Odd Stories: Drugs, Two Bibles, and a Gun

Lancaster, South Carolina – A 28-year-old woman was arrested after she was discovered smuggling a cell phone, weapons, and drugs to a prison inmate using two hollowed-out Bibles.

Shareca Latoya Jones became the focus of the police department after the returned package was shown to have razors, a cell phone, ecstasy, and almost 30 grams of cocaine according to sheriff Barry Faile.

When they arrested her at a traffic stop, the police found a loaded handgun, almost 30 small bags of weed,, cell phones, and money in her car. She is currently facing charges such as trafficking cocaine, providing contraband to an inmate, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute a schedule IV substance, unlawful carrying of a handgun, and two counts of possession with intent to distribute a schedule I substance.

Odd Stories: License Plate

Nebraska - An attorney is taking the state of Nebraska to court so he can have a license plate reading “NE 420”.

Frank Shoemaker asked for the plate from the state's motor vehicle department and was told he wasn't allowed to have it. Beverly Nerth, the director, said the 420 numerals “were used to promote marijuana use, an illegal drug in the state.” She added the combination may also be assumed to represent Adolf Hitler's birth (April 20, 1889), and Colorado's Columbine High School massacre which happened on April 20, 1999.

The American Civil Liberty Union, who is representing Shoemaker, said nothing about the plate is obscene or offensive about the license plate and it's a political statement.”

License plates can be used to express a personal or political statement according to the 8^th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, said ALCU's Tracy Hightower-Henne.

Update: Frank Shoemaker has been allowed to get the plate he desired.

Odd Stories: Typing Error Gets Candidate's Son Elected

Derby, Connecticut – A typing error may lead to the election of the wrong man to Derby's Board of Apportionment and Taxation.

The man, James J. Butler, got 1,526 votes for the position but calls the officials responsible for the election incompetent because they have him confused with his father.

James R. Butler, who really was running, told The News Times of Danbury and the New Haven Register he is the one interested in the job, not his son.

The secretary for the office, Av Harris, said the younger James Butler, who doesn't want anything to do with the office, should still be sworn in since he was elected.

Odd Stories: Darth Vader Invades Earth

Ukraine -Darth Vader has started his invasion of Earth with a claim to some of Ukraine's sea coast, according to Reuters and Dumskaya.net.

The villain visited the mayor's office to obtain it for free, citing a Ukrainian law recently passed giving every citizen the right to own 1,000 square meters of land.

"I am Darth Vader, the right hand of Emperor Palpatine," he said in a Youtube video. “Knowing that many (local legislature) deputies and the mayor have switched to the dark side... I have come for a land plot... for my space cruiser."

After the person in the outfit took off his helmet and showed his passport, the officials accepted his request.

The mayor's office has said it was a mistake to pass the law but haven't cancelled it yet.

Environmental Regulations Don't Kill Jobs

Washington D.C. - Anyone who tells you “environmental regulations kill jobs and hurt businesses” is at worst a liar and at best severely misinformed and there are documents to prove it.

Those who pay attention to politics, especially when it comes to regulation, knows the all-too-familiar rhetoric. After a regulation is proposed, usually by a Democrat, the Republicans moan and gnash their teeth about how it's going to destroy industries and put the country deeper into debt. While companies tell this to Republicans they are saying something completely different to their investors and financial regulators.

The Associated Press released an article in which two companies: DTEEnergy and FMC Corporation told Republican lawmakers what they want to hear regardless of the facts.

DTE Energy said on April 15^th to a House committee “Without the right policy, we could be headed for disaster.” In reality they don't know what effect it will have, saying to their investors it was “reviewing potential impacts of the proposed and recently finalized rules, but is not able to quantify the financial impact ... at this time." DTE environmental issues vice-president Skiles Boyd later said the testimony was meant to state the potential economic hardship on customers and the SEC report focused on the company's financial condition. Page 52 of the report (available if requested) states “We are subject to extensive environmental regulation. Additional costs may result as the effects of various substances on the environment are studied and governmental regulations are developed and implemented. Actual costs to comply could vary substantially. We expect to continue recovering environmental costs related to utility operations through rates charged to our customers.” In other words they will pass on the cost to the customer, but will not kill businesses or jobs.

FMC Corp's Jim Pearce, when called to a House hearing in February of 2010, said “The current U.S. approach to regulating greenhouse gases ... will lead U.S. natural soda ash producers to lose significant business to our offshore rivals...." Soda ash is used to produce glass, and is a major component of the company's business.” Just 13 days later in its SEC filings however the company said it was "premature to make any estimate of the costs of complying with unenacted federal climate change legislation, or as yet unimplemented federal regulations in the United States.

It continues to state (Note: Signing up is required to see the exact text, though I can email the document if requested) “At this point our U.S. facilities are not subject to any state or regional greenhouse gas regulation, and our foreign operations outside of Europe and Canada are not subject to national or local greenhouse gas regulation. Although some of our European and Canadian operations may be subject to greenhouse gas regulation, the cost to these facilities has not been and is not expected to be significant, and effect of European Union and Canadian greenhouse gas regulation has not been and is not expected to be material to FMC. We have considered the potential physical risks to FMC facilities and operations and the indirect consequences of regulation or business trends as a result of potential future climate change. Because of the many variables, not only with respect to the science, but also with respect to the nature and effect of future global climate change regulation itself, it is impossible to predict in any meaningful.”

However the truth isn't stopping the Republicans from touting their lies. Using the continued meme they plan to attack the President Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, and the Environmental Protection Agency. They are also holding hearings and trying to pass several bills to stop environmental regulation from passing. None have passed the Senate. The Obama Administration doesn't help matters any when it postpones the regulations under the guise of “looking at them”, after which they silently throw it away or “give it up” in exchange for another proposal.

Thankfully not all of the Democrats break so easily. Henry Waxman, one of California's Representatives, said of the SEC filings they “show that the anti-regulation rhetoric in Washington is political hot air with little or no connection to reality." California Senator Barbra Boxer said about the bills “I will see to it, to the best of my ability, to try to stop everything...Republicans will lose seats over this.”

Thankfully some people in Washington are paying attention to not just what the businesses are saying but what they're putting in their economic reports as well. Otherwise we'd just have a bunch of people listening to and believing what is being told by them and nobody doing any fact-checking.

Woman Loses Her Baby Due to Police Brutality

Seattle - After being pepper-sprayed and attacked by Seattle police, Jennifer Fox, a pregnant woman who joined the Occupy Movement, had a miscarriage. Homeless and pregnant, she felt it was her duty for her and her child's future to join the protesters.

When the police started to move in and attack – an unfortunately all-to-familiar scenario now – she said to the police “I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let methrough. I am trying to get out.”

Instead of letting her go the police started to hit her stomach, step on her, pepper-spray her face, and push a bike into her.

Everything seemed to be fine until Sunday when she “started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out.” A trip to the hospital revealed she was having a miscarriage, possibly due to the kick and pepper-spray that affected her child.

This took place during the same protest which saw an elderly woman hit with the spray as well.

She said she is currently looking for a lawyer to take her case.

Hopefully one of the people she sues will be Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel who said “pepper spray is not age specific. No more dangerous to someone who is 10 or someone who is 80.”

Looks like you're wrong Jeff, as you traumatized a mother and caused her to miscarry.

Some of the video of the aftermath can be seen here.