HUH! Boy's Pitches Deemed Too Fast

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player - too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.

Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho's team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks. They said Jericho's coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.
But Vidro said he didn't quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league's field Saturday, urging the league to let Jericho pitch.

"He's never hurt anyone," Vidro said. "He's on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?" "I feel sad," he said. "I feel like it's all my fault nobody could play." Jericho's coach and parents said the boy is being unfairly targeted because he turned down an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of one of the league's administrators. Jericho instead joined a team sponsored by Will Power Fitness.

The team was 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when Jericho was banned from pitching.
"I think it's discouraging when you're telling a 9-year-old you're too good at something," said his mother, Nicole Scott. "The whole objective in life is to find something you're good at and stick with it. I'd rather he spend all his time on the baseball field than idolizing someone standing on the street corner." League attorney Peter Noble said the only factor in banning Jericho from the mound is his pitches are just too fast. "He is a very skilled player, a very hard thrower," Noble said. "There are a lot of beginners. This is not a high-powered league. This is a developmental league whose main purpose is to promote the sport."

League officials said they first told Vidro the boy could not pitch after a game Aug. 13. Jericho played second base at the next game Aug. 16, but when he took the mound Wednesday, the other team walked off and a forfeit was called. League officials said Jericho's mother became irate, threatening them and vowing to get the league shut down. "I have never seen behavior of a parent like the behavior Jericho's mother exhibited Wednesday night," Noble said. Scott denied threatening anyone but said she did call the police. League officials suggested that Jericho play other positions or pitch against older players or in a different league. Local attorney John Williams was planning to meet with Jericho's parents Monday to discuss legal options.
"You don't have to be learned in the law to know in your heart that it's wrong," he said. "Now you have to be punished because you excel at something?"

She should not be travelling alone

An elderly woman misunderstood instructions while checking in at Sweden's main airport and was whisked down a baggage shoot after she placed herself instead of her luggage on the belt, media reported Wednesday. The 78-year-old woman, who was not named, was preparing to fly from Stockholm's Arlanda airport to Germany on Tuesday when she lay down on an unmanned baggage belt in the belief she was following check-in instructions, the Upsala Nya Tidning local daily reported on its website. She was quickly swept off to the baggage handling centre, where staff members helped get her back on her feet. The woman suffered no serious injury and caught her flight as planned.

Revellers paint Spanish town red in annual tomato fight

Tens of thousands of people from around the world hurled tons of ripe tomatoes at each other Wednesday in an annual food fight that leaves the eastern Spanish town of Bunol covered in red juice. A rocket fired from the town hall was the cue for start of the event for which local authorities provided 120 tons of tomatoes.

Many revellers, including many from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Asia, wore hard hats, goggles or protective plastic sheets. Shopkeepers put up huge plastic covers on their storefronts to protect their properties from the sea of red mush. An estimated 40,000 people took part in the event this year, more than four times the population of the town located in a fertile region some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the coastal city of Valencia, Spain's third-largest city.
Spain's Olympic men's water polo team, which finished in fifth place at the Games in China, were among the participants, according to the town council.

After a battle lasting about one hour, municipal workers and local residents used giant hoses to clear the streets of tomato pulp. The participants meanwhile headed to a nearby river where hundreds of temporary showers were set up. The "Tomatina" is held each year on the last Wednesday in August. The origins of the event are unclear although it is thought to have its roots in a food fight between childhood friends in the mid-1940s in Bunol.

Border agents find pot in entertainment centers

NACO, Ariz. (AP) - Some furniture inspected by customs agents at the Arizona-Mexico border gives new meaning to the term "entertainment centers"—they were allegedly used to hide $2.7 million worth of marijuana. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Brian Levin says officers at the Naco (NAH'-ko) port of entry in southeastern Arizona got suspicious Tuesday after interviewing the truck driver hauling the wooden entertainment centers and examining the driver's paperwork. Over several hours, officers disassembled the furniture and found the marijuana, which weighed about 1,600 pounds. The truck driver was arrested and turned over to immigration authorities.

Japanese team on yeti quest in Nepal

A team of Japanese adventurers hope to prove the existence of the mysterious yeti in Nepal's mountains, focusing on an area they are convinced is home to the legendary creature. Tales of a huge half-man-half-ape roaming the high Himalayas are as old as the hills, and local Sherpa stories about the hairy giant have gripped the imaginations of Western adventurers and mountaineers for decades.

Takahashi Yoshiteru, 65, and six other Japanese team members are trekking to Dhaulagiri IV, a 7,661-metre (25,135-foot) peak where they say they have seen traces of the beast on past trips in 1994 and 2003. "They are going to the same area where I saw the silhouette of a yeti in 2003," expedition spokeswoman Nobuko Koyama told AFP Friday. They set off from Kathmandu on Thursday.

The expedition members will spend six weeks on the peak and will set up six infra-red camera traps on the mountain 220 kilometres (137 miles) northwest of Kathmandu. The exploration team is known as the Yeti Project Japan and is being sponsored by Japanese beverage maker Suntory and a leading Japanese daily newspaper, Asahi Shimbum. The cameras will be automatically triggered if any large animals pass, the spokeswoman said. "Takahashi is not interested in capturing a yeti, he just wants to get a clear picture of it, and maybe shake its hand," said Koyama.

Obama's Running Mate

Fetus Declared Dead Found Alive 5 Hours Later in Hospital Morgue

A couple from Kafr Yasif in the Galilee received the shock of their lives Monday when the wife's miscarried 610- gram fetus, which had been declared dead five hours earlier, was found to be breathing. The baby girl, born during the 23rd week of gestation, still has an uncertain future. Hospital spokesman Ziv Farber said that any premature infant of that weight and age had only a 10 percent chance for survival. But five years ago, he added, "we had a baby weighing only 580 grams, and she survived." The 26-year-old mother and her husband have a five- year-old son at home. When she gave birth after going into premature labor at the hospital, the doctor on the scene pronounced it dead and it was taken to the morgue. The father, Ali Majdub, told Channel 2 that his wife realized the child was alive after asking to see her dead daughter one last time.
"When we unwrapped the baby to see her, she realized it was moving. I began screaming and ran with it toward the doctors," he said. She was then rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit, where doctors are fighting for her life.

61-year-old woman gives birth in Japan

TOKYO (AP) - A 61-year-old Japanese woman gave birth to her own grandchild, using an egg donated by her daughter, a clinic said Thursday. Surrogate births are extremely rare in Japan and banned by industry groups, but they are not illegal. The Suwa Maternity Clinic in Nagano, northwest of Tokyo, refused to provide information such as the date of the birth or gender of the baby. News reports said the baby was born last year.

The clinic said it performed the procedure because the woman's daughter has no uterus, but didn't give details on why she had that condition. The surrogate mother used a fertilized egg donated by her daughter. "Both surrogate mother and baby were fine," said Chihiro Netsu, a spokeswoman for the clinic.

Angel the dog credited with saving kittens

RENO, Nev. (AP) - You've heard of man bites dog. What about, dog saves cats? A two-year-old dog that had been turned over to the Nevada Humane Society's shelter in Reno is being credited with rescuing six abandoned kittens. Shelter Director Diane Blankenburg said it happened Monday while the two-year-old Boxer/Pit Bull mix named Angel was on a walk with a pair of volunteers, Frank Gomez and his 9-year-old stepson, Joel Fontes. They were walking on the hot day with temperatures in the 90s when the dog became obsessed with something in the bushes. When she refused to move on, Gomez investigated and discovered a box full of 3-week-old orange tabby kittens that were frightened and hungry. One of the abandoned kittens escaped before shelter staff were summoned to the scene, but Angel tracked it down and Gomez handed it over to safety.

Trail of Cheetos leads to snack thieves in Minn.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - An orange trail of Cheetos led St. Paul, Minn. police to three teenagers suspected of burglarizing a vending machine. Officers were called to the Arlington Recreation Center on July 29, where they found a vending machine's glass had been broken with a chair. Most of the candy and chips were missing, according to a criminal complaint. The officers followed a trail of snack debris from the rec centre, around the side of the building and to a nearby home. Inside, they found numerous vending-sized bags of Cheetos and other snacks.
Police arrested three males aged 17, 18 and 19 who soon arrived at the home by car. The two adults are charged with third-degree burglary; the 17-year-old is charged with criminal damage to property.

Tenn. constable wins election by 1 vote _ her own

SNEEDVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - All it takes is one vote to win. Just ask a Tennessee woman who was elected constable by voting for herself. Angela Tuttle, 32, said her father encouraged her to run as a write-in candidate because no one else was vying for one of the positions in Hancock County, which is in northeastern Tennessee. Tuttle said her husband initially didn't even realize she was running. "I finally told him about a month before the election," she told The Associated Press on Friday. Her husband didn't think she would win, but now he "just grins at her," she said.
Hancock County election officials said 131 voters of the 674 registered in the 3rd District voted Thursday. Tuttle's vote was the only one cast in the constable race. She will be sworn in Dec. 1.
The certified nursing assistant and mother of a 10-year-old son will help serve warrants and patrol neighborhoods in her district. She said her father, a longtime constable who won his own re-election in another district, will "show her the ropes."

Couple's pumpkin sets SC record at 897 pounds

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - It's a big pumpkin. A Lexington County couple's pumpkin has broken the state record. Frank and Tina Finders' pumpkin tipped the scales at the State Farmer's Market Friday at 897 pounds. That's the equivalent of two Siberian male tigers or about 9 old truck tires. The couple told The State newspaper they grew the vegetable organically in an Arcadia Lakes garden. They plan to sell the pumpkin, but hope to harvest the seeds and try again next year for another record. The previous state record set in 2006 was 737 pounds

Alleged thief stuck under trash bin for 12 hours

DILLON, S.C. (AP) - A suspected thief trying to steal $10 worth of copper got himself into a stinky situation when he was trapped under a trash bin at a county landfill for 12 hours, sheriff's deputies said.

Deputies said Gibson Cook, 56, broke into the landfill, then got stuck as he tried to crawl under the large container. Landfill workers found him about 12 hours later with his legs sticking out from under the bin. Emergency workers had to inflate air bags so they could lift the bin to free him.

Cook was charged with trespassing and petit larceny, deputy Wayne Kirby said. He was waiting for a bond hearing and it was unclear if he had an attorney.

"He's one of our local petty thieves," Kirby said. "But he has never been in a jam like this."
Break-ins at the landfill in Dillon, a town of about 6,400 people in the northeast corner of the state near the North Carolina line, have increased in recent months as thieves look for discarded scrap metal. But employee Charlie Brown said that in 27 years at the dump, this is the first time he's seen anyone get stuck. He said the copper under the trash bin could not have been worth more than $10.

China to censor Internet during Games: official

China will censor the Internet used by foreign media during the Olympics, an organising committee official confirmed Wednesday, reversing a pledge to offer complete media freedom at the games. "During the Olympic Games we will provide sufficient access to the Internet for reporters," said Sun Weide, spokesman for the organising committee. He confirmed, however, that journalists would not be able to access information or websites connected to the Falungong spiritual movement which is banned in China. Other sites were also unavailable to journalists, he said, without specifying which ones.

This Coffee Shop's Restroom Policy Is Extremely Subtle

Man Sets Himself On Fire At Rent-A-Center

Man Sets Himself On Fire At Rent-A-Center After Receiving Too Many Late Payment Notices
There are lots of good ways to escalate your complaints. Going to the store, dousing yourself with lighter fluid and setting yourself on fire is not one of them. Unfortunately, that's exactly what one Newark, NJ man did after becoming frustrated with the amount of late payment notices and collection calls he was receiving from Rent-A-Center. "He basically pulled out a bottle of lighter fluid, poured it all over his body, pulled out a cigarette lighter and lit himself on fire," Bloomfield Police Capt. Chris Goul said.

The man, 62-year-old Emilio Saladriagas, entered the Bloomfield Rent-A-Center location and asked to speak to a supervisor about the late payment notices and collection calls, says the Star-Ledger. When a manager was not available, he pulled out the lighter fluid. Employees doused him with water and he is now in stable condition at the burn unit of a local hospital. He has not been charged with a crime because he did not make "overt or criminal" actions to harm anyone but himself, according to police. The employees are receiving counseling.

Long-Lasting Jetpack Unveiled at Air Show

Fly the dream, baby. That's the slogan, more or less, of New Zealand's Martin Jetpack company, which debuted its $100,000 personal flight apparatus Tuesday at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis.
As thousands looked on, inventor Glenn Martin's 16-year-old son donned a helmet, fastened himself to a prototype and revved the engine, which sounded like a motorcycle.
Harrison Martin eased about three feet off the ground, the engine roaring with a whine so loud that some kids covered their ears.
With two spotters preventing the jet pack from drifting in a mild wind, the teenager hovered for 45 seconds and then set the device down as the audience applauded. "Wow, that went better than expected," Glenn Martin said afterward. "People will look back on this as a moment in history."

The imposing machine, technically an ultralight aircraft, weighs 250 pounds and doesn't exactly clip onto the user's back. Rather, you strap yourself into it, and both and the machine are supported by a pogo-stick-like stand. Nor is it quite a jetpack, despite the company's name.
The 200-horsepower gasoline engine powers two high-powered downward-thrusting propellers, enclosed in airflow-focusing cowlings, that push the craft and its rider off the ground.
That's possibly the most groundbreaking aspect of the Martin. The Martin's more conventional propulsion give it much longer staying power -- a whopping 30 minutes in the air, far longer than any of its rivals.

In theory, it can fly an average-sized pilot about 30 miles on a full 5-gallon tank of gas. And as long as the FAA classifies it as an ultralight, American owners won't need a pilot's license.
But don't expect to see commuters rushing to work by air instead of land. Ultralights can't be operated over congested areas, according to FAA regulations, and are to be used "exclusively for sport or recreational purpose."

That's fine, Martin said. He predicts the jet packs will start out as toys for the wealthy.
Then, as law enforcement officials become more familiar with them, Martin envisions jet packs used by the military, border-patrol officials and search-and-rescue teams. His white jet pack with black trim stands on a brick-sized base with two legs sprawled behind it. The pilot steps backward into the straps of a shoulder harness, his shoulder blades resting against two wide upward-facing fans that provide the thrust. There's an emergency parachute that's effective above about 400 feet, and an impact-absorbing undercarriage that can soften a rough landing or short fall, Martin said. He's still refining the safety features for those heights in between.
"A lot of it comes down to how do you fly, at what speed, at what angle," he said. Like Kent Couch, the Oregon man who flew 235 miles earlier this month with 150 helium balloons attached to his lawn chair, Martin always wanted to soar through the air. He quit his job as a pharmaceutical sales rep to launch his jet-pack company.

Holy hooligans! Phony 'Joker' arrested in Michigan

THREE RIVERS, Mich. (AP) - Police in Michigan have arrested a man who they say tried to steal posters and other items related to the new Batman movie from a cinema lobby while dressed up as the Joker. Detective Mike Mohney said Monday 20-year-old Spencer Taylor of Three Rivers has been booked for investigation of larceny and malicious destruction of property.
Taylor is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 5 in St. Joseph County District Court. There is no telephone listing under his name in the Three Rivers area. Mohney says officers who were dispatched early Sunday to the theater arrived to find employees restraining a man wearing a purple suit, a green wig and face paint in the style of Batman's nemesis in "The Dark Knight."

Lost letter makes its way back home to Kansas, 60 years later

LAWRENCE, Kan. - A letter that was lost in the U.S. postal system for nearly 60 years recently turned up in the mailbox of a Kansas woman. Xan Wedel found the letter, postmarked November 11, 1948, in her mailbox Friday. The envelope was stamped with "Return to sender" and "Found in supposedly empty mailbox." The letter was addressed to a Ruth Willisten in Rockfall, Connecticut, but it never reached its destination. It was sent by Gertrude Gilmore, who lived at Wedel's house in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1948. The letter states, "All Lawrence is in mourning since the election," during which Harry S. Truman beat Thomas E. Dewey for the presidency of the United States. The election would have taken place just days before the letter was postmarked. Gilmore also talks about her new Westinghouse electric refrigerator and the new pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church. Wedel said she thinks the Gilmore family built her home in 1890 and that Gertrude was one of their daughters. "It's impossible to really know what may or may not have happened," said Lawrence Postmaster Judy Raney. "No matter what, we always take it and go ahead and send it on." Wedel said she is preserving the letter. She photographed the envelope and four-page letter and scanned them into her computer. She said she now has interest in the family who built the home she's lived in for nearly four years.
"It would be really interesting to see if they are still in town or have any descendants that would know the history behind her and who she was writing," Wedel said.

Polish Paramedics

Man, 66, records 2 holes-in-one in same round

GAYLORD, Mich. (AP) - For somebody who'd been playing golf 50 years and never had a hole-in-one, Bob Hickey got the hang of it quickly. The 66-year-old Grayling man used a 7-iron to card his first-ever ace Thursday on the 167-yard 10th hole at Marsh Ridge in Gaylord. Then Hickey used an 8-iron to ace the 147-yard 17th hole. According to a 2000 Golf Digest article cited by the Traverse City Record-Eagle, the odds of one player making two holes-in-one during the same round are 67 million to 1. Hickey, who finished at 2-over-par 74, says he'd made two eagles but never came close to a hole-in-one before Thursday. The long-haul trucker says he thinks he benefited from "just pure luck."
___

Labrador 'runs' for mayor of Fairhope, Alaska

FAIRHOPE, Ala. (AP) - One of the candidates in the race to become Fairhope's next mayor is considerably more hairy than the rest. He also has twice as many legs and a constantly wagging tail. Wille Bean Roscoe P. Coltrane is a 7-year-old yellow Labrador retriever whose owner has taken a satirical poke at politics by launching the pooch into the race. But Willie Bean may not be up for that rough-and-tumble world.

"When a little dog barks at him, he cringes and he runs away," owner Tress Turner told the Press-Register in a story Sunday. Turner, 43, manages The Coffee Loft, which is also the dog's campaign headquarters where supporters can purchase T-shirts and yard signs. Some of his supporters say all the politicking, name-dropping and sign-maneuvering in the seven-man Fairhope mayoral race is wearing on them weeks ahead of the Aug. 26 election. "I think he polishes up the field," said Vince Kilborn, 66, of Fairhope. "We need new blood."

Kilborn, former Gov. Don Siegelman's chief attorney in his ongoing criminal corruption case, added about the dog: "He doesn't have any skeletons in his closet. He's eaten them all."
The dog's campaign began when a mayoral candidate placed a campaign sign on property that bordered the politically-neutral coffee shop about three weeks ago. Turner told the candidate about her wish to remain out of the race, but he had permission from the neighboring property owner and the sign remained for a few days. "Then, sure enough, customers started pulling in the parking lot and giving us a hard time," Turner said.

The owner of the coffee shop taped a sign to the door saying The Coffee Loft did not endorse the candidate. "It turned into just people laughing and joking and playing. And I was, like, 'You know what? We are going to let Willie Bean run for mayor,'" Turner said. Willie Bean doesn't have a realistic shot at being Fairhope's next mayor since the July 15 qualifying deadline has passed. Still, other dogs have held office. In 2004, Rabbit Hash, Ky., elected Junior Cochran, a black Lab, as mayor. It was the second canine elected to lead the small Northern Kentucky town, according to the town's Web site. The first was a mutt named Goofy Borneman, according to Laurie Lamblin, a resident and employee of the town's historic general store.

Julie Ford, a volunteer at The Haven, Fairhope's no-kill animal shelter, said Willie Bean is setting his sights too low. "I think he should run for president," the 61-year-old Ford said after stopping by the coffee shop.