Columnist Barry gets name on sewage station

Columnist Barry getsname on sewage station
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Shivering in subzero North Dakota temperatures, columnist Dave Barry looked up at the newly christened Dave Barry Lift Station No. 16 and offered this advice:
"If anything ever goes wrong with this station, call the mayor."
Grand Forks officials dedicated the sewage pump station Wednesday to Barry, who had poked fun at the city and its Minnesota neighbor, East Grand Forks, for referring to themselves as the "Grand Cities."
The column prompted a letter-writing campaign, capped by an offer from Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown to name a lift station after The Miami Herald's Pulitzer-prize winning columnist if he came for a visit.
"Lift Station No. 16 faithfully serves us and makes us proud, with its ability to go with the flow and keep the bowels of our city in constant movement," Brown told a crowd of about 75 people gathered around the lift station.
Barry arrived in a white limousine, with the temperature around 5 below zero. He seemed bemused at the size of the crowd and asked, "So all you good people don't have anything to do?"
He then startled some officials when he jokingly made a move toward the controls of the lift station, saying, "I'll just throw some of these switches here, since it's mine."
Arrest warrant issuedfor country singer
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A judge issued an arrest warrant for country singer Carlene Carter after she failed to show up for arraignment last month on a felony drug charge.
Carter, 46, said her lawyer is taking care of the matter.
"Everything's fine," she said Tuesday in a telephone interview from her Tesuque home.
The Bernalillo County district attorney's office said Tuesday that Carter doesn't have an attorney of record in the heroin-possession case.
She was ordered to appear Dec. 10 before state District Judge Pat Murdoch for arraignment. She did not show, and the bench warrant was issued Dec. 17.
Last June, state police patrolling Interstate 25 in Albuquerque pulled over Carter and her companion, Howie Epstein, bass player for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
State police said they were speeding, and that officers found 2.9 grams of black tar heroin and drug paraphernalia inside the sport-utility vehicle, reported stolen from a Santa Fe car dealership.
A criminal complaint said Carter "claimed the paraphernalia and heroin found in the vehicle belonged to her, and was used for personal use."
She was indicted in November on charges of heroin possession and possession of a list of paraphernalia, all with drug residue on them.
Epstein was not charged in the case, the district attorney's office said. Carter is the stepdaughter of Johnny Cash and daughter of June Carter Cash and country singer Carl Smith.
Honorary Oscarwill go to Poitier
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Sidney Poitier, who won an Oscar for his role in the 1963 film "Lilies of the Field," will receive an honorary Academy Award at this year's ceremony.
The honor bestowed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' board of governors recognizes Poitier "for his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen" and for representing the industry with "dignity, style and intelligence."
The award will be presented March 24, academy President Frank Pierson said Wednesday.
Poitier's long career also has included an Oscar nomination for 1958's "The Defiant Ones," and distinctive roles in films such as "Blackboard Jungle," "A Raisin in the Sun," "To Sir, With Love," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night."
Today's birthdays
Journalist-author Edwin Newman is 83. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze is 74. Actor Dean Jones is 71. The former president of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino, is 69. Blues singer Etta James is 64. Movie director Tobe Hooper is 59. Actress Leigh Taylor-Young is 58. Actress Jenifer Lewis is 45. Actress Dinah Manoff is 44. Country musician Mike Burch (River Road) is 36. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kina is 33. Actress China Kantner is 31. Rhythm-and-blues singer Alicia Keys is 21.