Los Angeles to serve toilet water
Thanks "Carlyn"

You and your dog may soon be able to share a drink! Southern Californians may soon get their drinking water through a program dubbed “Toilet on Tap”, which entails recycling toilet water.  The water from bathrooms across the state would be run through a five-year purification process, closely monitored, and then combined with regular groundwater and eventually end up in resident’s taps.

California officials made the assertion that the $55 million program was cost effective, and a safe solution to the state’s water shortages.  Environmentalists heartily agreed with the plan.

David Czamanske of the Sierra Club told one paper, “The water that we drink every day has been around for millions of years and circulated through who knows what – dinosaurs, black bears and panthers.  The water becomes purified through natural processes or it can be purified through reclamation. . . “

Lori Dinkie, with the Valley Village Homeowners Associates, said, “This is human waste.  I’m very uneasy about that.”

How Now, Brown Cow Thief?

What do you do in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on a slow Tuesday?  Why, steal a cow, of course.  At least that’s what some thieves did January 23. 

After squeezing the bovine passenger into the rear seat of a mid-sized sedan, the thief drove off with it, but abandoned the animal when the getaway car crashed into a tree after being spotted by villagers who gave chae, according to an official in the southern state of Kedah, Malaysia, who declined to be identified.

The driver lost control of the vehicle and drove into a tree, and by the time villagers arrived one person was seen running from the car.  It is believed that there were others involved.

The cow was injured in the crash. She was later slaughtered by villagers. It is unclear how the thieves managed to push bossy into the car or whether the animal was sedated at the time.  A photograph in one paper showed the creature’s head with closed eyes sticking out of the rear sear window of the crashed vehicle.

At least he didn’t shoot his mouth off!

A North Carolina man couldn’t even run after his unsuccessful try at robbery. He shot himself in the foot.

Kelvin Ethelbert Roberts, 28, had plans to rob a Gasland USA in Cherryville, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte, on January 21, but according to the arrest report, he dropped his .45 caliber handgun in front of the convenience store.  The gun went off, striking Roberts in the right foot.

He faces several charges, including attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction. The latter charge was filed because the handgun had been altered to fire .410 shotgun shells.

Roberts was found to be in illegal possession of the gun because of a felony cocaine possession conviction in 2002 in Chautauqua County, New York.

Follow up:
Court allows probation violator to collect winnings

Timothy Elliot, 55, a bank robber who won a $1 million lottery prize, will be allowed to keep his winnings, even though he was on purgation when he bought the ticket.

Barnstable Superior Court Judge Richard Connon ruled in Elliot’s favor January 18, after the Mass. lottery commission said there was no basis for withdrawing the prize.

The only change is that Elliot must now pay a monthly $65 probation supervision fee, which was previously waived because Elliot is indigent.

Elliot declined comment.  He lives now in Bourne under supervision of the Department of Mental Health. Dep’t. spokeswoman Coria Holland also refused to comment.

Elliot had plead gulty in October, 2006 to unarmed robbery for a heist at a bank on Cape Cod, and he was placed on probation for five years. The terms included that he not ”gamble, purchase lottery tickets or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted . . .
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The money he won was on a $10 ticket for the “$800 Million Spectacular” game. He has already received the first of 20 annual $50,000 checks.  The ticket was bought at a supermarket in Hyannis

Here, Kitty, Kitty

Jan 23
A 10-month –old traveling tabby in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, crawled into her owner’s suitcase as he was packing, and went through an airport X-ray machine, got loaded onto a plane, thrown onto a baggage belt and went home with a stranger to Fort Worth, Texas.

Gracie Mae, whose owners are Kelly and Seth Levy, had just been spayed when she took the jaunt. The last time Kelly Levy, 24, had seen Gracie was before she took her husband to the airport. The bottom step of her house, which the cat usually occupied, was empty.

Tearing the house apart, and going so far as to remove tiles from the bathroom, she looked for the animal, even papering the neighborhood with lost cat signs.

Then she got a phone call from a kind stranger in Fort Worth, Rob Carter. “Hi. You’re not going to believe this, but I’m calling from Fort Worth, Texas, and I accidentally picked up your husband’s luggage.  And when I opened the luggage, a cat jumped out.”

Carter said he has gotten home before realizing the suitcase wasn’t his. “I went to unpack and saw some of the clothes and saw it wasn’t my suitcase,” he said.  “I was going to close it, and a kitten jumped out and ran under the bed.  I screamed like a little girl.”

Carter said after a time he was able to retrieve the cat. “In the morning, I got close enough to see its collar and the phone number on  it.”  So I called the number and got a hold of the crying wife of the traveler.”

After all that, Gracie made the 1300 mile trip home in style, traveling on an $80 ticket.

Carter said he considered keeping the cat before he knew she had a home. “We were going to name it Suitcase,” he said.

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