Danville, Calif. (AP) — Police in the San Francisco Bay area say a woman set fires in the restrooms of two gas stations and a coffee house and told them she did it to protest high gas prices.

No structural damage was reported at the Arco station, the Chevron station and the Starbucks in Danville where fires were set Wednesday using fireplace logs and a lighter.

Police say they later found 64-year-old Diane Craig at a nearby fast food restaurant with eight fireplace logs with her. Authorities say she told officers that she was behind the fires and that she woke up that morning wanting to do something about high gas prices.

Craig was arrested on suspicion of premeditated arson and burglary.

Police say they don’t know why the Starbucks was targeted.

jay: leave it to a cop to not understand why starbucks was targeted. i mean, they can’t even fathom a guess? and diane, you don’t have to explain your actions, we understand.

AP - NEW YORK - Rapper Foxy Brown is out of jail. Family and fans greeted Brown Friday outside Rikers Island as she was released from the jail after serving an eight-month sentence.

“The first place I want to go is church. I’ve got to get on my knees,” said Brown.

Instead, Brown went shopping in Harlem, had some soul food and was driven to her childhood home in Brooklyn in a white Rolls Royce Phantom.

jay: zing!

Her mother, Judith Marchand, presented her with smiley-face balloons and the two hugged outside the family’s home in the Prospect Heights neighborhood. A VH1 crew captured the reunion for an upcoming reality show.

“I did almost a year in prison, a year in prison, just because my name is Foxy Brown,” she said.

Brown, whose real name is Ingrid Marchand…

jay: zing! zing!

was sentenced in September 2007 to a year in jail for violating the terms of her probation after she was accused of hitting a woman with a cell phone. She was on probation for an August 2004 attack on two manicurists at a Manhattan nail salon.

jay: nice job on the subtle editorial, ap.

AP - BAGHDAD - Remote-controlled explosives strapped to two mentally retarded women detonated in a coordinated attack on Baghdad pet bazaars Friday, Iraqi officials said, killing at least 73 people in the deadliest day since the U.S. sent 30,000 extra troops to the capital last spring.

jay: can someone please tell me how low were we planning on going as a species? we can’t get any lower than this, right? fuhk.

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish driver who collided with a cyclist is suing the dead youth’s family $29,300 for the damage the impact of his body did to his luxury car, a Spanish newspaper reported on Friday.

Businessman Tomas Delgado says 17-year-old Enaitz Iriondo caused $20,500 of damage to his Audi A8 in the fatal 2004 crash in La Rioja region, the El Pais newspaper reported.

Delgado, who has faced no criminal charges for the incident, wants a further 6,000 euros to cover the cost of hiring another vehicle while his car was being repaired, El Pais said.

The youth had been cycling alone at night without reflective clothing or a helmet, according to a police report cited by El Pais.

His family won 33,000 euros compensation from Delgado’s insurance company after the firm acknowledged he had been driving at excessive speed and this could have contributed to the incident, El Pais reported.

“I’m also a victim in all of this, you can’t fix the lad’s problems, but you can fix mine,” Delgado told the newspaper, ahead of a January 30 legal decision on his suit.

The family said they had previously pitied Delgado for the guilt he must feel at killing their son but were now disgusted that his greatest concern appeared to be money.

“This was the final straw, a kick in the teeth,” the youth’s mother Rosa Trinidad told El Pais.

jay: uh, i got nothing here.

AP — TACOMA — A man who wore a gorilla suit and thought it would be funny to grab a boy in a Lakewood store has been sentenced to 30 days of home detention.

Isaiah Michael Jackson avoided jail time when he was sentenced for the stunt in August of last year at the B&I store.

The parents, Anthony and April Santiago of Spanaway, chased down the man to rescue their screaming son.

jay: this man’s sentence was enough to scare me out of my go-hiking-while-dressed-like-a-yeti plan. sux.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Music, books and Hollywood films… China can now add testimonies of regret by corrupt officials to its exhaustive list of copyright violations.

Zhang Shaocang, former Communist Party chief of state-owned power company Anhui Province Energy Group Co Ltd, wept as he read a four-page “letter of apology” during his corruption trial at a court in Fuyang, Anhui, according to a Procuratorial Daily report reproduced in Wednesday’s Beijing News.

But Zhang’s sentiments were later found to be strikingly similar to those of Zhu Fuzhong, a disgraced former party chief of Tongan village in southwestern Sichuan province, whose apology letter was printed in the Procuratorial Daily less than two weeks before.

“Before working, I never gave much thought to money and regarded achievement as the starting point and end result of my work,” the paper quoted both of the letters as saying.

“I gradually lost my bearings and the scope of my position,” Zhang said at his trial, an exact copy of Fu’s own wording.

Apart from using whole sentences word for word, Zhang also — more craftily — made “slight changes” in other areas.

The Procuratorial Daily, the official paper of China’s top prosecutions office, is distributed as reading material at many “supervision venues,” the paper said, referring to the often secret locations where Communist Party officials are held for questioning.

It was possible that Zhang, while being investigated for charges of bribe-taking, had drawn inspiration from Zhu’s apology in the hope of gaining leniency from the court, the paper said.

“Because of this, Zhang’s apology was dismissed as ’show-boating,’” the paper said.

rob: i’m not sure how “crafty” the subtle word changes were in the context of entire sentences being lifted intact, but still: bonus points for weeping.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Karl Rove, your car is ready.

White House pranksters wrapped Rove’s Jaguar in plastic wrap on the private driveway next to the West Wing. Rove’s car is easily recognizable because of its ”I love Barack Obama” bumper sticker and the twin stuffed-animal eagles on the trunk. Oh, and there’s a stuffed-animal elephant on the hood.

Rove, the top White House political strategist who recently announced his resignation, left his car on the driveway while visiting Texas and traveling with President Bush. He was due back in Washington Wednesday evening.

jay: so someone inside the white house did this? funny. kinda. the ‘i love barack obama’ sticker is a nice touch. though i can’t help feeling like this is a publicity stunt (to distract from the idaho glory-hole dude?). i also can’t help feeling like i’m becoming too cynical for my own good.

dan: how about larry craig, does he have a bone? is that why his stance is so wide?

Sydney Morning Herald — A man who allegedly went on the rampage in a tank through the streets of Western Sydney that destroyed several mobile phone towers was lovingly restoring the vehicle, his employer said.

John Robert Patterson, 45, of Dharruk, was charged with predatory driving and six counts of malicious damage. He was arrested early yesterday after Mount Druitt police on patrol discovered an armoured vehicle destroying an electricity substation in Sterling Road, Minchinbury.

Over the next 90 minutes it brought down four Telstra mobile phone towers and damaged three Optus towers in surrounding suburbs until the vehicle stalled at Dean Park while being driven towards another phone tower.

[…]

Mount Druitt resident William Errington said he began following the tank with friends after hearing loud noises and police sirens.

“The tank was being driven all over the place, on footpaths, the wrong side of the road,” he said. “It was a bit scary, but it wasn’t something you see every day.”

Mobile phone services were disrupted as technicians waited to enter the crime scenes. A Telstra spokesman said temporary structures had been erected to replace four mobile phone towers that were destroyed in Mount Druitt, Emerton, Plumpton and Minchinbury. An Optus spokeswoman said three damaged towers were being repaired.

cates: player 1 total: 7 masts. high score! please enter initials: _ _ _

item #1

Girl, 11, charged with DUI after chase

AP - ORANGE BEACH, Ala. - Police who chased a car for miles along a highway at speeds up to 100 mph said the driver was drunk, hardly a rarity in this resort town. But there was more: When they looked inside the flipped vehicle with guns drawn, they found an 11-year-old girl at the wheel.

“You go up there thinking it’s a felon you’re dealing with,” assistant police Chief Greg Duck said.

The girl, who was slightly injured in the crash, is now charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident. Duck said she sideswiped another vehicle during the roughly 8-mile chase.

item #2

Preteen sisters accused in kidnapping

AP - ENID, Okla. - Detectives arrested a 12-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister for allegedly abducting their neighbor’s 1-year-old son and demanding $200,000 for his return.

Brandon Wells was safe back at home Thursday night, hours after intruders broke into his family’s residence and took him while his mother, Sheila Wells, slept, police said.

“I’ve been doing this 18 1/2 years, and this is the first time I know of when a 10- and a 12-year-old kidnapped a 1-year-old,” said police Capt. Dean Grassino. “It definitely ranks up there with the unusual crimes.”

[…]

The girls appeared in Garfield County District Court on Thursday afternoon and were taken to Community Intervention Center for juveniles. They have not been formally charged.

“I know they’re so young, but they need to learn from their mistakes,” Wells said.

jay: i’m hoping that the prosecutors in these progressive states will use their best judgment and charge these thugs as adults.

cates: i guess they realised, as many kids do, that playing “grand theft auto” in real life is much more fun than the ps2 version. good for them.

Diabetic Man Kicked Off Train, Now Missing
Police: Amtrak Personnel Thought Man Was Drunk

PHOENIX — A 65-year-old St. Louis man is missing after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, according to police in Williams, Ariz.

Police said Roosevelt Sims was headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams, reported KPHO-TV in Phoenix.

“He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees,” Lt. Mike Graham said.

Police said there is no train station or running water at the crossing, which is about two miles from the nearest road, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet.

[full story]

rob: bad amtrak! very, very bad amtrak!

jay: i’m trying to think of the last time i read anything good about amtrak and i’m drawing a blank. this may be a new low. congratulations, quasi-private national rail system.

AP - NEW YORK - With his roommate still unconscious from a car crash, Anthony Giordano told officers he was the injured man’s brother and took his wallet before embarking on a $22,000 spending spree, police said.

Giordano, a former Long Island resident, was extradited to New York from South Carolina on Friday, according to the Suffolk County Police Department. He was facing charges of identity theft and grand larceny.

Authorities said Giordano, 47, was already lying to his roommate at the time of the crash, telling Geoffrey MacMurdo he was a Sept. 11 victim and New York firefighter.

When MacMurdo was involved in the crash in June 2005 that eventually cost him his leg, Giordano claimed his belongings from officers, police said.

Giordano made more than $22,000 in charges on his roommate’s credit cards and on new cards he took out in MacMurdo’s name, police said. He used the cards at a strip club and to buy a 15-year-old Jeep, police said.

After the crash, Giordano continued to live with MacMurdo. He moved out without warning in May 2006 and eventually moved to South Carolina. It was only after he moved that his roommate began to suspect him.

jay: strong island represent! i feel like i went to high school with like 20 dudes who woulda done the same thing in giordano’s situation. stories like this make me homesick.

PENN HILLS, Pa. (AP) — A man who thought the clerk at a fast-food drive-through was rude for not saying “please” and “thank you” punched her in the face, police said. Duane L. Williams, angered by what he felt was the clerk’s rudeness, walked into the store to complain just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, Penn Hills police Chief Howard Burton said Friday.

Before the manager could meet with Williams, he walked back outside, pushed open the drive-through window and punched the 19-year-old woman in the face. The clerk was bruised, but not badly hurt, Burton said.

He didn’t like the girl’s attitude because she didn’t say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’” Burton said.

The store manager ran outside to get Williams’ license plate number and called police.

Williams, 46, told police he had “anger-management issues” when he turned himself in later that night, Burton said.

jay: anger management issues? really? awesome.

cates: i don’t see any problem here. why were the police called?

BBC — A woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend’s testicle with her bare hands has been sent to prison.

Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: “That’s yours.”

Monti admitted wounding and was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

jay: in case you were wondering…

Doctors were unable to re-attach the organ.

via spcoon

jay: i’m kind of speechless here. legs closed tightly, grimacing.

dan: my favorite part is “that’s yours.” for sure? because i did lose a testicle. are you sure this one’s mine? it’s got…yes, there they are, my initials. cheers!

cates: i don’t know what all the fuss is about. she did spit it out, after all.

Staff and agencies
Thursday June 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A ferocious squirrel went on the rampage in Germany this week, attacking three people before meeting its match in an angry 72-year-old.

Police in the southern town of Passau said the creature attacked a 70-year-old woman on Tuesday, sinking its teeth into her hand.

It next entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring his hand and arm before he fought it off with a pole.

A police spokesman said the squirrel then finally met its end - but it didn’t go down without a fight.

“The squirrel went into the 72-year-old man’s garden and attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh,” the spokesman said. “Then he killed it with his crutch.”

He explained that experts thought the creature’s behaviour could have been brought on by the mating season, or it could have been ill.

dan: right. and the fact that marilyn manson has a new album out had nothing to do with this. uh-huh.

BBC — Two women who force-fed children raw chilli and raw eggs, and stung them with nettles, have been jailed for acts of “sustained cruelty”.

Maria Keable, from Ramsgate, Kent, and Deirdre Carrington, from west London, were sentenced to 19 months in prison at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday.

The two Mormon women have also been banned from working with children.

[…]

They became friends after meeting at a Mormon temple in London in 1997.

The court was told Keable and Carrington had beaten the four girls and two boys with wooden rolling pins and kicked and punched them.

They also force-fed the children with hot chilli powder - a punishment they used on a two-year-old-girl.

Keable saw her actions as Christian and believed in “love with boundaries”, Canterbury Crown Court was told.

Judge Nash said: “You were undoubtedly, Maria, obsessed with punishment. You behaved like a hospital matron of the 19th Century, bullying the children in an unforgivable way.”

Keable, aged 60 and from Macedonia, had told police “in her country, the use of chilli was normal”.

Judge Nash told her: “It’s no good you saying ‘this is what we did in Macedonia’.

“You have been over here for 40 years, you know how we live over here and that’s what makes your part in this so wrong.”

Carrington, 41, of Chiswick, told police she was having “emotional problems” when she made one girl eat chilli powder.

cates: but what type of chilli powder was used? anything below 800,000 on the scoville scale is just a bit of fun.