorizing a human during the practice of a sexual assault on an animal was present," Lee said. According to the national Humane Society, several studies highlight the link between the sexual assault of animals and sex crimes against humans, including:

- FBI research on the backgrounds of serial sexual homicide perpetrators that uncovered high rates of sexual assault of animals;

- A report in the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry that said twenty percent of children who sexually abuse other children also have histories of sexually abusing animals; and

- A Utah State University study showing 37 percent of sexually violent juvenile offenders have a history of animal sexual assault.

The committee also heard testimony from Klawock Chief of Police Cullen Fowler who said the dog that had been allegedly assaulted did not require veterinary care but appeared to have suffered. Fowler said the pressure of the taped muzzle cause blood vessels to burst in its eyes and the dog was sensitive to the touch, jumpy and afraid for a long time after the incident.

(Note-to-self --Duct tape dog's butthole when drunk.)
 
Police say woman used fake ID to get fake breasts

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Police are seeking a woman they said used a false identity to get breast implants and liposuction, then skipped town. Huntington Beach police said Monday that a 30-year-old woman opened a line of credit in someone else's name in September 2008 and had the procedures worth more than $12,000 performed at the Pacific Center For Plastic Surgery.

Employees said she never returned for follow-up visits. Police said the woman faces charges of commercial burglary, grand theft and identity theft.
 
Ex-NY trooper admits he wrote fake traffic tickets

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- An ex-New York state trooper has admitted in court that he issued fake traffic tickets to a man he'd argued with. Lester Hooper pleaded guilty Tuesday in White Plains court to one count of official misconduct. As part of the plea deal, he resigned. He'd been on paid suspension since his July 1 arrest.

The 36-year-old will serve three years probation and pay $600 restitution to the Brooklyn man he targeted. Hooper's lawyer did not immediately return an after-hours message. He previously said the dispute involved contact between the ticketed man and Hooper's wife.
 
China uses abortion pill to cut gerbil population

BEIJING -- Forestry officials in far western China have resorted to scattering abortion pills near gerbil burrows in a bid to halt a rodent plague threatening the desert region's fragile ecosystem, state media said Wednesday. The pellets, which resemble bran feed, have "little effect on other animals," but can prevent pregnancy in gerbils and also induce abortion in already pregnant females, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

In 2003, officials installed hundreds of perches for owls and eagles hoping the birds would cut back the rodent population but gerbils have continued to be a problem, it said. Gerbils use too much of the area's limited grass to make their burrows and damage plant roots with their underground digging, it said. Desertification is a major concern for China. Deserts currently cover about one-third of the country and officials fear global warming will accelerate their expansion.

The report did not say what was in the "tailor-made" contraceptive pellets, which have been used in the Gurbantunggut desert since May of last year. "It's a good way to tackle the desert rat plague," local forestry official Du Yuefei was quoted as saying. Du, chief of the epidemic prevention division of the Changji city forestry bureau, told Xinhua 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of the drug was strewn over 49,000 hectares (120,000 acres) last year and cost the bureau 80,000 yuan ($11,400).

There's been a slight drop in gerbil numbers since the program was started, Du said, with about 11 gerbils now caught for every 100 traps laid out. Previously, 12 gerbils was the average. Contraceptive pellets have been mixed into bird feed in St. Paul, Minnesota to help rein in that city's pigeon population and officials in Los Angeles have used contraceptive injections on squirrels. Animal rights groups often support contraception as a humane alternative to killing animals deemed pests.
 
Man plays Madoff's prison number and wins $1,500

NEW YORK -- Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff is a lucky charm for one New York City construction worker. Queens resident Ralph Amendolaro said he saw Madoff's prison number in a newspaper and had a good feeling so he played the last three digits of it in the state lottery's Numbers game. It hit March 15, paying $1,500.

Lottery officials say other people had the same idea. The number combination 0-5-4 produced 501 winning tickets the Sunday after Madoff's guilty plea, up from 120 winners the previous day. Madoff's prison registration number is 61727-054.
A lottery spokeswoman says people often play numbers they see on the news. So many people played the flight number of a jet that landed safely in the Hudson River that the lottery had to halt sales.
 
Ill. police: Man tried to steal car from dealer

ELGIN, Ill. -- Police say Carliss Henderson was overjoyed when he found his dream car - a red Nissan Altima with a push-button ignition. The only catch? It was locked up in an auto dealership. According to police, around midnight Sunday, Henderson saw his dream car on the showroom floor of McGrath Nissan. They say he broke into the dealership and started the car, but couldn't find a way to get it out of the building.

Angered, the 21-year-old picked up a chair and threw it at the showroom window directly behind the 2009 car, reports said.
But when he put the car into reverse and tried driving backward through the broken window, the car wouldn't move, police said. He was charged with burglary and attempted theft.
 
Romantic teen seeks prom date, gets cops instead

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- A South Carolina teen's romantic gesture has won him the attention of police and environmental officers. Authorities told The Island Packet of Hilton Head that the 18-year-old man was caught spray painting the word "prom" on the beach near the home Sunday of the young lady he wanted to take to the dance. A neighbor had called police.

Deputies made the teen clean the area, but did not file any charges. The spray paint cans were sent to environmental officials to see if the chemicals pose any harm to the beach. Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Thom Berry said it is impossible to determine if the agency will fine the teen until the cans are analyzed.

No word on whether she said yes.
 
Guard fired after locking new hire in with inmate

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. -- A western Pennsylvania county prison guard has been fired over a prank in which a new guard was locked in a cell with an inmate involved in a police shootout. Blair County officials didn't release the guards' names, but confirmed the incident after The Altoona Mirror received an anonymous report. The report said the new guard was locked with the inmate for 20 minutes by a guard who wanted to see what the new hire was made of.

The inmate, accused of shooting at Altoona police in November, filed a complaint with the NAACP. But Blair County Commissioner Terry Tomassetti said the new hire was the target, not the inmate. Tomassetti says it was "just picking on a new employee," but still serious, and officials don't want it to happen again.
 
Woman finds man sleeping in car in her garage

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa -- Police arrested an eastern Iowa man after a woman returned home late Sunday and found a man sleeping in a car partially parked inside her garage. The woman called for help and Henry County deputies found the man sleeping inside his car. Henry County sheriff's officials said deputies found he had warrants in another county and he was taken to jail there.
 
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