Quirky World... Five-year-old mayor loses re-election in US
A 5-year-old boy’s run as mayor is over in a tiny tourist town in northern Minnesota.
Robert “Bobby” Tufts lost his bid for a third consecutive term as mayor of Dorset. Eric Mueller, a 16-year-old from Mendota Heights, Minnesota, won when his name was drawn from the ballot box during the annual Taste of Dorset festival.
Bobby was only 3 when he was first elected mayor in 2012. Dorset, about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis, has no formal city government and a population ranging from nine to 28.
“It was fun, but it’s time to pass on the vote,” Bobby said. Then he suggested his little brother get a shot at some point: “I’m gonna let James do it. He’s 2.”
People can vote as many times as they like in the “election” — for $1 a vote — at ballot boxes in stores around town. The proceeds go toward organising the festival.
Bobby said he was proud of his efforts to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley in Fargo, North Dakota, One of his other major acts was to declare ice cream top of the food pyramid.
His mother, Emma Tufts, said family members joked about having Bobby and James build up a political resume to prepare for a presidential run in 2048.
A hotel in New York received a flood of online criticism following reports that it threatened to charge $500 (€375) if guests posted negative reviews.
The New York Post reported that the Union Street Guest House in Hudson, warned on its website that “a $500 fine… will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review placed on any internet site by anyone in your party.” The policy was aimed at guests booking the inn for weddings and other events.
The hotel, about 100 miles north of New York City, apparently removed the warning from its website after the story was picked up by other media. The hotel then explained on its Facebook page that the policy on fines was “a tongue-in-cheek response to a wedding many years ago. It was meant to be taken down long ago and certainly was never enforced.”
By yesterday, the hotel appeared to have removed the “tongue-in-cheek” explanation from its Facebook page.
After the story was picked up by many websites, readers began posting dozens of phoney one-star reviews on the hotel’s Yelp listing, many with absurd claims (“none of the rooms have beds”).
Some posters said the bogus write-ups were deserved, though at least one gave a five-star review to the maligned hotel out of pity.
Union Street Guest House's ratings on Yelp. pic.twitter.com/isWn0cyNZJ
— Justin Brookman (@JustinBrookman) August 5, 2014
Rows over routes are the biggest cause of in-car friction, according to an AA/Populus survey.
Two in three people argue in the car, with 18-24-year-olds more likely to row than those over 65.
Getting from A to B was the main cause of arguments, followed by driving too fast, not asking for directions and noisy children.
The survey, based on responses from more than 23,000 AA members, also showed that car occupants argued about shouting at other drivers, the temperature in the car, not agreeing where to eat or what to listen to, and the topic of conversation.
Two 17-year-old boys have been charged with breaking into a Pennsylvania home and baking drug-laced brownies.
The boys were found with drug paraphernalia and more than two pounds of the unspecified drug used to make the brownies. The boys have been charged in Montgomery County Juvenile Court.
The Perkiomen township is in the Philadelphia suburbs, north west of the city.
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