oddly enough

oddly enough

W. Pa. man charged with shooting wife’s cat

DILLINER, Pa.

A western Pennsylvania man will stand trial on a charge of cruelty to animals for reportedly shooting his wife’s cat inside their mobile home.

Greene County prosecutors earlier withdrew a more serious charge of reckless endangerment against 37-year-old Charles Cleaver, and a district judge dismissed a charge of discharging a gun in an occupied structure.

State police say Cleaver came home from a bar and asked his wife where his .22-caliber rifle was about 2:30 a.m. March 15. His wife told police Cleaver found the gun and shot the cat as it played with a toy nearby, then threw the still-moving animal outside.

Police say they arrived to find the cat dead outside and Cleaver asleep inside, not far from a bullet hole and bloodstains.

Cleaver has pleaded innocent.

Man arrested for two DUIs 5 hours apart

MISSOULA, Mont.

Montana police say a 24-year-old man was arrested twice for drunken driving in the span of five hours.

Police say Frank Rees was arrested about 2:30 a.m. Saturday on suspicion of drunken driving and posted a $500 bond just before 5:30 a.m. About two hours later, Rees again was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, this time after police reported he hit a parked car.

Rees gave a breath sample the first time he was arrested and a blood sample the second as he was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries suffered in the crash.

He pleaded innocent to both misdemeanor charges in Missoula City Court on Monday.

Spat-upon NYC bus drivers take months off

NEW YORK

New York City bus drivers took an average of two paid months off last year after being spat upon by upset riders.

The indignity is considered an assault under the drivers’ union contract. That entitles them to take a paid break.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday that 83 drivers were spat on last year. Of those, 51 took an average of 64 paid days off. One driver took 191 days of paid leave.

The drivers made up one-third of the number of transit workers who took time off due to assaults.

The drivers’ union says the encounters cause psychological trauma, because workers say they may contract a disease or be assaulted again. They say all cases are cleared by a transit agency doctor.