Woman motorist banned after police catch her drink-driving... on a 2.4mph mobility scooter

A woman has been given a driving ban after being caught more than twice the legal alcohol limit - while riding a 2.4mph mobility scooter.

Amanda Leaff, 46, said she had taken the buggy from an Asda supermarket to save herself the taxi fare for her trip home.

A court was told yesterday how it would have taken Leaff, of Stretford, Manchester, more than four hours to complete the ten-mile journey, had she not been spotted 'driving erratically' by an off-duty police officer.

A drunk woman travelled two-and-a-half miles on a mobility scooter before police stopped her. She was given a 20-month driving ban for being twice the legal limit

Magistrates in Oldham heard she had been drinking for several hours and became abusive when police stopped her at around 10.45pm on November 12.

Her solicitor Stephen Krebbs told the court: 'She managed to get two-and-a-half miles until she was stopped. It was a surprise she got as far as she did.'

He added: 'She planned to return the scooter to her local Asda the following day.'

Leaff admitted taking without consent and driving a mobility scooter while unfit through drink. She was given a 20-month driving ban and £240 fine.

An Asda spokesman said after the hearing: 'The scooters, although very practical and robust, are not really designed for road use.

'They are best suited to flat surfaces as in supermarkets, due to the very low wheelbase. Every scooter missing from our premises is a vehicle fewer for our disabled shoppers to use.'

Mass. Man Shot Twice In Year At Same Pizza Place

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) -- A 26-year-old Worcester man may want to avoid a certain pizza place -- after he was shot in front of the restaurant twice in less than a year.

Police said the man, whose name was not immediately released, is expected to survive three gunshot wounds he suffered in front of the Golden Pizza on Tuesday, after surviving another shooting there in April.

Detective Capt. Edward McGinn told the Telegram & Gazette the man had just gotten a haircut at a barber shop Tuesday when he went across the street and got into a skirmish with a person in front of Golden Pizza.

McGinn said the man was hospitalized after being shot in the legs and abdomen. The shooter fled.

In the April 13 incident, police said three people were arrested after the same man was shot multiple times.

I Triple-Dog Dare You:

I Triple-Dog Dare You: Indiana Boy Gets Tongue Stuck on Light Pole

HAMMOND, Ind. — In a scene straight out of the movie "A Christmas Story," a 10-year-old Hammond boy got his tongue stuck to a metal light pole.

Police say the unidentified fourth-grader was able to tell them that a friend dared him to lick the pole Wednesday night. Temperatures in Hammond were around 10 degrees at the time.

By the time an ambulance arrived, the boy was able to yank his tongue off the frozen pole.

Police say ambulance personnel explained to the boy's mother how to care for his bleeding tongue.

The 1983 movie is set in a fictional city based on Hammond, the hometown of author Jean Shepherd.

Harper's Index: the Bush Years

Harper's Index: the Bush Years

Posted by Cory Doctorow, January 14, 2009 8:34 AM | permalink

Here's Harper's Index for the Bush years -- some real gems here:

Number of members of the rock band Anthrax who said they hoarded Cipro so as to avoid an “ironic death”: 1

Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000

Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50

Harper’s Index (Thanks, Mr Jalopy!)

Wanted: hubby for 107-year-old bride

• 107-year-old Chinese woman never married
• Makes up her mind it's finally time
• Wants man roughly her own age

A 107-year-old Chinese woman who was afraid to marry when she was young has decided to look for her first husband and hopes to find a fellow centenarian so they will have something to talk about, a Chinese paper reported.

Wang Guiying is worried she is becoming a burden to her aging nieces and nephews since breaking her leg when she was 102 and had to stop doing chores like washing her clothes.

"I'm already 107 and I still haven't got married," the Chongqing Commercial Times quoted her saying.

"What will happen if I don't hurry up and find a husband?"

Born in southern Guizhou province the child of a salt merchant, Ms Wang grew up watching her uncles and other men scold and beat their wives and often found her aunt crying in the woodshed after an attack, the paper said.

"All the married people around there lived like that. Getting married was too frightening," she said of an era when Chinese women had few rights and low social standing.

Related Coverage

• 107-year-old decides it's time to wedNEWS.com.au, 12 Jan 2009
• 107-year-old looking for a hubbyDaily Telegraph, 12 Jan 2009
• The final word on the Julius Hodge sagaAdelaide Now, 12 Jan 2009
• 107-year-old decides it's time to marryAdelaide Now, 12 Jan 2009
• Reader's Comments: Minister accepts anti-gay appointee blameNEWS.com.au,

Your Say

This is awesome! good luck to you! If I wasn't married i'd marry you in a heartbeat (with no prenup of course :) :) :) )

Wo0t of yingling province

Many also had their feet bound in an excruciating process aimed at making them look more dainty and marriageable.

After ms Wang's father, mother and older sister died, she still shied away from marriage.

Instead she moved to the countryside and survived as a farmer until she was 74 years old and no longer strong enough to work in the fields, the report said.

Her nephew in the booming city of Chongqing then took Ms Wang in, but she is worried he and her other nephews and nieces are too old to take care of her now even the youngest is 60.

"My nephews and nieces are getting older and their children are already tied up with their own families and I am becoming more and more of a burden," she said.

Local officials have said they are happy to help Ms Wang search for a 100-year old groom, and suggested her family get in touch with old people's homes to find candidates, the paper said.

Father and son try to cut to front of line, go to jail

MUNCIE -- City police said a Frankfort man picked the wrong time to cut in line at the north Walmart store on Sunday, setting the stage for events that landed both him and his father in the Delaware County jail.

Edward R. Pluhar Jr., 26, was preliminarily charged with battery on police officer Chris Kirby, while his father, 61-year-old Edward R. Pluhar Sr., was preliminarily charged with criminal recklessness with a vehicle and intimidation.

According to police reports, officer Kirby was off duty as he waited in Walmart's customer service line with his wife and daughter Sunday afternoon, and watched the younger Pluhar walk past him and directly to the service desk.

The police officer told Pluhar Jr. he needed to wait his turn, but the Frankfort man purportedly refused.

The elder Pluhar then allegedly approached the off-duty officer, told him to mind his own business and asked whether Kirby wanted to take the dispute outside.

When Kirby asked Pluhar Sr. what his intentions were, the Frankfort man purportedly said he would kick Kirby's posterior and also suggested he might shoot him.

Kirby then informed the father and son that he was a police officer and called emergency dispatchers to send an on-duty officer to the scene.

The Pluhars then left the store, at 4801 W. Clara Lane, with Kirby following them to the parking lot and then standing behind their van as they attempted to leave.

The van, driven by the elder Pluhar, allegedly hit the officer's leg. Kirby and the younger Pluhar then fought, reports said.

Patrol officers Kevin Durbin and Jess Neal then arrived and arrested the father and son without incident.

Edward Pluhar Sr. was released from the county jail Sunday after posting a $5,000 bond, while his son was released on a $2,500 bond.

German Firefighters Burn Own Firehouse Down for Second Time

German firefighters lost all their engines for a second time after their station burned to the ground in a fire they are believed to have set themselves, the Austrian Times reported.

The weekend blaze in Syke, northern Germany, was reportedly set by the firefighters themselves in a training exercise accident. However, faulty wiring could have been to blame.

It took 250 firefighters from the surrounding areas to bring the flames under control, the Austrian Times reported. All six fire engines were lost in the inferno.

This was not the first time the bumbling fire brigade lost its headquarters. The station was rebuilt in 1994 after another blaze gutted the structure, according to the Austrian Times.

Firefighters: Goats May Be to Blame for Iowa House Fire

NORWALK, Iowa — A group of goats may have started a fire that destroyed a home in central Iowa, firefighters said.

The fire broke out early Tuesday near Norwalk. Three people in the house escaped unharmed.

John Hadley said his cat woke up him up, and he saw smoke coming from a ceiling. Hadley then woke up his ailing mother and her companion and got them out of the house.

The fire may have been started by some goats kept in a shed attached to the rear of the house, Assistant Northern Warren County Fire Chief Kevin Dingman said.

He said a space heater was kept in the shed to keep the goats warm, and the goats may have knocked it over, starting the fire.

The goats and a family dog were rescued, but a cat was missing.

Geithner Failed to Pay Taxes, Hired Housekeeper Without Proper Immigration Documents

President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, failed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself for four years and employed a housekeeper whose immigration documentation lapsed while in his employ.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus called a meeting with committee members to discuss the matter inside his office Tuesday.

Geithner disclosed to senators earlier in the day that he had failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication in an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.

Sources say Geithner also hired a housekeeper whose immigration papers expired during her employment in 2004 and 2005.

The woman, whose name has not been released, eventually obtained a green card to work legally in the U.S., and immigration authorities did not charge her with wrongdoing.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters after the revelations that he still believes Geithner is "extremely well-qualified" for the post.

"There was a few little hiccups, and that's basically what they are. I am not concerned at all," Reid said.

But an aide to finance committee member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the matter is "serious."

"Whether it's disqualifying is to be determined," the aide said.

Before becoming president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Geithner worked for the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2003. He paid all of his income taxes on his IMF income, but made a "common mistake" on his tax returns with regard to self-employment taxes, Obama transition aides told reporters Tuesday.

Incoming White House press secretary Robert Gibbs defended Geithner, saying, "He's dedicated his career to our country and served with honor, intelligence and distinction. That service should not be tarnished by honest mistakes, which, upon learning of them, he quickly addressed."

"He made a common mistake on his taxes, and was unaware that his part-time housekeeper's work authorization expired for the last three months of her employment," Gibbs said.

"We hope that the Senate will confirm him with strong bipartisan support so that he can begin the important work of the country," he added.

Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, also defended Geithner.

"I still support him. I have no problem," Hatch told FOX News. "He's a very, very competent guy."

Baucus told reporters that Geithner's errors -- though "serious" -- do not disqualify him from becoming Treasury Secretary and that he hopes Geithner can be confirmed by Inauguration Day.

"These errors were not intentional; they were honest mistakes," Baucus said after he and other committee members met with Geithner.

Man Allegedly Tries to Sell Daughter Into Marriage for Cash, Beer and Meat

GREENFIELD, Calif. — Police have arrested a Greenfield man for allegedly arranging to sell his 14-year-old daughter into marriage in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat.

Police say they only learned of the deal after 36-year-old Marcelino de Jesus Martinez went to them to get his daughter back because payment wasn't made as promised.

Martinez was arrested Sunday on suspicion of human trafficking.

Officers also arrested 18-year-old Margarito de Jesus Galindo on suspicion of statutory rape. Investigators believe the girl went willingly with Galindo, but she's under California's legal age of consent and can't legally marry.

Police say arranged marriages involving underage girls have become a problem in this small Central Coast farming community.

Exercise for the new year

Exercise for the new year

-Walking 20 minutes can add to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.

-My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60.. Now he's 97 years old and we don't know where he is.

-I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

-The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

-I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing..

-I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there.

-Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

-I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

-The advantage of exercising every day is so when you die, they'll say, 'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'

-If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

-I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years,...... just getting over the hill.

-We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

-Every time I start thinking too much about how I look, I just find a Happy Hour and by the time I leave, I look just fine.

-You could run this over to your friends... But just e-mail it to them!