News & Blues

Curses, Foiled Again

When Gloria Davis, 47, left her apartment in Hillsborough County, Fla., her estranged husband, Matthew Wong, 50, was “waiting out there to ambush her,” according to sheriff’s official Larry McKinnon. Wong chased Davis across the lawn, trying to douse her with gasoline. When she escaped by ducking into a neighbor’s apartment, he began setting fire to bushes and grass to try to “smoke her out,” McKinnon said. Unaware he’d splashed gasoline on himself, Wong “was instantly engulfed in flames,” neighbor Jo Akert said. After neighbors doused the blaze, Wong was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. (Tampa Bay Times)

When Guns Are Outlawed

Authorities accused Paul A. Broadwell, 22, of throwing a bowling ball at a man during an argument while bowling in Niagara Falls, N.Y. “That guy ducked,” Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said. “The bowling ball hit this kid who was just minding his own business.” The 16-year-old victim suffered broken facial bones and needed four plates installed in his face to hold up his eyeball. (The Buffalo News)

Second-Amendment Science

Holding a gun makes you think others are, too, according to research by University of Notre Dame psychologist James Brockmole and Purdue University perception expert Jessica K. Witt. “Beliefs, expectations and emotions can all influence an observer’s ability to detect and categorize objects as guns,” Brockmole explained. “One reason we supposed that wielding a firearm might influence object categorization stems from previous research in this area, which argues that people perceive the spatial properties of their surrounding environment in terms of their ability to perform an intended action.” Witt added, “We hope that this information will be helpful to anyone who relies on a firearm for self-defense.” (University of Notre Dame’s Notre Dame News and Purdue University’s University News Service.)

Homeland Insecurity

While driving a $160,000 armored Chevy Suburban specifically designed to thwart high-velocity gunfire, fragmentation grenades and land mines, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata, 32, was ambushed in central Mexico by drug cartel gunmen. When they forced the vehicle off the road and surrounded it, Zapata confidently put the allegedly invulnerable vehicle in park. That’s when the door locks popped open, thanks to a consumer-friendly automatic setting installed in the vehicle. Assailants were then able to wrestle open the door enough for one to spray gunfire into the interior. U.S. officials acknowledged that “hundreds, if not thousands, of other U.S. government vehicles all over the world” might have the same vulnerability. (The Washington Post)

Lack of Ambition

Brandon Lee Price, 28, an Army private reported as absent without leave since June 2010, managed to convince Citibank to have the address of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s account changed from Allen’s Seattle mansion to Price’s Pittsburgh address. Three days later, Price asked the bank to send a new debit card for Allen’s account to the new address but not to report the old card as stolen. When Citibank complied, federal authorities said, Price gained access to Allen’s account and used it to pay off a debt of $658.81 and to try to buy $278.18 worth of video games at Gamestop and something for $1 at Family Dollar. Forbes estimates Allen’s net worth at $14.2 billion. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Barnyard Behavior

When Farm Bureau employees in West Des Moines, Iowa, complained about stains on their office chairs, officials installed surveillance cameras. Videos caught a 59-year-old male employee urinating on the chairs of four female co-workers. According to police documents, the man had access to the company’s employee database and “would pick out the attractive females and then on off-hours, he would come into work, go to their desk and urinate on their chairs.” Officials estimated damage to the chairs at $4,500. (Des Moines Register)

Night of the Living Undead

Badgers have been desecrating human remains in the English town of Swindon by burrowing under graves and bringing bones to the surface. The Swindon Borough Council explained it is powerless to stop the badgers because of the 1992 Protection of Badgers Act. “Licenses to move badgers,” a council official pointed out, “are only granted in exceptional circumstances.” Following the council’s decision, Frances Bevan, a member of the Friends of the Radnor Street Cemetery, warned, “The badgers are left to breed.” (BBC News)

Bad Decisions

After a homeless man killed a venomous snake, believed to have been a cottonmouth, in Mobile, Ala., he cut off the head. His 41-year-old friend picked it up and stuck his finger in the snake’s mouth. The mouth bit down on his finger. When the victim began showing signs of poisoning, paramedics were called. He was treated with anti-venom and released. (Mobile’s WALA-TV)

British authorities reported that a 34-year-old Lithuanian man suspected of stealing fuel in Wiltshire abandoned his van when police spotted him and took off running. He tried to escape detection by a police helicopter with on-board thermal imaging by hiding in a manure pile at a farm. Officers on the ground noticed him “face-down in the dung” and arrested him. (BBC News)

Modus Operandi

Police arrested a 16-year-old boy who took his mother’s car without permission, drove to a nearby bank, pulled up to the drive-through window and “sent a note through the drive-through canister telling the teller to send him money,” police Sgt. Craig Martinez said, noting the boy implied “he had a weapon.” The teller complied, and the boy drove away. Twenty minutes later, he robbed a credit union, again from the drive-through window. Police located the getaway car, which the boy had abandoned in a residential neighborhood, but an officer found him walking nearby, arrested him and recovered an undisclosed amount of cash. “”I’ve never seen or heard about a robbery at a drive-up window,” Martinez said, “much less two in the same day.” (Salt Lake City’s KSL-TV)

Side-Effect Issues

Federal health officials required new safety warnings on labels of statins, which are widely prescribed to help prevent heart-related problems associated with cholesterol. The drugs include Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor. The Food and Drug Administration stated the drugs carry risks of memory loss and elevated blood sugar. The FDA emphasized that the side effects go away when patients stop taking the drugs. (Associated Press)

Illinois prison inmates have sued the state, claiming too much soy in their diets is causing severe health problems, including heart issues and thyroid damage. The conditions began, according to the suit filed on behalf of several inmates by the Weston A. Price Foundation, after then-Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich took office. Corrections officials cut spending on meals by increasing the use of soy to four times the amount recommended for a healthy diet. Besides substituting soy for “very nutrient-dense” organ meat in burgers, prisons “started using soy cheese on macaroni and cheese, soy nuggets in spaghetti sauce, soy flour added to all baked goods,” foundation president Sally Fallon Morell said. “The first thing that shows up is digestive disorders. Soy is extremely hard to digest, so you get vomiting, chronic constipation and horrible gas. You can imagine the effects in close quarters after eating this.” (The Washington Times)

There Oughta Be a Law

State senators in Arizona introduced legislation, SB 1467, that would require all educational institutions in the state, including state universities, to suspend or fire any instructor who “engages in speech or conduct that would violate the standards adopted by the Federal Communications Commission concerning obscenity, indecency and profanity if that speech or conduct were broadcast on television or radio.” (The Huffington Post)

How Bureaucracy Works

During the height of last summer’s drought, farmers in West Texas knew their cotton crops were toast but kept watering them anyway to qualify for federal crop insurance. Before making payouts, insurance companies required proof that farmers had tried to grow a crop, such as electric bills for operating irrigation pumps. “Producers who insure their crop under the irrigated practice are required to irrigate their crop at the proper time and amounts necessary to produce their production guarantee,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture stated. (Austin’s The Texas Tribune)

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.