Newzity

You better believe it. Mark Urdahl, the current Mayor of West Lake Hills, Texas, is campaigning hard for one of his opponents Dave Claunch, the chairman of a city committee, for the upcoming Mayoral election in May.

There is no gimmick or trick here. And he is not doing out of some nefarious or malicious reason either. He simply wants Claunch to win. Or to be fair, he wants to lose the election. Why? Eight days after he filled papers for his reelection, Mark decided to withdraw from the race when the police chief accused him of tampering with a city investigation. On March 18, the deadline for withdrawal, he called the city office to notify then of his intention and later that day sent an email with a written request to remove his name from the ballot. Though both his phone conversation and the email met the 5 p.m. deadline, to be official the written request needed to be signed and notarized. His email did not satisfy any of those two requirements. Given the rules, the city officials said they cannot do anything to remove his name before the election and it will be on the ballot.

That left Mark with no option but work hard not to win but to lose. He is campaigning hard but for his opponent. What does his opponent think about the twist of fate? Claunch said Mark would not have any effect on the election. The whole thing “is just another dimension to life in Westlake Hills.”

Sure they can. Sgt. Ryan Nelson from Eugene police department in Oregon saved a pet store owner from the jaws of a 12-foot python. He had to pry open the snake’s mouth to free the woman’s hand.

Teresa Rossiter, a 46 year old pet store owner, was in full praise for her Burmese python Darla when she reached inside the cage to show it to a customer. But Darla picked up the smell of rat on her hand and bit her right hand and coiled around her left arm. Another friend in the store kept the snake from going around her neck. They called 911 and Sgt. Ryan Nelson arrived ready to kill the snake with a knife. But Teresa told him not to kill Darla - she did not want to hurt the snake and Darla would sell for about $850. Officer Ryan then put on gloves and pried open the snakes mouth off Teresa’s hand. The snake was returned to the cage without any damage. No one was hurt expect Teresa: she had dozens of puncture wounds.

Even though Teresa was really scared, she said it was her fault and not Darla’s.

Given the housing market, it is not easy to sell a house. The realtors and sellers are forced to rely on innovative incentives or trendy tricks. But Lovell family has come up with the prefect plan: give the house away in a 500 word essay content with $100 entry ticket.

The house is not a tiny one or really damaged one. It is a 1,200-square-foot three-bedroom, one bath-room standard house in Los Alamos, NM. Tiffany and Todd Lovell are giving their house away in an essay contest, and you can have it for a $100 ticket. The only catch is that they need about 2,500 people to sign up before they have the contest. That means they would sell the house for at least $250,000. Not a bad price for today’s market. If they don’t get the 2,500 people, they would return your money and start all over. One problem: the state Gaming Control Board is investigating if the contest is a raffle, which is illegal in NM, or a game of skill, which is legal.

So if you are interested, hurry. There are about 61 days left to enter the contest, and from their website it does not look like they got lots of entries.

It can. Sixty-one year old Alex Lenkei did not feel a thing during his 80-minute long, painful, and extensive thumb operation. He completed the surgery under hypnosis and without any anesthetic in a British Hospital.

Alex is a professional hypnotist and been practicing since he was 16. But recently he was suffering from arthritis, and a walnut size extra bone at the base of this thumb needed to be removed. The operation required crushing the bone with saw and chisel, cutting off small portions, and fusing together the exposed area. All the steps involved in the 80-minute operation normally cause excruciating pain, and anesthetic is a must. But Alex refused anesthetic and instead put himself under hypnosis which took him about 30 seconds.

Even the doctors were surprised and said that his heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing pattern did not change at all during the operation proving that he did not feel any pain. Throughout the surgery, Alex was conscious about every little movement and sound around him: conversations among surgeons; sound of the tools including the hammer and saw; and even the sound of his bone cracking.

The only thing that made Alex feel a bit disappointed was the lack of any juicy gossip amongst the doctors.

Of course it is. It has been this way through out history, from the time church was formed, from the day Jesus died, then why not now. The case in point is the Saturday Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict. Of all people, the twice divorced pro-abortion major of NY Rudy Giuliani took communion at the same Mass.

What happened to the no divorce rule? What about the faith in the sanctity of life? Only last year, Pope Benedict himself reaffirmed that divorced Catholics cannot receive Communion unless they never have sexual relations with the new partner. Rudy was there with his third wife — not second, but third. When asked how he felt about breaking the rules to take Communion, Rudy said he saw nothing wrong with it. Not to mention his support for abortion. Though he did not take the Communion from Pope himself, he took it during the same Mass.

But he was not alone. Last Thursday, when Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the Eucharistic liturgy in Washington, pro-choice liberals such as Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry also took communion.

I guess the rules only apply to mere mortals like average church going Catholics. Rich and famous just have to show up when Pope is in town. They have a different set of rules to follow.

It worked for Edna Parker, the oldest living person on the planet. Today is her 115-th birthday. Her 59 year old grandson said she has been always thin and happy, and that did the trick. But no one really knows the secrets of longevity, but scientists think her gene and life style played a major role.

Edna was born in April 20 1893, and last august become the oldest person when a Japanese women four months older than her died. In the whole world, there are only 75 people that are 110 or older: most of them women and only 11 men. Average life expectancy in US is about 76 year and in Japan it is about 80, the longest in the world. Japan also has the largest number of people over 110, or the super-centenarians. Edna celebrated her 115 birthday with her family at her nursing home.

Over the years she has lost all people from her generation and most from the next one. Her husband died 70 years ago and her two sisters, who lived to be 99 and 88, are no longer with her. She even outlived her two sons. Now her family members include five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and 13 great-great grandchildren.

We wish her a happy birthday and hope she continues to inspire others to live a long and healthy life.

It must be a slow day at CNN. Their reporters are now making headlines instead of just reporting them. Richard Quest, a familiar face on CNN, got arrested in the early hours on Friday inside central park with meth.

Quest, a 46 year old British reporter, is the host of CNN Business Traveler and his namesake program Quest. Over the years, Quest with his strange voice and overactive style has made his mark on CNN’s international channel. On Friday 3:40 am, he was arrested for being inside central park - the park was under curfew from 1 am to 6 am. During their routine search, police discovered the plastic bag of meth in his pocket. He was given six month counseling for possession of a controlled substance.

I guess the news of primaries, pope visit, and the raid at the Texas ranch was not exciting enough. CNN needed more personalized breaking news. And it makes one wonder, what quest led him to the central park in the wee hours with drug in his pocket?

Seems so. A group of 12 to 14 year old students from Clarksville Middle School lured a fellow schoolmate to a parking lot and beat her up. They taped the incident to share the video on PhotoBucket. Police say that group was inspired by the YouTube video of 16 year old Victoria Lindsay getting beaten by her friends.

This time the girls involved were even younger. The incident happened outside the school property. The group 12 to 14 year old middle school students planed it beforehand and lured a 12 year old schoolmate to an empty parking lot of a warehouse. When the victim reached the lot, the girls started arguing with her. Soon the group got angrier and started beating her. They again and again hit her on the head as other members watched and joked about it. The group taped the whole incident as they laughed. They later uploaded the video on PhotoBucket website. The 12 year old was left with bruises and cuts on her upper body and taken to a hospital for treatment. It seemed that they did it for the notoriety, and it was not clear what motivated them to pick the particular victim.

The girls were not formally charged since police were still investigating. Ironically, the victim is a daughter of a police officer. I guess the 15 minutes of notoriety is hard to resist for some kids.