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.

You're Sacked Dad

Headline: Man lays off dad -- twice
Origin of Clip: CNN.com 21.3.9
Caption: You're Sacked Dad

ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- The economy has been hard on many families across the country, but for one Orange Park man and his father it has been especially difficult. Greg Holloway says tough economic times have forced him to fire his father. Greg Holloway, owner of Orange Park Drywall, said he knows firsthand about how the bad economy has affected businesses. He has had to lay off his father, twice.
"When the market really started getting bad, I had to let him go," Holloway said.
The first time was when Holloway was a supervisor at a company for which both he and his dad worked. Holloway later left that drywall company and formed his own. In 2007, he hired his father, 70-year-old Mitch Holloway as an adviser

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Headline: Tour Bus Boarding ... to Baghdad?
Origin of Clip: FOXNews.com 21.3.9
Caption: Iraq Now Open

Iraq receives first group of Western tourists since 2003, in the latest indication of improved security..

Headline: Robot Fish to Monitor Pollution in Spanish Port
Origin of Clip: FOXNews.com 21.3.9
Caption: Wonder How They Taste Fried in Oil

LONDON — A school of mechanical, battery-powered robots in the shape of fish will be released into a Spanish port to help monitor pollution there, scientists said Friday.

The 5-foot-long (1.5-meter-long) robots work by mimicking the swishing movements of a fish's tail, according to University of Essex robotics expert Huosheng Hu, whose team is manufacturing the machines.

He said the robo-fish would be equipped with sensors to monitor oxygen levels in the water, detect oil slicks spilled from ships or contaminants pumped into the water from underground pipes.

Headline: Hairy Problem Solved: N.J. Scraps Plan to Ban Waxing
Origin of Clip: FOXNews.com 20.3.9
Caption: You Can Wax Those Pubes

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey is smoothing out differences over a plan to ban bare-it-all bikini waxing.

The state on Friday decided to reverse course on the proposal after angry salon owners complained about losing business ahead of swimsuit season.

"It was an unnecessary issue," said spa owner Linda Orsuto. "In New Jersey especially, where the government has been picking our pockets for so long, it was like, 'Just stay out of our pants, will you?"'

The state Cosmetology and Hairstyling Board proposed banning so-called "Brazilian" bikini waxing after two women were hospitalized for infections following the procedure.

On Friday, Consumer Affairs Director David Szuchman effectively killed the plan. In a letter to the board, Szuchman says he won't support the ban, and since his office oversees the board, the ban would never be approved.

Headline: Clorox Offers $5K To Wipe Out SF 'toilet Torcher'
Origin of Clip: CBSnews.com 20.3.9
Caption: Potty Burner

The Clorox Company is offering a $5,000 reward and a year's supply of toilet cleaning products for tips leading to the arrest of San Francisco's notorious portable potty pyromaniac.

The Oakland-based chemical company deployed a "potty patrol" team in the city Friday to make residents aware of its offer marrying marketing and community service.

Since November, more than two dozen construction site toilets have been set on fire in the city, causing an estimated $50,000 in property damage

Headline: 'Deadliest' Spider Found in Grocer Aisle
Origin of Clip: FOXNews.com 20.3.9
Caption: Itsy Bitsy Spider

One of the most deadly spiders in the world was found in the produce section of an upscale Oklahoma grocery store.
Or was it?
An employee of Whole Foods Market in Tulsa discovered what an expert said was a Brazilian wandering spider in a bunch of bananas from Honduras on Sunday and managed to catch it in a container.
The spider was given to University of Tulsa animal facilities director Terry Childs, who identified the arachnid and said that type of spider is one of the most lethal in the world.
Childs said a bite will kill a person in about 25 minutes, and while there is an antidote, he doesn't know of any in the Tulsa area.
But a Tulsa Zoo official disputed the findings, saying his analysis through video and photos he'd seen led him to believe that it was a Huntsman spider — which is harmless to humans.

Headline: Monty Python prop causes bomb scare
Origin of Clip: telegraph.co.uk 20.3.9
Caption: A Bang of a Laugh

Bomb disposal teams were called in and buildings evacuated after workmen mistook a Monty Python film prop for a hand grenade.
Water company engineers spotted the object when they lifted up a fire hydrant cover during work on a street in Shoreditch, east London. ....But after nearly an hour of analysis bomb experts realised that the cause of the scare was in fact a copy of the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" used by Eric Idle to slaughter a killer rabbit in the 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail.

Condoms And The Economy

Headline: Sagging sales for global condom king
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 11.2.9
Caption: Condoms And The Economy

THE libido-draining effect of the global financial crisis has been demonstrated in the full-year earnings guidance downgrade of rubber glove and condom maker Ansell.
Ansell chief executive Doug Tough said weaker sales in November and December had led to the revision of full-year earnings forecast to a range between US65c and US70c a share.

This is 2 per cent down from its earlier forecast of US70-74c a share, The Daily Telegraph reports.

In the condoms division, total sales were slightly lower. While sales of branded condoms were robust and with overwhelming US demand for Ansell's new SKYN polyisoprene condom, it wasn't enough to prop up its private label division's sagging sales.

Headline: Cops: Teen Billed School for $37,000 Worth of Candy
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 11.2.9
Caption: The Candy Man Can

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Police say an Ohio teenager tried to pull off a sweet deal by ordering more than $37,000 of candy online and charging the bill to his former high school.

Police say the 18-year-old used a Middletown High School purchasing number to place orders for thousands of lollipops and candy bars from Michigan-based The Goodies Factory. It wasn't clear how he accessed the number.

Headline: Secret Thoughts No Longer Secret
Clip from: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 10.2.9
Caption: I've Got a Secret--We Know

Canadian researchers say they can glean simple preferences from a person's brain by shining near-infrared light into the noggin.

The study, reported in the Journal of Neural Engineering, demonstrated the ability to decode a person's preference for one of two drinks with 80 percent accuracy by measuring the intensity of near-infrared light absorbed in brain tissue, the scientists said in a statement today.

"This is the first system that decodes preference naturally from spontaneous thoughts," says Sheena Luu, a University of Toronto doctoral student in biomedical engineering who led the work under the supervision of Tom Chau, a specialist in pediatric rehab engineering at the university's Bloorview Kids Rehab center.

Headline: Va. Man Charged With Killing Hawk To Help Squirrel
Clip from: cbsnews.com
Date of clip: 10.2.9
Caption: Squirrel Saver

For a Virginia doctor, squirrels are a man's best friend, too. Thomas Shepler, a hand surgeon, shot a hawk to death in his backyard when he said the bird was eyeing a young squirrel that he and his wife had helped raise.

Shepler, 65, said the hawk had previously killed an adult squirrel near his suburban Washington home in Vienna. When the doctor tried to chase away the bird over the weekend by yelling and throwing a crowbar at it, the hawk didn't leave the area.

So Shepler got a shotgun and killed it.

A police officer heard the shot Saturday and Shepler was arrested. He was charged with discharging a firearm in public and cruelty to animals.

Headline: Naked chief splits after YouTube stunt
Clip from: news.com.au
Date of clip: 10.2.9
Caption: Weird-- figure this one out by yourself

THE head of the advertising firm behind the controversial Witchery Man advertising campaign featuring a fake YouTube video has parted ways with the company.
Naked Communications' issued a press release this afternoon saying chief executive Mat Baxter would leave the company today to "pursue other new business opportunities'', The Australian reports.

Mr Baxter's departure comes days after controversial magazine ads placed by Naked appeared, naming and thanking the media who reported on the search for love of "Heidi Clarke'' - the fake identity of the model who appeared in the video looking for the owner of a men's jacket.

Mr Baxter said Naked was moving in a new direction and the decision for him to leave was mutual. He said it was not connected with a backlash over the Witchery Man campaign.

Too Broke to Die

Headline: Poor Economy Prompts Wave of Burial Plot Sales
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 3.1.9
Caption: Too Broke to Die

Burial plot brokers are reporting an uptick in the business of reselling grave sites, as money troubles prompt a growing number of people to put their burial plots up for sale, often at a loss.

Baron Chu, who owns the burial site resale business Plot Brokers, said he is doing nine or 10 times as much business as usual, a jump he attributes to the economic downturn, according to the Los Angeles-based Daily News.

Chu said people are only getting about a quarter of what their plots would have fetched six months ago because of the increased supply hitting the market. He said one client, who had just been evicted from her home, got $500 for a plot worth $6,800.

Headline: Man's Last Lotto Ticket Wins $10M for Widow
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 3.1.9
Caption: Gift From a Dead Man

On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.

Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.

On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers.

"I'm numb," Charlotte Peters, 78, said at Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill.

Headline: The Pill 'polluting the environment'
From: news.com.au
Date of clip: 3.1.9
Caption: No Birth Killing

THE contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said today.

The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

"We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill," he said, without elaborating further.

Headline:Man Discovers Neighbor Is His Long Lost Sister
From: FOXNews.com
Date of clip: 3.1.9
Caption: Love Thy Neighbor it Might be Your Sister

A brother and sister in England spent 40 years trying to find each other — then discovered they lived only 300 yards apart.
Ken Whitty, 64, walked past 62-year-old Yvonne’s house countless times and even saw her in the garden, but did not recognize her.
They were reunited only after Whitty wrote to his local paper appealing for help in his search.
Soon after his letter was published, he got a phone call saying: "Hello, this is Yvonne."
The pair spent their early years in Ordsall, Greater Manchester.
They were still kids when their parents died and were cared for by a family friend.