CROSSVILLE CHRONICLE
National
Teen-agers lead police in chase
HANCOCK, Md.
(AP) Four Tennessee teen-agers were arrested Sunday after leading police on a high-speed chase for 55 miles in a stolen car, state police said.
The chase began near Hancock, on eastbound Interstate 70, when a state trooper stopped to help a car that was pulled over on the road's shoulder. The car pulled out into traffic and started accelerating at a fast speed, eventually reaching speeds of up to 110-miles-per-hour. The trooper pursued the car and was joined by two other troopers and a police helicopter. The car meanwhile drove on the shoulder, forced vehicles off the roadway and nearly struck a police cruiser. The car was forced to stop at a truck weigh station in New Market where the suspects were taken into custody.
The car's driver was found with a marijuana cigarette in his pocket and a packet of rolling paper in the car, state police said. The car was found to be stolen from Clarksville, Tenn.
The car's driver, Brandon Wayne King, 19, was charged with speeding, reckless driving, assault, possession of a stolen vehicle and possession of marijuana. Three passengers a 17-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl were charged with juvenile delinquency. All the suspects were from Clarksville.
10-year-old girl busted with beer
TULSA, Okla.
(AP) A 10-year-old girl was cited for possession of beer at a weekend raid on a nightclub, police said.
Agents from the state Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission and undercover Tulsa police officers observed the underage customers after receiving complaints about the Midnight Rodeo nightclub, Tulsa Police Lt. Bill McDonald said.
Twenty-one minors were cited for possession early Sunday morning, McDonald said.
Scott Charles Casey, 23, of Correctionville, Iowa, and Jeffrey Ray Ferguson, 19, of Tulsa were arrested on complaints of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to jail records. Both men were booked and released from the Tulsa Jail, records show. Three bartenders were arrested on complaints of serving alcohol to minors, McDonald said.
Mike Wooten and his wife were called to the club to pick up their 10-year-old daughter about 1 a.m. Sunday. Their 19-year-old son was one of the men arrested on a complaint of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Wooten said. However, he said his 10-year-old was not the one cited for possession of beer.
Wooten said the 10-year-old was supposed to have spent the night with her brother and sister-in-law and that he and his wife were shocked to learn they had dressed up the young girl and taken her to the club.
Ostrich revenge best served cold
BUFFALO, Wyo.
(AP) A man facing four months of recovery time and $15,000 in doctor bills for a broken leg is planning some sweet revenge against the cause of his problems: He'll eat the offender. Richie Ashburn, 39, of Buffalo, was feeding the pigs on a friend's farm Sept. 30 when one of the ostriches on the farm approached him.
I've only fed them a few times for this guy that owns them, he said Friday. He told me to watch their eyes because they peck at you. Usually it works to swing an empty bucket at their faces and they run from you. This one didn't.
Ashburn said one of the ostrich's feet lashed out at him lightning fast and connected with his leg just above the ankle.
The kick, as hard as a swing from a baseball bat, shattered the bones there, causing a compound fracture. Doctors inserted a metal rod and pins into the leg Monday, Ashburn said, adding his friend's homeowners insurance should cover medical costs.
But meanwhile, he said he was looking forward to his revenge: a steak from the ostrich that kicked him, or at least one that looked like the kicker.
Even his friend, he explained, can't tell the animals apart
.
He shot one with a shotgun a couple of weeks ago because he thought he had a mean one,Ó Ashburn said. But he wasn't sure he got the right one. He said his friend planned to butcher several of the ostriches in a few weeks.
Cabbie survives in trunk for 2 days
PITTSBURGH (AP)
A cab driver told police he survived on beer and baby food while he was locked in the trunk of his cab for two days after being accosted by a carjacker.
LeRoy Enoch, 44, of Pittsburgh, was found Saturday in the city's Garfield neighborhood. He was released after a passerby heard his cries for help.
Police said Enoch refused medical attention after he was freed. He told them he had been attacked on Thursday and robbed of $40. Enoch told police he survived by drinking baby food and a can of beer left in the cab's trunk.
Kidnapper sues victim for back pay
TOWSON, Md. (AP)
An elderly kidnapping victim is being sued for $288 in back pay by a former caretaker who kidnapped and robbed him when he was supposed to be looking after his victim's wife. David Kirk Chakoaty Xavier, formerly known as David J. Davy,
is seeking back pay for eight days of work. He said he's not asking to be paid for the day of the kidnapping because he didn't work
the full day.
District Judge A. Gordon Boone Jr. ruled against Xavier in June. His appeal in Baltimore County Circuit Court begins Wednesday.
Abel Caplan, 74, hired Xavier in April 1995 as a $230-a-week, live-in caretaker for his wife, Helene Caplan, who had multiple sclerosis until her death in January.
On April 13, 1995, Davy left the woman at a movie theater, then forced her husband to cash out a $14,000 retirement account and buy Xavier thousands of dollars of designer clothing and jewelry.
Police found Caplan taped to a chair in a Pikesville motel room.
Xavier, who is serving a 50-year prison term, denied his guilt from the Maryland House of Correction Annex in Jessup.
Even if I had done these things, that does not negate the fact that he owes me money, Xavier said.
The victim, a 74-year-old Baltimore County resident, said he can't believe the kidnapper's nerve.
I think it's terrible, Caplan said. He's an ultimate con-person.
Fire station unstaffed, boy dies
CINCINNATI
(AP) Neighbors living near a mobile home where a boy died in a fire were angered that a nearby fire station was not staffed at the time.
We told them a baby was in there, but it seemed like it took 20 minutes for anybody to get here, said Donald Thompson, a neighbor who tried to rescue the boy.
Joshua Poe, who was 16 months old, died in Friday's fire, said Bernie Becker, an assistant Anderson Township fire chief.
Unaware that the township firefighters were away on a training exercise, a 911 dispatcher called the Anderson Township station to respond. Two minutes later, Anderson Township Fire Chief Rob Brown told the dispatcher that the station was unstaffed. The dispatcher immediately called for nearby Newtown to respond. That station was shortstaffed.
Thirteen minutes after the initial call, the first truck arrived at the scene. But the trailer was engulfed in flames.
The boy's mother, Kitty Ross, and her 3-year-old son, Tom Poe, were treated for burns and smoke inhalation at University of Cincinnati Hospital and released. Anderson fire officials blamed the department's delayed response on an outdated radio dispatching system. After hearing the call, Chief Brown said he immediately tried to send out a call to another station, because he knew the first station was empty.
Blind man kills would-be robber
PHILADELPHIA
(AP) Courtney Beswick couldn't see his assailant, but the blind man used his martial arts training to flip the attacker over his shoulder and place him in a wrestling hold until police arrived.
The would-be robber was declared dead at the hospital, but police say charges probably won't be filed because Beswick acted in self defense Wednesday. Neighbors say the dead man had bullied Beswick, 28 and blind since birth.
Courtney said he asked the guy to leave him alone more than once, Barbara Harper said. He told the guy that he wasn't giving him his money, but the man kept bothering him.
The dead man, Anthony Ervin, had been arrested eight times in the last nine years on assorted robbery, weapons and assault charges, police said. Autopsy results were not available yet, but city Health Department spokesman Jeff Moran said Ervin suffered a neck injury. Reached at home, Beswick said he was not injured, but would not otherwise discuss what happened. In 1987, he was named Most Valuable Wrestler for the Eastern Atlantic Association for Schools for the Blind.
Snow insurance on the increase
BOSTON
(AP) Last year's hard winter, along with some favorable publicity about Logan International Airport's profitable runway-clearing insurance, combined to boost interest in snow insurance.
Laurie Tillman, president of Good Weather Insurance Agency in Salem, said she wrote one snow removal policy two years ago, and 10 last year. This year, she said she expects to write 1,000.
Samuel Tassel of the Admiral Insurance Agency in Lynn said he expects to sell $10 million to $15 million worth of snow removal insurance this winter.
The Frederick Penn Insurance Agency in Needham has created a product called Òincome guarantee insurance. When it snows heavily and a restaurant or a retailer loses business for the day, the policy kicks in and reimburses the firm for a portion of the lost income.
Last year, Logan bought a $300,000 insurance policy that promised the Boston airport $50,000 for every inch of snow that fell beyond the expected 44 inches for the season.
Since 107.1 inches of the white stuff fell at Logan, according to the National Weather Service, the airport cleaned up.
Snow insurance is similar in some ways to the insurance farmers have been long able to buy to protect them in years when the weather destroys their crops.
Promoters of fairs and outdoor concerts also have been able to buy weather insurance.
Life insurers have detailed statistics about when people will die, Tillman said. We have detailed statistics going back years on weather conditions.
Police get break in 1979 murder
TAMPA, Fla.
(AP) Authorities say the break in a 17-year-old murder case came from an out-of-state tip that a woman talked about killing someone named Brownie in Florida near a street named Kennedy.
Fourteen months later, Claudia Schauerhamer was charged in the strangulation and beating death of Chester Brownie Brown, 75, in his Hyde Park apartment, not far from Kennedy Boulevard, a main east-west Tampa thoroughfare.
Quiet confidences to her sister led to the indictment Wednesday of Schauerhamer, 39, by a Hillsborough County grand jury.
The 1979 case took on new life last year when detectives in Nebraska and Colorado learned that a con woman spoke about a Florida murder.
What goes around, comes around, said Detective Teresa Hruza of the Lincoln, Neb., Police Department, whose rapport with Schauerhamer's sister, Susan, broke the case. It's nice to see it's finally coming to closure.
Schauerhamer became the third person accused of the crime. Two men were cleared in 1980 when prosecutors and police learned their star witnesses had lied. By then, one of the men had spent a year in prison; the other man jailed in the case was cleared before trial. Police say Schauerhamer, who cleaned apartments in the building Brown managed, killed the man and took $600 to $700 from him.
Candidates channel surf, wives say
WASHINGTON
(AP) Hillary Rodham Clinton and Elizabeth Dole have more in common than they thought: the same pet peeve about their husbands.
Good Housekeeping discovered this when it put a series of questions to the two women, including What's your husband's most annoying habit?
Mrs. Clinton: Like most men, my husband is an avid channel-surfer.
Mrs. Dole: He always channel surfs. It drives me nuts.
In the magazine's November issue, the two women also said what they would do with a half-hour simply to pamper themselves.
Mrs. Clinton: Go out and take a quiet walk.
Mrs. Dole: Grab an engrossing book and a piece of key lime pie.
Bees helping out the U.S. Army
EDGEWOOD, Md. (AP)
The bees go in, the bees come out and the Army watches.
And counts.
And weighs and sniffs.
And measures the temperature and humidity of 14 computer-rigged hives that are home to thousands of honey bees buzzing around one of the nation's most toxic dump sites.
The Pentagon hasn't created an entomologists corps. The Army has enlisted the insects as environmental monitors to detect traces of chemical weapons at Aberdeen Proving Ground and perhaps on future battlefields as well.
The seven high-tech hives at the edge of a saltwater marsh and seven others near an abandoned landfill contain bees whose mission is simply to do what bees do: flit from flower to tree to puddle to flower, gathering nectar and, inadvertently, particles of everything they touch.
A honey bee is probably nature's most superb monitor of materials, said Jerry J. Bromenshenk, a University of Montana biologist who designed the project for the military installation near the top of the Chesapeake Bay.
You've got a little flying fuzzy creature with electrostatically charged hairs, he said. They're like flying dust mops.
The trick is in shaking out the dust. In a half-dozen previous projects at other contaminated sites, Bromenshenk periodically vacuumed bees from the hives, ground them up and studied their remains.
This project is more sophisticated. Each mailbox-sized hive is enclosed in a wooden box shaped like a two-drawer filing cabinet and loaded with technology. Infrared beams across the entry slots record the comings and goings of each hive's 10,000 residents. The hives are constantly weighed while other devices measure and chart their temperature, humidity, and even the amount of wind generated by the bees wings.
Macarena part II making it way up
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP)
A sexy sway of the hips. A few pelvic thrusts. Some simple arm movements. A catchy Latin rhythm. Put it all together and it's likely the next step in the Latin line dance craze.
Forget The Macarena. Here comes the Tongoneo.
In Spanish, a tongoneo is a seductive hip movement. Now, it's the name of a song and a new dance that is poised to follow the Macarena.
It's way better than the Macarena and you can incorporate what you want to incorporate, said Catalina Montes, a finalist in a nationwide Tongoneo contest that concluded in September on Miami Beach. And it keeps you in shape.
She learned the dance three months ago just after the song was released. She heard it on a college radio station and loved it.
Everybody is really getting into it now, she added. The beat is enough. You hear it and you have to move.
The Macarena took years to catch on. It is a collection of simple arm movements followed by a jump and half turn. The Tongoneo is less robotic and slightly more complicated. It combines a series of turns, quick steps, hip swaying and pelvic thrusts that make Elvis look stiff.
Everything has its time, said Raul, a member of the group Mestizzo that sings the song and came up with the provocative dance. This might not be the next Macarena, but it's the next step.
The song has already hit gold in Mexico and the United States, according to the group's manager. But the bigger hopes are for a successful crossover into the English-language market.
It's getting a big-bucks marketing boost from record label Polygram Latino and Miller Brewing Co., which sponsored the dance competition and tour.
I see it getting quite a bit of play, said Miami radio personality Lazaro DJ Laz Mendez. It's definitely a crossover record, once they get a feel for it.
100 mph chase spans three states
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP)
A truck driver seen speeding near Cleveland switched off his lights and led police on a 100-mph chase that spanned three states and ended when he ditched in a bay 280 miles away.
Police blocked interstate exits and steered motorists aside Friday night, hoping that the tractor without a trailer would run out of gas.
The chase through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York ended nearly three hours later when the truck reached the end of an expressway in Rochester and ran off a boat launch into 4 feet of water in Irondequoit Bay, two miles from the driver's home.
The driver jumped out acting in an incoherent manner and flailing his arms, said state police Sgt. Mike Manning.
Franciszek Zygadlo, a 41-year-old Polish immigrant, was charged with reckless endangerment and resisting arrest, as well as various traffic violations. He was ordered jailed on $20,000 bail.
The chase began on I-271 in suburban Cleveland when the truck was clocked traveling 65 miles an hour in a 55-mph zone, said Trooper Charles SanFilippo of the Ohio Highway Patrol.
Trailed by police, the truck accelerated to about 100 miles an hour. At times, it slowed back down to around 60 miles an hour, then sped up again. We just stayed out of the way, Manning said. It's a large tractor and anything you'd try to put in front of that, he'd be able to ram it.
Unflattering phrases in Windows 95
SEATTLE (AP)
Microsoft, which spent nine months adapting its Windows 95 program for use in China, is now scrambling to remove phrases that pop up in it describing the country's leaders as Communist bandits.
The phrases were in editing software licensed by Microsoft from Taiwanese companies for its personal computer operating system. The Los Angeles Times reported the phrases included descriptions of China's leaders as Communist bandits, and urged Taiwan's government to take back the mainland.
Bryan Nelson, Microsoft's managing director for China, said Saturday the phrases were removed from unsold software. The company is also sending new software to registered users and posting an update of Simplified Chinese Windows 95 on the Internet so customers can remove the phrases.
Microsoft began selling Windows 95 in China in March, but Nelson said he learned of the problem only a week ago. He noted the Chinese government, which worked with Microsoft to develop the software, made no formal protest and there were only isolated incidents of police trying to stop sales. Nelson said the phrases, described by the company as culturally inappropriate, appeared in utility programs called input method editors.
Block Ness Monster bones vanish
NEW SHOREHAM, R.I.
(AP) Some say it's a sturgeon. Some are calling the creature a shark. But others have nicknamed it the Block Ness Monster.
Found in a fisherman's net, a mysterious 14-foot serpentine skeleton has taken on a life of its own on Block Island, 14 miles off the Rhode Island coast.
First, people questioned what the skeleton was.
Now they wonder where it's gone.
Bones that walk? asked tourist Roseann Giorgio from Long Island, N.Y.
No, not really. The sea creature's skeleton has vanished at the hands of humans, and the community on Block Island hasn't been the same since.
It's been stolen. Now what? asked Gale Buckius of Warwick, who said she has been following the fish tale with interest.
No one professes to know what happened to the denizen of the deep or why it was taken.
Its kidnappers have said they were worried the creature would be shipped off the island and never returned. Others call that a fish story, and say the kidnapping was staged to create an attraction for the island.
As long as there's a mystery, people seem willing to plunk down $18 for the Block Ness Monster T-shirts that have made their way onto the shelves of island stores, next to the sunscreen and saltwater taffy. The back of the shirt shows a snakelike creature wrapped around the island.
Block Ness fever began to take root in June, when two fishermen aboard the Mad Monk cast their nets for monkfish but pulled up the cartilage instead. They displayed the peculiar catch on the stone breakwater near the docks for the Point Judith ferry.
The spine stretched longer than two men and was attached to a narrow head with vacant eye sockets and weird whiskers. Lying in the sun, it was enough to draw a stream of curiosity-seekers to the Old Harbor for two days.
Probably more people walked down there in two days than in the whole century, just about, said Chris Littlefield, one of the island's 800 year-round residents.
Hunters know the scent of the wild
BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP)
Outfitters swear by them, hot-to-trot bucks wouldn't wear anything but, and savvy archers say they're necessary to mask man from beast.
Animal scents are not just another $5 drain on bow hunters wallets. They're also the jitterbug perfume of the wild, helping to bring game into kill range.
In bow hunting you've got to get within 70 yards of a game animal. Some people need to get closer, depending on how good of a shot they are, said Bill Beyl, a 35-year bow hunter and outfitter at Powder Horn Sportsman's Supply in Bozeman. A lot of game animals can smell you from a couple hundred yards easily.
Beyl estimates 90 percent of bow hunters rely on scents of some sort to lure animals and disguise human odor. Rifle hunters, who bag game from hundreds of yards, don't worry as much about what their prey's nose knows.
There are enough scent products on the market to fill a gunny sack, and they are not created equal, Beyl said. Knowing which scent to use and how to use it can determine whether fresh venison or canned beans will be served at the dinner table.
Hunters can choose from synthetic earth and plant scents, skunk and fox scents and urine scents.
Beyl prefers urines because they not only mask human odor, but can also attract curious game animals. Doe-in-heat sprays play on the lust of male deer, but none of the scents work if hunters don't know how to use them.
No. 1, you still have to work with the breeze, Beyl said. You've got to keep it blowing from the animal to yourself. No. 2, obviously if you're stalking an animal you've got to have movement. An animal will detect smell and movement.
However, not all hunters believe in scenting.
There's a lot of guys that advertise it, but I don't think you can hide the human scent, said Robert Savage. Not even skunk scent (works). That's what the wind is for. Wind disguises your scent.
Free house delivery not included
SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (AP)
The School Board in South Royalton is trying to give away a 150-year-old Gothic revival house but takers have to move it.
The school, which is next to the 1.6 acres that the house is on, wants to build an addition to its current building on the site of the house. The school cannot use the three-bedroom house as the addition because it can't afford to make the necessary renovations, said Royalton Town Clerk Theresa Harrington.
They fall under different guidelines for buildings, Harrington said of the school. It would be expensive for them to do some of the things to bring it up to standard.
She said the house was a white, two-story typical village home.
It's basic. It doesn't have any architectural appeal to it, she said. The house is free, but must be moved away at the taker's expense.
Woman nabs would-be casino thief
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP)
Michael Wilson didn't know it but the deck was stacked against him when he knocked Louisiana school teacher Lori Joyner in the head and grabbed her casino winnings.
Wilson was the star of the casino's hidden cameras, and Joyner chased the robber down and tackled him before he could escape and Thursday he was convicted in Warren County Circuit Court of armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Joyner, a teacher in the Madison Parish Public School system, testified during the Warren County Circuit Court trial that she was preparing to leave Vicksburg's Rainbow Casino in the early morning hours of Feb. 16 when the attack occurred.
She said she had won $3,300 and stopped by a casino restroom as she was about to leave. Joyner said she was in one of the restroom stalls when she was hit in the head by what testimony showed was a chair used at slot machines in the casino. Her attacker was standing on a toilet in the next stall to reach her.
After the attack, and seeing that her purse containing her winnings had been taken from the stall floor where she'd set it down, Joyner charged from the restroom in search of her attacker.
She testified that she was dazed and blood was coming from her head, but that did not stop her from catching up to the man who robbed her as he was being escorted out of the casino by security. She ran after him and lunged, knocking both men to the ground. She recovered her purse and all of her money.
90 is too hot for giant butter bunny
HUTCHINSON, Kan.
(AP) Cold enough for you?
Well, for Duffy Lyon, it was perhaps a little too much of a good thing Friday as she created a sculpture from 700 pounds of butter at the Kansas State Fair.
The thermometer hit 90 degrees in most of Hutchinson, but the temperature in the refrigerated, glassed-in studio where she is sculpting a carousel rabbit and deer hovered around 41.
Lyon, a dairy farmer from Toledo, Iowa, said she prefers a temperature of about 65 degrees when she's working on her projects, popular attractions at fairs and exhibitions.
That's the perfect temperature to work with, she said.
She was taking a break from the cold at one point Friday, warming her heels in front of the booth, looking in at her largely completed rabbit and listening as passers-by discussed her work.
Lyon, 67, is doing carousel animals this year, as she did in 1995, because her exhibit is sponsored by Wichita-based Chance Rides for the second year.
The butter she uses is frozen in buckets for re-use each September. She has armatures of wood and wire hung on carousel-like central poles, and applies the butter to the framework, heaping, smoothing and etching it into place.
Heart transplant patient sentenced
NEW YORK
(AP) Bartolome Moya, who tried to avoid prosecution on federal charges by fleeing to the Dominican Republic shortly after having a heart transplant, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on racketeering charges, U.S. Attorney General Mary Jo White announced Friday.
Moya, 39, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to the charges, which included more than 12 murders, narcotics trafficking, several kidnappings and three bombings, White said in a prepared statement.
Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa denied Moya's application for a reduced sentence based on medical complications related to his heart transplant.
In pleading guilty, Moya admitted his involvement in the Moya Paige organization, a racketeering enterprise, White said. Moya also acknowledged that he had ordered murders, she said.
The case against Moya originally was filed in 1993, but was dismissed because he suffered from chronic heart disease and was expected to die.
Freed, Moya went to Philadelphia and received a heart transplant Feb. 24, 1994. The $400,000 operation was paid for by Pennsylvania Medicaid funds. Two months later, when prosecutors heard about the operation, he was rearrested on racketeering charges.
Moya was released on bail pending his trial because of the recent operation and he fled from New York in July 1994 for the Dominican Republic. He was captured there in October 1994 and extradited.
Of the 11 other people who were charged along with Moya, three were convicted and received mandatory life sentences and eight pleaded guilty and are serving their sentences, White said.
Officer didn't write enough tickets
KOHLER, Wis.
(AP) A policeman accused of insubordination for writing too few traffic tickets has received a three-day suspension without pay from a police review commissioner.
Tom Berlin was charged with insubordination for failing to meet ticket and warning quotas established by the Police Department in the Sheboygan County village.
It is apparent that officer Berlin's failure to meet the production standards was not because the standards are unreasonably restrictive but because of his apparent contempt for them, commissioner Herbert Humke III wrote in a 14-page decision.
Berlin declined comment, saying he would confer with his lawyer this week.
He has been with the department for 20 years. He asked Humke to review the insubordination charge that was issued in March by Police Chief Daniel Dahlke.
Berlin failed to average the required minimum of 1.32 traffic tickets and 1.12 warnings per shift, Dahlke said. Following a hearing July 1, Kohler residents wrote letters supporting Berlin and questioning the ticket quotas.
The village board's Finance Committee is reviewing the quota and all the police Department's standards, village President Godfrey Mackenzie said. The case that led to Berlin's suspension started as early as 1994 when the chief sent him a letter, telling him to initiate more traffic stops.
Documents reviewed by Humke said Berlin had not met the quota between June 15, 1995, and March 30, 1996, when Dahlke charged him with insubordination.
Mackenzie said he hopes Berlin stays on the job.
ÒWe hope officer Berlin will learn from this experience and do what he is told to do by the chief, Mackenzie said. Obviously, his future employment with the village is in his own hands and we trust he will make the right decision.
Economics gets hip in comic book
NEW YORK
(AP) Inflation goes up! OOOFFF! Interest rates rise! BAMMM!
The white-shirt economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have put out a comic book to explain monetary policy to America's high school and college students.
In panel after panel, the new Fed booklet shows square-jawed policy makers struggling alongside ordinary Americans through inflation and other economic woes.
One panel shows a woman reading a book titled Interesting Concepts About Economics. With self-deprecating humor, the book she's reading is touted as a New Expanded Two-Page Edition.
Central bankers don't expect teen-agers to be talking about banking system liquidity in the same breath as Spiderman and Wonderwoman, but they do hope to teach kids some fairly adult concepts.
Economics as we know is not the most popular subject. It has a reputation as being the dismal science, said comic book author Ed Steinberg, an economics professor who also works in the New York Fed's communications department. We're trying to make the material more palatable. The Federal Reserve Bank adjusts interest rates and regulates reserves in the banking system to try to control inflation and make sure banks have enough money to loan consumers and businesses. In explaining this, the central bankers poke fun at their image as a secretive, monolithic organization of regulators and economists. To illustrate that central bank governors serve 14-year terms, a Fed banker ages from one panel to another. He goes bald, his office plants grow, and the photos on his desk portray tots who grow into teens.
I don't think the kids really get the humor. I get the humor, said Nina Wohl, who has used Fed booklets for her economics classes on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Spider, dog involved in shooting
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.
(AP) A spider may have tripped a motion-sensitive alarm, and a police dog was out sick. Authorities say the combination led to the accidental killing of an elderly man.
On another night, a police dog instead of an officer with pistol drawn would have searched the darkened manufacturing business where 77-year-old Theodore E. Franks was shot and killed Wednesday.
It is standard procedure for dogs conduct such searches, but the department is down to one dog, and on Wednesday, when a spider apparently set off the motion detector at Phone Guys USA, that dog was sick.
Franks was living in a small apartment within the company next door, Tolemar Manufacturing, so he could work on a big project during the hours he would normally spend commuting home.
The policeman who answered the burglar alarm found Tolemar's door unlocked, entered and, when apparently startled by Franks, shot him in the leg.
Authorities told Franks family Thursday that he apparently bled to death. The wound ruptured the femoral artery, the chief artery in the thigh and one of the biggest in the body.
After hearing the facts, I think it's pretty obvious this was an accident, Wayne Franks said after visiting the office where his father was shot.
According to police dispatch records, the false alarm was the third in seven months and the second in 48 hours for Phone Guys USA.
Owl Protection Systems checked the alarm system Thursday, telling company owner Wayne Mello a spider probably set it off, The Orange County Register reported Friday.
Cobwebs had formed between a ladder and the wall, allowing spiders to crawl on or near a motion detector.
I feel bad. It was my alarm, Mello said. That damn spider.
Man leaps to save bridge-jumper
VALHALLA, N.Y.
(AP) A young man who leaped 150 feet from a bridge over the Hudson River to rescue a suicidal woman said he didn't think twice: I just jumped and did what I had to do.
I admit it was crazy, said Daniel Santos, 21. But when you see somebody in the water like that, hopeless, and you're afraid they're going to drown, you're going to do something to help them. So that's what I did.
Santos was released Friday from Westchester County Medical Center, where he was treated for a partially collapsed lung, a broken rib and severe bruises suffered in the leap from the Tappan Zee Bridge on Monday.
The despondent woman, Maria Cappozza, 24, of Greenwich, Conn., also survived the jump, though her injuries were more serious. At her family's request, hospital officials wouldn't disclose her condition, but Santos said she was well enough to stop by and thank him.
Both Santos and the woman were rescued by a passing boat.
The Spring Valley man is a volunteer firefighter and a technician at an industrial-pump service company.
Snakes escapes pen, enters diorama
PALM SPRINGS, Calif.
(AP) A rattlesnake escaped its enclosure in the Desert Museum's new Rattlers! exhibit, startling visitors.
It startled the ladies, but everything is all secured now, museum spokesman Dave Linden said Thursday.
Workers were putting finishing touches on the exhibit last week when the rattlesnake crawled out of its enclosure, said Jim Cornett, curator of natural science at the museum.
The display containing 14 rattlers was open at the time because workers were cleaning the glass and painting.
The snake traveled about 20 feet into the Hoover Gallery and entered a 10-by-20 foot exhibit called Big Diorama, Cornett said.
Two women saw the snake on the loose and notified personnel, Cornett said.
Crack addict rams crack house with front-end loader
GRAND BAY, Ala.
(AP) Authorities say a man upset with his crack cocaine habit stole a front-end loader and rammed it into a suspected crack house, sending occupants fleeing out windows.
Sheriff's officials said Tracy D. Hall, 28, was charged with stealing the earth-moving equipment from a dirt pit in Bayou La Batre, driving it down a highway and ramming the house in Grand Bay around 1 a.m. Thursday.
No one was hurt, but the front of the wooden house was smashed and witnesses say the occupants of the house leaped from the windows. A sheriff's deputy said he tried to stop the front-end loader, but Hall refused to stop.
Other charges against Hall include criminal mischief and attempted assault. He was taken to the Mobile jail.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Joiner said Hall gave a statement, saying he was addicted to crack cocaine and blamed people in the house for his plight.
Everything he had had been taken from him, he felt some of the people in the house were responsible and he wanted to destroy them, Joiner said, adding no one in the house was charged. Some had fled, she said. We can't say how many people were there at the time.
Basketball announcer told to quit or stop running
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I.
(AP) The Providence College basketball team and Brown University football squad may lose their voice next week.
John Rooke, who does play-by-play for both teams, may be taken off the air because he is running for the state House. His bosses at WPRO radio have given him a choice: Quit the race and broadcast sports or run for office and get off the air.
The station believes that if Rooke goes on the air at the start of Brown's season next Saturday, it will be subject to the equal time doctrine of the Federal Communications Act, which requires stations to give the same amount of free air time to all candidates.
Rooke, 37, of East Providence, said he does not believe the act applies in his case because he only will be describing games, not talking politics.
Though he would be allowed to resume broadcasts after Election Day, Rooke said his family would be hurt by the loss of income for nearly two months.
This is how I feed my kids. This is how I put a roof over all of our heads,he said.
Tele-Media, the company that owns WPRO and its sister station, WLKW, consulted with its lawyers and sought advisory opinions from the Federal Communications Commission before issuing its ultimatum.
We're not guessing on this one, said Phil Sirkin, the program director at the two stations.
Rooke, a Republican, does not blame the station and noted it has said that if his opponent signs a form waiving the equal time provision he can continue to run and broadcast games.
But Rooke's opponent, Democrat Elizabeth Dennigan, has refused.
John Rooke already has a great deal of recognition in the community and the fall sports season will increase his name recognition, she said.
Dennigan, a lawyer, said she also is making sacrifices by running. She said she is spending significant time away from her practice and that could hurt her job security.
Rooke must give the station his decision next week, but he left little doubt what he will do.
Too many people are counting on this, so I'm going to run for office, I'm going to finish this and it is my plan to win, period, he said.