Kansas — A woman responding to a break-in in her garage found a man having sexual intercourse with her 4-year-old female rottweiler, police said Wednesday.

The woman called police Tuesday night after finding the 20-year-old man.

Police arrested the man, who they say had a prior conviction for the same crime less than six months ago.

“This is the first time that I’ve ever seen this… and I’ve been in law enforcement a long time,” said Lt. Sam Hanley, who leads the department’s sex crimes unit.

The man was booked into Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of criminal sodomy and aggravated burglary.

The burglary was included because the man is suspected of breaking into the garage while someone was home, police said.

He had lived with the family for a while last year in the 3700 block of East Clark, police said.

The man pleaded no contest to having sex with an animal last September in Reno County and was fined $353, according to court documents.

He also can be found on an Internet Web site where people show photos and tell stories about sex with animals, Capt. Darrell Haynes said.

The rottweiler was not injured, Hanley said, but a Kansas Humane Society spokeswoman said the incident still qualifies as animal cruelty.

“It is abuse,” said Jennifer Campbell, director of communications for the Kansas Humane Society. “That is committing a violent act toward that animal.”

Campbell said she hopes investigators explore whether the incident was an attempt to strike out at the dog’s owners.

“That’s where a lot of animal cruelty starts,” she said.

Research has shown that perpetrators “are frustrated and angry and upset, and animals are vulnerable,” Campbell said.

LONDON (AP) – England’s commissioner for children and a civil liberties group joined in on a campaign Tuesday to ban high-frequency devices intended to drive misbehaving children away from shops and other areas.

The so-called “Mosquito” device emits high-frequency noise which is audible – and annoying – to young ears, but generally not heard by people over 20.

“This device is a quick fix that does not tackle the root cause of the problem and it is indiscriminate,” English Children’s Commissioner Al Aynsley-Green said.

The campaigners claim that about 3,500 of the devices, made by a Welsh company, are in use.

Aynsley-Green said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio that the devices do not tackle the real problem, which is that children have no place to gather other than on the streets.

“I think it is a powerful symptom of what I call the malaise at the heart of our society,” he said.

“I’m very concerned about what I see to be an emerging gap between the young and the old, the fears, the intolerance, even the hatred, of the older generation toward the young.”

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, supported the campaign.

“Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids,” Chakrabarti said. “The ‘Mosquito’ has no place in a country that values its children and seeks to instill them with dignity and respect.”

The Mosquito’s inventor, Howard Stapleton, has called for agreement about guidelines for using the devices.

“We tell shopkeepers to use it when they have a problem and I would be more than happy to introduce a contract which stipulates to shopkeepers how it can be used,” Stapleton was quoted as telling the Western Mail newspaper.

“People talk about infringing human rights but what about the human rights of the shopkeeper who is seeing his business collapse because groups of unruly teenagers are driving away his customers?”

LONDON (Reuters) – A chain of retail stores in Britain has withdrawn the sale of beds named Lolita and designed for six-year-old girls after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens.

Woolworths said staff who administer the web site selling the beds were not aware of the connection.

In “Lolita,” a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator becomes sexually involved with his 12-year-old stepdaughter — but Woolworths staff had not heard of the classic novel or two subsequent films based on it.

Hence they saw nothing wrong with advertising the Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a whitewashed wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard intended for girls aged about six until a concerned mother raised the alarm on a parenting website.

“What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either,” a spokesman told British newspapers.

“We had to look it up on (online encyclopedia) Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now.”

Woolworths said the product had now been dropped.

“Now this has been brought to our attention, the product has been removed from sale with immediate effect,” the chain said.

“We will be talking to the supplier with regard to how the branding came about.”

BREMERTON, Wash. — A 25-year-old woman was arrested for investigation of second-degree assault for getting into an argument with her boyfriend over whether his dog should be in the bathroom while the couple were taking a shower together.

A police report said the man, 26, wanted his dog to join them in the bathroom, but the woman objected on Thursday night.

The woman told her boyfriend that if the dog doesn’t stay out, she didn’t want to be his girlfriend anymore. He replied that maybe his next girlfriend would appreciate the dog more, and called her a name.

The police report said the woman punched him in the face several times and the man dislocated his shoulder after the naked couple grappled. He told police his girlfriend threw a picture frame, which broke and cut him.

The woman was taken to the Kitsap County Jail in Port Orchard. Bail has been set at $50,000.

BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) – Art Conrad has an issue with the commercialism of Christmas, and his protest has gone way beyond just shunning the malls or turning off his television. The Bremerton resident nailed Santa Claus to a 15-foot crucifix in front of his house.

“Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be,” Conrad said. “Now he’s the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff.”

A photo of the crucified Santa adorns his Christmas cards, with the message “Santa died for your MasterCard.”

The display is also Conrad’s way of poking fun at political correctness. He believes people don’t express their feelings because they’re afraid of what other people might think.

His neighbors found the will to express their feelings this past week. Some were offended but many were just curious.

Jake Tally walked by on Friday and chuckled, but didn’t pretend to understand the message.

“I don’t really know what to think. I know it’s about God but Santa has nothing to do with it,” he told the Kitsap Sun newspaper.

A surgeon faced a disciplinary hearing for snapping a photo of a patient’s tattooed genitals during an operation and showing it around to other doctors.

Mayo Clinic Hospital administrators said Dr. Adam Hansen, chief resident of general surgery, admitted taking the photo with his cell phone on Dec. 11. The tattoo on strip club owner Sean Dubowik’s penis reads: “Hot Rod.”

Dubowik, who had undergone a gallbladder operation, said he learned of the photo Monday when the Mayo Clinic called.

“I got a strange call after my surgery from a doctor who said there was a problem. He said Hansen was on the phone and would explain,” he said.

Dubowik, 27, said Hansen told him he took the picture while inserting a catheter into his penis. A member of the surgical staff made an anonymous call about the photo to The Arizona Republic on Monday.

“He told me he didn’t want me to read about it in the newspaper first,” Dubowik said.

Hansen wasn’t available for comment earlier in the week, and in a statement posted Friday on the Mayo Clinic Hospital Web site, CEO Denis Cortese states Dr. Adam Hansen “is no longer practicing medicine at Mayo Clinic.”

“Patient privacy is a serious matter, and photographing someone in this manner without a good reason is something we will investigate down to the last detail,” said Dr. Joseph Sirven, education director for Mayo Clinic Arizona, the hospital’s parent organization based in Scottsdale.

Dubowik said he got the tattoo on a bet and that “it was the most horrible thing I ever went though in my life.”

He said he planned to contact an attorney.

“The longer I sit here the angrier I get,” he said.

The two gas stations had rivaled for years. They stood across an intersection from each other on Fort Street in Detroit, where even a penny’s difference was enough to lure customers.

And so came the price war: One station dropped a cent or two, and the other grudgingly followed.

But the seemingly petty back-and-forth escalated Friday, ending with a fatal bullet in BP station owner Jawad Bazzi’s head over what police say was a 3-cent difference in the cost of regular gas.

“It’s crazy,” said a red-eyed Hafed Bazzi, the victim’s nephew. “There had been conflicts before but never like this.”

Here’s what police said happened:

The Marathon station on Fort near Springwells dropped its price to $2.93. That angered Jawad Bazzi, whose regular gas was priced at $2.96.

Bazzi walked across the street with a couple of employees to confront the Marathon owner and his posse.

The groups argued, then began throwing punches. One of Bazzi’s employees hit a Marathon employee with a baseball bat, injuring him.

That’s when the Marathon owner grabbed a handgun and fired three or four times. Bazzi, 45, of Dearborn Heights was shot in the head.

The Marathon owner, whose name wasn’t released Friday, was arrested. He’s identified as a 51-year-old Warren man.

Police at the scene said the handgun was recovered. Those involved in the fight were being interviewed.

After the 10:15 a.m. shooting, more than a dozen of Bazzi’s relatives filled the BP parking lot, hugging each other and glaring at the Marathon station, which was surrounded by police tape and investigators.

They called the gas industry a cutthroat business. One man, his shirt spotted with blood, shielded his face as he climbed into an SUV and was driven away.

Police said they fear retaliation from the BP employees against the Marathon employees, but an evening gathering led by Mohammed Ali Barro, a scholar in the local Islamic community, preached peace at an impromptu memorial service at Byblos Banquets in Dearborn.

Speaking in Arabic, he read from the Quran and told more than 100 of Bazzi’s friends and family members to be patient.

“There’s so many good things to say about Jawad, it’s hard to begin,” said Hafed Bazzi, who is Lebanese. “He made many pledges to mosques and churches.

“I remember as I was growing up, he said that’s what every capable businessman should do.”

Jawad Bazzi had four children, his family said. His wife and other female family members gathered at a relative’s house in Dearborn to mourn.

Hafed Bazzi said his uncle was an area businessman for 30 years. He’d owned the BP since 1994, he said.

Bazzi’s funeral will come quickly, possibly as early as today, his nephew said. He said he expects 1,000 people to attend the service at the Islamic Center of America at 19500 Ford in Dearborn.

“It’s a close community,” he said.

Police said they’re still investigating the case. It hadn’t been turned over yet to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to determine what, if any, charges would be filed.

After the shooting, with the competing station closed, BP’s price per gallon increased to $3.09 for regular.

Disneyland workers were recently forced to close the “Pirates of the Caribbean” attraction after a ride security camera caught a woman apparently dumping human remains, in what may be a growing trend.

Workers at the Anaheim theme park spotted the woman sprinkling an unidentified substance into the water on the “Pirates” ride. Anaheim police were notified of the incident.

The woman told Disney park workers that the substance she dumped was baby powder, but officials are investigating the possibility that she sprinkled human ashes, Local 6 reported.

Some Disney watchers said park-goers tell them that people smuggling in the cremated remains of their loved ones and then sprinkling ashes on rides has been going on for a while.

They said it started at the Haunted Mansion, but now the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride is growing in popularity.

Al Lutz, who runs Miceage.com, told KABC that it is not unusual for people to scatter a loved one’s remains at the happiest place on earth.

Disney officials said they were unaware of any confirmed ash-scattering incidents in the park and didn’t believe it to be a problem, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Park officials said there was no real way of knowing if cremated remains were dumped into the “Pirates” ride.

On Saturday Oct. 7, 2007, At our favorite club “The Castle”, I proposed to my wonderful Princess Dorothy/Tink. With much emotion and excitement for both of us, well, the title says it all… She Said Yes!.

Some of my friends I see more often have known for a week or longer I’d been planning this. And I suppose I could have planned this better, to have pictures taken that night and such. But I guess I had only a few thoughts on my mind that evening, and the fanfare and cameras simply were not among them.

The night was wonderful, with Tom, the DJ taking the time to make a big “official” announcement over the sound system, and Tia, our favorite bartender, making sure we had ‘toasting’ material at hand. Many friends congratulated us, and I’m surely in big trouble with the boi-friends of a lot of grrls we know at the club

As reported from Dlisted.

“A newfangled extravagance is spreading amongst the music-lover youngsters of New York, which, after invading America, is sure to conquer the whole world. Ears becoming pointed as a result of plastic surgery not only enhance the attractiveness of the face, but also improve the experience of listening to music.”

Get some plastic surgery!

(Ed note: I can’t decide if this is way hot or way scary. Whichever the case, I’m sure someone will note that it may be illogical.)

Springfield, Ill. — A man who apparently was feeling an urge to commit a sex crime tried to remove his own testicles overnight.

The 59-year-old man was bleeding profusely when police arrived around 8:15 p.m., but he is expected to survive.

The man used a fillet knife to remove one testicle and flushed it down the toilet. The other testicle was nearly cut off.

The man then called a friend for help. He was rushed to the hospital after police and paramedics arrived.

He told police he was feeling the urge to touch and hurt children. He previously had been in trouble for sex-related issues. He said he was not trying to take his life but was trying to stem the urge.

Last night I left the building without saying a word to a few people who had waited outside to meet me. I thought that they’d been told that I was just going to get straight on the bus.
That’s one of the very few times I’ve ever done that in my career. In fact I don’t remember that ever happening before. By and large I’d give myself pretty much full marks for politeness and consideration.
Unfortunately an incident took place towards the end of the set that really shook me up. And believe me..in the 30 years I’ve been performing, I’m not that easily shaken. The security at the hall were extremely lax, and Mr “Nightmare on Elm Street “( or whatever weird thing was going on in his head) should never have been allowed to get anywhere near. Trust me…it wasn’t nice.
I’m usually very patient and easy going with most kinds of behaviour in an audience…but that was really freakish and disturbing, whatever the hell it was. He owes me and my band a fucking apology.
Anyhow I send my apologies to anyone who waited. What a drag. If you ask anyone who’s waited for me after any of my shows, they’ll tell you that I usually spend quite some time signing etc…
But you know what…Hey…I’m a human being folks..and I just needed to get out of there because I’d had it. I’m really sorry if you waited for me…normally it would have been completely different.

– from Annie’s official website.

Indiana, Pa. — The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said.

The two deliverymen were “apparently bickering back and forth” while unloading their wares at the Indiana County store, police said. When the Coke deliveryman left the store, his counterpart allegedly punched him in the face three times, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye, police said.

No charges have been filed, but police characterized the incident as a misdemeanor simple assault.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Doctors plugged an Italian tourist into a drip-feed of vodka to save him at a hospital in Australia that ran out of the medicinal alcohol it would normally have used for treatment.

The 24-year-old Italian, who was not further identified, was brought to Mackay Base Hospital in northeastern Queesland state and was diagnosed as having ingested a large quantity of ethylene glycol, a common ingredient of antifreeze that can cause renal failure.

Pure alcohol is often given in treating such cases because it can inhibit the toxic effects of ethylene glycol.

Mackay Base Hospital Dr. Pascal Gelperowicz said the man was given pharmaceutical-grade alcohol when he arrived, but that the hospital’s supplies soon ran out.

“We quickly used all the available vials of 100 per cent alcohol and decided the next best way to get alcohol into the man’s system was by feeding him spirits through a naso gastric tube,” Dr. Gelperowicz said in a statement.

“The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit,” he said. “The hospital’s administrators were also very understanding when we explained our reasons for buying a case of vodka.”

The patient, was believed to have ingested the poison in an attempt at self-harm, made a successful recover. The incident occurred about two months ago, though the hospital just released information on the case.

MEXICO CITY (AP) – An aspiring horror novelist was arrested after police discovered his girlfriend’s torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box, a city prosecutors’ spokesman said Thursday.

Jose Luis Calva told police he had boiled some of his girlfriend’s flesh but that he hadn’t eaten it, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case.

Calva told police he was a writer and poet—officers found the draft of a novel titled “Cannibalistic Instincts,” he said.

Investigators were trying to determine if chunks of fried meat found in a pan in the apartment were human, the spokesman said.

Police came to Calva’s apartment Monday after neighbors reported a fetid smell. They discovered the dismembered body of his girlfriend Alejandra Galeana in a closet, the spokesman said. A leg and pieces of an arm were in a refrigerator and there were bones inside a cereal box.

The family of Galeana, a 30-year-old pharmacy clerk, reported her missing on Friday and told police of her relationship with Calva, the official said.

Calva is being investigated in the killings of two other women, including an ex-girlfriend, also a pharmacy worker, whose dismembered body was found in 2004, and an unidentified prostitute who was killed earlier this year.

Calva tried to run from police to avoid arrest, but was struck by a car and was still hospitalized on Thursday

OAK PARK, Ill. — “Last year we would see maybe as many as 10 students on one side (of the hallway), 10 on the other and then, going in opposite directions, would sort of have a hug line going on and you could see where that would be a problem,” said Victoria Sharts, principal of Oak Park’s Percy Julian Middle School.

So this year Sharts decided to draw the line on hug lines by banning all hugging among students within the building.

Sharts said, “Hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls.”

When teachers started enforcing the new policy last month all hallways and classrooms in the 860-student school became hug-free zones.

Sixth grader Isabella Miller disagrees with the crackdown. “I don’t think that that’s right”

Her father agrees with her.

“It seems like a crazy idea to me,” Mark Miller said.

The principal says the rampant hugging is creating bottle necks in the hallway and making kids late for class. Furthermore she says although hugs are supposed to be handshakes from the heart some times they don’t seem so innocent.

“Too long, too close, and usually between boys and girls,” Sharts said.

After school, while safely outside the building, the students seemed determined to show what they think of the policy, one hug at a time.

Sharts said the hug ban is just one element of a comprehensive discipline and anti-bullying plan. High-fiving in the hallways is also frowned upon.

MERLIN, Oregon — The state of Oregon has ordered a family to turn in the vanity license plates on its cars because their Dutch last name, which is written on the plates, is similar to an offensive word.

The plates, UDINK1 UDINK2 and UDINK3 are on the vehicles of Mike and Shelly Udink and their son Kalei. Two of the plates are five and seven years old. One was issued last year.

Last summer, Kawika Udink’s application for UDINK4 was rejected and the state ordered that the other three plates be returned.

“DINK has several derogatory meanings,” Yvonne Bell, who sits on the Department of Motorvehicles panel that approves vanity plates, told the Daily Courier newspaper.

DMV spokesman David House and Bell said the word can be treated as a verb, which gives it a sexual reference, and also can be a racial slur targeted at the Vietnamese.

House said the “U” in the front could be construed as “You.”

The DMV denies requests for any combination of letters and numbers that may be viewed as objectionable, in any language, by use of phonetic, numeric or reverse spelling, or when viewed as a mirror image, or that would alarm or offend a reasonable person.

Intimate body parts or sexual or bodily functions are taboo, as are offensive references to race, color, gender, ethnic heritage, or national origin or to alcohol or drugs or paraphernalia.

The panel’s ruling surprised Mike Udink, whose name is Dutch. He says it is a common last name in The Netherlands.

“Since when can a panel dictate whether your name’s offensive or not?” asked Udink, a lineman for Pacific Power.

House said the state has the right to censor license plates, because the state owns them.

Hybrid embryos containing both human and animal material could be created in British laboratories within months.

The controversial research was given a green light yesterday by the UK’s fertility regulator.

A shortage of human eggs led scientists to seek permission to make hybrid embryos from human skin cells and animal eggs such as those from cows, which are plentiful in slaughterhouses.

Two teams of scientists are poised to start making cow-human hybrids for research into incurable diseases, with at least one project expected to start by the end of the year.

Stem cell expert Dr Stephen Minger, who wants to use the embryos to study conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease, said the work could “revolutionise drug discovery”.

But the decision by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is likely to be subject to a High Court challenge, with opponents claiming the watchdog is not entitled to rule on the issue.

Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said last night: “There is a sense from some people that scientists should never be stopped in their tracks.

“Reproduction with animals has been taboo since the beginning of recorded time and that taboo has remained with us for a reason.

“This is tampering at a very basic level.”

Britain is one of the first Western countries to approve such research.

SMYRNA, Tenn. — A man who authorities say used his computer to make fake $100 bills to buy lap dances at a strip club has pleaded guilty to counterfeiting charges, federal prosecutors said.

Strippers at Deja Vu in Nashville were suspicious of the bills and called police after Damon Armagost spent $600 of the fake money April 16, authorities said.

When officers arrived, Armagost first told them he got the money when he sold gold coins for $1,400 to an unidentified person.

U.S. Secret Service agents later determined that counterfeit bills with the same serial number had been passed in other parts of the country. When they went to Armagost’s Smyrna home, about 20 miles southeast of Nashville, a family member told agents that an image of a $100 bill had been on a computer there.

Armagost then acknowledged that he had downloaded the image from the Internet and printed 14 of the bills, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty Friday to manufacturing and passing counterfeit currency and has a sentencing date of Nov. 5.

An Oklahoma City man has been charged with aggravated assault and battery, accused of causing extensive damage to another man’s scrotum just because he wore a University of Texas shirt into a local bar.

Allen Michael Beckett, 53, has not been arrested on the felony charge, which was filed Monday in Oklahoma County District Court. It carries up to five years in prison if he is convicted.

Beckett is accused of having launched a verbal attack on Brian Thomas when the other man walked into Henry Hudson’s Pub at 3509 NW 58 on June 17, according to court documents.

What happened:

Thomas said Beckett, whom he had never met, called him “everything under the sun” for wearing a Longhorns T-shirt into the bar.

He said he and his friend sat at a table in the corner and tried to ignore the other man, but other man — who apparently is a University of Oklahoma fan — kept screaming at him.

Thomas said he decided he’d had enough after about 20 minutes of Beckett’s abuse so he went to the bar to pay his tab. When he turned around, he said Beckett grabbed his crotch and refused to let go.

Thomas hit the other man several times before several bar patrons intervened, but Thomas said Beckett didn’t let go until Thomas heard his scrotum tear and blood ran down his leg.

Thomas, who grew up a Texas fan, said it took more than 60 stitches to close his wound.

Two months later, he said he still is a lot of pain.The injury also caused Thomas to fall behind on his child support payments because he couldn’t work.

A woman in Australia has been killed by her pet camel after the animal may have tried to have sex with her.

The woman was found dead at the family’s sheep and cattle ranch near the town of Mitchell in Queensland.

The woman had been given the camel as a 60th birthday present earlier this year because of her love of exotic pets.

The camel was just 10 months old but already weighed 152kg (336lbs) and had come close to suffocating the family’s pet goat on a number of occasions.

On Saturday, the woman apparently became the object of the male camel’s desire.

It knocked her to the ground, lay on top of her and displayed what the police delicately described as possible mating behaviour.

“I’d say it’s probably been playing, or it may be even a sexual sort of thing,” the Associated Press news agency quoted Queensland police Detective Senior Constable Craig Gregory as saying.

Young camels are not normally aggressive but can become more threatening if treated and raised as pets.

BEIJING (AP) – A Chinese couple seeking a distinctive name for their child settled on the e-mail ‘at’ symbol—annoying government officials grappling with an influx of unorthodox names.

The unidentified couple were cited Thursday by a government official as an example of citizens bringing bizarre names into the Chinese language.

Written Chinese does not use an alphabet but is comprised of characters, sometimes making it difficult to develop words for new or foreign objects and ideas. As of last year, only 129 names accounted for 87 percent of all surnames in China, Li Yuming, vice director of the State Language Commission, said at a news conference.

The letters ‘a’ and ‘t’ can be pronounced in a way that sounds like the phrase “love him” in Chinese.

The father “said ‘the whole world uses it to write e-mails and, translated into Chinese, it means ‘love him,’” Li said.

Li did not say if police, who are the arbiters of names because they issue identity cards, rejected baby ‘at.’

MADISON, Wis. – Three men who dug up a young woman’s corpse to have sex with it after seeing her obituary photo cannot be charged with attempted sexual assault because Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

A judge was correct to dismiss the charges against twin brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke and Dustin Radke, all 21, because lawmakers never intended to criminalize sex with a corpse, the District 4 Court of Appeals said in a 3-0 ruling.

The three men went to a cemetery in Cassville in southwestern Wisconsin on Sept. 2 to remove the body of Laura Tennessen, 20, who had been killed the week before in a motorcycle crash.

The men used shovels to reach her grave. They abandoned their plan and were eventually arrested after a vehicle drove into the cemetery and reported suspicious behavior, authorities said.

They said the men had seen an obituary of Tennessen with her photo and wanted to dig up her body to have sexual intercourse. Such an act is known as necrophilia.

The men were charged with attempted third-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor attempted theft charges. But Grant County Circuit Judge George Curry dismissed the sexual assault charges in September, saying no Wisconsin law addressed necrophilia. Prosecutors appealed his ruling.

At issue is a provision in the sexual assault law saying criminal penalties apply “whether a victim is dead or alive at the time of the sexual contact or sexual intercourse.”

The appeals court said the law was ambiguous but the most reasonable interpretation was that it does not ban necrophilia. Instead, the court said, the law was meant to make sure prosecutors could bring sexual assault charges in rape-murder cases in which the victim ends up dead.

Outrage over the case might soon change the law.

Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, introduced legislation Wednesday that would make having sex with a corpse a felony with punishment of up to 6 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The bill would levy the same penalties against anyone who intentionally disturbs a burial site or a buried human corpse.

Sherborn, MASS — A Sherborn teen was charged yesterday with having sex with sheep at a farm near his home, and police reports suggest the encounters may have gone on for nearly a year.

Roger Henderson II, 18, was arraigned yesterday in Natick District Court on charges of bestiality, cruelty to animals and breaking and entering in connection with an incident police say took place at Boggastow Farm on June 27.

According to a police report, the farm’s barn had been the target of at least a dozen break-ins between August 2006 and June 2007, prompting the property owner to install surveillance cameras.

Between 3 and 4 a.m. on June 27, according to police, the camera captured and filmed a person identified as Roger Henderson II.

The man grabbed a sheep by its hind legs and dragged it to the corner of the stall, according to police. The man removed his clothes and appeared to have sexual relations with the sheep. After finishing, the man put his pants back on and left the barn with his shirt in his hand, according to the report.

Following his arraignment yesterday, Henderson was released to the custody of his parents, on the condition he stay at least 30 yards away from the farm, and animals in general.

The teen also was ordered to “report immediately to Leonard Morse (Hospital) to continue current mental health treatment,” according to court documents.

A woman at Boggastow Farm yesterday shouted, “no comment” to reporters before later threatening to call police.

Yesterday’s proceedings took just minutes, as not guilty pleas were entered on the three charges and didn’t require Henderson to appear in open court. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and police met with Judge Douglas Stoddard behind closed doors before agreeing to release the teen to his parents.

Following the proceeding, Henderson left the court through a back door, covering his face with a black T-shirt. He was quickly whisked away in a dark red Jeep Cherokee.

Henderson is due back in court Sept. 4 for a pretrial conference.

BRATTLEBORO, Vermont (Reuters) – A Vermont town that is gaining national attention for brash displays of nudity — from teens in the buff to naked elderly people — awoke on Wednesday to an emergency ban on nakedness in most public places.

Officials in Brattleboro voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday night for a temporary 30-day ordinance prohibiting people from going about in the nude.

Public nudity made headlines last summer when the weather grew hot and a couple of dozen teens took to holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past stores wearing only their birthday suits. The disrobing has resumed this summer.

But many locals say it has gone too far. Some cite a case in which a senior citizen from Arizona strolled through the center of town wearing only a waist pack and sandals.

“We’ve received quite a number of complaints on this,” Assistant Town Manager Barbara Sondag said. “This was brought up last summer … and kind of died down. Then a couple of incidents again this summer have got the issue to resurface.”

Vermont has a live-and-let-live tradition, allowing skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing. Brattleboro, the first permanent English settlement in the state in 1724, is home to a community of writers, artists and musicians as well as transplanted entrepreneurs from Boston and New York.

Although skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing will stay legal in the state, doing the “full monty” in the middle of this town has now become taboo. A violation can cost $100.

The topic is hotly debated at Harold & Son’s Barbershop, where Heather Birmingham, 30, cuts and colors hair.

“(Nudity) does rub some people the wrong way,” she said.

“Some people say ‘to each his own’. But some of the older people say ‘be respectful’.”

She disagrees with the ban. “This whole town is about peace and about being your own person. So if it is, then why isn’t nudity accepted?”

Caleb Morris, 15, said he wasn’t surprised by the town’s tough response because outsiders could find the nudity offensive, but he added that Vermont has always been unique.

“It’s a lot more free-spirited than some other states. We don’t have a lot of laws banning things here.”

The ban covers nudity in the main part of town and near schools and churches and is part of a broader anti-nudity proposal that is likely to be decided next month. Breast feeding in public will still be allowed.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Topless women on parade? That was fine. Teenagers loitering in the buff, in a downtown parking lot? No problem. Naked sunbathers at swimming holes? It was just au naturel.

But a senior citizen in his birthday suit, walking through the center of town on a Friday night, wearing only a fanny pack? That’s where Brattleboro draws a fig leaf.

After years of allowing public nudity, the town famous for its strip-and-let-strip attitude is considering banning it in parts of town, saying naked notoriety has begun drawing people here and is offending locals.

The town’s Select Board plans to introduce an emergency ordinance banning nudity in some parts of town Tuesday.

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” said Select Board member Dick DeGray. “You can’t go into a store and buy an adult magazine until you’re 18, and yet you can walk down the street in Vermont and see naked people. There’s something wrong with that picture.”

On July 6, a 68-year-old man showed up naked downtown, walking the streets during Gallery Walk, a monthly social event in which people roam downtown, stopping in art galleries and shops. Gallery owner Suzanne Corsano was locking up for the night when she encountered him on a sidewalk.

“Naked people don’t impress me,” said Corsano, 60. “But to be walking down the street like that. I just looked straight at him, and he looked down. He was trying to get me to look down there, but I wouldn’t.”

The man told residents he was from Arizona and had decided to vacation in Brattleboro after reading about its public nudity freedom on the Internet.

Vermont has no state laws against public nudity, although a handful of cities and towns have enacted anti-nudity ordinances.

Brattleboro flirted with the idea of an anti-nudity ordinance last summer when a group of teenagers took to hanging around a downtown parking lot in the nude, which led to national publicity and triggered telephone calls from curious people in faraway places.

“They’ll call up and say, `So, I hear you’ve got a lot of naked people running around town,’” said Jerry Goldberg, executive director of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce.

Some would-be visitors call to say they are putting off their planned visit because they’re worried about public nudity, he said. Town officials worry, too: The idea of naked people spoiling Gallery Walk night by scaring away families with children is chilling.

“Every time you guys do one of your articles, people come from all over,” said police Capt. Steven Rowell.

Last week, a man charged with a felony sex crime for dancing naked in the street pleaded to a lesser offense and got a one-year deferred sentence. Adhi Palar, 20, of Brattleboro, was among the group that dabbled with nudity last summer. He was cited because police said he was seen dancing naked and pulling a piece of clothing back and forth between his legs, rubbing his genitals.

Public nudity is far from an everyday occurrence, but many here want it regulated.

“It’s time they did something about it,” said Sherwood Smith, manager of Baskets Bookstore, which is located near a parking lot where naked teens gathered last summer. “It hurts a store like this. People who are likely to buy used books are often conservative middle-aged people, or older.”

Not everyone agreed.

“I don’t like the idea of them taking the rights to something natural away,” said Rhiannon Curtis, 19. “I like to swim naked, and that would be affected if they do this. Vermont doesn’t need to conform to the rest of society’s uptight rules.”

The Red Robin restaurant chain is taking action after a Twin Cities family won a bear with an ad for Viagra at one of its restaurants.

Joe Kelner, 11, won a bear while playing the claw machine at the Red Robin in Shoreview.

Joe’s parents thought it was inappropriate and complained to restaurant employees.

“It’s important for parents to know that there are maybe inappropriate toys in these vending machines that you think are safe,” Lori Kelner said.

Red Robin says the bears were supplied by a local vendor from New York as part of a Nascar package promoting its sponsors.
The company said they are removing the bears from all its restaurants.

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. (AP) – Authorities tracked down a 4-year-old girl who called 911 nearly 300 times last month by offering to deliver McDonald’s to her suburban Chicago apartment.

Unbeknownst to her mother, the girl used a deactivated cell phone to call dispatchers 287 times in June—sometimes as often as 20 times a shift.

Dispatchers heard the child’s voice but could only track the phone’s signal to the apartment complex.

So authorities used a ruse to pinpoint her.

“We asked (the caller) what she wanted. She said she wanted McDonald’s,” said Steve Cordes, executive director of QuadCom’s emergency center, which covers Carpentersville.

“We talked with her and we convinced her if she told us where she lives, we would bring her McDonald’s,” he said. “She finally gave us her address. So we sent the police over—with no McDonald’s.”

After police arrived, the girl’s mother took away the phone, Cordes said.

Under federal law, deactivated cell phones still must be able to access 911. Many deactivated phones will contact an emergency call center if the user holds down the nine key.

NEW YORK — A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant was attacked by a man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said.

Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city’s Center for Animal Care and Control.

“It’s just unbelievable that someone would do something to a poor, defenseless animal and do it in such a cruel fashion,” he said.

The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Burger King parking lot in the New York borough of Staten Island and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees were feeding him bread when the man appeared.

He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19.

“He was going crazy,” she said.

Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, “‘I’m killing a vampire!’”

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them. Authorities were looking for the attacker, described as in his teens or early 20s.

It was not clear how the bird made his way to the Burger King, but a Staten Island resident who raises peacocks said he had given some to a person who lives near the restaurant.

A middle school teacher in Prescott, Wis. has been fired and the Pierce County Sheriff is investigating claims she had sex with a 13-year-old student.

“It’s just shocking to hit Prescott like this,” said Tom Riley a Prescott resident.

The 38-year-old woman was a substitute at Prescott Middle School.

The student’s father said he found the two having a middle of the night rendezvous together at the teacher’s home after the boy stole his mother’s car.

Sources said the woman’s husband and 13-year-old daughter were home at the time.

The father filed a restraining order which claims the two had sexual intercourse. He said he has copies of e-mails between the two.

Zach Simones, who coached the 13-year-old boy on the seventh grade football team, said he is sickened by the incident.

“He was dating the lady’s 13-year-old daughter before this happened,” said Simones.

The woman taught at both the middle and high schools, but the superintendent said his investigation has turned up no other students who were involved with this woman.

The school superintendent also said the teacher and student did not meet in the classroom.

The Pierce County Sheriff confirms that they are investigating.

BERLIN (Reuters) – An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.

The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said Thursday.

With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.

The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

“After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man’s garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh,” the spokesman said. “Then he killed it with his crutch.”

The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s conservative government took its drive to curb what it sees as homosexual propaganda to the small screen on Monday, taking aim at Tinky Winky and the other Teletubbies.

Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local magazine published on Monday she was concerned the popular BBC children’s show promoted homosexuality.

She said she would ask psychologists to advise if this was the case.

In comments reminiscent of criticism by the late U.S. evangelist Jerry Falwell, she was quoted as saying: “I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady’s purse, but I didn’t realize he’s a boy.”

“At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby … Later I learned that this may have a homosexual undertone.”

Poland’s rightist government has upset human rights groups and drawn criticism within the European Union by apparent discrimination against homosexuals.

Polish Education Minister Roman Giertych has proposed laws sacking teachers who promote “homosexual lifestyle” and banning “homo-agitation” in schools.

But in a sign that the government wants to distance itself from Sowinska’s comments, Parliamentary Speaker Ludwig Dorn said he had warned her against making public comments “that may turn her department into a laughing stock.”

A horde of decaying zombies invaded San Francisco’s downtown Apple store on Friday evening, hunting for brains, terrifying the customers, and gnawing on iMacs.

Photos here. I’m pleased to report that the zombies ultimately decided human brains were tastier than plastic iMacs, although it wasn’t for lack of effort in trying to vary what must be a monotonous diet.

It was difficult to judge the exact number of zombies that shuffled through the city’s shopping district, losing limbs, blood, and unmentionable body parts along the way, but probably at least 150 converged on Union Square. Then they decided to visit nearby businesses, including the Apple store, Nordstrom, the Disney store, and the Westfield Mall.

The event was titled “SF Zombie Mob 2007,” and it was organized by the gruesome-minded folks at eatbrains.com. It’s akin to a flash mob, though because the participants trek around the city after gathering, the Zombie Mob was closer in concept to the Critical Mass bicycle ride, which coincidentally was happening at the same time along the same street. In truth, it was a pretty polite affair: only passers-by who volunteered to become zombie-fied were, and no arrests took place.

It may be worth noting that the Westfield Mall and Disney security tried to bar the zombies from entering, but Apple store security did not. In fact, salespeople were jostling one another for a position where they could take the best photo of the zombies (or themselves with the zombies, or their brains being eaten by the zombies).

The parent company of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast food chains sued rival Jack In The Box Inc. on Friday to stop TV ads that it says suggest Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s use cow anus to make Angus beef hamburgers.

CKE Restaurants Inc. sued Jack In The Box in U.S. District Court on Friday over an ad in which executives laugh hysterically at the word “Angus” and another where the chain’s pingpong ball-headed mascot, Jack, is asked to point to a diagram of a cow and show where Angus meat comes from.

“I’d rather not,” the pointy-nosed Jack replies.

The employee asking the question traces a circle in the air with his pen while pronouncing the word Angus.

CKE claims the ads create the misleading impression that Jack In The Box’s new 100 percent sirloin burgers use a better quality of meat than the Angus beef used by Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. CKE claims the spots confuse consumers by comparing sirloin, a cut of meat found on all cattle, with Angus, which is a breed of cattle.

Executives at San Diego-based Jack In The Box had not seen the lawsuit and could not respond, company spokeswoman Kathleen Anthony said.

Restaurants owned by Burger King Holdings Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. also serve Angus beef burgers.

CKE is known for running controversial ads for its chains, including one featuring a scantily clad Paris Hilton washing a car while eating a burger. But CKE claims the Jack In the Box ads go too far.

“They’re not being funny,” CKE chief executive Andrew F. Puzder said Friday. “They need to stop misleading people about what Angus beef is.”

Puzder said that the company asked Jack In the Box to drop the ads, but that the chain refused and pointed to a Carl’s Jr. TV spot suggesting Carl’s Jr. milk shakes were superior to those served by competitors.

Puzder said the comparison was not valid because the Carl’s Jr. ads did not suggest that Jack In the Box shakes were made from milk that came from an unsavory part of the cow.

Bleary-eyed Tony Wright is tomorrow set to beat the world record for sleep deprivation – after staying awake for more than 11 days.

The 43-year-old has gone without kip since 6am on May 14, and will break the existing record of 264 hours at 6.01am tomorrow.

Tony, a father-of-three, has held his entire record-waking attempt in the Studio Bar in Penzance, Cornwall.

Carefully monitored by six CCTV cameras and a live web cam, he has spent his time playing pool, listening to music, drinking tea and talking to his supporters.

If he is still awake at 6.01am he will have been awake for 264 hours 1 mins – breaking the existing world record set in 1964 by 17-year-old Randy Gardner.

But Tony, of Penzance, will try and stay up until 8am – setting a new record of 266 hours. He said: “I do feel very strange – everything around me has become more intense and after a while and colours seem brighter.

“My eyes have become very sensitive. I had to start wearing sunglasses after 70 hours because looking at a laptop was sending me into a trance.

“There were a couple of tricky moments where I could feel my body wanting to shut down and I had to act quickly to stimulate it.

“I’ve played so much pool that I actually hurt my back and my arm. My playing has definitely improved.”

He added: “I’ve had to be careful of ‘sleep ambushes’ which happen when you’re not on guard and get yourself into a comfortable position.

“Suddenly I would realise I was relaxing and the urge to sleep was dragging me down – I had to jump up, eat or drink something and occupy myself.

“It was tricky striking a balance between being active but not wearing myself out. My voice is very hoarse and I’m sure I look a right state.”

Tony, a writer and researcher, launched his bizarre record attempt in order to study the effects of a lack of sleep has on the human brain.

He believes that each side of the brain requires a different amount of sleep and with preparation it is possible to stay awake and remain functional for long periods.

To prepare for his bid he ate a strict diet of raw vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds and took regular exercise.

Although the Guinness Book of Records officially recognised Randy Gardner’s record in 1964, the organisation has since withdrawn its backing of a sleep deprivation class because of the associated health risks.

But Tony plans to keep a full video record of the entire 11 days as proof he is a world beater. He said: “I might not make it into Guinness but I have set a world record and it is there to be beaten by anyone who wants to try.

“This is my life project and I’m very happy to prove you can stay awake for long periods of time without suffering adverse reactions.

“I am now looking forward to getting under a duvet.”

Scientists say depriving the body of sleep for long periods can result in depression, dizziness, hallucinations, irritability, nausea and loss of memory.

Dr Robin Rodd, a lecturer in anthropology at the James Cook University in Australia, said Tony’s record-breaking project was an “exciting new breakthrough” for sleep studies.

He said: “His sleep deprivation research project, which combines a long-term raw foods diet replicating that of early modern humans with the collection of data on cognition and physiological functioning, promises to yield exciting new breakthroughs in our understanding of the limits of human consciousness.”

Randy Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours in San Diego, USA, as part of or a high school science project into sleep patterns.

Cannes – A semi-documentary about a group of US men who had sex with horses has taken the title as the most shocking movie at the Cannes film festival.

But while Zoo has drawn big, curious crowds at its screenings, the real unsettling quality about the movie is its approach: it depicts the men in a sympathetic light, one that tries to push the viewers to understanding their sexual perversion.

The documentary – in which actors recreate non-explicit scenes under audio interviews with some of the men involved – centres on a true-life incident.

In July 2005, a 45-year-old man died of internal bleeding after being anally penetrated by an Arabian stallion during a bestiality weekend in the US state of Washington.

The victim, a Boeing engineer working on top-secret defence projects named Kenneth Pinyan, suffered a perforated colon.

The ensuing investigation led police – and eventually much of the national media – to the farm where the interaction took place, outing the other members of the group.

Independent filmmaker Robinson Devor shies away from prurient imagery, instead enveloping the story in rich photography that gives it a dreamlike beauty overwhelming the sordidness of the subject matter.

Absence of judgement

“In this film, there were things with much more importance to us than the sex aspect,” he told journalists after a screening in the sidebar Directors’ Fortnight section.

He said the absence of judgement was a deliberate choice, one reinforced after he watched some of the actual videos the men had taken of their horse sessions – footage that doesn’t make it into the film, apart from the barest of glimpses at one point.

“They showed us the videos not to show us pornography, but to show an animal that wanted to be with them,” Devor said, though he added that he kept some scepticism about the taped acts.

“We don’t know what the conditioning was (for the horses).”

Many reviews have been favourable to the approach taken by Devor and his team.

“They’ve crafted a subdued, mysterious and intensely beautiful film that presents bestiality not for the purpose of titillation?but as a way of investigating the subjective nature of morality,” the movie trade magazine Variety wrote.

‘Mammal to mammal love’

The men heard in the film are remarkably honest about their motivations. One of them argues “mammal to mammal” love should not be seen as wrong.

Another firmly rejects the tag “bad person” his employer lays upon him before he is sacked. They all say the horses were willing participants.

Indeed, the only judgement seemingly expressed in the documentary is not on the matter in the stable at all. It is in fleeting radio references to US President George W Bush’s “war on terror” and the presumed complicity-for-profit of big companies such as Boeing.

Even the cast ended up feeling compassion for the men depicted in Zoo.

John Paulsen, who played Pinyan, said he believed the engineer had been on a self-destructive streak linked to his defence work, a divorce and injuries from a motorcycle accident.

“Here’s a man whose greatest loves in his life were so secret, so private,” and who abruptly had “these great secrets in his life made so public by dying in such a public and humiliating way,” he said.

But Paulsen himself acknowledged the black humour surrounding the incident, and now the film, saying that “in a way, it’s a classic Western, except here it’s the horse riding the man.”

He added with a smile: “I call this role my 15 inches of fame.”

A guy walks into a post office and buys $8,000 worth of stamps.

Sounds like the start of something, but there’s no punch line.

Someone walked into the post office in Camp Hill, PA the other day and bought $8,000 worth of Forever Stamps.

The Forever Stamp is a 41-cent stamp that debuted last month. If you buy one, you can use it now and forever — no matter where the cost of a stamp soars.

“It’s not really designed to be an investment,” said Mark Hnasko, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in central Pennsylvania.

In fact, when the Postal Service unveiled the stamp in Philadelphia on April 12, it focused on convenience, not savings.

The Forever Stamp, which features a likeness of the Liberty Bell, brings “freedom and independence from using 1- and 2-cent stamps for mailing letters when stamp prices change in the future,” the Postal Service said.

Note: That’s when they change, not if.

Hnasko said the new stamps have been popular, but “that’s really a rare occurrence for somebody to buy that many.”

And just how many is that many?

Dropping $8,000 at the post office would get you 19,512 Forever Stamps and a couple of pennies in change.

You could send a lot of checks to creditors or invitations to one really big event.

The stamps are sold in sheets of 20, not rolls. That makes them ideal for individuals and less attractive for businesses, said John Schlotter, the postmaster at Camp Hill.

But even an $8,000 sale couldn’t deplete the stock at Camp Hill.

“We have plenty, and we have plenty of 2-cent stamps,” Schlotter said.

Because the cost of mailing a letter increased from 39 cents to 41 cents on Monday, post offices have been bustling with people buying 2-cent stamps.

Those who buy the Forever Stamps will never have to queue up for extra postage.

So maybe that’s the punch line: Guy goes into the post office and buys $8,000 worth of Forever Stamps — and now he never has to wait in line in the post office again.

A man cut off his own head with a chainsaw after stabbing his 70-year-old father to death in their apartment in the German city of Cologne, police said.

The body of the offender, 24, was found headless when police raced to the apartment after an emergency call, apparently from the dying father, had been broken off in mid-sentence.

Alf Willwacher, a senior prosecutor, said an electric chainsaw was next to the son’s body.

“We do not believe any third party was involved,” he said.

Neighbours said the father and son had been reclusive since the death of the mother, allegedly by suicide, several years ago.

RAPID CITY — Heather Moriah loves the personalized license plates on her silver Prius encouraging the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

But somebody doesn’t agree. And that somebody complained to the state. Now, the South Dakota Division of Motor Vehicles is trying to recall the plates — which read MPEACHW. And if Moriah doesn’t turn them in voluntarily, the state might send law-enforcement officers to pick them up.

Even so, she’s not immediately inclined to cooperate.

“I don’t think I’m going to play,” Moriah said Thursday afternoon. “The plate isn’t in poor taste. It‘s not sexual in nature or pornographic. To me, a political message should not be considered offensive.”

But Division of Motor Vehicles director Deb Hillmer said Thursday that the law clearly gives the state authority to recall the plates and have them forcibly removed if necessary. And although only one person complained about Moriah’s political statement, that’s all it takes to recall a set of vanity plates, Hillmer said.

“I’m following the letter of the law,” she said. “It’s offensive to someone and not in good taste and decency. And the plates are the property of the state of South Dakota.”

State law declares motor vehicle licenses plates to be the property of the state as long as the plates are valid. The law also allows personalized plates with as many as seven letters for an extra $25 fee. But it gives DMV officials the right to refuse to issue “any letter combination which carries connotations offensive to good taste and decency.”

Hillmer said MPEACHW meets that criterion. The plates never would have been issued if DMV officials had caught their meaning at the time Moriah applied, Hillmer said.

“This was one that we apparently missed when it came through originally, and we received a complaint from an individual that found it offensive,” she said, declining to identify the individual or provide the contents of the complaint. “I don’t think we ever would have issued it if we’d have picked up on what it was inferring.”

Moriah said she bought the 2005 Prius late last summer and fitted it with personalized plates similar to those her partner, Curt Finnegan, had on his blue 2004 Prius. His plates actually read: IMPCH-W.

Moriah said has received plenty of positive reactions in public to her plates and that negative responses have been rare. So she was surprised to receive the April 18 letter from the DMV announcing the recall and giving her 10 days to turn in the plates at the Pennington County Treasurer’s Office or the DMV office in Pierre.

The letter said DMV would issue a refund on the months remaining on Moriah’s license.

She is hesitant to give up the plates, however, because she believes her free-speech rights are being unnecessarily limited.

“It’s kind of sad to me,” she said. “For one person to be able to say they’re offended because it’s different from their political beliefs seems really arbitrary. And I don’t think the law is very clear about what ‘offensive’ means.”

Hillmer said the law gives the state great latitude in making that determination. Moriah is free to exercise her free-speech rights in ways that don’t involve state property or implied state sanction of a given message, Hillemr said.

“They have every right to use that free speech, but they need to do it with a bumper sticker,” she said. “That plate is property of South Dakota. And that (message) is not something the state should advocate.”

It wouldn’t matter if the political message or the president were different, it would be inappropriate on a state plate, Hillmer said.

Moriah has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which intends to protest the recall in a letter to the state. Moriah said it’s unlikely the ACLU will pursue legal action, in part because she is planning a move to Pennsylvanian in the next couple of months.

Finnegan already has moved there and replaced his South Dakota plates for Pennsylvania plates, Moriah said. Moriah hopes to leave in June or July, with her plates still intact. Hillmer said it might not work out that way.

“We may have law enforcement go pick them up if we receive more complaints about it,” she said. “If she returns them, we’ll make her new plates. If we have to go pick them up, we probably won’t.”

Hillmer has been with DMV for more than 20 years. She remembers five or six instances when so-called vanity plates were recalled. One of them said “SNIPER” and another “OLDFART.”

Moriah is the only person to complain about a recall, Hillmer said.

Rapid City lawyer Patrick Duffy said there’s plenty of reason to complain. Duffy, who has worked on key civil rights cases involving American Indian voting issues, said action by the state means that any personalized plate must be recalled because of a single complaint, no matter what the message.

“What this means is that every atheist can now wipe out anything that seems to refer to God,” Duffy said. “Will vanity plates for members of the armed forces suddenly be declared offensive if they offend a single pacifist? It’s absolutely preposterous.”

Even obscenity must be judged by the mores and standards of a community, not just one offended individual, Duffy said.

“Here, all we need is one lone citizen who is apparently invested with the complete authority to determine what is good taste and decency for all the rest of us,” he said. “It seems a little tyrannical to me.”

Singer Sheryl Crow has said a ban on using too much toilet paper should be introduced to help the environment.

Crow has suggested using “only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required”.

The 45-year-old, who made the comments on her website, has just toured the US on a biodiesel-powered bus to raise awareness about climate change.

She teamed up with environmental activist Laurie David for the shows.

The pair targeted 11 university campuses to persuade students to help combat the world’s environmental problems.

“I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming,” Crow wrote.

“Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating.

“I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting.”