News & Blues 7/7

Elbert Lewis Thompson II, 20, was caught after fleeing a traffic
stop in Vandergrift, Pa., then sent to a Pittsburgh hospital
complaining of feeling sick and losing consciousness. He escaped from
the hospital but was promptly arrested when police received a call from
a bar that a man had walked in wearing a hospital gown with an
intravenous needle still in his arm. (Associated Press)

Scot Davis, 52, spent the evening at a bar in Des Moines, Iowa, then
left but returned minutes later, pointed a .22-caliber rifle at the two
bartenders and demanded cash. He fled, followed by bartender Gladys
York, who found his parked car, retrieved the rifle and the car’s
registration, and handed them to police back at the bar. Other
witnesses turned over business cards that Davis had passed out at the
bar to promote his contracting business. “This is not the hardest case
our detectives have ever had to investigate,” police Sgt. Lori Lavorato
said. (Des Moines Register)

Slightest Provocation

State police said they arrested Anthony Dodson, 34, in Uniontown,
Pa., after he threatened his girlfriend with a meat cleaver while they
argued about the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Associated Press)

Guy Edward Jones, 60, landed in jail after he set fire to his house
in Sissonville, W.Va., because, according to Kanawha County sheriff’s
Lt. Sean Crosier, he was mad at his wife for not having dinner ready
when he came home. (The Charleston Gazette)

Want Freedom Fries with That?

Minor league baseball’s Brevard County Manatees announced they are
protesting British Petroleum’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill by changing the
name of batting practice, commonly referred to as “B.P.,” to “hitting
rehearsal.” The Manatees, an affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, play
home games near Florida’s Atlantic coast. (Associated Press)

When Guns Are Outlawed

India’s military is turning to the world’s hottest chili pepper to
combat terrorism. Defense officials said the thumb-sized bhut jolokia,
or “ghost chili,” will be used to make hand grenades to immobilize
suspects. The thumb-sized pepper has more than 1 million Scoville
units, the measure of a chili’s spiciness, compared with 2,500 to 8,000
Scoville units for jalapeno peppers. “This is definitely going to be an
effective nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke
terrorists and force them out of their hideouts,” the Defense Research
and Development Organization’s R.B. Srivastava said, noting that
testing is under way to produce bhut jolokia aerosol sprays for women
to use against attackers and for police to control and disperse mobs.
(Associated Press)

The Name Game

The music industry is running out of catchy band names, challenging
musicians to invent identities. Rovi Corp., which licenses editorial
content to Apple’s iTunes and other music services, said its database
lists 1.4 million artist names and last year added an average of 6,521
new names a month. It noted the repeats are piling up, led by 18 past
and present acts named Bliss.

In the past, identically named acts often worked in separate
regions, causing no conflict. Now, thanks to the digital revolution,
musicians can create identities, upload music and reach listeners
around the world. The result is a jump in trademark disputes. “If 37
people in California logged on to your MySpace page last month, you can
argue that you provide goods and services in California,” even if
you’re a Connecticut band who hasn’t released an album or toured out of
state, said Atlanta lawyer Joel R. Feldman. (The Wall Street Journal)

War Is Hell

The U.S. military command in Afghanistan is shutting down fast-food
outlets at Kandahar Airfield, claiming that Burger King, Pizza Hut,
Dairy Queen, Orange Julius and T.G.I. Friday’s use valuable resources,
like water and electricity that are needed to run an efficient military
operation. “This is a war zone—not an amusement park,” Command Sgt.
Maj. Michael T. Hall said. “Supplying nonessential luxuries to big
bases like Bagram and Kandahar makes it harder to get essential items
to combat outposts and forward operating bases, where troops who are in
the fight each day need re-supply with ammunition, food and water.”

Canadian coffee-and-doughnut outlet Tim Horton’s won’t be affected.
“Kandahar Airfield Tim Horton’s is an initiative to support our men and
women in uniform for serving in Afghanistan,” Canadian Defence
Department official Megan MacLean said. “There are no plans to close
the Tim Horton’s.” Canada’s troops are scheduled to leave the war zone
in July 2011. (Reuters)

Slightest Provocation

A jury convicted Vernon Brandt, 52, of assaulting Richard Albers,
85, in a McDonald’s parking lot in Loveland, Colo., after Albers
objected because Brandt parked in the older man’s regular spot. As
Albers approached Brandt’s pickup truck and knocked on the window to
complain, Brandt swung open the door, knocking Albers to the ground.
Prosecutors noted that the two men had argued previously over Brandt’s
use of the spot that Albers used almost daily for 16 years. (Loveland
Connection)

Chutzpah

Facing grand larceny and identity-theft charges after embezzling
more than $800,000 from the Kingston, N.Y., law firm where she worked
as a bookkeeper, Mary Merton, 43, pleaded with the lawyers to let her
keep her job. “I do not want to put you on the spot but I would ask
that you consider keeping me employed,” Merten wrote to the firm’s
Richard Riseley and Michael Moriello. “Not because of the money, but
because I truly enjoy my job and want to continue to work for the both
of you to make up for my imperfections.” A forensic accounting put the
total stolen at $807,399, which court documents indicated Merten used
for vacations, premium cable TV at her New Paltz home, manicures,
dinners and a race car for her husband. (Middletown’s Times Herald-Record)

The Emperor’s New Gym

A new $25 million high school gym in Akron, N.Y., will need
additional money to install privacy screens for the locker rooms,
according to school board members. The vestibule-style entrances from
both the gymnasium and a hallway are at the center of the male and
female locker rooms, providing a glimpse of students moving from the
showers on one side to the locker areas on the other. The entrances
have automatic closing doors, but school board members Kevin Stone and
Patricia Buckley said staff monitors couldn’t be counted on to be sure
the doors aren’t held open. “The first time a person looks in there and
sees a naked kid,” Stone said, “we’re going to have a problem.” Adding
privacy screens for the vestibule entrances will cost about $1,000
each. (The Buffalo News)

Way to Go

After Michael Edwin Berg, 23, passed his court-ordered drug test, he
went on a drinking binge that ended when he drank a shot glass full of
liquid morphine and fell asleep. Thirteen hours later, friends found
him dead. The Polk County, Fla., Medical Examiner’s Office said the
morphine killed him. (St. Petersburg Times)

Robert Gary Jones, 38, was listening to his iPod while jogging along
a beach in Hilton Head, S.C., when a single-engine aircraft making an
emergency landing after losing its propeller struck him from behind and
killed him. Pilot Edward Smith couldn’t see Jones because the plane’s
windshield was covered with motor oil, and Jones couldn’t see or hear
the plane because, Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen said, it was
“basically gliding.” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Associated Press)

Jeronymo Pereira, 30, died after jumping from two buildings in
Champaign, Ill. “He busted out a window {of a high-rise apartment
building} on the west side,” police Sgt. Jim Rein said. “He fell on the
adjoining four-story building below, then he got up and jumped off that
building, too. How in the world he gets up is beyond all of us.” (The News-Gazette)

News and Blues is compiled from the nation’s press. To
contribute, submit original clippings, citing date and source, to
Roland Sweet in care of The New Times.