oddly enough

oddly enough

Boston program allows smokers to vote with their butts

BOSTON

The city of Boston is trying to rid the streets of unsightly cigarette butts by placing special receptacles in high-traffic areas that will allow smokers to vote on a simple question.

The butt receptacles, with two disposal holes each, will be placed in seven areas of the city.

Each is decorated with a question that has two possible answers.

For example, one butt receptacle asks smokers: “Which superpower would you want?” Smokers can deposit their butts in an opening for “Flight” or for “Invisibility.”

The receptacles, which are costing the city about $3,000, are part of the Neat Streets program. They will be installed later this month, and residents are encouraged to tweet their own suggestions for questions at #NeatStreetsBos.

Sentencing hearing delayed for 80-year-old marijuana dealer

BOSTON

A federal judge in Massachusetts has delayed the sentencing of an 80-year-old man who admitted running a sprawling multistate marijuana-dealing operation.

Marshall Dion was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, but U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston put off the hearing until March 10 because she wanted prosecutors and Dion’s lawyer to submit sentencing briefs.

Dion’s lawyer, Hank Brennan, says the judge wants to know why the proposed sentence in Dion’s plea agreement is up to seven years in prison when federal sentencing guidelines call for 30 years.

A stop for speeding in 2013 in Junction City, Kan., led authorities to Massachusetts and Arizona, where they found about $15 million in cash, nearly 400 pounds of marijuana and ledgers detailing drug deals going back to 1992.

Charges dropped against woman who nursed squirrels

HOWELL, N.J.

Charges against a New Jersey woman who nursed two abandoned baby squirrels back to health have been dropped on a technicality.

Maria Vaccarella, of Howell, had faced up to $500 in fines after she took in a pair of baby squirrels abandoned by their mother. Vaccarella used social media to document the rehab, which caught the attention of state Fish and Wildlife officials.

She was charged with illegally being in possession of wildlife in July.

NJ.com reported that a judge dismissed the charges after finding that the summons she was issued didn’t charge her with the correct offense.

Vaccarella says she had no idea what she was doing was against the law. She says she “would definitely save a life again.”

Associated Press