oddly enough

oddly enough

Struggling Ohio barber lets customers choose price

CANTON

An Ohio barber whose customers are cutting back on haircuts is trying to boost business by letting people trim prices to what they can afford.

Gregory Burnett has put a sign in the front yard of his Canton shop that reads “Times are hard” and “Pay what you can pay for a cut.”

The Repository newspaper reports Burnett has accepted as little as $5 for haircuts normally priced at $12.

He’s trying to appeal to customers such as Mike Cheek, whose visits used to be every few weeks but now are separated by months. Cheek says he sometimes lets his son or other relatives cut his hair these days or tries to “mess with it” himself.

Burnett says his name-your-price deal helps him and helps the community.

Buyer of minivan finds hidden $500,000 in cocaine

SAN JOSE, Calif.

A California man was stunned to see what a previous owner of his minivan apparently left behind: $500,000 worth of cocaine jammed in the door panels.

San Jose psychologist Charles Preston says the cellophane-wrapped cocaine was found when he took the van to a mechanic. Police were notified immediately.

Preston says he noticed the driver’s-side window wouldn’t go down all the way, but he figured he would live with it because the Town and Country van had a good air-conditioning system.

The San Jose Mercury News says Preston paid $14,000 to Thrifty Car Sales in Santa Clara for the 2008 white van in May 2010.

Thrifty Car Sales owner Ron Battistella says he’s willing to replace the van with a drug-free ride.

Ugandan held for pigsty made of presidency posters

KAMPALA, Uganda

Ugandan police say they have arrested a man for “abusing the presidency” after he built a pigsty out of old election posters featuring the president’s face.

Officer John Kuusa says the 35-year-old taxi dispatcher’s decision to construct his pigsty out of the images of President Yoweri Museveni led to his Friday arrest. Kuusa said Saturday that George Kiberu used the durable posters for the roof, the walls and as plates for the pigs.

Kiberu says he did not know he was breaking the law. His friend Robert Mbalule says the posters were still on the streets after February’s poll, won by longtime leader Museveni.

A recent report by an international rights group says government-backed harassment and repression of critics are increasing in the East African nation.

Associated Press