ODDLY ENOUGH

March 15, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

ODDLY ENOUGH

Milk or cider? NH to pick state drink

CONCORD, N.H.

Apples are getting some competition from cows in the debate over what New Hampshire’s state drink should be — cider or milk.

The House will weigh in this week when it votes on a bill designating apple cider as the state drink.

A lawmaker introduced the bill after Jaffrey Grade School students contacted her. Later, Gilford Elementary School students lobbied for milk. The House Environment and Agriculture Committee is split. Some members support cider while others propose killing the bill.

Critics point out milk also is important to New Hampshire, whose state fruit is the pumpkin and whose state animal is the white-tail deer.

The New Hampshire Farm Bureau says the state has 3,400 commercial farms producing a wide variety of conventional bulk commodity crops — most significantly milk and apples.

Fla. man’s devotees drank snail mucus

MIAMI

Devotees of a Miami man who claims to practice a traditional African religion say they were sickened when they drank the mucus of a giant African snail.

Federal authorities in January raided Charles L. Stewart’s home after receiving complaints. Stewart has not been criminally charged, but prosecutors and state and federal wildlife agencies are investigating. The giant African snail is prohibited in the U.S. without special approval.

Experts say it devastates new ecosystems. The snail grows up to 10 inches long, can reproduce on its own and even can eat plaster.

Stewart tells The Miami Herald he means no harm, and his religion uses the snails in healing ceremonies. Followers said they got violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their stomachs.

Philly audit: $3.4M in taxes not deposited

PHILADELPHIA

Call it the case of the misplaced millions.

Philadelphia officials have recovered more than $3 million in wage taxes that should have been deposited in the city treasury in 2005 — but never were.

City Inspector General Amy Kurland said Thursday the wage tax payments were made five years ago by the Pentagon for Department of Defense employees who work in Philadelphia.

But the money never made it to the bank. Kurland says her office contacted Defense officials, who reissued the checks.

Kurland says the discrepancy was discovered as part of an ongoing corruption investigation into a former municipal employee.

Her office is still looking into how the funds were misplaced and whether any crime was committed.