Sunday, March 01, 2015
Man arrested for digging big hole in road
A man from Rochester, New York, faces felony charges in Steuben County, accused of causing damage to a road in Prattsburgh while using an excavator in November.
Kyle J. Calabria, 32, is charged with second-degree criminal mischief and first-degree reckless endangerment, both felonies, according to New York State Police.
Calabria allegedly used an excavator to dig a trench measuring approximately 40 feet long, 15 feet wide and 12 feet deep , digging up both the pavement and the shoulder of the road. The damage was estimated at $7,500.
When the excavator became inoperable, Calabria allegedly left the machine in the unlit road, failing to notify authorities of the hazard. Calabria was arraigned and sent to Steuben County Jail on $7,500 bail. He is scheduled to appear in Prattsburgh Town Court on March 11.
Kyle J. Calabria, 32, is charged with second-degree criminal mischief and first-degree reckless endangerment, both felonies, according to New York State Police.
Calabria allegedly used an excavator to dig a trench measuring approximately 40 feet long, 15 feet wide and 12 feet deep , digging up both the pavement and the shoulder of the road. The damage was estimated at $7,500.
When the excavator became inoperable, Calabria allegedly left the machine in the unlit road, failing to notify authorities of the hazard. Calabria was arraigned and sent to Steuben County Jail on $7,500 bail. He is scheduled to appear in Prattsburgh Town Court on March 11.
Bride-to-be horrified that the doily borders of her custom-made wedding invitations don't match
A bride-to-be from Dallas, Texas, is warning others to get every detail of their wedding planning purchases in writing after she says a horrifying mix-up with her invitations left her without options.
Natalie DeGraffenreid is 38 days from saying "I do," but the biggest source of worry isn't the big day - it's the invitations.
DeGraffenreid hired Arlington-based Art by Ellie to create the custom design, and said she was drawn to an invitation with a doily design . She placed her order in early January; paid her $500 deposit; signed the company's contract; and waited for delivery.
Then came problems.
DeGraffenreid said at first, only half of the invitations she had ordered were ready. And then staff at Art by Ellie told her there weren't enough of the same style of doilies for the entire order. "When she e-mailed me a few days later and said she didn't have the same pattern - that she was ordering a new one - she said it was 'different.' I didn't know how different," DeGraffenreid said. There were two patterns in one order for a disappointed customer. "It matters to me. I'm the bride, and I'm the one that paid for it," DeGraffenreid said. She believes Art by Ellie didn't hold up its end of the deal, so she has not yet paid the rest of her bill.
DeGraffenreid says she contacted the company asking for a sign of good faith, like a refund or discount, but was told by the owner that a full refund would not be an option and that full payment is now overdue. Lauren Heymann owns the nearly six-year-old stationery firm, which has many other happy customers across North Texas. Heymann said: "I'm very sorry she [DeGraffenreid] is so upset about the doilies, and I have tried to think of every way possible to rectify the situation." Heymann says she has offered DeGraffenreid some kind of refund, but the bride-to-be refutes that.
She says instead, Heymann reminded her of what wasn't in her contract. "'We are not under contract for a guaranteed specific delivery date, a specific envelope, or a specific doily pattern with your contract,'" DeGraffenreid says Heymann said in an email. "That means she could give me whatever she wanted... and she did," said DeGraffenreid. An attorney representing Art by Ellie contacted DeGraffenreid this week demanding full payment of the rest of her bill, with the hope of avoiding any future legal action. DeGraffenreid says she's not sure how to proceed, but she does have a warning for other brides: Get the envelope, the ink... every detail of any order in whatever contract you sign. "Hopefully you will not go through what I went through," she said.
DeGraffenreid said at first, only half of the invitations she had ordered were ready. And then staff at Art by Ellie told her there weren't enough of the same style of doilies for the entire order. "When she e-mailed me a few days later and said she didn't have the same pattern - that she was ordering a new one - she said it was 'different.' I didn't know how different," DeGraffenreid said. There were two patterns in one order for a disappointed customer. "It matters to me. I'm the bride, and I'm the one that paid for it," DeGraffenreid said. She believes Art by Ellie didn't hold up its end of the deal, so she has not yet paid the rest of her bill.
DeGraffenreid says she contacted the company asking for a sign of good faith, like a refund or discount, but was told by the owner that a full refund would not be an option and that full payment is now overdue. Lauren Heymann owns the nearly six-year-old stationery firm, which has many other happy customers across North Texas. Heymann said: "I'm very sorry she [DeGraffenreid] is so upset about the doilies, and I have tried to think of every way possible to rectify the situation." Heymann says she has offered DeGraffenreid some kind of refund, but the bride-to-be refutes that.
She says instead, Heymann reminded her of what wasn't in her contract. "'We are not under contract for a guaranteed specific delivery date, a specific envelope, or a specific doily pattern with your contract,'" DeGraffenreid says Heymann said in an email. "That means she could give me whatever she wanted... and she did," said DeGraffenreid. An attorney representing Art by Ellie contacted DeGraffenreid this week demanding full payment of the rest of her bill, with the hope of avoiding any future legal action. DeGraffenreid says she's not sure how to proceed, but she does have a warning for other brides: Get the envelope, the ink... every detail of any order in whatever contract you sign. "Hopefully you will not go through what I went through," she said.
Dingo urine may be used as southern hairy-nosed wombat deterrent
Dingo urine could be used on properties in South Australia's Murraylands to prevent wombats from damaging farmland.
Southern hairy-nosed wombats are a headache for the region's farmers because they burrow and cause significant damage to agricultural land.
Twenty-three permits were handed out to destroy 187 wombats, an endangered species, in the region in 2014.
Sarah Lance, from the SA Department of Natural Resources, said wombats were moving onto farmland east of Adelaide looking for food because native grasses were in decline.
She said a number of techniques had been trialled in the area in an effort to relocate wombats to other areas, such as one-way gates and "wombat socks, where they wriggle through so they can get out of a warren but can't re-enter". Similar trials were conducted near Ceduna on the state's west coast, utilising dingo urine and faeces as a wombat deterrent. "They trialled all of these techniques to see if they could, first of all, encourage wombats to leave a warren area and use one-way wombat gates to just make sure that the wombats were gone," she said.
"Then they use deterrents to actually stop the wombats from coming back. What they found after their trials, which took a number of months, was that the dingo urine was the most successful in keeping the wombats away." Ms Lance was unsure whether dingo urine would have the same success in the Murraylands. "Because of the fact that the dingo fence is so far to the north for us in the Murraylands, whereas in Ceduna, the dingo fence is right there, so those wombats may have had some sort of historical interaction with dingoes," she said. Ms Lance said urine was not easy to find and would have to be sourced from overseas.
"We have tried going to our local Cleland Conservation Park dingoes [Adelaide Hills] and asking them to pee in a bottle, but unfortunately that didn't really work," she said. "Then we were very lucky because of the wildlife conflict issues in the United States. We actually found out there was dingo urine available for sale and so we brought our dingo urine in from overseas." Department figures show the population of Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats in the Murraylands is about 148,000. Concerns have been raised in recent years about the health of the population, after some were found to be starving and poorly nourished. It was blamed on a decline in native grasses, which forced many to eat introduced weed with limited nutrition. Trials of dingo urine are expected to start within the year.
She said a number of techniques had been trialled in the area in an effort to relocate wombats to other areas, such as one-way gates and "wombat socks, where they wriggle through so they can get out of a warren but can't re-enter". Similar trials were conducted near Ceduna on the state's west coast, utilising dingo urine and faeces as a wombat deterrent. "They trialled all of these techniques to see if they could, first of all, encourage wombats to leave a warren area and use one-way wombat gates to just make sure that the wombats were gone," she said.
"Then they use deterrents to actually stop the wombats from coming back. What they found after their trials, which took a number of months, was that the dingo urine was the most successful in keeping the wombats away." Ms Lance was unsure whether dingo urine would have the same success in the Murraylands. "Because of the fact that the dingo fence is so far to the north for us in the Murraylands, whereas in Ceduna, the dingo fence is right there, so those wombats may have had some sort of historical interaction with dingoes," she said. Ms Lance said urine was not easy to find and would have to be sourced from overseas.
"We have tried going to our local Cleland Conservation Park dingoes [Adelaide Hills] and asking them to pee in a bottle, but unfortunately that didn't really work," she said. "Then we were very lucky because of the wildlife conflict issues in the United States. We actually found out there was dingo urine available for sale and so we brought our dingo urine in from overseas." Department figures show the population of Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats in the Murraylands is about 148,000. Concerns have been raised in recent years about the health of the population, after some were found to be starving and poorly nourished. It was blamed on a decline in native grasses, which forced many to eat introduced weed with limited nutrition. Trials of dingo urine are expected to start within the year.
Rare moon bear cub abandoned in box outside circus
A two-week-old bear cub has been found in an cardboard box outside a circus in eastern Russia.
A security guard found the tiny male cub wrapped up in a woollen blanket outside a service entrance in the city of Vladivostok. He's a rare Asiatic black bear - also known as a Himalayan or moon bear, due to their white chest markings.
It's not known what happened to his mother. Circus director Alexandra Mironova says the cub needs to be fed every three hours "otherwise he starts to cry and squeak". The circus vet says he's healthy and doesn't seem to mind human contact, happily guzzled baby formula from a bottle.
But while he's allowed to see other animals during the day, veterinarian Olga Tereshchenko says he sleeps in her office "to avoid attracting the attention of the larger beasts". There is concern over the fate of his mother, and of Asiatic black bears in their native Siberian habitat in general.
YouTube link.
The bears are classed as "vulnerable" on the international conservation scale, and are threatened by illegal hunting for their body parts. Where the cub will go now isn't yet known - circus employees want to send him to well-known bear circus in Moscow, but Ms Mironova says national airline Aeroflot have so far refused to transport him. "Aeroflot refuses to take a 'predator' on board, even though the predator can fit in the palm of your hand," she says.
It's not known what happened to his mother. Circus director Alexandra Mironova says the cub needs to be fed every three hours "otherwise he starts to cry and squeak". The circus vet says he's healthy and doesn't seem to mind human contact, happily guzzled baby formula from a bottle.
But while he's allowed to see other animals during the day, veterinarian Olga Tereshchenko says he sleeps in her office "to avoid attracting the attention of the larger beasts". There is concern over the fate of his mother, and of Asiatic black bears in their native Siberian habitat in general.
YouTube link.
The bears are classed as "vulnerable" on the international conservation scale, and are threatened by illegal hunting for their body parts. Where the cub will go now isn't yet known - circus employees want to send him to well-known bear circus in Moscow, but Ms Mironova says national airline Aeroflot have so far refused to transport him. "Aeroflot refuses to take a 'predator' on board, even though the predator can fit in the palm of your hand," she says.
Police give paint to residents invaded by stray sheep on housing estate
Residents on a housing estate who say they are at their “wits end” after being invaded by flocks of sheep have been given pots of paint to identify them.
Flocks of up to seven sheep have been leaving a trail of dung and ravaged flowers in their wake on the Weavers Dene estate in Helmshore, Lancashire.
Residents say the woolly intruders are a nuisance and have asked for help to get the issue resolved.
Susan Molineux said: “We have been here for 12 months and we cannot put any plants out the front. They eat everything and leave general mess all over the footpaths and pavement. It has been affecting everyone. It was funny and a bit of a novelty at first, but it’s happening quite often. It’s not nice for kids going to school.” Susan’s husband Steve added: “I saw them at 3am in the middle of the road, it was like five or six lads going home after a Friday night out. It’s a delicate situation as it’s not clear whose sheep they are.”
Andrew Houldsworth, 35, said: “I’m at my wits end. I have spoken to the county council, police, developers and MP about this and it seems nothing can be done. This can’t be the first issue of its kind in the county and therefore there must be solutions available. The time for investigation has passed. We cannot sit and watch night after night until they come again. This cannot continue.” Andrew said that the residents would ‘persevere’ until the issue was resolved.
Rosemary Johns, 38, said: “We have been living here for two years and it has not always been a problem, but over the last 12 months it has got a lot worse. “They come in the middle of the night and in the morning there are sheep droppings on the pavement. It was funny at first, but when you’re wheeling a pram through it all it’s not a joke. “We would just like whoever owns the sheep to keep them on their land.” Lancashire Police has provided residents with paint and instructed them to paint the sheep in order to identify them and their owner.
Susan Molineux said: “We have been here for 12 months and we cannot put any plants out the front. They eat everything and leave general mess all over the footpaths and pavement. It has been affecting everyone. It was funny and a bit of a novelty at first, but it’s happening quite often. It’s not nice for kids going to school.” Susan’s husband Steve added: “I saw them at 3am in the middle of the road, it was like five or six lads going home after a Friday night out. It’s a delicate situation as it’s not clear whose sheep they are.”
Andrew Houldsworth, 35, said: “I’m at my wits end. I have spoken to the county council, police, developers and MP about this and it seems nothing can be done. This can’t be the first issue of its kind in the county and therefore there must be solutions available. The time for investigation has passed. We cannot sit and watch night after night until they come again. This cannot continue.” Andrew said that the residents would ‘persevere’ until the issue was resolved.
Rosemary Johns, 38, said: “We have been living here for two years and it has not always been a problem, but over the last 12 months it has got a lot worse. “They come in the middle of the night and in the morning there are sheep droppings on the pavement. It was funny at first, but when you’re wheeling a pram through it all it’s not a joke. “We would just like whoever owns the sheep to keep them on their land.” Lancashire Police has provided residents with paint and instructed them to paint the sheep in order to identify them and their owner.
Fugitive hunted after fleeing police by running over rooftops in just his underpants
A fugitive prisoner is on the run after fleeing from police by running over rooftops in just his underpants.
He then forced a man in his sixties to drive him across Salford, Manchester, before bundling him out of the car and speeding off.
The wanted man began his dramatic escape by fleeing from a house in Boothstown at around 9.30am on Friday morning after it was raided by officers from the Serious Organised Crime Unit.
He ran across the roofs of several houses in just his underpants before eventually taking refuge in a man’s chicken shed. After being discovered by the 63-year-old homeowner he forced him to let him into his house nearby where he began to threaten him. He eventually persuaded the man to get into his car, a black Subaru, and drive him away from the house.
However when they got to the Walkden area of Salford, the victim ordered out of the vehicle, and the offender sped off. The police helicopter was scrambled as part of a frantic search for the man, believed to have absconded from a prison in the region. Greater Manchester Police have not released the identity of the wanted prisoner. A GMP spokesman said: “The 63 year-old man was startled to find the offender, partially clothed, hiding in his chicken shed at his house.
“The offender has then gone into the victim’s house where he turned aggressive and threatened the homeowner. Fearing he would be attacked, the man offered to drive the offender to wherever he wanted to go, which he duly did. When they got to the Walkden area, the victim was forced from his car and the offender drove off. Both the offender and the car are outstanding and inquiries are ongoing to trace both.”
He ran across the roofs of several houses in just his underpants before eventually taking refuge in a man’s chicken shed. After being discovered by the 63-year-old homeowner he forced him to let him into his house nearby where he began to threaten him. He eventually persuaded the man to get into his car, a black Subaru, and drive him away from the house.
However when they got to the Walkden area of Salford, the victim ordered out of the vehicle, and the offender sped off. The police helicopter was scrambled as part of a frantic search for the man, believed to have absconded from a prison in the region. Greater Manchester Police have not released the identity of the wanted prisoner. A GMP spokesman said: “The 63 year-old man was startled to find the offender, partially clothed, hiding in his chicken shed at his house.
“The offender has then gone into the victim’s house where he turned aggressive and threatened the homeowner. Fearing he would be attacked, the man offered to drive the offender to wherever he wanted to go, which he duly did. When they got to the Walkden area, the victim was forced from his car and the offender drove off. Both the offender and the car are outstanding and inquiries are ongoing to trace both.”
Drug dealer caught after being grassed up by customer he'd sold grass to instead of cannabis
A drug dealer who tried to palm off a punter with garden grass instead of cannabis was caught out when the "customer" told police he had been robbed.
Demier Edwards-Campbell was jailed for three and a half years after being found guilty of possession with intent to supply class A drugs following a trial at Kingston Crown Court. The 21-year-old's narcotics enterprise came tumbling down when police were called to Surbiton, south-west London, in May last year to reports of a robbery.
Officers then discovered the "victim" of the robbery had arranged to meet Edwards-Campbell to buy cannabis, and had paid the dealer £225 before realising he had been fobbed off with garden grass. Police later found more than 100 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine at Edwards-Campbell’s home address in Southfields.
Detective constable Paul Lawlor, from Kingston police, said: "The 'customer,' miffed at his discovery, went back and detained his dealer and demanded his money back. When Edwards-Campbell refused he called police claiming he had been robbed. Had we not been alerted by his irate client we may never have discovered the subsequent class A drugs at his home address."
Demier Edwards-Campbell was jailed for three and a half years after being found guilty of possession with intent to supply class A drugs following a trial at Kingston Crown Court. The 21-year-old's narcotics enterprise came tumbling down when police were called to Surbiton, south-west London, in May last year to reports of a robbery.
Officers then discovered the "victim" of the robbery had arranged to meet Edwards-Campbell to buy cannabis, and had paid the dealer £225 before realising he had been fobbed off with garden grass. Police later found more than 100 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine at Edwards-Campbell’s home address in Southfields.
Detective constable Paul Lawlor, from Kingston police, said: "The 'customer,' miffed at his discovery, went back and detained his dealer and demanded his money back. When Edwards-Campbell refused he called police claiming he had been robbed. Had we not been alerted by his irate client we may never have discovered the subsequent class A drugs at his home address."
Mother angered by school's ponytail drugs claim
A mother has branded her son's primary school "ridiculous" after it linked his hairstyle to drug-taking.
Joe Head, 11, wore his hair in a short ponytail in tribute to Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović.
But Pope Paul Catholic Primary in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, said in a letter the style was "unsuitable" and "associated with drug-taking".
The school apologised for any upset caused and said would be happy to discuss the matter with Joe's parents. Mother Mandy Head said her son brought the letter home two days after he began wearing the ponytail. In it, head teacher Helen Lines said she did not feel the style was suitable for school, and she was "given to believe [it] is associated with drug-taking".
Mrs Head said at first she had thought the statement was "so ridiculous" she had found it funny. "But afterwards I became upset that she could associate drug-taking and my son in the same letter and it became offensive," she said. "I'm not aware of any rules for hair at the school. We will discuss it with them, but they didn't have to add drug-taking into the letter."
Mrs Head said Joe went back to school without the ponytail the next day, as requested in the letter. She said she had contacted the governors about the letter, but not the head teacher Helen Lines. In a statement, Mrs Lines said: "The school sent a polite request to Joseph's parents regarding his appearance. I'm sorry if this letter has caused any unintended upset and would be happy to discuss it with the parents directly."
The school apologised for any upset caused and said would be happy to discuss the matter with Joe's parents. Mother Mandy Head said her son brought the letter home two days after he began wearing the ponytail. In it, head teacher Helen Lines said she did not feel the style was suitable for school, and she was "given to believe [it] is associated with drug-taking".
Mrs Head said at first she had thought the statement was "so ridiculous" she had found it funny. "But afterwards I became upset that she could associate drug-taking and my son in the same letter and it became offensive," she said. "I'm not aware of any rules for hair at the school. We will discuss it with them, but they didn't have to add drug-taking into the letter."
Mrs Head said Joe went back to school without the ponytail the next day, as requested in the letter. She said she had contacted the governors about the letter, but not the head teacher Helen Lines. In a statement, Mrs Lines said: "The school sent a polite request to Joseph's parents regarding his appearance. I'm sorry if this letter has caused any unintended upset and would be happy to discuss it with the parents directly."
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