Drinking-Class Heroes
Objecting to drunken-driving reform proposals, Montana lawmaker Alan Hale declared that tough DUI laws “are destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and years.” Referring to the long drives in rural areas to get to bars, which he called “the center of the communities,” Hale, who owns a bar in Basin, insisted, “These DUI laws are not doing our small businesses in our state any good at all. They are destroying them.”
Another opponent of DUI reform, Sen.
Jonathan Windy Boy, took issue with a proposal to revoke the licenses of teens caught drinking, even if they aren’t driving. He declared that DUI reform puts the Legislature on “the path of criminalizing everyone in Montana.” (The Billings Gazette)
More Trouble for Richard Kimble
A new Maine law lets people with one arm carry switchblade knives, becoming the first state to make an exception to laws that ban the use of the spring-action knives. Backers of the measure declared the measure saves one-armed people having to force open folding knives with their teeth in emergencies.
(Reuters)
How’s It Go with Bacon?
Scientists said that a species of sea cucumber living off the British coast might have a future as haute cuisine. Holothuria forskali, which are animals, not plants, breathe through their anus, can liquefy their body and feed on waste from the sea bottom. A research team from Newcastle University is investigating the possibility of cultivating vast “herds” of sea cucumbers to consume waste from fish farms while allowing the harvest of commercial quantities of the earthworm-like species, which, at 10 inches, sea cucumber specialist Matt Slater noted “would fit on a plate.”
Although some cultures, notably the Chinese, consider sea cucumbers a delicacy and an aphrodisiac, one western diner rated their flavor “slightly lower than phlegm, the texture of which it closely resembles.” (Britain’s The Independent and The New Zealand Herald)
Metaphorically Speaking
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) declared in a speech against federal support for Planned Parenthood that providing abortions represents 90 percent of the agency’s services. When confronted with the actual fact that Planned Parenthood’s abortion care represents 3 percent of its medical services, Kyl’s staff explained that the senator’s assertion was “not intended to be a factual statement.” (The Washington Post)
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.
