your most important local news story the world must know about

They're more dangerous than they look. Take the stairs, if available.

sheeesh. my subway stop at work (like six flights of steps down) has closed the down escalator and now they're down to one up escalator and stairs so the stairs on the way home are CRAZY jammed and for the past two weeks I've been going six flights down the up escalator
kinda afraid i'm going to die an amazingly stupid death now.

"We don't know if he suffered a medical emergency."

I think dying generally falls under the medical emergency classification.

Woman cries over arrival of In-N-Out Burger to Dallas; ws anyway

(watch video)
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/cityofate/2011/05/in-n-out_burger_is_so_good_you.php

Council members Kwame Brown

???

ws anyway

LATEBLOOMER, CONTROL YOUR DAM SWIMMERS

Can you identify this bank robber?

Cops are lucky when they have a face to put to a bank robber. But Baltimore County police are asking a lot if they expect to make a bust based on this surveillance picture.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/bankrob1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYh31FMicMw

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/for/2011/07/07-22/Peeping-Tom-sentenced-to-10-years.html

An obsession

During a police interview shortly after his arrest, Novak said he had a sickness that had gotten worse, Rogers said.

He said his obsession started with looking into windows of homes as he walked down the street. It progressed to walking up to the homes and getting a close look through the blinds, and eventually to filming women in their homes. In at least two cases, Novak broke into homes to film women undressing.

Over five weeks, three detectives investigated Novak's apparent obsession.

They searched Novak's home and seized several minicameras the size of a thumb, binocular cameras, lock-picking equipment and a computer, Rogers said.

They also found more than 2,280 video clips of women undressing - amounting to hours of filming - and a baggie of 27 ladies' undergarments stolen from homes.

Prosecutors said Novak had filmed more than 240 women since 2005. In at least three incidents, which he pleaded guilty to, Novak broke into the women's homes.

In February 2008, Novak went into a neighbor's home and stood over a 17-year-old girl as she slept in bed.

AAAAAAHHHH!!

He also filmed more than an hour of footage of the teen undressing and stole some of her underwear, Rogers said.

In one video clip, Novak's reflection could be seen in the teen's mirror as he filmed her.

GAHHHHHH!

Changed her life
Last September, Novak filmed 10 clips of a woman in her home on Crofton Parkway. One clip was filmed from a sun room adjacent to the kitchen. The woman told police Novak must have been in her home to film at that angle.

AAAAAAAHHH!

In court yesterday, the pregnant woman told Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Hackner that the invasion of privacy has changed her life.

"He has turned my home into a prison," she said.

She now keeps blinds and curtains closed at all times and doors locked. She doesn't allow her husband to attend work meetings after dark.

She said she was newly pregnant with her second child when police notified her of the footage. She has been angry, embarrassed and fearful at a time when she should have been filled with joy and excitement, she said.

Novak "knew my routine, he knew when my husband wasn't home," she said.

In the third break-in, Novak broke through the deadbolt of a front door on Fallowfield Court in Crofton, Rogers said.

At first, it appeared nothing had been stolen. But after police left, Novak showed up at the doorway. Police later linked two bras and a pair of underwear found in Novak's home to the house on Fallowfield Court.

The undergarments had been in a dirty clothes pile in the laundry room next to the front door.

Rogers called the crimes "mind-boggling" and said the hours of videotape were only the tip of the iceberg.

The amount of videotape doesn't reflect the many hours Novak spent standing outside the homes learning the women's routines, she said.

In one case, Rogers said, Novak stood on a roof to film a woman undressing in a second-floor bedroom.

A PERVERT ON YOUR FUCKING ROOF!

In court yesterday, that woman told Hackner she felt violated and powerless.

"I kept the blinds down … but it wasn't good enough," she said, explaining how Novak filmed her through the tiniest crack.

She told The Capital she has trouble sleeping and feels sick when she hears Novak's name.

Other cameras
Novak didn't just film women through windows.

Rogers said Novak, who worked as a butcher at the Giant Food supermarket in Crofton, had a camera attached to his uniform at work and would film customers' chests as they bent over to pick up meat.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

He set up a camera at a party and filmed people as they used the bathroom, Rogers said. He also hid a video camera in his mother's bathroom and filmed her on the toilet.

GUH! OH GOD.

Novak apologized to the court and to the victims. He said he hopes the victims can "get over this" and promised to never film women again without their permission.

He was sentenced to 47 years in prison - the maximum - with all but 10 years suspended.

not local to me but EGADS!

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/orange_county&id=8245890

"not gonna fuck it all up like that bobbit girl did."

http://i.imgur.com/eIPG6.jpg
In this Saturday, July 9, 2011 photo provided and shot by Rocco Piganelli, Piper Piganelli, Marley Meyer, and Maddie Meyer, lower left, pose for a photo Piganelli says was taken moments before a man, in the spray at right, fell to his apparent death in a blow hole at Nakalele Point in Maui, Hawaii. Piganelli, of La Jolla, Calif., told The Associated Press that he watched the man spiral down the blowhole, pop up briefly before disappearing when the next wave hit. The 44-year-old man, identified as David Potts of San Anselmo, Calif., has not been found since Saturday afternoon. (AP Photo/Rocco Piganelli)

http://www.argus-press.com/news/national/image_ecf9a7e0-8af9-59f7-b15d-3699e0eb6994.html

Do we have a thread for this, yet?

One young child repeatedly asked his mother, who had come to pick him up: “Did they find him yet? Did they find him yet?” He was still asking the question as they disappeared behind the school buses.

Pulled aside, the woman, who said that her name was Rachel R. and that her children were 7, 8 and 9, was asked if she planned to answer her son’s question.

“Should I tell them the truth? No!” she said, her eyes widening. “A child that age couldn’t accept it. Some form of the truth, but not all of the truth. I want them to be normal one day, normal adults.”

Yeah, a child that age could accept that. Sure, it would be a process, but better than sticking your fingers in his goddamned ears.

Sad as hell though. Goddamn, you agonize as a parent over whether your child is ready for this, whatever this is - walking home alone, crossing the street without holding your hand, learning to drive - and the ultimate consequence of this action could be death. Jesus...

I guess I don't understand the logistics of this thing. It's just a big hole in the ground that the ocean shoots through from below? How wide is it and how deep? Wikipedia wouldn't tell me.

Yeah, that article needs work. It looks like blowholes are typically connected to Sea Caves (or Littoral Caves). The Wiki P on Sea Caves mostly shows places that people could conceivably walk around in, although there is one underwater photo. Some hiking guides describe the Nakalele Point blowhole as connected to an underwater sea cave. An article on another underwater sea cave describes it as such:

The cave is considered the biggest marine cave in the Mediterranean Sea. With the many entrances, arches and tunnels, it is possible to make dives from 0 to 35 m, through long and large tunnels, air chambers and different ways. The walls are covered with red coral and yellow leptosamnia.

I guess guy just got sucked into an inaccessible watery tunnel.

I could easily think of worse ways to die.

i would imagine it would be like dying via human sized garbage disposal

With whirring blades chopping you into pieces?

I'm not trying to be cute. I see it like falling into a deep hole, probably getting knocked out within seconds.

maybe. or drowning to death as sharp coral/rocks sliced your skin from every angle \(o_O)/

God that sounds terrifying. Getting unexpectedly intimate with the geology.

yeah dying is probably not going to be a good time in any case

Police: Mississippi woman shot at pit bull, killed husband

Animal control officers took the dog, named "Cocaine."

!!

http://matchbin-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/public/sites/550/assets/I5BK_shooting_stock.jpg

Garbage truck damages Arkansas skywalk

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Authorities say a downtown Little Rock skywalk was damaged as a garbage truck driver drove underneath it.

The Arkansas State Police reports that the accident occurred about 4:45 a.m. Tuesday as the truck was traveling on Spring Street under the skywalk between Regions Bank and Simmons First National Bank.

According to a police report, the driver told authorities he had just picked up a trash bin from a location when a spider crawled into his truck. The driver says he was distracted and drove away, forgetting about the bin.

Police say as he headed for his next location, he drove under the walkway and heard a loud noise. He stopped to see what happened and saw the bin on the ground and damage to the skywalk.

The driver wasn't hurt.

irl lols

Gas Leak Outside Hayward Taco Bell Briefly Shuts Streets Near I-580

http://www.hecklerspray.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/jay-leno.jpg

GRAVETTE, Ark. (AP) - A high school running back in Arkansas wants to slither through defenses, not have a snake slither inside his helmet.

Gravette High School senior Darrick Strzelecki (struh-LEH'-kee) felt something odd in his helmet during practice Tuesday, but said he thought it was sweat beading up or a tangled lock of hair.

During a break, Strzelecki took off his helmet, looked inside and found what he thought was a rubber snake - until it tried to slide away. After someone killed the snake, he checked every corner of his helmet to make sure there was nothing else inside.

An assistant coach said the snake did not appear venomous, and school maintenance workers made sure Wednesday there were no other critters in the locker room and equipment.

After someone killed the snake

Why, exactly?

Snakes need killin', duh.

http://www.hastingsstargazette.com/event/article/id/25658/

hastings! everything i hear about it makes it sound so magical!!

+1

<3 metro

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/293312_10150269315640882_500305881_8250711_1556183_n.jpg

LOL this old one:
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/5048949.Window_cleaner_killed_himself_with_giant_pencil/

N1ck just commented "maybe he was just drawing blood".

:D

not local to me but

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-mcdonalds-toxic-fumes,0,7254210.story

jesus fuck

Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families who have been impacted

strange choice of word

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) - A man who says two men burst into his Fort Smith apartment in the middle of the night says his pet macaw bit one of them and chased off the intruders.

Fort Smith television station KFSM reports (http://bit.ly/rrXjXL ) that Jack Dukes told police that two men entered his apartment early Monday morning. He says one of the men hit him and knocked him across a table.

That riled the macaw, a large parrot-like bird with a powerful beak.

Dukes says the bird took a chunk of flesh out of an arm of one of the robbers. They burst in demanding drugs, but fled after the bite.

Police are investigating.

When the bird, named Charlie, isn't attacking robbers, Dukes says he likes to eat banana pudding and fried chicken.

Bird who likes to eat fried chicken. Sounds like a bad ass to me.

Police are investigating.

man who shot himself in the head outside the emergency room in North Baltimore's Union Memorial Hospital on Thursday left a note indicating he chose that locale because he wanted to donate his organs to medicine, according to law enforcement source.

Baltimore police reported that the 29-year-old man was severely injured and later transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was in critical condition Thursday night. Officials declined to discuss other details about the note or the motivation, other than to say that homicide detectives are investigating the incident.

...

About an hour after the incident, George Hummel was serving hot dogs and chips to hospital workers at a stand on the corner.

He said he arrived around noon to relieve a woman who had been working that morning. It was her first day working at the stand, and the shooting shook her up, according to Hummel.

"First day, so of course she's gonna be scared," he said.

Hendrix College students were witness to a man fleeing from a "werewolf" when the subject's path led him through a campus dorm hall and a nearby apartment.

According to a Conway Police Department incident report, the subject kicked open the front door of a student's residence at Carrington Apartments on Cleveland Avenue, ran through the apartment and exited by jumping from the two-story balcony.

Students called police to report what they thought was a residential burglary in process, but the subject was gone upon officers' arrival.

The report stated that the school's public safety officers contacted police moments later to inform them that students were advising that a male subject who claimed to be running from a werewolf was in Galloway Hall.

When police made contact with the subject, age 27, he advised that he was in Walmart earlier in the night when he "noticed a strange red light."

The subject said that the red light "caused his body to start smoking," and he ran to the alley near Coin Laundry, where he had been sleeping.

The subject stated that a "large beast," which was covered in "gorilla fur," began to talk to him and told him to "get rid of the odor."

"The only thing (the subject) could think of is that he needed to disguise his own odor. (The subject) went to Carrington Apartments and took off all his clothes, threw them in the dryer with someone else's clothes, and then poured a gallon of bleach in the dryer. (The subject) then put on some more clothes and decided to scare the "werewolf" off. (The subject) attempted to light the bleach and clothes on fire but was unsuccessful," the report stated.

The subject stated that he became scared and kicked in the door of the nearby apartment when the "werewolf" threatened to kill him if he did not.

According to the report, the subject became convinced that one of the officers was the "werewolf" but was calmed when another officer advised that the subject's handcuffs were made of silver and would protect him from any werewolf.

"This seemed to make sense to (the subject) and he calmed down enough for me to take him to Unit 2," the report stated.

The subject was cited with three misdemeanors and held for Counseling Associates.

clever cop there

FAA: We'll be ready for Arkansas turkey drop

YELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) - No one in the northern Arkansas town of Yellville will say if they expect wild turkeys to fall from planes for this year's Turkey Trot Festival. But the Federal Aviation Administration says it will be watching.

Organizers of the festival long ago disavowed the tradition of letting wild turkeys fall from low-flying airplanes as spectators watched them glide to the ground.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has called the event cruel and offered a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest. And the FAA has tried to crack down on pilots who participate.

But someone continues to drop the turkeys. FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/riRPHL ) that no one in town will say who's responsible.

"Everybody says, 'We have no idea who it is,' but everybody knows who it is," Lunsford said in an article published Thursday.

The Turkey Trot pays homage to one of the state's biggest exports. Arkansas was the third-largest turkey producer of any state in 2010. Tyson Foods Inc. is headquartered in Springdale, in northwest Arkansas.

First held in 1946, the festival is also an attraction in the 1,200-person town. It includes a turkey-calling contest, a turkey dinner, and beauty pageants. And it once included a sanctioned "turkey drop" from the top of the local courthouse.

Now, the turkey drop is conducted by private citizens, Yellville Chamber of Commerce President Travis Doshier said.

"They keep themselves pretty well secluded," Doshier told the newspaper. He said he didn't know if they were planning another drop this year.

The FAA has tried to crack down before, Lunsford said. Officials have spoken to event organizers and at least one pilot who flew turkeys in the past.

The agency will dispatch a team this year to watch for planes. Lunsford said pilots who participate risk losing their licenses.

"If a plane flies over and a turkey comes out of it, we're going to be talking to somebody," he said.

Fans of the drop say it doesn't hurt the turkeys because they can use their wings to slow their descent. Doshier said the turkeys "just spread those big old wings they've got and glide" to the ground.

"We know that they can get up in the air because they get on trees and roofs," he said.

But Lunsford says he's seen video of a turkey falling straight down and bouncing off the roof of a building.

Roger Vickers, the sheriff in Marion County, told the newspaper that some turkeys do get hurt, "but that's going to happen with anything."

"It depends on what they fly into," he said.

The event starts Friday afternoon and runs through midnight Saturday.

several excellent quotes in there but my favorite is some turkeys do get hurt, "but that's going to happen with anything" (that you drop out of an airplane)