Man says he put cat into bong other times

Man says he put cat into bong other times

OMAHA, Neb. — A man who stuffed his girlfriend’s cat into a makeshift bong and smoked marijuana through it said Tuesday that he had done it on other occasions and that it calmed the cat down.

Acea Schomaker of Lincoln said he never intended to hurt the 6-month-old cat, Shadow.

Lancaster County deputy sheriffs responding to a domestic disturbance at the residence ticketed the 20-year-old Schomaker on suspicion of misdemeanor animal cruelty Sunday after catching him smoking marijuana from a boxlike contraption that had the cat stuffed inside its 12-inch by 6-inch base.

Schomaker’s girlfriend, Marissa Vieux, also was ticketed for animal cruelty because she didn’t try to stop Schomaker, Sgt. Andy Stebbing said.

Vieux, 22, said she took in the cat about two months ago from friends who abused it.

Mexican official resigns

MEXICO CITY — A top Mexican Cabinet official resigned Tuesday after someone threatened to ruin his career by leaking secretly recorded conversations.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Luis Tellez didn’t say why he was stepping down.

But he quit two weeks after Mexican news media reported the contents of a conversation recorded in 2006 in which Tellez alleged that former President Carlos Salinas stole from a secret government fund.

Tellez, whose responsibilities included airline and telecommunications regulation, told federal officials he had received a letter threatening to reveal other recordings and urging him to “resign before your life is converted into a scandal,” his office said.

Winston ad man dies

MIAMI — Alan Landers, the handsome model who posed for Winston cigarette ads and later sued the tobacco industry over his health claims, has died while undergoing treatment for throat cancer. He was 68.

Landers died Friday at his south Florida home, his niece Robin Levine Carns said.

Landers, whose legal name was Allan Levine, started smoking as a child and wrote on his Web site that he was required to smoke on the sets for advertisements, posing for billboards and magazine ads as the self-proclaimed “Winston Man.”

But during his years as a cigarette model, Landers said he didn’t know he was glamorizing a fatal habit.

Later in life, Landers became an outspoken critic of the tobacco industry. Carns said he traveled the world as a staunch anti-smoking advocate and eventually brought his fight into the court system.

More crimes added

NEW YORK — Two men accused of killing an Ecuadorean immigrant while shouting anti- Hispanic and anti-gay slurs are now charged with additional crimes that could send them to prison for 78 years if convicted, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Hakim Scott, 25, and Keith Phoenix, 28, were indicted on charges of second-degree murder as a hate crime in the death of Jose Sucuzhanay and first-degree assault as a hate crime in the attack on his brother, Romel. They also face weapons and attempted assault charges.

Associated Press