NEWS & BLUES

Curses, Foiled Again

After pleading guilty to robbery and agreeing to undergo drug rehab to avoid prison in Oregon, James Tindell fled the state. Officials located him, thanks to postings on his Facebook page. “Catch me if you can,” he taunted, followed by “I’m in Alabama.” He also posted a sonogram of his unborn son that showed the name of the Alabama hospital where it was taken. After Tindell was arrested and returned to Multnomah County, Judge Eric J. Bloch sentenced him to 2 years in prison and ordered him to reimburse the state the $2,600 is cost to fly him back. “The way we found out where James Tindell was, was through Facebook,” deputy district attorney Michael Schmidt said. “And it’s not because we were super sleuths.” (Portland’s The Oregonian)

Provincial information officer Maynardo Valdez was accused of gross misconduct and dishonesty after he closed his office in Nueva Ecija without permission and didn’t respond to calls and texts from his superiors for four days. Officials who tried contacting him through his Facebook account saw pictures of him attending a high school reunion at an island resort. Philippine Information Agency chief Jose Fabia alleged that Valdez also neglected his other duties, such as producing daily reports and surveying the sentiments of people in the province. (Associated Press)

Bad News Gets Worse

Baseball’s Worcester (Mass.) Tornadoes not only occupy last place in the five-team Can-Am League, but they also had a recent game delayed when their cleaning company showed up right before the first pitch claiming the team owed it more than $4,000. The Enterprise Cleaning Co. of Worcester had a court order entitling it to seize the game’s receipts, as well as the team’s uniforms, bats, gloves and other equipment. After league officials promised to pay the bill, the game started an hour late. The Torandoes lost to Newark, 4-3. (Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

The Sayonara Effect

Since the Seattle Mariners traded outfielder Ichiro Suzuki in July, Japanese tourism to the Emerald City has dwindled. “It’s really disappointing; it’s an unexpected turn,” said Makota Ogasawara, manager of the Seattle branch of a company that books tours for visitors from Japan. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that Japan sends more tourists to Seattle than any other country, twice as many as China, the second-highest source of tourists. After Suzuki, already a star in Japan, came to the Mariners 12 years ago, he became the main attraction for Japanese visitors. Despite the loss, Ogasawara pointed out, “We still have two Japanese players,” citing pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma and infielder Munenori Kawasaki. (The Seattle Times)

A month after Suzuki’s trade, police said a man smashed a window at the Seattle ballpark’s team store and made off with 16 Ichiro replica jerseys. Nothing else was taken, according to store supervisor Chris French, who said the jerseys originally retailed for $240 apiece but since Suzuki’s departure had been selling for half that. (The Seattle Times)

Sperm in the News

The Supreme Court ruled that children conceived by artificial insemination after their father’s death don’t qualify for Social Security survivor benefits. Social Security’s rules are designed “to benefit primarily those the deceased wage earner actually supported in his or her lifetime,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said. (Associated Press)

Mama’s Boy

A New York City jury convicted Thomas Parkin, 51, of fraud after he cashed his deceased mother’s Social Security checks every month for six years, stealing about $44,000. He also took part in a real estate scam involving a foreclosed Brooklyn apartment building that had belonged to his mother. Perpetuating the fraud that his mother was still living, he filed a fraud lawsuit against the new owner and set up a meeting with the Brooklyn district attorney to discuss the matter. Prosecutors said Parkin showed up “dressed as his 77-year-old mother, wearing a new red cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an oxygen tank.” (Reuters)

Free at Last

Shortly after Adidas used its Facebook page to tout the upcoming release of its JS Roundhouse Mid — an oversized tennis shoe equipped with attached orange plastic shackles and promoted with the tagline “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?” — critics labeled the shoes as “Adidas slave shackle kicks” and accused the company of evoking slavery. The shoemaker defended the shoes as “nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott’s outrageous and unique take on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery,” but announced it was “withdrawing our plans to make them available in the marketplace.” (Los Angeles Times)

When Advertising Isn’t Enough

Homeowner Sherry Bush reported that while she and her husband were away and their daughter was sleeping upstairs, someone broke into their home in Westlake, Ohio, took out the trash, vacuumed the carpet and cleaned up the playroom, then left a note saying, “$75 I was here to clean,” followed by her name and number. Bush said she called and asked Sue Warren, who answered, “What happened, did you get the wrong house? She said, ‘No, I do this all the time.’ I said, What do you mean? She said, ‘I just stop and clean your house.’” No charges were filed this time, but the month before, police charged Warren with criminal trespassing for breaking into and cleaning another house. (Cleveland’s WKYC-TV)