Economy hitting Mr. Ed

Headline: Economy causing people to give up horses
Origin of Clip: CNNews.com 23.3.9
Caption: Economy hitting Mr. Ed

LANCASTER, California (CNN) -- The sound of pounding hooves thunders in the high desert air. A cloud of dust marks the trail of a herd of wild horses as they race across the arid plain. This is Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, a shelter for wild mustangs and unwanted horses near Lancaster, California.
Jill Starr, president of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, vows to do right by the horses: "I will take care of them."
Lifesavers President Jill Starr says she and other shelter operators are witnessing an equine crisis.
"People have lost their homes, their jobs, their hope," she said. "And they are giving up their animals."

Headline: Bride: Wedding Night in Jail 'My Greatest Nightmare'
Origin of Clip: FOXNews.com 22.3.9
Caption: Weird Honeymoon Suite

HOUSTON — A woman who claims she was humiliated on her wedding night because she had to spend it in jail in her wedding gown has filed a complaint with Texas authorities.

Jade Puckett, 26, filed the complaint midweek over a picture taken while she was in a courtroom in her wedding dress.

"It had turned the best day of my life into my greatest nightmare," she said in the complaint.

She and Billy Puckett, also 26, were arrested following their March 14 reception as part of a Harris County sweep targeting drunken drivers.

Billy Puckett was charged with driving while intoxicated. Officers said his new wife was charged with public intoxication after she became belligerent.

She said she was then kept in a cell overnight — still in her wedding dress — with 15 or 20 other arrested women. She said male deputies at least three times opened the cell door to point her out to other jailers.

"The male guards seemed to be enjoying themselves," she said.

Headline: Teen's Body in Morgue a Month as Family Searched
Origin of Clip: FOXNews.com 22.3.9
Caption: Sad!!

NEW YORK — A 16-year-old girl whose misidentified body languished in a morgue for a month, while her family searched for her, died from an asthma attack she suffered as she was restrained and raped, officials said Friday.

Tiana Rice was reported missing Dec. 30, when she didn't return to her Bronx home after going to Brooklyn to meet someone she had gotten to know online, police said.

Police responded that night to a call of an unconscious woman at an abandoned Brooklyn home, and EMS pronounced the girl dead. It was Tiana, but she was mistakenly identified via the driver's license of a previous resident of the home, who is still alive.

The 911 call came from a pay phone not far from where Tiana's body was found, clad only in socks, police said. It was unclear whether she had meant to go to the abandoned home.

An anthropologist later realized Tiana's body didn't match the age of the person on the driver's license. The body was identified a month later, after the anthropologist pored over missing-person records.

Pooch Pops Pills

Headline: Stressed pets becoming pill-poppers
From: news.com.au
Date of clip: 2.1.9
Caption: Pooch pops pills

VETERINARIANS are being pressured by pet owners to prescribe pills to counter a range of physical and mental conditions in cats and dogs.

Brisbane veterinarian and former Australian Veterinary Association president Diane Sheehan said yesterday that some pet owners trawled the internet looking for solutions for pet misbehaviour.

Owners were seeking to address problems in their pets including obesity, amnesia, separation anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, The Courier-Mail reports.

Prescribing pills to alter pet behaviour in the US has ballooned into a $US33 billion a year industry and has taken off in Australia and Britain.

Dr Sheehan said the amount of pet drugs available had at least doubled in the past two decades.

Headline: 'Hello, 911? I'm Drunk Driving Right Now'
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 2.1.9 (original date: 2.12.8)
Caption: Drunk and stupid

A 17-year-old girl in Bismarck called 911 on New Year's Eve "to report herself driving under the influence," police Lt. Randy Ziegler said. "I've never heard of such a thing happening, and neither has anyone here."

The girl told authorities her location shortly before midnight Wednesday and officers found her in a parked car near downtown, Ziegler said. She failed a sobriety test and was arrested for failing to have control of her vehicle while intoxicated.

Headline: Thousands of Shoes Block Miami Traffic
From: news.scotsman.com
Date of clip: 2.1.9
Caption: Shoemaker Woes

Thousands of shoes were dumped on a Miami expressway causing significant traffic delays.
The Florida Highway Patrol received the report during rush hour Friday morning, Lt. Pat Santangelo said. A private contractor brought a front-end loader and a dump truck to the half-mile stretch of highway. Workers were able to clear at least one lane after a short time by sweeping all the shoes to shoulder, but delays were expected to last until all the shoes could be removed.

Headline: Burglar scared off by man dressed as Thor
From: news.scotsman.com
Date of clip: 2.1.9
Caption: The Mighty Thor

A builder scared off a house-breaker by running at him dressed as the Norse god Thor.
The terrified intruder leapt from a first floor window to escape Torvald Alexander, who was dressed as the Norse god of thunder in a red cape and silver helmet and breastplate.
Mr Alexander had just returned from a New Year's Eve fancy dress party when he discovered the man in his home in Inverleith, Edinburgh.
He said he acted instinctively to chase the intruder away, and believed his costume may have added impact.
Mr Alexander, 39, said: "We were both startled but then the instant
reaction was that I ran at him and he just jumped straight out of the window.

Headline: Snowboarder survives three nights in -21C
From: news.com.au
Date of clip: 1.1.9
Caption: Miracle

A SNOWBOARDER has been found "frozen stiff" but alive after three days lost on a Canadian mountain.
James William Martin, 21, was discovered in the snow with frostbite on his hands and unable to walk.

"It's wonderful to live another day ... to live another year," he said today. "It's wonderful to make it out alive."

Mr Martin went missing near Mount Seymour, north of Vancouver, and was eventually found when a search party spotted and followed his tracks.

He had survived three days in bone-chilling conditions, with temperatures dropping as low as minus 21 Celsius, without any extreme weather equipment.

Headline: Man Shoots Friend's Car With Paintballs to Deter DUI
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 1.1.9
Caption: DUI Paintballed

A man who reportedly told police he was trying to deter a friend from driving drunk by blasting the friend's windshield with paintballs wound up in jail.

"This is a very creative way to prevent someone from drinking and driving, but not legal or safe," said Sgt. Ken Lattin.

Responding Tuesday night to a nearby resident's report of a man shooting paintballs at a car, police found the 41-year-old man, who explained his rationale.

The Tri-City Herald reported the man was arrested and booked into the Benton County jail for investigation of unlawfully discharging a weapon and an unrelated misdemeanor warrant.

Headline: Sneaking Teens Stranded for 3 Days: We Are Idiots
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 1.1.9
Caption: They are idiots

Two rescued Australian teenagers say they were idiots for getting lost for three days in rugged bushland after trying to sneak into a Victorian music festival without tickets.
Harry Wild and Ryan Hurley, both 19, had been trying to find a back way into the Falls Music Festival, near Lorne on the Great Ocean Road.
But their plans went awry when the pair lost cell phone reception and ended up getting lost....
"We know we are idiots, we think we are so silly. I just what to thank everyone who was involved in the process."

Headline: Woman Out for Walk Finds Mummified Head in Bag
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 1.1.9
Caption: No sense losing your head over it.

A human head was found in a bag by a British woman out for a morning walk Wednesday.

The gruesome discovery was made in the Newhaven area of Edinburgh.

Lothian and Borders Police have launched an investigation.

It is thought the head may be several years old and it is not known how long it had been there.

Police said the head "appeared to be mummified."

It was found on a public footpath at Hawthornvale. The woman who found it raised the alarm at 1030 a.m.