oddball, weird, assorted: December 2007 Archives

Frank,
 
Read your blog in reference to the letter I sent out to the different media groups.

UPDATED: 1/22/08

The post has been removed by me because it contained no local relevance.

This from the Riverside Press Enterprise:

MURRIETA - For 14 years, Santa and his helpers sprinkled Christmas goodwill and holiday magic in Murrieta neighborhoods with nary a "bah humbug" or a Grinchy sneer -- until Wednesday.

Two teenage volunteers dressed as Rudolph and Frosty said they were roughed up while dancing and singing for an audience of 300. Their names were not released. Rudolph suffered an injured back and neck, while Frosty has a sprained wrist.

Murrieta police are asking for the public's help in what is dubbed the "Rudolph Caper."

I don't know how we missed this, but here's a Pasadena item from Discovery News that ran in November but's sort of related to a story from earlier this week. Of course the Chippies didn't need any fancy stuff, all it took was the suspect ramming his Nissan Titan into a mountainside at 70 mph. The item begins below:

Nov. 29, 2007 -- The same microwave radiation that reheats pizza can be used to fry the electrical systems in cars, stopping them dead in their tracks.

Emitted from a rooftop device, the radiation could be used by law enforcement officers to put an end to dangerous car chases or by military personnel as a non-lethal way of disabling vehicles that get too close for comfort.

"The idea is to warn an automobile some distance away from a high-value target like a military barrack or a communication center. If they don't comply, you just zap them and it prevents them from coming closer," said James Tatoian, CEO of Eureka Aerospace in Pasadena, Calif.

This from MTV.com:

On the heels of the announcement that Britney Spears' 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn, is pregnant with her first child comes word that the parenting book due for release in the spring from the girls' mom, Lynne Spears, has been delayed. People magazine reports that the book has been put on indefinite hold by publisher Thomas Nelson, which puts out inspirational books and Bibles.

"The book is delayed indefinitely. It's delayed, not cancelled," a spokesperson told the magazine. The spokesperson said the book, which Publisher's Weekly had described as "Lynne Spears' personal story of raising high-profile children while coming from a low-profile Louisiana community," was actually put on hold last week, but declined to say whether the focus of the book will change in light of Jamie Lynn's pregnancy announcement, or if the decision was a result of the news about the latest scandal to rock the family.

In October, Spears and Thomas Nelson announced the deal for the book, which was slated to come out on Mother's Day under the title "Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World." At the time, a publishing rep told Us that it would be a parenting book "that's going to have faith elements to it." A manuscript was expected by this month

I especially like the line  that reads: "raising high-profile children while coming from a low-profile Louisiana community."

What is that a new euphemism for trailer park?

.

 

 

Just days after Crime Scene runs its first ever transportation story, we have another.  This from KCBS 2 KCAL 9:

Authorities traced cell-phone signals Sunday to find and arrest a man who left a suspicious package on a public bus, and then repeatedly phoned in bomb threats. The satchel was blown up by a bomb squad, but contained only "miscellaneous papers," according to Lt. Keith Obenberger of the sheriff's Transit Services Bureau.

The bomb threats kept coming, and sheriff's detectives were able to trace the man's cell-phone transmissions to a neighborhood near East Colorado Boulevard and North First Street in Arcadia.

"I believe we found him (the suspect) on the street," Obenberger said. The incident started at about 9:45 a.m., when the suspect made several calls warning that there was going to be a bomb on a bus, singling out the bus route number.

Deputies notified the bus driver, who said he found an unattended package underneath one of the rear seats in his bus, he said.

Deputies and a bomb squad rushed to the area of Baldwin Avenue and Las Tunas Drive, evacuating what they said was a "large circumference" of neighboring businesses and an apartment building, Obenberger said.

The squad blew the suspicious package apart at about 11:30 a.m., and the suspect "kept making more threat," Obenberger said. "We were able to narrow down where he was at."

The man, whose name has not been released, was booked at the sheriff's Temple station on suspicion of making terrorist threats and false reporting of a bomb.