\u2014 Jonathan Thomas, 50, was charged with DUI and disorderly conduct in Washington Township, Ind., after driving through two backyards and getting his vehicle stuck in the second. Police reported that Thomas \u201cshowed his teeth to officers\u201d and later \u201cgrowled\u201d at hospital security staff. Thomas\u2019 day job is director of the Porter County Animal Shelter.<\/p>\n
\u2014 In August, a Bradenton, Fla., deputy sheriff was forced to duplicate a classic scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when he was advanced upon by a menacing-looking, samurai-sword-swinging, 31-year-old man. The deputy shot him dead.<\/p>\n
\u2014 The 15-year-old granddaughter of Cliven Bundy \u2014 the Nevada rancher whose dispute with the federal government caused a notorious standoff in March \u2014 told Las Vegas\u2019 KSNV-TV that her dad (Bundy\u2019s son) was withdrawing her from her high school because officials would not allow her to carry a knife on campus. She said her dad has taught his kids to \u201calways\u201d carry a knife.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Entrepreneurial Spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 The trendy 25hours Hotel Bikini Berlin, located adjacent to the Berlin Zoo and offering some of the best views of the city from its floor-to-ceiling windows, has positioned the restrooms of its Monkey Bar in front of the windows, so that those who go to the bathrooms are clearly visible to gawkers. Guests are merely warned, by the Trip Advisor website and the hotel itself, \u201cPlease be careful. Not only the monkeys are watching.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 London designer Gigi Barker recently unveiled the Skin chair (priced at $2,500), which is made of leather and has a \u201cpheromone-impregnated silicone base\u201d that makes it feel as if one is \u201clounging in the fleshy, comforting folds of a man\u2019s belly.\u201d The Skin was scheduled for exhibition in September at the London Design Festival.<\/p>\n \u2014 China\u2019s insurance companies offer some of the world\u2019s quirkiest policies, according to a September Reuters dispatch from Hong Kong. People\u2019s Insurance Group, for example, will pay if a customer\u2019s children display \u201cmischievous and destructive\u201d habits. The Ancheng company offers a policy protecting a customer in case his mouth is burned when he eats \u201chotpot.\u201d Ping An Insurance Group (the world\u2019s second-largest by market value) recently offered an \u201caccidental pregnancy before honeymoon\u201d policy. It is one of three companies that competed to sell couples compensation in case a marriage is disrupted by a \u201cconcubine.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unclear On The Concept<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 New Orleans Juvenile Court Judge Yolanda King, already indicted for falsifying her home address in her 2013 campaign for office, was spotted by a Times-Picayune reporter on Aug. 20 filing three registration papers for the Nov. 4 election in which she swore (under oath) to three different addresses. Two of these appeared to be erroneous. Her lawyer told the newspaper that the judge, who was suspended by the Louisiana Supreme Court following her indictment, had merely \u201cmisinterpreted\u201d the instructions.<\/p>\n \u2014 As part of a nationwide distribution of surplus military equipment, 10 Texas school districts eagerly acquired a total of 64 M-16 rifles, 18 M-14s, 25 automatic pistols and magazines capable of holding 4,500 rounds of ammunition. District officials referred to the need to protect against school attacks such as the notorious incidents in Colorado and Connecticut. But a local Houston area police chief, seeking to reassure a nervous public, promised that the equipment would be used only by tactically trained officers, and that, otherwise, it would be locked in the department\u2019s armory. A critic of the program told KHOU-TV that the typical school shooting situation lasts 12 minutes \u2014 hardly enough time to get to the armory and load up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fine Points Of The Law<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 In July, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Detroit described the actions of Michigan state judge Wade McCree as \u201coften reprehensible.\u201d He was often having an affair with a woman involved in a child custody case he was judging. The woman received favorable rulings. However, the Court of Appeals judges told the unlucky father that McCree cannot be sued because judges are generally immune from lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u2014 Nick Olivas, 24, is a rare American. At 14 (an age that, in Arizona, makes him legally incapable of consenting to sex), he fathered a daughter with a 20-year-old woman \u2014 a paternity that he learned of only two years ago. The mother filed against Olivas for child support that now totals $15,000. Olivas is rare in that most states exempt rape victims from child-support orders. But since Olivas never made a police report of the incident, Arizona Child Support Services will not exempt him, and instead has obtained an order garnishing his wages for $380 a month.<\/p>\n \u2014 According to legal scholars consulted by the Associated Press, it\u2019s conceivable that even if Nicole Diggs is convicted of negligent homicide in the trial over the death of her severely disabled 8-year-old daughter, she could still inherit the remainder of the $2 million trust fund originally established for the daughter\u2019s care. There is strong evidence that Diggs neglected the child\u2019s hygiene and diet for stretches at a time. She also trusted her uncaring new husband with the girl\u2019s well-being. But New York law allows a convicted mother to inherit from a child as long as she did not \u201cintentionally\u201d harm her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Least Competent\u00a0Criminals<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Clearwater, Fla., police pulled over a suspicious car on July 24 and arrested the driver and his passenger. The back seat was loaded with potted plants \u2014 in fact, marijuana plants were so crowded together that the leaves and branches of some plants were sticking out of the car\u2019s windows.<\/p>\n \u2014 Daniel Warn, 28, was arrested in July in Costa Mesa, Calif., and charged with the burglary of an El Pollo Loco restaurant. The caper was captured on surveillance video. Police were notified later that day when Warn, wearing the same distinctive hat and bright green shirt worn by the burglar, came to the restaurant to order a meal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Undignified Deaths<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Annual Bunyola fiestas on the Spanish island of Mallorca were canceled in September out of respect for an 18-year-old man who died when he hit his head after receiving an electric shock on a lamp post he was leaning against as he urinated at a street corner.<\/p>\n \u2014 A 15-year-old boy driving a \u201cskid loader\u201d on a farm near Lancaster, Penn., suffocated when the machine accidentally flipped him directly into a manure pit. It was the sixth such death locally since 1989, according to the Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2014 Jonathan Thomas, 50, was charged with DUI and disorderly conduct in Washington Township, Ind., after driving through two backyards and getting his vehicle stuck in the second. Police reported that Thomas \u201cshowed his teeth to officers\u201d and later \u201cgrowled\u201d at hospital security staff. Thomas\u2019 day job is director of the Porter County Animal Shelter. [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[472,473,40],"yoast_head":"\n