Volume 13, Number 5, February 3, 2008

Greetings, and thanks for joining me for another week. Starting us off are a few news stories you may have missed. First, from Reuters, mmm, mmm good! A hospital patient in Finland found a mouse head among the steamed vegetables on his plate. "Understandably, he lost his appetite," said Sakari Kela, chief administrator at the Finnish Northern Karelia Central Hospital. The health of the patient had not been compromised by the dead rodent, Kela said. The severed head most likely originated in a bag of Belgian vegetables. The body has not been found and being "a Belgian mouse, the rest of it could be anywhere in Europe", Kela said. Hey, if it, like so much other stuff, tastes like chicken, what’s the big deal?

Next, Kristen DeGroat just wanted to sell her horse to another animal lover, but her ad somehow ended up under "Good Things to Eat" in the classified sections of two newspapers. About a third of the 60 or so calls she received were from people interested in buying horse meat. "It's been enough to turn your stomach," said DeGroat, who eventually sold her 3-year-old mare, Foxy, to a man who wanted a live horse for his grandchildren. DeGroat's ad, offering the registered pinto for $200 or the best offer, was intended to run for two days under the classified ad heading for horses and stables in The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times. However, human error landed the ad under the food heading in the classified sections. The papers, which have a jointly run classified ad department, corrected the mistake. "I was pretty outraged," said DeGroat.. "I've owned horses since I was a child. The worst part of all of it, if it had been any other section, it would have just been a mistake." DeGroat said she had received dozens of calls from unhappy animal lovers. "I (even) had a lady call whose friend was just in tears over this thing.”

Finally, from My Way News, a man is accused of offering an undercover officer $5 and 90 pills of the painkiller Oxycotin to kill a woman. Robert Macklin, 35, faces one count of first-degree assault or one count of the alternative charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He was charged in Jackson County Circuit Court in Independence. According to court documents, Macklin's roommate called police after he repeatedly asked her to kill the girlfriend of a man with whom he once had a relationship. The roommate said Macklin wanted the girlfriend out of the way so the men could be together. Macklin was arrested Tuesday night after he reportedly gave the officer $5 as a down payment. Prosecutors have requested a $500,000 bond.

The San Antonio Express-News offered the following Bit that I wish had appeared on the federal level about seven years ago: A candidate for Kerr County treasurer is making a single campaign promise: Elect me and I won't serve. Ed Hamilton, 77, is challenging incumbent Treasurer Mindy Williams for the Republican nomination during the March 4 election. No Democrats are seeking the office. He said the job is redundant and costing the county money it doesn't need to spend. The duties should be assigned to another county office, Hamilton said. "I don't plan to do the job," he said. "I won't accept a paycheck." Hamilton said if elected, he would hand the duties to someone else and petition state officials for a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would allow any county to eliminate the treasurer position if it chooses. Williams, who was appointed last spring to the $46,000-a-year post, said the job shouldn't be eliminated. It provides accountability on the county's spending, a check and balance that is "essential to county government." Hamilton says "check and balance" is "a euphemism for duplication of effort."

Somewhat related to the middle Bit in the opening section: International restrictions on tuna fishing have created a dire shortage in Japan's sushi restaurants which means that chefs are considering substitutes such as sushi prepared with raw horse or deer meat. While that would outrage many Japanese diners, some restaurateurs believe the plan feasible, according to a dispatch from Tokyo. Said one: "We tasted it, and horse sushi was pretty good. It was soft, easy to bite off, had no smell." (New York Times).

Image is everything: Dean Hrbacek, the former mayor of Sugar Land, Texas, and now running for the U.S. House of Representatives, mailed a campaign brochure to voters. Those who looked closely could see that in the photo of the candidate, his head didn't quite fit on the body, which is noticeably slimmer than Hrbacek's. Campaign officials admitted the Republican's photo was faked -- they had a nice head shot of Hrbacek, but not a full-length photo needed for the brochure, so they pasted his head on someone else's body. (Houston Chronicle)

Speaking of image, here’s some great PR for Mississippi from USA Today! Following is proposed House Bill No. 282, which was introduced this month: Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person. In basic English, the proposal would allow health inspectors to pull the permit from any restaurant that "repeatedly" feeds extremely overweight customers. About two-third of Mississippians are considered overweight or obese, according to a recent analysis of federal health data. Not surprisingly, the bill is not expected to receive much support. I am about 6’1” and weigh in at about 225. (I wish I could say it’s all muscle, but other than between my ears….) Anyhow, I am not sure I qualify, but if I did and I went to a restaurant and the hostess said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t serve you people here,” I, I, well, I am getting angry just thinking about it!

From Yahoo News, playing hardball! A collection agency tried to collect a hefty $16.96 debt with an letter that addressed its recipient with a four-letter word for, uh, excrement. "Dear S***," began the letter attempting to collect from an old record club membership. The word was fully spelled out in the letter, which arrived in an envelope addressed to "S*** Face." "I've never seen anything quite so brazen," said attorney Kenneth Hiller. He said his client plans to sue Nationwide Collections Inc. of Fort Pierce, Fla. Under U.S. law, debt collectors are not allowed to use profanity to collect a debt, Hiller said, nor are they supposed to threaten legal action over such a small amount. Nationwide President Phillip McGarvey said the October 2007 letter was automatically generated after his company bought about 350,000 Columbia House accounts. "S*** Face" is the name under which the account was opened and the way the coupon to start the club was filled out, he said. Hiller's client has signed an affidavit saying he never signed up for the music club membership under that name. "It looks bad to the observer who is not familiar with the industry," acknowledged McGarvey, "but anybody who understands the volume would understand how this could happen. ...You've also got people filling in famous people's names."

Definition of chutzpah! (Presented as presented) A Spanish businessman withdrew a controversial lawsuit against the family of a teenage boy he struck and killed while driving a luxury car. Tomas Delgado had filed a suit asking the dead boy's parents to pay him €20,000 ($29,400) on the grounds that the collision that killed their teenage son also damaged his Audi A-8. News of the case sparked outrage in Spain and generated deep sympathy for the parents of 17-year-old Enaitz Iriondo of Trinidad. He was riding his bicycle home to a campground when Delgado's car hit and killed him back in August 2004. Hundreds of people descended on a courthouse in northern Spain in a show of support for the boy's parents. They broke into applause when word came that Delgado had dropped the suit. The businessman had insisted in a recent television interview that he was a victim, too. His lawyer told the court that Delgado felt that the extensive publicity amounted to a public lynching. Outside the courthouse, the boy's father -- Antonio Iriondo -- told CNN he was content with the decision. Yet he also said his family will explore the possibility of criminal charges against the man. "This is just the beginning," the father said. His son was killed as he cycled back from a nearby village to a campground where his family was vacationing. Iriondo Trinidad's father told CNN he heard the screeching of the car from the campgrounds. The teen was struck from behind and dragged 106 meters (347 feet) along the rural highway, the father said. A traffic report said Delgado was traveling 113 km per hour (70 mph) in an area where the speed limit is 90 km (55 mph). An independent expert hired by Trinidad's family said Delgado was going 173 km per hour (107 mph). Shortly after the collision, a judge dismissed criminal charges against Delgado after concluding that he had committed no criminal infraction, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported. The teen's mother, Rosa, told the newspaper that the family was given three days to appeal the judge's ruling, but they were too distraught to pursue it. She also told the newspaper that her family's lawyer advised her and her husband not to pursue criminal charges. After the collision, Delgado's insurance company paid the family €33,000 ($48,500). Two years after the wreck, Delgado sued the family for damages to his car and for car rental costs. The boy's mother told CNN before the hearing that she was indignant that the driver would seek damages after killing her son. A local prosecutor told reporters that he would take a second look at the case to see whether authorities can file fresh charges against Delgado.

Finally, from the Associated Press, the entrepreneurial spirit lives on. If you're looking to sell high-grade marijuana, Craigslist may not be the place to do it. A man learned that the hard way when the "buyer" who contacted him turned out to be an undercover officer, Stamford police said. Police said Steven Zahorsky, 24, posted an ad for "Mary Jane in Fairfield County." The ad offered a half-ounce of "A plus" marijuana for $220 and the same amount of "B plus" marijuana for $160. Stamford Lt. Jon Fontneau said officers spotted the ad and responded, claiming to be a painting crew interested in buying drugs during a work break. Zahorsky allegedly agreed to sell three-quarters of an ounce of marijuana at an Interstate 95 rest stop, Fontneau said. Police said they arrived Wednesday afternoon and called Zahorsky's cell phone. He answered and agreed to meet at the rest stop McDonald's in 15 minutes. Zahorsky allegedly stopped at the undercover officer's car and took $320 in cash in exchange for the marijuana, police said. When Stamford and Darien officers arrested Zahorsky, he claimed he was at the McDonald's to eat and had no idea why police were arresting him, Fontneau said. He said police found $320 on Zahorsky and the undercover officer's number on his cell phone. They searched Zahorsky's Bridgeport apartment and found three bags of marijuana and one bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms, along with a shotgun, ammunition and a digital scale, Fontneau said. Zahorsky was charged with several drug charges and released on $10,000 bond. He is due back in Stamford Superior Court later this month.

Later.