Man Roasts 72 Pound Turkey for Thanksgiving

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Minnesota man basted a 72-pound turkey to trounce his sister in their annual sibling rivalry over who can prepare the biggest Thanksgiving bird.

Rich Portnoy roasted his tubby turkey in his 36-inch-wide, chef-caliber oven on Thursday to top the biggest bird his sister had ever cooked by 25 pounds. Andra Portnoy conceded defeat from her Reston, Va., home, but noted that her brother's large oven gave him an edge.

"It actually tastes pretty good!" Rich Portnoy said, gloating a bit after he and two other men pulled the turkey from the oven after 15 hours of roasting.

Big turkeys are a tradition in the Portnoy family. Rich Portnoy said his father cooked birds of 30 pounds or more years ago.

Last year, Andra Portnoy cooked a 47-pounder to take the lead after her brother could only find a 37-pounder, even though he lives in the nation's top turkey-producing state.

This year, Rich Portnoy approached the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, which helped him find an 85-pound breeding tom that, at 59 weeks old, was near the end of its useful life.

He bought the turkey for $30, loaded the live bird into the back of the family's car and drove it to a processor, where it was made oven-ready at 72 pounds.

Portnoy and his wife, Charlene, invited 26 people to Thursday's feast. They weren't sure the big old tom would be edible, so Portnoy also cooked a 19-pound "backup turkey" on the backyard grill.

Man Shoots Cow, Says He Thought It was a Coyote

COLFAX TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - A man says he shot and killed a neighbor's cow after mistaking it for a coyote.

Authorities and the owner are skeptical.

The undersheriff in northern Michigan's Benzie County says he doesn't see how anyone could confuse a 1,400-pound, pregnant cow with a coyote, which typically weighs 20 to 45 pounds.

And anyway, shooting coyotes is illegal during deer-shooting season. Authorities asked the county prosecutor to bring charges.

The 42-year-old man told authorities he was out to shoot coyotes near his home Saturday when he killed the cow, Undersheriff Rory Heckman said. Heckman said the man then tried to drag the cow home.

"The part of his story he his holding to is he shot at a coyote. I don't know how he hit a several-thousand-pound cow mistaking it for a coyote," Heckman said.

The cow, named Hannah, had wandered away from her farm.

"My husband thought that he should go through some therapy looking at repeated pictures of cows and coyotes, because they look nothing alike," said owner DeAnn Mosher. "It didn't make any sense to me."

Swedish Women swim Topless in Protest

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A group of Swedish women is making waves by taking their tops off at public swimming pools in a protest against what they call gender-biased rules on swim wear.

About 40 women have joined the network and staged topless protests in at least three cities, said Sanna Ferm, 22, one of the founders of the group called Bara Brost, or Bare Breasts.

"The purpose of the campaign is to start a debate about why women's bodies are sexualized," Ferm said Wednesday.

She said the fact that men can be bare-chested in public swimming pools but not women is "a concrete example of how women have fewer rights than men."

Reactions from other swimmers have ranged from support and encouragement to anger and even indifference, she said.

The network was formed after two women who were swimming topless in a public swimming pool in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, were asked to cover up or leave.

Women can sunbathe topless in the summertime at beaches around Sweden, which is known for its relaxed attitude toward nudity, but they are required to wear tops at public swimming pools.

Inger Groteblad, a manager at the swimming facility in Uppsala, said it was a matter of security.

"We want to make sure that girls don't get subjected to sexual harassment," she was quoted as saying by tabloid Aftonbladet.

The women have filed a complaint against the facility to Sweden's Equal Opportunities Ombudsman.

Why Do You Think They Call it Dope?

Nov 20, 10:49 PM (ET)
LEICESTER, Mass. (AP) - Two teens who went to the Leicester police station to apply for door-to-door sales permits were arrested after officers say they smelled burned marijuana on them.

Police detected the smell on Garrett St. Cyr after he came into the station last Friday. The officers went outside to talk with his companion, Joshua Kephart, after a computer check and a surveillance video showed he'd driven St. Cyr on a suspended license.

Police said Kephart also smelled of marijuana and had several cans of beer in the car.
Both were charged with marijuana possession. Kephart also was charged driving on a suspended license and minor in possession of alcohol.

The 18-year-olds were released on personal recognizance. No telephone listings could be found for them.

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Two Atlanta cops are headed to prison in the Kathryn Johnston killing, an NYPD narc goes down for drug running, and a strung-out Pennsylvania cop heads to jail for peddling pills. Let's get to it:

In Atlanta, two Atlanta police officers were ordered Monday to report to prison to begin serving their sentences for their roles of the killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in a drug raid gone bad a year ago this week. In that incident, the officers involved lied to a judge to obtain a search warrant for Johnston's home, shot at her 39 times after she shot once at them as they broke her door down, planted marijuana in her basement, and tried to get an informant to say he had provided the information for the warrant. No drugs other than the planted pot were found at her home. Officers Jason Smith and Gregg Junnier pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and other state charges and to federal allegations of conspiracy to violate a person's civil rights ending in death. They have been cooperating with federal authorities in an ongoing investigation into the incident and broader issues of misconduct in the Atlanta narcotics squad, but now a federal judge has ordered them to report to prison by December 3. They have not yet been sentenced, but in their plea bargain agreements, the deal was that Smith would get no more than 12 years and Junnier no more than 10, with possible sentence cuts depending on their degree of cooperation. A third officer involved in the incident, Arthur Tesler, faces state charges. His trial will probably begin in April.

In New York City, an NYPD narcotics officer was arrested last Friday on charges he used inside knowledge to run drugs for a Bronx-based cocaine and heroin trafficking ring. Detective James Calderon, a 13-year veteran of the force, was arraigned on drug possession and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors allege that Calderon smuggled a total of eight kilos of cocaine from New York City to Virginia on two trips in 2004 and 2005. Calderon went down after attempting to get an impounded minivan released from police custody. NYPD officers at the 44th Precinct refused to release the vehicle to Calderon, then searched it and found a kilo of heroin inside.

In Scranton, Pennsylvania, a former Scranton police officer was sentenced Tuesday on Oxycontin delivery charges. Then Scranton Police Officer Mark Conway was arrested in March after an informant told police he had bought drugs from Conway on more than one occasion. He pleaded guilty in August and resigned from the force. Now, he will do one month in prison on a three-to-18 month sentence, and then he will be placed on work release. Conway's defense attorney said he wasn't a "drug pusher," but a drug user who occasionally sold drugs to others.