Friday, January 28, 2011
oddly enough
Video shows drug smugglers using catapult to fling pot
HERMOSILLO, Mexico
Surveillance video shows drug smugglers using an old invention as a new way to move marijuana across the border from Mexico to Arizona.
National Guard troops operating a remote surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the fence late last week.
A Mexican army officer says the 3-yard-tall catapult was found about 20 yards from the U.S. border on a flatbed towed by a sport-utility vehicle.
The officer says the catapult was capable of launching 4.4 pounds of marijuana at a time. He says soldiers seized 35 pounds of pot, the vehicle and the catapult.
The smugglers left before they could be captured.
Ohio high school deploys breath analyzers at dances
MEDINA, Ohio
Students may have to blow into a breath analyzer before they’re admitted to dances at one Ohio high school.
School district Superintendent Randy Stepp says the devices will screen random students showing up for Medina High School dances and those who appear to have been drinking.
Stepp says the policy posted on the school’s website this week comes after two intoxicated students were disruptive at the fall homecoming dance.
He says if a breath analyzer shows any indication of alcohol use, the student will be barred from the dance and could be subject to law-enforcement action.
The new rules taking effect for the Feb. 5 “Sweetheart Dance” at the school south of Cleveland also include a dance dress code and a ban on sexually suggestive dancing.
North Royalton home sale snarled by 6-cent water bill
CLEVELAND
Mere pennies are holding up an Ohio home sale, frustrating a couple in their 70s who are trying to move on.
Arthur and Beverly Barton say a 6-cent balance on a water bill is keeping the title company from completing the sale of their house in North Royalton, a suburb south of Cleveland. The Bartons already have relocated to Carey, N.C.
Arthur Barton says they’ve tried to resolve the issue through some 20 calls to the Cleveland Division of Water, which provided their service. He tells The Plain Dealer of Cleveland his wife is so upset over their lingering Ohio home that she goes to tears.
A Cleveland public-utilities spokesman says balances of less than $1 are supposed to be cleared and that the Bartons’ problem “shouldn’t have happened.”
Associated Press