oddly enough

oddly enough

Calif. woman gives birth to rare identical triplets

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Doctors at a Northern California hospital say a couple has given birth to a rare set of naturally conceived identical triplets.

The Sacramento Bee reports Abby, Brin and Laurel Hepner were born Nov. 22 at Sutter Memorial Hospital to Hannah and Tom Hepner of Quincy.

The triplets were produced when a single, fertilized egg split into three.

Dr. William Gilbert, director of Sutter Women’s Services, says the odds of producing identical triplets without fertility drugs range from 1-in-1 million to 1-in-100 million.

He said the rarity makes it difficult to more accurately calculate the frequency of such births.

Abby weighed 3 pounds, 2 ounces; Brin 3 pounds, 11 ounces; and Laurel 4 pounds.

The triplets will remain in the hospital until they can maintain body temperature and eat properly.

Thief makes off with N.M. ‘church on wheels’

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

A brazen thief has made off with a New Mexico pastor’s “church on wheels,” taking about $40,000 in equipment and dozens of donated toys.

KRQE-TV reports the New City Church in Albuquerque is a portable church that uses a trailer to store everything it needs for Sunday services, including speakers, cords and microphones. It has a small office in northeast Albuquerque.

New City Pastor Nate Bush says a man with a red pickup cut the lock on a fenced parking lot Sunday and towed away the church’s trailer. He says the trailer was loaded with the church’s equipment and supplies, along with toys for an upcoming charity event.

Bush says the trailer and its contents were insured. He says the theft is frustrating and one of the reasons he plans to move New City into a permanent space.

Minn. festival team aims for record snowball fight

ST. PAUL, Minn.

A cast of Minnesota beer enthusiasts has a frosty ambition: to stage the largest snowball fight ever.

The group started to nurture the state’s craft-brewing industry announced the goal Wednesday and hopes to achieve it during the Beer Dabbler Winter Carnival on Jan. 25 at the state fairgrounds.

It would mean topping a Guinness World Record set this January in Seattle, when more than 5,800 people engaged in a snowball fight. The Minnesota team wants a minimum of 7,000.

Project manager Joseph Alton says snowmaking machines will be at the ready if the weather doesn’t cooperate. But he says state-fair officials plan to stockpile snow between now and then.

To set the record, enough participants need to spend at least one minute hurling snowballs at one another.

Associated Press