The week's odd news: New Hampshire Lottery releases bacon-scented ticket

New Hampshire Lottery releases bacon-scented ticket

CONCORD, N.H. – Lottery ticket buyers in New Hampshire who dream of bringing home the bacon now can smell it, too.

The state lottery has released its first scratch-n-sniff "I Heart Bacon" ticket, which features a $1,000 grand prize.

Lottery Commission Executive Director Charlie McIntyre says players "will think it's time for Saturday morning breakfast."

To promote the ticket, the New Hampshire Lottery will be driving a "bacon truck," handing out free applewood-smoked bacon samples and tickets at stores in Keene and Durham, the state welcome centers in Hooksett, and the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester.

Dancing genitals clip not progressive enough for some Swedes

STOCKHOLM – In socially liberal Sweden, an educational video for children featuring dancing genitals has become an online hit — and even drawn criticism for not being progressive enough.

The 1-minute animated video by public broadcaster SVT, promoting a television series about the human body, has been seen by more than 4 million YouTube viewers.

Producers say many parents found it a great way to explain about private parts to children, though some called it inappropriate for a program aimed at children ages 3 to 6.

Programming director Peter Bargee said Jan. 22 the clip also drew "unexpected" criticism from some Swedes, who said portraying the penis with a mustache and the vagina with long eyelashes reinforced gender stereotypes.

Bargee said the video was meant to be fun and not a "statement on gender politics."

Ex-postal worker says he 'got lazy,' failed to deliver mail

EUGENE, Ore. – A former U.S. Postal Service worker who failed to deliver nearly 1,000 pieces of mail has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor mail obstruction and been sentenced to a year of probation.

The Register-Guard reports that Alex Douma, 27, was also ordered Jan. 21 to pay a $500 fine. He entered his plea in federal court in Eugene.

While most of the mail found last summer in two bins on his front porch was junk mail, there were also 27 voter ballots from last May's primary election and more than 200 items of first-class and standard mail.

Douma worked at a post office in Eugene. Court documents say he told investigators that he "just got lazy" and had failed to make his rounds on multiple occasions between late April and early July. He apologized in court and said he set aside the mail because he had "felt pressured for time" while working in a job that required him to sort, scan and deliver mail.

Pig blamed for Central Texas house fire, no humans, hog hurt

SPICEWOOD, Texas – No humans or hogs have been hurt in a Central Texas house fire blamed on a pig.

The fire broke out on the afternoon of Jan. 22 at a rural home near Spicewood, about 25 miles northwest of Austin, authorities say.

Lt. Kyle Swarts with the Pedernales Fire Department says the blaze began when a pig belonging to the homeowner chewed through electrical wires.

Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, which caused about $30,000 worth of damage to the residence.

The fire left three people displaced.

Surprised Iran subway riders brush shoulders with president

TEHRAN, Iran – Rush-hour passengers in the busy subway of Iran's capital have brushed shoulders with a surprising commuter — President Hassan Rouhani.

Rouhani, along Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and others in his government, took the subway and other mass transit in Tehran to work Jan. 19. It was part of their effort to mark "National Clean Air Day."

Rouhani spoke to male and female passengers on the subway, as well as waved to surprised commuters. He also had time to hug and talk to a young boy on his trip to work.

Greater Tehran has a population of 12 million people and suffers from a score of urban problems, such as heavy pollution.

Man who bought lottery tickets to break $100 bill wins $10M

BOSTON – A Massachusetts man who bought two lottery tickets at a grocery shop to break a $100 bill for lunch has ended up winning $10 million.

Lottery officials announced Thursday that Richard Noll and his wife claimed the prize at lottery headquarters in Braintree. He chose a one-time payment of $6.5 million after taxes.

The Revere man says he needed to break a $100 bill to get lunch at a sandwich shop, so he bought two $20 "Platinum Millions" instant tickets at Lanzilli Groceria in East Boston. The shop gets a $50,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

Noll says he wants to buy a house, make investments and take his granddaughter to Walt Disney World.

Lawyer: Man sentenced for crime he can't recall after wreck

BUTLER, Pa. – A western Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to a year's probation for crimes his defense attorney says the man can't recall because of a brain injury suffered in a car accident.

Defense attorney Stephen Misko also says Christian Eshenbaugh, 23, has become a "completely different person" as he struggles to regain his memory and motor skills — and no longer has a penchant for petty crimes fueled by drug use.

The Butler Eagle reports Eshenbaugh pleaded guilty to stealing aluminum tire rims 20 to 30 at a time from a salvage yard. In all, he took more than 2,000 rims worth more than $33,000 in the two months before he was injured in 2013.

At the Jan. 21 sentencing, Misko says Eshenbaugh has "turned his life 180 degrees."

Fleeing suspect drives right into Ohio prison's parking lot

TOLEDO, Ohio – A Michigan man who drove away from a traffic stop smashed through a gate and landed right in a prison parking lot, police say.

Officers arrested the man early Jan. 20 after he drove around the outside of the Toledo Correctional Institution and then back into parking lot.

Court records show that the charges against Jason Davis, 33, of Monroe, Michigan, include vandalism of government property, drug possession and failing to use his turn signal.

Police tell The Blade newspaper in Toledo that they were able to arrest Davis after his vehicle ran over stop sticks that deflated his tires.

Man who used dumbbell in jewelry store break-ins gets prison

SALEM, Mass. – A Massachusetts man dubbed a "one-man crime wave" by police has been sentenced to up to nine years in prison for using a dumbbell in three smash-and-grab burglaries at jewelry stores.

James Jay Radler, 52, was sentenced Jan. 20 for two break-ins at Desjardins Jewelers in Beverly and one at Long's Jewelers in Peabody. The burglaries occurred in late 2012 and early 2013.

Authorities say the Beverly man used a dumbbell from a set of weights to smash his way into the stores and grab jewelry from display cases.

The Salem News reports he was tracked by the DNA in the blood he left behind at one burglary. He also pawned stolen items using his own name.

In one burglary, he got away with $24,000 worth of jewelry.

Dead whale stinks up Seattle ferry terminal

SEATTLE – A 30-foot gray whale has turned up dead under the Washington state ferry terminal in downtown Seattle, where its stench is wafting into the noses of thousands of daily commuters.

A Washington State Ferries spokeswoman, Susan Harris-Huether, says the whale was found just before 11 p.m. Jan. 21. She says people are reporting that the smell is "not good."

Harris-Huether says it's under a dock, but ferry service the next day wasn't affected.

A spokesman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Jan. 22 that officials believe the whale may have been there for about a week. Michael Milstein says it's not known yet why the animal died, how it got there or other details.

He says the agency will work with ferry officials and others to move the animal so a necropsy can be conducted.

Police: N.Y. man demolishes home without telling wife

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. – A New York man demolished his upstate home without telling his wife he planned to tear it down, police say.

The Middletown Police Department says that when officers arrived Jan. 19 at the property owned by 48-year-old James Rhein's wife they found him using an excavator to knock down the house. Officers say he didn't remove any household items, such as furniture, food and belongings. Instead, he dumped everything into large construction debris bins.

Police say Rhein didn't call local utility companies to cancel gas, electric and water services, which were cut off by crews after officers alerted them.

Rhein told police he was demolishing the house because it had a bad foundation.

He was charged with criminal mischief and was released on bail.

County meeting adjourned due to lack of notice

UNIONTOWN, Pa. – The first commissioners' meeting of 2015 adjourned after 15 minutes in one western Pennsylvania county because the government hadn't placed legal advertisements listing the time and dates of this year's meetings.

The Fayette County commissioners, instead, accused one another — and the county's chief clerk — about who was to blame for not placing the ads.

Chief Clerk Amy Revak says she emailed the commissioners Vincent Zapotosky, Angela Zimmerlink and Al Ambrosini on Jan. 13 seeking authorization to place the notices, but got no response.

But Zapotosky says Revak also didn't place the ads last year, forcing the cancellation of a meeting in May. He argued that Revak should know to place the ads without authorization.

The meeting was canceled when a resident pointed out that the meeting hadn't been advertised.

Texas police pull over woman so fellow officer can propose

GALVESTON, Texas – A Texas police officer arranged for other officers to pull over his girlfriend so he could propose in an elaborate ruse caught on dashboard camera.

KHOU-TV reported Jan. 19 that Sara Wolff said "yes" to Galveston police Officer Gregory Parris and that they will marry in July.

The patrol car video shows a car with sirens blaring stopping Wolff's vehicle. That officer tells Wolff she has a broken taillight and that she also faces outstanding warrants.

The unwitting Wolff starts to cry.

Parris, who was watching the whole episode from another patrol car, then drives up and walks toward his girlfriend. Her tears turn to laughter as he gets down on one knee, produces a ring and asks her to marry him.

She says the officers involved "deserve academy awards."

Dad gets 'no-show' bill after son, 5, misses birthday party

LONDON – It was not what Derek Nash expected to find in his 5-year-old's school bag: A bill demanding a "no-show fee" for another child's birthday party.

Nash said the bill from another parent sought $24 because his son Alex had not attended the party at a ski center in Plymouth, southwest England.

Nash told the BBC on Jan. 19 that he had initially accepted the party invitation, but later realized Alex was supposed to visit his grandparents that day. He said he did not have contact details to let the other family know.

The birthday boy's mother, Julie Lawrence, told the BBC that her contact details were on the party invitation.

Nash says Lawrence has threatened him with small claims court but he has no plans so far to pay.

Hawk vacates after making itself unwanted house guest

ROYAL OAK, Mich. – A red-tailed hawk has cleared out after making itself an unwanted house guest in suburban Detroit.

Ann Duke tells columnist Neal Rubin of The Detroit News her family initially thought their cat — or even a burglar — caused damage a few weeks ago at their Royal Oak home. A glass orb from an art deco sculpture was shattered and crystal candlesticks were scattered about.

Then they spotted the hawk perched on a lamp. They say it spread its wings but stayed put.

Duke called 911, but that wasn't the right place for help. She called animal control and a pest removal company but they couldn't assist. So Duke, her husband and her daughter opened doors and windows and helped it out of the house with a bath towel.

Large bird attacks Oregon jogger; owl is blamed for strikes

SALEM, Ore. – An Oregon jogger thought someone knocked him in the head or he got hit by lightning or may have had a stroke when he felt a big blow to the head last week as he was jogging in Bush's Pasture Park.

When Ron Jaecks, 58, of Salem, was struck a second time he saw a large winged animal he thought was a massive bat.

Willamette University biology Professor David Craig told the Statesman Journal the attacker was likely an owl.

Great horned owls are nesting in January and are known to attack anything they think threatens their nest.

UMass falcon, campus webcam star, dies

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts is mourning the death of the Amherst campus' most popular webcam star.

A male peregrine falcon that has nested atop the 27-story W. E. B. Du Bois Library for 12 years and sired 34 chicks with the same mate has died.

The webcam that has captured the pair raising their chicks has been viewed by hundreds of thousands. In 2014 alone, there were 269,279 views.

The bird was found injured last week in a snowbank near campus and died Jan. 21 while awaiting transport to a wildlife rehabilitation center.

Tom French, a biologist with the state wildlife department, said the bird was 14, a ripe old age for a peregrine falcon.

French says the library nesting box will likely be occupied by a new falcon family this spring.

Tourists get knockout photo of Stallone atop 'Rocky' steps

PHILADELPHIA – A group of tourists who ran up the "Rocky" steps in Philadelphia got a knockout photo at the top — a selfie with Rocky himself.

Peter Rowe said he and two friends had just finished racing up the staircase at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Jan. 17 when they saw Sylvester Stallone.

"He said to us, 'Man, you guys are fast. You're making me look bad!' " Rowe said Jan. 20.

Stallone then posed for a selfie with the trio, putting up one fist.

"Look tough, guys!" he said, according to Rowe.

Stallone made the art museum's steps famous in his first turn as fictional boxer Rocky Balboa, who used them as part of his training regimen. Thousands of people now visit the steps each year to re-create the run and to take pictures with a Rocky statue, which originally was a prop in "Rocky III."

Rowe's friends, Jacob Kerstan and Andrew Wright, were visiting him from Azusa Pacific University in greater Los Angeles. Rowe recently graduated from the university and moved to the Lancaster area, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.

Yet in all the time spent in L.A., Rowe said, they never saw a famous person.

"What are the chances of meeting him, that celebrity, right there?" he said of the Stallone encounter, calling it "an unreal experience."

Stallone is in Philadelphia for the shooting of "Creed," the latest installment in the series. It stars Michael B. Jordan, who appeared in "Fruitvale Station," as the grandson of early Rocky foe Apollo Creed.

2 nabbed in iPad theft when selfies appear on owner's iCloud

HOUSTON – Two men arrested in Houston are accused of stealing an iPad and using it to take selfies that they unknowingly uploaded to the owner's iCloud account.

The men appeared in the photos displaying money they are also accused of taking from the victim.

Investigators arrested the pair on theft charges late Jan. 21.

The iPad, other electronics and thousands of dollars were stolen from the victim's truck Jan. 8.

He later noticed his iCloud account had images of the men holding $100 bills.

Some stolen items were dumped behind a Starbucks. The victim believes his iPad connected to the Starbucks Wi-Fi and the images synced to his iCloud account.

He shared the images with the media. The photos ended up online, helping authorities identify the suspects.

High school coach charged with biting another coach in face

MARIETTA, Ga. – A high school coach in suburban Atlanta is accused of biting another coach's face, though her attorney says the attack never happened.

South Cobb High School girls basketball coach Melonie Joyce Martin was standing about two inches from Coach Tyrone Harris when authorities say she bit him in an eye and the nose, according to an arrest warrant.

Martin has denied the allegations, her attorney, S. Carlton Rouse, told WSB-TV.

"Since the incident, Ms. Martin consistently denied touching (the coach) and certainly never threatened his safety," Rouse said in an email, the Atlanta station reported.

The confrontation happened inside a school office Jan. 9, after the South Cobb girls team lost to Campbell High School, authorities said.

Martin also is accused of throwing a chair and telling Harris she would stomp him and knock his teeth out, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Martin was charged with terroristic threats and acts, and simple battery. She intends to fight the charges, her attorney said.

"While she would like to respond in great detail revealing (the victim's) true motivation for making such a sensational claim, based upon the advice of counsel, she must respect legal process and will introduce facts at the appropriate time in court," Rouse wrote.

School officials have not released information on her status as a coach, WSB reported.

Eating while driving: Man's burger gets him a traffic ticket

MARIETTA, Ga. – A man says enjoying a double quarter-pounder with cheese as he cruised down a highway outside Atlanta got him in trouble with the law — and a ticket for eating while driving.

Madison Turner of Alabama told WSB-TV that the officer told him three times: "You can't just go down the road eating a hamburger." He was ticketed for violating Georgia's distracted driving law; Turner said the officer told him he had been eating the McDonald's burger for about 2 miles.

"Maybe I was enjoying the burger too much; I needed to tone it down. I was certainly willing to do so, but I didn't expect to be fined or punished," Turner told the Atlanta station.

In an email early Jan. 20, Cobb County police spokesman Mike Bowman said the department would not comment about the case.

William Head, a longtime traffic lawyer who is not representing Turner, said he doesn't recall seeing a case quite like this one.

Georgia's distracted driver law does not mention food. It says only that drivers can't engage in actions that distract them from operating a vehicle safely.

"Maybe if you had a giant pizza in both hands and you weren't holding the wheel, or maybe if you had a watermelon — half watermelon - and you were just diving into it holding it with both hands, maybe that would be something," Head said.

Idaho salamander bill squashed over federal overreach fears

BOISE, Idaho – Idaho lawmakers worried that special recognition of the Idaho giant salamander could lead to federal protections have rejected a grade school student's request that it be named the state amphibian.

The House State Affairs Committee voted 10-6 Jan. 19 against the plan of Ilah Hickman, 14. It was her fifth attempt in as many years to persuade lawmakers that students made a good choice for state amphibian.

"I was kind of disappointed, but either way I'm going to come back next year and push it again," Hickman told The Spokesman-Review. "I'm going to keep pushing, until it either passes or I can't get hearings anymore."

An Idaho attorney general's opinion advised lawmakers that approving the salamander as a state symbol wouldn't do anything in the way of encouraging federal protections. But lawmakers remained wary.

"My whole concern is potential federal overreach," said Rep. Don Cheatham, R-Post Falls. "In north Idaho we have the water litigation going. I just am in fear that something could be impacted if it became an endangered species."

Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, co-sponsored Hickman's bill and pointed out that designating a state symbol had nothing to do with endangered species.

"We addressed that," Ward-Engelking said. "We got an opinion from the attorney general — it was very clear. I spoke with him personally. He said no way, no how was a state symbol going to impact that whatsoever."

Frank Lundberg, a herpetologist, testified in support of the bill and was disappointed after it failed.

"It is a mistake to ever overestimate the ignorance of the Idaho Legislature," he said.

Idaho fourth-grade classes study state symbols as part of Idaho history, and a fourth-grade teacher backed the bill as well.

But Rep. Ken Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, voted against the salamander after recalling being repulsed by them as a young boy.

"They were ugly, they were slimy, and they were creepy," he said. "And I've not gotten over that. So to elevate them to the status of being the state amphibian, I'm not there yet."

The Idaho giant salamander can grow to more than a foot long. Hickman told lawmakers that the salamander makes its home almost exclusively in Idaho, and noted it has skin markings that resemble a topographical map of Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains.

Four Democrats and two Republicans voted in favor, but 10 lawmakers, all Republicans, voted against the bill.

"It can become protected," said Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d'Alene. "There's actually no legal impediment."

Police: Woman says aliens told her to break into theme park

FORT MILL, S.C. – A couple broke into a theme park that was closed for the offseason near the South Carolina-North Carolina line, and the woman told investigators that God and aliens directed her there, police said.

York County sheriff's deputies told local media outlets that Francis Greene and Jason Lee were arrested Jan. 16 after a security officer at the Carowinds theme park found their truck abandoned in the parking lot. The officer also found an 8-month-old boy alone in the truck.

The guard said the couple returned to the truck 20 minutes after leaving it.

Greene is charged with child neglect, filing a false police report and trespassing. Lee is charged with child neglect and trespassing. It was not clear whether they had attorneys.

The baby was taken into protective custody.

Barking dog alerts family to fire at California home

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A family of seven who was sleeping when a fire consumed their Southern California home says they escaped unscathed thanks to their barking dog.

Vera Mendez says Foxy, her 2-year-old mixed breed dog, began barking "like crazy" shortly before 2 a.m. Jan. 21.

Mendez's son woke up, and he rushed to wake up the rest of the family as flames tore through three rooms of the home in Santa Ana.

Mendez tells City News Service that three generations of the family — six adults and a 9-year-old boy — got out of the burning house safely because of Foxy.

Nearly 50 firefighters knocked down the fire in about a half-hour but were not able to save the house. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

German court upholds man's right to pee standing up

BERLIN – A German court has ruled that a tenant who liked to pee standing up doesn't owe his landlord money for damages apparently caused by splashing, or missing his target altogether.

The Duesseldorf administrative court rejected the landlord's claim of $2,200 for alleged damage to the bathroom's marble floor, the dpa news agency reported Jan. 22.

While accepting expert testimony that urine had damaged the marble, Judge Stefan Hank ruled the man's method was within cultural norms, saying that "despite the increasing domestication of men in this context, urinating standing up is still common practice."

Hank said further that the tenant could have expected "regular conflicts" with those he lived with — but not that the bathroom's marble floor would be damaged.

Ice playground being built ahead of Alaska sculpture contest

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Workers are building an ice playground in a city in Alaska's interior, including a pirate ship slide made from 65 refrigerator-sized blocks of ice.

The work began Jan. 19 at the George Horner Ice Park in Fairbanks ahead of the annual world ice sculpture championships, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

A giant ice lens also is planned for the park, according to ice championships chairman Dick Brickley. He said it will be 12 feet in diameter and powerful enough to focus the sun's rays and start a fire. The ice is so clear, the rays go right through it, and one small telescope in the past started a fire on a piece of plywood without melting, Brickley said.

Another new attraction this year is an experimental sculpture that will be carved on land, then displayed underwater.

"It's kind of a neat new concept," Brickley said.

The attractions must be completed by the time the park opens Feb. 23. That's when teams of artists participating in the 2015 BP World Ice Art championships begin making sculptures.

The artists are from 16 countries.

The ice being harvested this year is crystal-clear aqua blue, Brickley said. This winter has been warmer and there's been less snow than usual, which is actually good for ice formation, he said. Snow can shield ice from cold air.

A new piece of ice art that's scheduled to go up this week will feature a sculpture Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott.

The sculpture will be located outside the Carlson Center for the Fairbanks inaugural ball for the new Walker administration. The event was scheduled to take place Jan. 24.

When is a 4/20 festival not a 4/20 festival?

DENVER – Colorado's infamous 4/20 marijuana festival will not actually happen on the famed stoner date of April 20 this year.

The Denver Post reports that's because the 20th is a Monday this year. The organizers of the festival have permits to use a central Denver park only on Saturday and Sunday. Their structures must be down by midday April 20.

Still, organizers expect the typical impromptu revelry at 4:20 p.m. That's when pot smokers have traditionally lit up to celebrate their drug of choice.

Even though recreational marijuana is now legal in Colorado it cannot be smoked in public. That didn't stop festivalgoers last year who lit up en masse at the canonical minute. Police say it's unlikely there would be mass arrests or citations this year, either.

Woman charged with robbing store while toddler was in cab

WILMINGTON, Del. – A woman took a cab to and from a convenience store robbery and left her 1-year-old daughter in the vehicle during the crime, police say.

Delaware State Police say the robbery happened about 3:25 a.m. Jan. 13 at a Wawa. Troopers say a woman indicated she had a handgun and demanded money from a clerk.

Police say the clerk gave the woman money, and the suspect fled in a yellow minivan cab. Officers found the taxi and the driver, who did not know what had happened in the Wawa. The driver told police where he had dropped the woman off.

Troopers arrested Amanda Paoletti, 29. Police say her 1-year-old daughter had been in the cab during the robbery.

Paoletti was charged with robbery and endangering the welfare of a child.

Irish grandma busted for possessing cocaine at bingo hall

DUBLIN – Helen Heaphy's number came up at the bingo hall. The prize was a trip to court.

The 50-year-old grandmother pleaded guilty Jan. 21 to two counts of possessing cocaine for sale or supply after Irish police caught her with the narcotic outside a Cork bingo hall.

Cork District Court Judge Leo Malone accepted her lawyer's plea for clemency citing her family obligations and her possession of a relatively small amount of the drug worth $400. Heaphy insisted she was holding the cocaine for an unspecified friend.

Malone fined Heaphy $870 but gave her no jail time, despite having two prior convictions for drugs possession and obstructing a police narcotics unit. She even was allowed to go back to playing bingo at the hall after the owner relented.

Compiled by Paul H. Rowe