Oddly enough

Oddly enough

Dead blackbirds fall again in Ark. town

BEEBE, Ark.

Blackbirds have fallen dead from the sky in a central Arkansas town for the second New Year’s Eve in a row.

Police in Beebe say dozens of birds have fallen dead, prompting officers to ban residents from shooting fireworks Saturday night.

Officer John Weeks said the first reports of “birds on the streets” came around 7 p.m. Police are working with animal control workers and others to determine a count. It wasn’t immediately clear if year-end celebrations are again to blame.

Last year, fireworks were blamed for the deaths of thousands of birds.

Biologists said last year’s kill was caused by the birds being rousted from their roosts and flying into homes, cars, telephone poles and each other.

Cops: Man tried to use $1M bill at NC Walmart

LEXINGTON, N.C.

Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?

Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.

Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.

The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969.

Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isn’t clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.

PETA seeks memorials to cows killed on roads

CHICAGO

An animal rights group wants Illinois to install highway signs in memory of cattle killed when trucks hauling them flipped in two separate wrecks.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked for permission to buy the markers, one in suburban Chicago and one northwest of Peoria. The group says the signs would pay tribute to the more than 20 cattle killed as a result of negligent driving this year.

Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Josh Kauffman says the request likely will be denied because the state’s Roadside Memorial Act specifies that only relatives who lost loved ones in highway crashes may request memorials.

In 2006, Virginia rejected PETA’s request for highway markers to memorialize hogs killed in crashes on their way to slaughter at Smithfield Foods.

Associated Press