NEWS & BLUES

Curses, Foiled Again

Marcus Banwell, 39, was arrested for shoplifting food at a convenience store in Bristol, England, after he ate one of the stolen items: a Scotch bonnet chili pepper. The variety has a heat rating of 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville units, compared with 2,500 to 8,000 for jalapeño peppers. Within seconds, Banwell doubled over in pain. The shopkeeper called police, who recovered four other chili peppers on him, along with a stolen milkshake and fruit juice. Police also found a stolen clarinet tucked inside his waistband, as well as crack cocaine and heroin. (The Huffington Post)

After receiving an undisclosed amount of cash at a Pittsburgh bank, a robber found his getaway thwarted when a teller locked the bank’s double glass doors, trapping him between them. Signs prominently displayed on the doors warn they’re part of the bank’s security system. Witnesses said suspect Brandon Massie, 27, was flailing around, screaming and banging his arms and head on the front door, trying to get out, and he left blood on both the glass and the floor. He was treated for cuts and arrested. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and WTAE-TV)

Facebook Follies

People who aren’t on social networking sites are “suspicious,” according to increasing numbers of employers and even some psychologists, and may be abnormal and dysfunctional. The German magazine Der Taggspiegal pointed out that Colorado theater shooter James Holmes and Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik lack Facebook profiles, and Slate.com advice columnist Emily Yoffee cautioned young people against dating anyone who isn’t on Facebook. (Britain’s Daily Mail)

Lucky Dozen

A small twin-engine plane crashed in Taylorville, Ill., killing the pilot but sparing all 12 passengers, who were skydivers and jumped from the plane before it went down. (St. Louis’s KSDK-TV)

Slightest Provocation

Police arrested Kevin Michael Reyes, 27, for beating up his 40-year-old father at home in Spring Hill, Fla., after becoming upset because his parents hadn’t cooked dinner for him. (Tampa Bay Times)

C-H-E-A-T-E-R

After officials ejected a teenage player at a national Scrabble championship tournament in Florida, John D. Williams Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association, said it’s well-known that some players take minerals known as “alleged brain boosters.” (Associated Press)

Where No One Has Gone Before

Planetary Resources has developed a three-step plan to mine asteroids. Step one is to find the right rocks. Since asteroids don’t reflect much light, making them hard to spot from Earth, the company, backed by Google chief executive Larry Page and Avatar movie director James Cameron, hopes to launch a series of telescopes to spot potential targets. Then a robot probe will be dispatched to assess the targets’ potential value and, if promising, stake a claim. Finally, robot miners will be sent to collect rocks. The goal isn’t ore but water, which can be broken down into its elements to produce rocket fuel. (Popular Mechanics)

What Could Go Wrong?

The Texas Transportation Commission has approved an 85-mph speed limit for a 41-mile toll road near congested Interstate 35 between Austin and San Antonio, two of the state’s largest metropolitan areas. (Associated Press)

Learn to Love Them

The drone industry issued a code of conduct pledging to properly test all unmanned aerial vehicles before flight, comply with all laws governing aircraft, respect the privacy of individuals and work to better educate the public about the benefits of drones. The guidelines apply to private individuals, companies and all government agencies, but compliance is strictly voluntary, according to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). Currently limited to use by the military, law enforcement and government agencies, drones will be eligible for commercial and personal use starting in 2015, at which point they’ll be available to news agencies, private investigators and, electronic-privacy attorney Amie Stepanovich noted, “an ordinary person who just wants a toy to play with.” (The Washington Times)

Michael P. Huerta, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, promised AUVSI members gathered in Las Vegas for their annual convention that the agency won’t stand in the way of unmanned aerial vehicles and will even help promote the aircraft as the next generation of flying machines. (The Washington Times)

The leaders of the drone industry object to the term “drone.” Michael Toscano, who heads the AUVSI, explained: “People in the past thought of drones as stupid and unsophisticated. When we say unmanned system or unmanned vehicle, it gives the connotation that there’s more to it than just the piece that’s flying.” Envisioning a role for driverless cars, pilotless submarines and unmanned cargo trucks, Toscano predicted, “Eventually, you’re going to have cars that have gyms in them. You’ll have your car, with an exercise bike, and you’ll be exercising while it takes you to work.” (The Washington Times)

Trim Jobs

Fifteen students and two employees at Dahl’s College of Beauty in Great Falls, Mont., filed a lawsuit, accusing owners Douglas and Barbara Daughenbaugh of charging students $9,950 for classes, then abruptly expelling them and keeping the money. The plaintiffs, all women, added that the school failed to address sexual harassment allegations against an instructor who later became the school director. According to the 10-page complaint: “Among the offensive and unwelcome conduct included, inter alia, the instructor publicly exposing her genitals, exposing her buttocks and requesting that students examine a boil to see if it could be extracted, requiring students to wax her pubic hair, using a student’s trimmers and wax stick to trim and wax her pubic hair that were, upon information and belief, then used on customer haircuts.” (The Huffington Post)

Yet Another Smoking Hazard 

A man was injured when his car exploded after he lit a cigarette in Twin Falls, Idaho. Police blamed the blast on after-market modifications to the man’s Ford Mustang. Investigators learned that gas fumes were a constant issue with the vehicle and labeled the incident “careless.” (Boise’s KTVB-TV)

What Could Go Wrong?

Authorities in Shaoyang, a financially struggling city in China’s Hunan Province, gave roughly 1,000 neighborhood watch committee members the power to issue tickets to citizens for littering, spitting in public, parking illegally and other minor infractions. The workers, all retirees, are paid about $78 a month, plus 80 percent of all fines they collect. Residents complained that the financial incentives have turned the enforcers into veritable ticketing machines. (The New York Times)

App for the Afterlife

A British funeral company is offering to add quick response (QR) codes to headstones, linking smart phones to online biographies featuring pictures, videos and personal messages from family and friends of the deceased. “It’s about keeping people’s memories alive in different ways,” said Stephen Nimmo, managing director of Chester Pearce funeral directors in Poole, Dorset. He explained he got the idea after visiting the Kremlin Wall necropolis in Moscow and realizing he knew so much about the people buried there. Chester Pearce charges about $480 to etch a code on a small granite or metal marker that can be placed on gravestones, benches, trees or plaques to link to a page on its QR Memories website. (Reuters)

Cause & Effect

Corn prices have risen because there are so many ethanol plants competing for the corn, but ethanol plants are closing because they can’t afford the corn. After the Central Minnesota Ethanol Co-op in Little Falls laid off most of its 30 workers and suspended production, general manager Dana Persson said, “Until we can buy corn or sell ethanol at a price more conducive to doing business, this is the course we have to take for now.” (The St. Cloud Times)

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.