April 9, 2013

After crashing a tractor-trailer on a bridge during heavy morning traffic the driver was left dangling inside the cab which was dangling over the side of a bridge.  When finally rescued she was charged by police with reckless driving, altogether, a bad day.

Cookie Monster Goes Bad in New York - Shoves Toddler

Man Disguised as Cookie Monster Arrested in NY

Apr 08 2013 

NEW YORK (AP) — A man dressed as the Cookie Monster has been accused of shoving a 2-year-old in New York's Times Square and has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

Queens resident Osvaldo Quiroz-Lopez was arrested Sunday afternoon. He was arraigned Monday on charges including aggressive begging. He didn't enter a plea.

A Connecticut family posed for a photo with the man dressed as the "Sesame Street" character. Police say he demanded $2 but the family refused to pay. A criminal complaint says the man shoved the toddler and yelled obscenities at the family.

Quiroz-Lopez has no prior arrests. His lawyer hasn't returned a message seeking comment.

In December, a performer dressed as a Super Mario Brother was accused of groping a woman in Times Square. His case is pending.

Self-reporting Drunk Goes To Jail

Ind. man calls 911, reports he's driving drunk

Apr 08 2013 

ROSELAWN, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana man who called 911 and told dispatchers he was driving drunk and needed to be taken off the road got his wish when a sheriff's deputy arrived.
State Police say 24-year-old Matthew Devore of Logansport was arrested early Monday along Interstate 65 in Jasper County. Police said Devore had a blood-alcohol level of .09, just over Indiana's legal limit for driving. He was being held at the Jasper County Jail on a driving while intoxicated charge.
State Police say Devore lost control of his car early Monday and it ended up in a grassy median with a flat tire.
Police say Devore then called 911, saying he was a drunk and needed to be taken off the road. A sheriff's deputy was then dispatched to the scene.

Million Dollar Phobia

Frog-phobic man awarded $1.6M over runoff flooding

Apr 08 2013 

CLARENCE, N.Y. (AP) — A western New York man will get $1.6 million to settle a dispute stemming from flooding from a nearby development that left him inundated with frogs.

The award settles a seven-year legal fight involving Paul Marinaccio, the town of Clarence and a developer.

Marinaccio says runoff diverted onto his 40-acre property turned it into wetlands filled with frogs. He says the abundant amphibians forced him inside because a childhood incident left him with a crippling frog phobia.

The Buffalo News (http://bit.ly/Zh9D9D) reports that the dispute was resolved last month when the State Court of Appeals decided Marinaccio wasn't entitled to punitive damages.

The developer's attorney says his client did only what the town told him to do.

A drainage channel will be dug under a post-verdict agreement.

Dog Poop Worth Hundreds of Dollars?

Montana pet owner claims dog ate his money

Apr 08 2013 

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man whose 12-year-old golden retriever ate five $100 bills hopes to be reimbursed by the federal government.
Wayne Klinkel tells the Independent Record (http://bit.ly/143rwRZ ) that his dog Sundance ate the bills while he and his wife were on a road trip to visit their daughter.
Klinkel says he carefully picked through the dog's droppings, and his daughter recovered more when snow melted.
He says he washed the remnants of the bills and taped them together and sent them to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing with an explanation of what happened.
The bureau's website says an "experienced mutilated currency examiner" will determine if at least 51 percent of a bill is present and eligible for reimbursement. The process can take up to two years.

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Prisoners Forced To Play Video Games?

      Chinese Prisoner Claims Inmates Forced To Play Video Games In 'Gold-Farming' Scheme

First Posted: 05/27/11 05:19 PM ET Updated: 11/16/11 06:08 AM ET

Sensational allegations that Chinese prison officials force inmates to play online video games have shocked gamers around the world. But are they true?
A former detainee sparked controversy across the web yesterday when he claimed that prisoners are required to toil away their hours in role-playing games as part of a money-making scheme that benefits jail bosses.
As role-playing games have grown in popularity, a market has emerged for gamers who are willing to trade real-life cash for virtual goodies.
Instead of spending hours in front of the screen, some gamers around the world purchase digital credits, weapons and even characters from other players -- including inmates in Chinese work camps. At least that's what a 54-year-old ex-detainee using the assumed name Liu Dali told the Guardian.
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," said Liu, who claimed 300 prisoners were forced to play video games on 12-hour shifts at the Jixi labor camp in Heilongjiang province.
Prison officials bragged about netting between $770 and $940 per day, said Liu, who was reportedly incarcerated for "illegally petitioning" the government about corruption issues in his town.
"We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off," he said.

But one Chinese prison official told the Telegraph he is skeptical of Liu's claims -- in part because of the nation's notoriously strict prisons.

"We do not have large numbers of computers," said the source, who declined to give his name. "And we do not allow our prisoners to have any contact with the outside world. If they were playing the seonline games they could easily communicate with other people. We would never allow that."

Iceland's Penis Museum Gets First Human Member

Iceland's penis museum finally got its featured "member," in 2011.

Pall Arason, who died at the age of 95, donated his "pickled penis" to the Phallological Museum, giving the bizarre exhibit its very first human specimen.

Sigurdur Hjartarson, Arason's friend and the museum's curator, says that Arason's posthumous gift helps to complete the growing collection of whale, bear, seal and other mammalian private parts.

Elín Eydís Friðriksdóttir

Located in the fishing town of Husavik, the museum boasts a collection of over 209 penises and penile parts "belonging to almost all the land and sea mammals that can be found in Iceland," according to the museum website.

According to the medical director of nearby Akureyri Hospital, a doctor at the local morgue supervised the operation, which was carried out in January.

The museum has been open since 1997 without a human specimen.

No photos of the new, star penis were available