oddly enough

oddly enough

Cops may have ‘freaked’ man who stole trash truck

BOULDER, Colo.

A man accused of stealing a garbage truck in Boulder last week may have been scared by officers responding to an unrelated call near his home.

The Daily Camera reports that a neighbor told police that 26-year-old Daniel Morkert got “freaked” when officers arrived in the area Wednesday afternoon.

According to the police report, Morkert came out of his apartment building with his pit bull and asked an officer if he could borrow his car. The officer assumed he was joking. Morkert then reportedly got into a garbage truck with his dog while the driver was out moving a dumpster and took off.

Morkert led officers on a low-speed chase down U.S. 36 until he crashed over a median in Broomfield.

Prosecutors are expected to file charges against him Tuesday.

Semi crash coats Indianapolis highway in 45K pounds of butter

INDIANAPOLIS

A semitrailer has overturned on an Indianapolis interstate, spilling what police say are 45,000 pounds of packages of butter and other dairy products.

The crash occurred about 3:30 a.m. Friday in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 465 just west of its interchange with Interstate 65 on the city’s south side.

The crash left perhaps thousands of butter tubs strewn on the highway, many broken open and coating the roadway.

Police say the truck driver apparently fell asleep and hit a highway barrier. No injuries were reported.

Some lanes of the highway were expected to be closed for hours for cleanup work, with crews using a small front-end loader to scoop the butter tubs and whipped-cream containers into large trash bins.

Oak Ridge cancels class to reduce Southern accents

OAK RIDGE, Tenn.

Some employees at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee complained about a class aimed at teaching them how to reduce their Southern accents. Now, managers are calling the whole thing off.

The course had been advertised as a way to feel confident in meetings, when one might need to speak with a more-neutral accent. The class was touted as a way to “be remembered for what you say and not how you say it.”

Carolyn Ward of ORNL’s Learning and Development Services told the Knoxville News Sentinel that an employee requested the class, so it was offered for others, too.

ORNL spokesman David Keim said the class “probably wasn’t presented in the right way,” and managers decided to cancel it after other employees complained.

Associated Press