The jokes just write themselves. Sometimes it is too easy.
Baggy Pants Trip Up Robbery Suspect
Jan 25, 5:11 PM (ET)
COVINGTON, La. (AP) - Police said they caught a 16-year-old robbery suspect who had eluded authorities on several previous occasions when his baggy pants fell down, causing him to stumble as officers chased him.
"We literally caught him with his pants down," Lt. Jack West of Covington police said.
Suspected of robbing a man at gunpoint and stealing another man's car after beating him with a brick, the teenager had run away from police several times in recent weeks, West said.
An officer spotted the teen standing on a street corner Monday, called in for two backup officers, then tried to make an arrest.
"They all converged on him from different directions," West said. "He started to run, but his low-riding pants fell down and he stumbled to his knees."
The suspect, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was booked on warrants for armed robbery, carjacking, two counts of aggravated battery and being a child in need of supervision.
-=-=-=-=-
N.J. Warns: Don't Eat Squirrel Near Dump
Jan 25, 5:36 PM (ET)
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey has warned squirrel hunters near a toxic waste dump about consuming the critters because they could be contaminated with lead.
It is the first time the state has cautioned Ringwood residents - many who are members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe who hunt and fish in the area - about their squirrel intake, said Tom Slater, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Senior Services.
A lead-contaminated squirrel was found in the area two months ago, prompting the agency, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection, to send out letters advising that adults eat squirrel no more than twice a week and even less for children and pregnant women.
Lead, which is harmful in small amounts, can damage the nervous system, red blood cell production and the kidneys.
"We've known for a long time something was wrong here, we just didn't know what it was," resident Myrtle Van Dunk said.
Residents and many environmental activists believe the lead comes from toxic waste, including paint sludge, dumped in the area by the Ford Motor Co. during the 1960s and early 1970s, from its now-closed car manufacturing plant in Mahwah.
Ford is removing thousands of tons of waste from a 500-acre former mining property in the Ringwood area. The site was recently relisted on the federal Superfund list, a ranking of the country's worst environmental dump sites, after multiple cleanups failed to remove all the sludge.
-=-=-=-=-
Welsh Dairy Farmers Milk Area for Dates
Jan 25, 4:52 PM (ET)
By COURTNEY FRENCH
LONDON (AP) - Got milk? Got a date? A group of dairy farmers are putting single's ads on milk cartons in the hopes of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right in the far-flung countryside of Wales.
The novel approach to the singles' scene coincides with Thursday's celebration of St. Dwynwen's Day, the Welsh patron saint of lovers.
"My family thinks I'm nuts," said 30-year-old farmer Iwan Jones, who appears on the cartons and hasn't had a date in a year. "My friends think it's hilarious - but everyone's taking it with kind of a lighthearted attitude."
Three men and two women appear in the ads, which feature an oval photograph under the heading, "Fancy a farmer?" The address for a dating Web site, , is also written on the stickers for those who want to follow up.
http://www.pishynwales.com
Since the ads appeared Monday, the site has received 2,500 hits, or about 10 times the usual daily traffic, said Aran Jones, who runs the nonprofit operation.
The ads are also a way of highlighting the low points of a dairy farmer's hard-scrabble existence in Welsh communities like Camarthenshire, where the cooperative is based 220 miles from London. Farmers say they often feel isolated among the verdant rolling hills dotted with medieval castles.
"It's a beautiful environment, but in terms of actually trying to meet somebody it's not particularly easy - especially when you have to wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning to milk cows," said the cooperative's director Richard Kerr, who is happily married and not pictured in the ads.
It's not just the hours, either. The farmers say many young people have left the farm to seek education and opportunity in the cities. So for Aran Jones, the ads are a way to try to "keep people in the Welsh countryside by helping them meet each other."
Iwan Jones, who owns a 250-acre farm and 100 cows in Denbighshire, 225 miles west of London, said he had received several messages through the Web site so far.
Though he doesn't expect to take anyone out just yet, he's open-minded about the kind of woman he'd like to meet, as long as she has a "good attitude about life."
Aran Jones said most of the Web site's new visitors are probably just starting to get a feel for it and deciding what to include in their online profiles. And no matter what, all the attention has been good for the dating site.
"It's like the first dance of the evening," Jones said.
OK.. what ever turns you on!!
