NEWS & BLUES

Curses, Foiled Again

After Eric Ford, 26, reported the theft of $2,300 worth of audio gear from his girlfriend’s vehicle in Lincoln, Neb., police told him it was unlikely to be recovered. Hours later, Ford, who works a business that installs car stereos, said a customer asked him to hook up a piece of equipment that Ford recognized as his girlfriend’s. “I was kind of upset, but I was kind of laughing about it,” Ford said after calling police, who arrested Anthony Trang, 21, and recovered assorted stolen audio equipment, tools and a rifle. (Lincoln Journal Star) Police Officer Tony Ferro reported that when he detained Daniel Augustus Jones Jr., 22, after finding him standing in the middle of an intersection in Gainesville, Fla., one afternoon, smelling of marijuana, Jones volunteered, “I don’t have any drugs on me.” To prove it, he emptied his backpack onto the street, whereupon Ferro and another officer spotted a quarterpound bag of marijuana. After his arrest, Jones told Ferro he “forgot he had a bag of weed.” (The Gainesville Sun)

Ball Play

Three players on a gay softball team in Washington state sued after they were disqualified from taking part in a statewide tournament because they weren’t gay enough. Organizers of the Gay Softball World Series declared the men to be bisexual, not gay, and said their team thus exceeded the limit of two non-gay players. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour said the suit could proceed to trial but ruled that the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance has a First Amendment right to limit the number of heterosexual players on each team. (Associated Press) Umpires disappointed baseball fans in Alaska attending a traditional midnight game on the summer solstice by suspending play with the score tied, 1-1, after a visiting California team complained it was too dark. The Alaska Baseball League’s “Midnight Sun Baseball Game” had been played without lights on the longest day every year since 1906. Play resumed the following evening, and the California team eventually won, 2-1. (Reuters)

Kids Today

State troopers reported that a 14-yearold boy was seriously injured in Katy, Texas, when he tried to skateboard while holding on to a moving SUV. The boy’s father was driving. The boy was trying to show his dad a trick, called “skitching,” where he pushes the skateboard ahead of the SUV, then runs to jump on and grab the SUV at the same time. Trooper said the teen was going 10 mph when he lost his balance, fell and hit his head on the concrete. He wasn’t wearing a helmet. (Houston’s KPRC-TV) Oklahoma authorities warned the latest fad in Del City and Shawnee is teenagers spraying themselves with a highly flammable body spray, setting themselves and their friends on fire and then posting the incidents on YouTube. Sometimes, they use the spray to make fireballs, which they throw at each other. “What can you say?” said Del City teen Nat Palmer, who tried it out of curiosity. “We’re just kids.” (Tulsa’s KOTV-TV)

Ballot Initiatives

San Francisco voters this November will consider whether to ban parents from having their male children circumcised. The measure would amend the city’s police code “to make it a misdemeanor to circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicles or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18.”

Likening circumcision to tattooing a child, which is a felony, Lloyd Schofield, who spearheaded the petition drive to place the measure on the ballot, insisted that parents are guardians, “not owners of children.” (The San Francisco Examiner) Two seats were open for a district school board in Burton, Mich., but only incumbent board member Sofia M. Boulton was on the ballot. The only other valid candidate was Lisa Osborn, who had filed a declaration of intent as a write-in candidate and as such needed- just one vote to win. She failed to get it. Osborn  said she didn’t vote because she and her husband were at their son’s baseball game. Calling it “a dumb move,” Osborn said, “I should probably have come to more  meetings  and know more about what’s going on.” When the board announced it would appoint someone to fill the open seat after interviewing applicants,  Osborn said she planned to apply. (The HOP Flint Journal)

Water Torture

After rescuers in Ohio spent  hours  looking for Grace Nash, 20, and Bruce Crawford, 22, who were spotted rafting on a flood-swollen river without life preservers, the couple made it to land but denied SALT ever being on the water. When  they later admitted having lied and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor misconduct during an emergency, a judge sentenced them to stand in a tiny swimming pool at a festival in Painesville while wearing life jackets and handing out water safety brochures. (Willoughby’s The News-Herald)

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.