news & blues

Curses, Foiled Again

William Pace said Johnnie Butts approached him at a grocery store in Randolph, Mass., and offered to sell him a bracelet and chain stamped as 14-karat gold for $100. Pace immediately recognized the gold was fake by its look and feel because he owns a jewelry store. He’s also Randolph’s chief of police and arrested Butts for attempted larceny by false pretense. (Quincy’s The Patriot Ledger) An unidentified suicide bomber who targeted a New Year’s Eve crowd near Moscow’s Red Square was killed hours before the planned attack when the bomb exploded while she was alone at her safe house. The device was supposed to have been triggered by an accomplice using a cell phone once she was in position to inflict maximum damage, but Russian security officials believe it was activated prematurely when someone called the cell phone to wish her a happy new year. (Britain’s The Daily Telegraph) Zannish Frazier, 28, called police in West Linn, Ore., to say she was stranded in a park and needed a ride to the transit station. Officers who showed up found the woman toting six duffel bags, two of which turned out to be filled with stolen laptops, clothes and jewelry. “It was almost like she went Christmas shopping,” police Sgt. Neil Hennelly said after arresting Frazier for burglary and theft. (Portland’s The Oregonian)

Slightest Provocation

Police arrested Consuela McCrobey, 19, and Laela Cross, 20, in Chattanooga, Tenn., after a dispute that began, McCrobey said, with Cross “spitting ice cream on my car.” McCrobey responded by throwing eggs at Cross’ porch, according to the police report, which stated that Cross retaliated a few hours later when McCrobey drove past her home by firing her semi-automatic pistol at McCrobey’s car “once and then at least five more times.” All six shots missed. “She wears glasses, she can’t see,” McCrobey said. “But I don’t know what kind of anger she had for her to start shooting over some eggs.” (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

When Guns Are Outlawed

Police said they arrested Carolee Bildsten, 57, after she raised a “clear, rigid feminine pleasure device” over her head and attacked an officer at her apartment in Gurnee, Ill. She claimed self-defense, explaining the officer had accompanied her while she got money to pay her meal check at a nearby restaurant. “I’m counting my cash to make sure I take out enough, and the officer walks into my bedroom and startles me,” Bildsten said. “I got scared, and the only thing in my sock drawer besides my socks and my cash was a dildo.” (Chicago Tribune)

More Strikes Than a Bowling Alley

After a minivan struck a man crossing a street in Hawthorne, Calif., the driver sped off. Moments later, a second vehicle ran over the man and continued without stopping. As several pedestrians who witnessed the incidents rushed to help the pedestrian and block other cars from running over him, a third vehicle struck one of them. This time, the driver stopped to help the woman, but the crowd attacked him anyway. “These criminal bystanders assaulted the victim and ultimately stole his cell phone,” a police statement said. Police arrested Tran Lewis, 32, on suspicion of beating and robbing the motorist and located the driver of the second vehicle. The pedestrian died, and the woman hurrying to help him suffered moderate injuries. (The Los Angeles Times)

The End of Plastic

Credit cards face extinction, to be replaced by transactions made using cell phones. “This is a chance to bring payments forward from the plastic age and the vinyl records age to the digital age,” said Michael Abbott, CEO of Isis, a new mobile payment network whose “mobile wallet” lets consumers store multiple credit cards, make payments with a wave of their phone, check balances, receive coupons and use reward points at the point of sale. Visa, MasterCard, Google, Bank of America, Citi and U.S. Bank are among companies testing contactless mobile payments that expect to roll out mobile wallets this year. The research firm Aite Group forecasts that transactions made by scanning mobile phones at cash registers will reach $22 billion in 2015, up from “practically none” last year. (CNN)

Not-So-Smart Art

New York University professor Wafaa Bilal, 44, who had a camera inserted in the back of his head for an art project, underwent surgery to remove part of the camera because his body had rejected it. Iraqi-born Bilal had a body-modification artist at a Los Angeles tattoo shop install the camera by attaching three mounting posts to a titanium plate implanted between Bilal’s skin and skull. Bilal’s intention was to have the backward-facing camera take a picture every minute as he went through his day. After having the camera removed because of the pain caused by its rejection, Bilal said that when the wound heals, he’ll continue with the project by tying the camera to the back of his neck, something he didn’t try in the first place because “I didn’t feel that strapping something around my neck would be the same way I’m committed to the project as mounting it to the top of my head.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education) 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.