How Not To Fly (about)

Vegetarian Parents Charged With Neglecting 16-Month-Old Daughter

[Queens, New York] Prosecutors say the couple fed the baby ground nuts, fresh-squeezed juices, herbal tea, beans, cod liver oil and flax seed oil. She was not breast-fed or given infant formulas.

Man Accused In Bad Haircut Case

[Coeur d'Alene, ID] "He just looked angry and distraught," Vali Moore, receptionist at the store, testified. Peyton complained to a waiting customer that he had a "butchered haircut," Moore said. Peyton got into his truck, backed it up and then accelerated over the curb and onto the sidewalk in front of the store...

Cardinal Law Denies Being Transferred To Rome

[Philadelphia, PA] Earlier this month, documents showed Law repeatedly transferred the Rev. Paul Shanley, another former Boston-area priest accused of sexually abusing 30 minors.... In diary excerpts released this week, Shanley admits having venereal disease and helping young people use drugs.

Baggy Pants Trip Huntsville Purse-Snatcher

As Kinney ran, with the woman and other [Texas Department of Criminal Justice] employees in pursuit, his loose-fitting pants fell, tripping him...

Disability Lawyer Sued Over Office Bathroom

[San Francisco] The attorney who sued Clint Eastwood over disability accommodations at his hotel near Carmel was himself sued Tuesday on allegations his office bathroom was not wheelchair-friendly.

Jefferson Family Proposes Separate Cemetery For Slave's Descendants

Hemings' descendants have been trying for years to gain official recognition that the nation's third president and author of the Declaration of Independence fathered at least some of Hemings' children. Their argument was bolstered in 1998, when DNA tests found that a male in Jefferson's family fathered Hemings' last child, Eston. A 24-page report by the family committee, however, concluded that there is not sufficient evidence to prove Eston Hemings' lineal descent from Jefferson...

John H. Works Jr., president of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, mailed a newsletter to the family association's 700-plus members, complaining that the lines between the two cemeteries "would blur" over time. It would, he said, become "just a graveyard of Jefferson's descendants, both real and imagined."

Abercrombie & Glitch / Asian Americans Rip Retailer For Stereotypes On T-Shirts

"We personally thought Asians would love this T-shirt," said Hampton Carney...

• One has a slogan that says, "Wong Brothers Laundry Service -- Two Wongs Can Make It White." Beside the prominent lettering are two smiling figures in conical hats harking back to 1900s popular-culture depictions of Chinese men.
• "Wok-N-Bowl -- Let the Good Times Roll -- Chinese Food & Bowling," one design reads, with a stereotypical image similar to the figures on the Wong Brothers shirt.
• "Abercrombie and Fitch Buddha Bash -- Get Your Buddha on the Floor," reads another...

"We are truly and deeply sorry we've offended people... We never single out any one group to poke fun at," Carney said. "We poke fun at everybody, from women to flight attendants to baggage handlers, to football coaches, to Irish Americans to snow skiers. There's really no group we haven't teased."

3 Women Arrested In Beating Of Neighbor

[Yucca Valley, CA] Three women were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after they allegedly beat and doused a female neighbor with lighter fluid because they mistakenly believed she molested one of their daughters, authorities said.... the 6-year-old told investigators she had not been abused. "Basically, we believe the parent and the suspects involved overreacted to statements from the child," Ginter said.

'The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas' Closes

[Conroe, TX] The board of the Conroe community theater canceled the amateur production after [Director] Feranchak and 32 of the 34 performers resigned rather than remove the word "g--damn" from the script.

2 Oil Giants Deceived Public On MTBE's Hazards, Jury Finds

[San Francisco] The federal Clean Air Act requires that regions that don't meet air quality standards must use an additive -- either MTBE or ethanol -- to reduce vehicle pollution. In California, the refiners chose MTBE, which they can make from petroleum instead of buying ethanol from the Midwest.... Spilling from leaky underground storage tanks, it travels faster in the groundwater than gas and takes longer to break down....

"It was proven that the companies' own scientists for almost a decade were saying, 'Don't put MTBE on the market, or you're going to create a big environmental disaster.' The companies put it out anyway. It wasn't an innocent mistake..."

White House Record Excises Mistakes, Hecklers, False Starts

[Washington, DC]

• President Bush declared that he wanted each American to volunteer for "4,000 years," a variation of his usual call for "4,000 hours," which produced guffaws in the audience. Later, at a fund-raiser, Bush bestowed a new name on Connecticut's lieutenant governor, Jodi Rell. "I appreciate Lieutenant Governor Judi Kell for being here," he said. "Great to see you again, Judi...." Both goofs, and accompanying laughter, were stricken from the record in the official White House transcripts.
• A similar sanitizing occurred the day before, in Knoxville, Tenn., when Bush was interrupted by hecklers shouting about Enron and the counterterrorism campaign -- an unusual occurrence noted in news accounts of the speech. Federal News Service, a private organization, transcribed the boos, shouts and cheers, along with the president's struggle to deliver his lines. The official White House transcript made no mention of the hecklers or Bush's false starts.
• The most public allegation of transcript sanitizing was last September, when White House press secretary Ari Fleischer warned that Americans "need to watch what they say." The phrase did not at first appear in the White House transcript.

Police Say Woman Bit Suspect Following Rape

[Detroit, MI] The woman told the attacker that she couldn't breathe, police said. He ignored her and she ended the attack by biting and lacerating his penis... the suspect then ran to his nearby home, where he told his wife that he injured himself on a backyard fence while running from a dog. She took him to the hospital.

DNA Shakes Up Child Support Law

Advances in DNA testing have liberated convicts from death row and helped clear up scores of unsolved mysteries, but they have been slower to release men from obligations to pay child support in cases where the tests show they are not the biological father.... "It ain't his baby and we know it ain't his baby and here we're hitting him for 60% of his salary," Wright said. "In any other area of law, if that happened, that would be fraud. We'd be going out and screaming bloody murder."

Man Withdraws Bid For Gum Stuck In Major-League Credibility Flap

The top bidder for a piece of bubble gum chewed by a major league baseball player said today that he is withdrawing his bid amid concerns about the reputation of the Minnesota man auctioning the gum and the gum's authenticity. Dave Pierce, a sophomore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said today that newspaper accounts documenting the criminal history of auctioneer Jason Gabbert, of Wood Lake, and questions about whether the gum was actually chewed by the player, Luis Gonzalez of the Arizona Diamondbacks, scared him off.

Chinese Man Out Of Business After Samples Destroyed By Police

A Chinese businessman is temporarily out of business after police destroyed his samples -- a pair of heated shoes that set off a security alert at San Francisco International Airport. Guo Yongqiiang was in hot water Wednesday after screeners at a United Airlines gate spotted a pair of black loafers stuffed with wires and batteries in his carry-on luggage.... Airports have been on alert for shoe bombs after an alleged al-Qaida-trained man was arrested in December for allegedly trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his sneakers.

FDA Says Nicotine Lollipops Illegal

[Tucker, GA] When customers came to pharmacist Jon Carr desperate for a way to quit smoking, he gave them lollipops spiked with nicotine -- a way to satisfy their cravings without the toxins of a cigarette.... The FDA determined that the lollipops were being promoted as smoking-cessation aids, which under federal law renders them drugs -- and the agency must approve drugs before they sell.

Circumcised Men Less Likely To Get Virus Which Causes Cancer In Women

The study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine found that men with intact foreskins were three times more likely than circumcised men to be infected with the human papilloma virus. That, in turn, may increase the risk of passing the virus on to their sex partners. The theory is that the skin in the inner lining of the foreskin is especially vulnerable to the virus.

Woman Accused Of Trying To Kill Husband Of Three Weeks

[Columbus, OH] A California woman is charged with attempting to murder her husband of three weeks by putting a drug into his soft drink at a fast food restaurant. Police said Christina Combs, 29, tried to overdose her husband, David, 26, on Sunday to get out of the marriage.

Woman 'Pregnant With Clone'

The Italian fertility doctor who last year announced plans to clone humans has reportedly said that one of the women he has been treating is pregnant with an embryo clone.

New HIV Infections On The Rise In SF

The study by researchers at the CDC and San Francisco's Department of Public Health is the first serious analysis of the practice of "barebacking," in which gay or bisexual men intentionally engage in sex without a condom with someone other than their primary partner. Seventy percent of the 554 gay men contacted for the survey said they were familiar with barebacking, and of those, 14 percent said they had engaged in the practice within the past two years.

Reindeer Molester's Mom Weeps In Court At Vandalism Video

[Bridgeport, CT] While the state has not objected to the disposition of the teens' cases, Assistant State's Attorney Craig Nowak did have one condition -- the parents of the teens be forced to watch the videotape the quartet made of their misadventures. In the videotape, the teens are seen simulating sex acts with lighted reindeer decorations as one proclaims, "We are the reindeer molesters!" Then they are shown grabbing a large lighted reindeer and driving off with it as the extension cord trails behind the car.

Wasco Prison Set To Go Smoke-Free

[Bakersfield, CA] As of May 1, the smoke stops, but prisoners aren't happy about being forced to go "cold turkey...." Correctional officers said that dealing with small problems in the short run will alleviate big problems -- like black market tobacco inside the prison -- in the long run.

China's Spacecraft Returns

"The successful launches of three Shenzhou spaceships take the country to new heights of space science and technology," Chinese President Jiang Zemin was quoted as saying after witnessing the launch.

Trenton, N.J., Finally Gets Hotel

For 15 years, this city has had the dubious distinction of being the only state capital without a hotel.