Newzity

Apparently sunny San Francisco. And this is not a movie plot. A thirty something couple was arrested for terrorizing their tenants. They wanted to force the tenants to leave.

Kip and Nicole Macy, both in their early thirties, unlawfully evicted one of the tenants from their six-unit building. Their motivation was to make more money by raising rent with a new tenant. But when the tenant fought the eviction in court and won the case, the couple decided on plan B: to make his life a living hell so that he would be forced to leave. They shut off his electricity, his phone line, and hired people to cut a hole in his living room floor from underneath. If that was not enough, they went on to remove the beam that supports his floor. This is not their first attempt. They had practice on other tenants. They broke into another apartment and poured ammonia all over the tenant’s belongings including clothes, beds, and TV.

The couple is not short on money. First of all they have a six-unit building in San Francisco and Kip is a software engineer and Macy is a real estate agent. I guess they are just greedy.

We are talking about a $297 dollar budget deficit here. One would naturally assume that is an absurd proposal. But labor leaders in Montgomery County are proposing to ration toilet papers for convicts to help solve their $239 million budget shortage.

Criminals lose most of their freedom when they are in prison. That is expected punishment for their crime. Tax payer money should also not be wasted to provide luxury for them. But one would think that toilet paper is neither matter of freedom nor considered luxury - rather it is a matter of necessity. But in Maryland some labor leaders think it is a luxury that inmates do not deserve. They are proposing to limit each inmate to no more than two or three rolls of toilet papers per week. The proposal comes as a part of the recommendation to save money to handle the $239 million dollar budget deficit in Montgomery County.

Besides the silliness, one might question the practicality of the proposal. How much money are we talking about saving per roll here? The total annual budget for low grade toilet papers used by inmate is about $67,500.

Of course they do. Otherwise how would we know that they are snobs? And it is no joke. The 25-th richest man of the world thinks all the money, fame, and luxury are not enough until the ultra-rich gets their own magazine. This summer he will start publishing Snob magazine.

There would also be website and television dedicated to all the Russians snobs. You see, all the magazines of the world are about the rest of us common people. It is not fair to the ultra-rich. It is high time they have their own. Forty two year old Mikhail Prokhorov, worth $22 billion, will spend $150 million to set up the magazine, website, and a TV station - all called Snob. He thinks boasting about money is justified if you earned it. A few in Russia in recent days have become rich from rising energy prices, and Moscow has most billionaires. At the same time one in five Russians lives under the poverty line. But Russian ultra-riches love to flaunt their money to underscore the depressing disparity.

The middle age bachelor Mikhail thinks the magazine would give a voice to the ultra-rich. Or could it be just the midlife crisis of a rich man?

This time it was Tony himself. On Monday he was caught without a ticket on train to London’s Heathrow airport on his way to the US. He has made millions last year and wanted to skip on a $50 train ticket.

This is nothing new for the Blair family. Cherie Blair, wife of Tony, was fined in 2000 for riding a train without a ticket. And she is a judge of all things. Tony Blair got on the express train without buying the ticket, and when he got caught by the ticket inspector he said he had no money on him to pay for the ticket. He was let go without any fine. This made some people really unhappy. The transit authority said they are pleased to have the former prime minister as a customer, but they are not giving any special discount to him, and expect him to pay the regular fare. Maybe Blair family follows the tradition of queen of England who does not carry money with her.

It is now known how many times he traveled without ticket before he got caught.

It might sound absurd but 13 people were arrested for practicing black magic. A wave a panic has spread in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, followed by attempted mob lynching of the people suspected of witchcraft. They are accused of making the victims’ genitals shrink or disappear just by touch.

In West Africa there is a deep rooted believe in black magic and feared to be a tool for taking revenge on enemy. And men’s genitals are often assumed to be the target. About a decade ago twelve people were beaten to death for the assumed crime in Ghana. A score of men in Kinshasa are convinced that they were victims of black magic. The fear spread and people were advised to avoid the touch of strangers wearing gold rings in public transport. The victim first claimed they lost their organ but when asked to prove it they say they suffered a great shrinkage. Kinshasa residents believe a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province is trying to settle score for the recent crackdown by government.

But before you judge others for being superstitious, remember how many people fall prey to the bogus emails promising the opposite.

You may not, but a pair of NY men did exactly that. They put their dead friend on an office chair and wheeled him to a store to cash a $355 dollar social security check.

The sixty-six year old man was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and died. But his two younger friends used an office chair with wheels to bring him to a check cashing place in downtown Manhattan. They left him outside and went to cash one of his social security checks worth $355 on which they forged his signature. The person at the counter asked to see the old man before cashing the check. But when the two went out there was a crowd around the dead body. A police officer who was having lunch nearby found out the old man was dead.

Since the coroner could not pin point the exact time of death, the two friends could not be punished for forgery and other related crimes.

No it is not a Disney movie. A mother dumped a newborn baby girl under a pile of mud and left her to die outside a village in Indian state of Bihar. A pack of stray dogs dug the baby out of the mud, and started barking. Villagers came and rescued the baby.

Female infanticide is common in India. According to UN, there are about 2,000 unborn girls killed every day. Indians prefer boys over girls since they have to pay a large sum of money to get their daughters married. Baby girls are in danger if the parents find out the sex before birth. In India testing center would advertise ultrasound scanners with cruel and blatant message like spend $20 now and save $2000 later. But villagers cannot even afford $20, and they mostly abandon their baby girls after birth. This baby girl was lucky. A pack of stray dogs found her in time. They removed the layer of mud off her, and she started crying. The dogs’ barking and the baby’s cry got the attention of the villagers. They came and rescued her. Police is looking for the mother.

The baby girl is doing fine, and was adopted on the spot by a childless couple. It is an unusual story of affection: a newborn is left to die by her mother but stray dogs and strangers come to rescue.

You might have to consider the question if PETA has its way. After trying to fight the meat eating habits for a long time, PETA now wants to give up. Not entirely though, they want you to eat test tube meat. They are offering $1 million prize for anyone who can make commercially viable meat in the lab.

Growing meat in the lab is nothing new. Scientists can grow tissue cultures that can be shaped and textured like the real meat using the same techniques used for soy burgers. The advantage is that it would need much less resource like land and water to produce, and for PETA it won’t involve any real animal. So cruelty against animal is out of the question. With right flavoring and texture the test tube meat can be made to replace chicken, beef, fish, or anything else you want. A separate organization called New Harvest that promotes meat substitute points at other benefits:

“Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting and more humane than conventional meat.”

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Please contact the Brazilian authority if you spot a priest in the sky. No kidding. A Roman Catholic priest from southern coast of Brazil has vanished into the sky and was reported missing. He last contacted port authority from more than 11 thousand feet in the air as he was floating away with hundreds of party balloons filled with helium.

This was all for a good cause: to raise money to build a spiritual rest stop for truckers. Forty one year old Carli, an experienced skydiver and a priest, thought that breaking the world record for longest flight with balloons was a good idea. On Sunday afternoon equipped with a GPS device, a satellite phone, and a parachute, Carli put on a flight suit and sat on a buoyant chair. His friends strapped his chair to the tall arrays of green, red, white, and yellow balloons filled with helium. And off he went in the midst of cheers from the crowd. He soared to great height and traveled about 470 miles before wind pushed him off course. He was 31 miles off the coast when he last contacted the port authority.

His friends said he has the experience to deal with the situation and he would turn up without any problem.

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Think about it. No more wrestling with the difficult decision of going to a bar to watch the game or attending the church. The Country Rock Church in Ohio has brought its Sunday sermon to the Pub Lounge in Sidney. So you can enjoy beer and bible at the same time.

The attendance in the Country Rock Church has been dwindling for a while and its head pastor Rev. Chris Heckaman is trying to find out ways to attract new members. He has come up with some creative ideas to reach the unwilling. The bar is the latest pick for his new branch for Sunday sermon. According to the Church website the new place features top regional bands of beer, pizza, chicken wings, rowdy fun, and most importantly a short message. So far Heckaman is happy with the response: about 100 people joined the inaugural service on Sunday. He expects more people to join as the words get out.

If you are wondering what was the topic of sermon here is a hint: the pastor talked about how life is like a ride on the bar’s mechanical bull.