QUIRKY WORLD ... Whoops! Towing firm owner falls for cop car
Oregon State Police say they had received reports that a towing business operating without the required certificate was posting its own impoundment warning signs in car parks and using a spotter to generate tows.
Police say they parked the unmarked vehicle as part of the investigation, and 35-year-old Michael Alan Selmer of Falls City showed up in the tow truck.
They arrested him on charges of failure to register as a sex offender and violating parole terms.
Officials in Washington state are searching for the person who donated three human skulls to a thrift store in a Seattle suburb.
The skulls were donated to the Goodwill store in Bellevue, where staff contacted local police. The King County medical examiner said two of the skulls were from adults and appeared to have been used in a medical clinic or for instruction.
The third was very old and appears to have belonged to a Native American child. The medical examiner is asking whoever donated the skulls to provide some details, without penalty, so the third skull can be returned to its tribe, which is required by state law for Native Americans.
Huge salamanders known as hellbenders or “snot otters” are disappearing from rivers across North America, and scientists are struggling to figure out why.
Hellbenders can grow to more than 2ft long and are slimy with beady eyes and an alien appearance, which has led to a host of unflattering nicknames. The nocturnal creatures have inhabited rivers and streams for at least 10m years.
Scientists believe worsening water quality and a fungus blamed for amphibian declines worldwide might be to blame. Researchers are raising hellbenders in captivity to release into the wild, and are also implanting microchips under the skin of specimens found in rivers in the hope of learning more about their life cycle.
A pilot treated stranded passengers to pizza when storms diverted a Denver-bound flight to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where the plane was stuck for two hours.
Andrew Ritchie, manager of the local branch of Domino’s, said he got a call at about 10pm and Frontier Airlines pilot Gerhard Bradner told him he needed to feed 160 people.
Ritchie said his workers quickly knocked up about 35 pizzas and delivered them to the airport.
Police in Portland, Oregon, have arrested a 29-year-old man accused of running up to a police horse, uttering a “karate-like battle cry” and delivering what a spokesman calls “a jumping, double kick” to the horse’s right thigh.
Police say the horse, named Olin, was unfazed and unhurt. Olin outweighed his attacker by about 1,000 pounds.
Joseph Cruz was taken into custody for investigation.
A New Mexico county magistrate race that ended in a tie has finally come to a head, or rather, heads.
Kenneth Howard Jr made the lucky call in a coin toss, winning a four-year term as McKinley County magistrate judge.
The June 3 Democratic primary saw Howard and Robert Baca each receive exactly 2,879 votes.
A Democratic Party official tossed a 50c piece, and Howard got to make the call as the candidate who was lower on the ballot. As there’s no opponent on the election ballot, Howard gets the job.
Baca says he’s disappointed by the result but relieved that both candidates finally know who won.
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