ShockBurst

William Anderson, 51, was arrested in February after he attracted a lot of attention by parking a Hummer (with Michigan plates) outside the small-town county welfare office in Jonesville, Va., while he applied for benefits; a quick investigation revealed that the vehicle had been stolen. [Times News (Kingsport, Tenn.), 2-11-08]Frederick Watson, 57, was arrested in […]

In February, a court in Cardiff, Wales, once again released Thelma Dennis, 50, to get therapy for her addiction of making bogus emergency (”999″) telephone calls, even though she has been prosecuted about 60 times in 24 years on similar charges. In an earlier case, Dennis agreed to a therapy that sent painful shocks through […]

Lawyer Kathy Brewer Rentas, 49, was charged with assault in February after asking to shake hands with federal lawyer Jennifer Keane (who was prosecuting Rentas’ husband for probation violation). The handshake began in businesslike fashion, but according to a court security guard, Rentas squeezed the hand, then yanked it up and down hard, “almost pull(ing) […]

Instant Karma: In January, a man in Citrus Heights, Calif., had a one-car accident that left him with serious head and body injuries that were perhaps exacerbated because he was not wearing a seat belt (even though the 12-pack of beer on the seat beside him was securely buckled, and survived). [Sacramento Bee, 1-8-08]Daniel Thompson, […]

In the 2006 take-off crash of a Comair commuter airliner at the regional airport in Lexington, Ky. (which the FAA blamed on pilot error), all 47 passengers were killed, and 21 lawsuits have been filed, with attorney William Johnson defending the only cockpit survivor (the first officer). The Lexington Herald-Leader reported in January that, in […]

Three Chihuahuas came to New York’s North Shore Animal League in April so badly deformed they resembled pint-sized kangaroos.

These three pups, born without front legs, quickly learned to hop on their back paws. But it was a short-term solution. And now they’ve got what they really need — a set of wheels.
“Chihuahuas aren’t meant to […]

Single voters have spoken, and the presidential candidate they most want to see naked is — drum roll, please — Barack Obama.
And, in what is surely a more competitive race, the most visually unpleasant White House hopeful — Ron Paul. (Somewhere, Dennis Kucinich is smiling.)
The results are part of a January 2008 survey of […]

Clinton and Obama - The Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of Politics
Democrats can’t unite the increasingly bitter race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but genealogists can. It seems he’s distantly related to Brad Pitt and she’s a far off cousin of Angelina Jolie.
Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society are reporting many famous […]

Japan says, “UFOs do exist”, a top Japanese government spokesman said Tuesday. The comment by chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura drew laughter from reporters at his regular briefing on government policy.
Machimura, asked about the government’s view on UFOs at a regular press conference, told reporters that the government can only offer a simple response. “Personally, […]

An Italian court has ruled that a couple could not name their son “Friday” and ordered that he instead be called Gregory after the saint whose feast day he was born on. “I think it is ridiculous they even opened a case about it,” the family’s lawyer, Paola Rossi, told Reuters by telephone from the […]