Intrigued by the “Ed and Linda” and “June 9, 1996″ engravings inside the band, Carney decided to do some detective work.

With the help of local librarians, the 57-year-old South Deerfield man went through the Deerfield town report for 1996 and looked up weddings. He found a listing for Ed and Linda LaCoille on June 9 of that year.

Last week, he returned the ring to the LaCoilles’ house. Ed Lacoille had lost the ring more than six months ago.

“I never expected to find it again,” Linda LaCoille said. “It was amazing.”

It was the second time in just over a year the ring has been returned after being lost. Ed LaCoille said he lost the same band at a lake in Maine while on vacation. He left a note at the lake house for future renters.

A couple of weeks later, the ring was returned by mail.

LaCoille said he recently lost weight, which may explain why the ring keeps slipping off his finger. He’s keeping it in a box now until he can get it resized.

“The chance of it being found a third time is outrageous,” he said

[via AP]

The latest sighting three weeks ago was in the Calcasieu Ship Channel on private land accessible only by boat. Officials with the zoo in Wichita learned of the wayward flamingo’s whereabouts late Friday because the birds were identified by numbers on their leg bands.

The zoo’s flamingo was still traveling with the same companion that was with it during an earlier sighting. The two birds were seen at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast of Texas in December 2006.

The other bird, a rosy-red wild greater flamingo, came up from Mexico during hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The discovery excited bird watchers in Louisiana because it was the first documented sighting of a wild greater flamingo in the state.

“We’re very happy to see he’s been spotted again,” said zoo spokeswoman Christan Baumer.

The zoo does not plan to try to get the flamingo back.

“There really isn’t an easy way to recapture the bird. It would only disturb wildlife where it’s been found and possibly could do more damage to the bird than just leaving him alone,” Baumer said.

Flamingos are social birds, so it is not unusual they are staying together, she said.

Members of Louisiana’s ornithological society tried to locate the birds a few days after they were identified, but they had left the area. The zoo expects more sightings as the birds continue to look for safe places, food and water.

The Sedgwick County Zoo’s flamingo is one of two that escaped June 27, 2005. Its other escaped flamingo has not been spotted.

[via AP]

It was the first in a five-rug project the Portland artist, an adjunct professor at Linfield, has in the works.

The curvy cutout was fashioned from monk’s cloth, a heavy cotton, and hand-painted in 10 colors on alpaca yarn.

“I don’t understand why anyone would want to steal something like this,” she said. “Whoever did it doesn’t understand what they’ve done. It’s my life’s work.”

A video camera and two pieces of student art also were missing.

McMinnville Police Capt. Dennis Marks said officers will check with local second-hand stores. But if it’s college kids, it’s probably in somebody’s room, Marks said.

[via AP]

Deputies added charges of possession of a controlled substance after finding a vial containing a yellow substance in her purse. A drug field test suggested the substance was methamphetamine, The Tampa Tribune reported.

Hunter had protested, saying the substance was dehydrated cat urine for her son’s science project and that it had been purchased at an animal clinic. She was released Thursday after lab tests found the substance was, in fact, cat urine.

Hunter pleaded guilty to petty theft and a judge gave her time served. It was not clear if she had an attorney and why the substance might have tested positive for methamphetamine.

[via AP]

He made it about 75 feet. Unable to take the car out of reverse, he crossed the street and ran into a transformer and communication box, knocking out electricity and phone service to dozens of townhomes.

Nobody was injured and the boy, whose name was not released, got out of his car and told his grandmother what happened.

“He proceeded to start the car and started backing up,” said Sgt. Colleen O’Connell of the Broomfield Police Department. “He went backward about 47 feet, hit the curb, then went backward another 29 feet.”

Investigators couldn’t figure out how the boy reached the accelerator.

No charges will be filed.

“I have five children of my own, so I know you cannot watch them every minute they’re awake,” said nearby resident Nancy Hollis, whose power was knocked out by the accident.

[via AP]

Pure alcohol is often given in treating such cases because it can inhibit the toxic effects of ethylene glycol.

Mackay Base Hospital Dr. Pascal Gelperowicz said the man was given pharmaceutical-grade alcohol when he arrived, but that the hospital’s supplies soon ran out.

“We quickly used all the available vials of 100 per cent alcohol and decided the next best way to get alcohol into the man’s system was by feeding him spirits through a naso gastric tube,” Dr. Gelperowicz said in a statement.

“The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit,” he said. “The hospital’s administrators were also very understanding when we explained our reasons for buying a case of vodka.”

The patient, was believed to have ingested the poison in an attempt at self-harm, made a successful recover. The incident occurred about two months ago, though the hospital just released information on the case.

[via AP]

Hobson claimed she suffered neck pain and numbness after injuring herself while dancing at the Shangri-La West club in Fort Wayne on Dec. 20, 2001. She underwent surgery for a herniated disc in her cervical spine, according to court records.

Hobson said she reported her injury to her employers, but they later denied knowledge of the injury.

In 2006, the compensation board awarded her temporary total disability benefits and other compensation totaling more than $10,000 and found that Shangri-La did not have a worker’s compensation policy and was not approved as a self-insurer.

Shangri-La appealed, arguing that the board erred when it found Hobson more credible than its witnesses. But the court declined to reweigh the evidence and upheld the original award, adding a 5 percent increase due to the passage of time.

The court also instructed the board to determine whether Hobson was entitled to double compensation due in part to the allegation that Shangri-La violated state law by not having worker’s compensation insurance.

Dino Zurzolo, who owned the club at the time, said the lack of worker’s compensation insurance at the time was a temporary oversight due to a missed payment.

A phone message left late Tuesday for attorney Samuel Bolinger, who represents Wholesalers Inc., the company that does business as Shangri-La, was not immediately returned.

[via AP]

Lori Plato said she and her husband, Owen Plato, were stunned when U.S. Marshals Service employees asked her to remove her bra after the underwire supports set off the alarm.

“I asked if I could go into the bathroom because they didn’t have a privacy screen and no women security officers were available,” Plato said Wednesday. “They said, ‘No.’

“I wasn’t carrying a shank in my bra. If it’s so dangerous, why did they give it back and let me put it on?”

Patrick McDonald, the U.S. Marshal in Boise, said appropriate security protocols were followed in the Sept. 20 matter, and guards suggested she simply remove the bra in her car outside, or find a restaurant bathroom.

“She’s inflating it,” McDonald said. “All of a sudden she just took it off. It wasn’t anything we wanted to happen and it wasn’t anything we asked for her to do. She did it so fast.”

Plato, of Bonners Ferry, said she was parked on a busy street and wasn’t familiar with downtown Coeur d’Alene businesses. So her husband held up his coat to shield her from the rest of the people in the courthouse lobby while she removed her bra underneath her shirt.

Not generally a security threat
Generally, McDonald said, undergarments aren’t considered a danger to security.

“I don’t think they’re considered a weapon, really, the last time I looked,” he said.

He declined to discuss other ways the federal courthouse guards could have screened Plato for weapons.

Plato wants the Marshals Service to apologize and stop forcing women to disrobe.

“It was very humiliating,” her husband, Owen Plato, said. “They could have handled it with a much more professional attitude.”

[via AP]

The agriculture ministry said the bureaucrat, whose name was not released, contributed 260 times to the Japanese-language Wikipedia entry on Gundam, a popular, long-running animated series about giant robots that has spun off intricate toys popular among children and adults who belong to the so-called “otaku culture” of fascination with comic books, animation and robots.

“The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam,” ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura said.

The agriculture ministry verbally reprimanded five other bureaucrats who contributed to entries on movies, typographical mistakes in billboard signs and local politics. The six employees together made 408 entries on the popular Internet encyclopedia from ministry computers since 2003.

The ministry did not object to employees making limited contributions on World Trade Organization and free trade agreements.

The reprimands emerged from an internal probe following recent media allegations that a growing number of Japanese public servants were contributing to the Web encyclopedia, which anyone can edit, often to reflect their views. An unspecified number of other bureaucrats apparently had contributed to Wikipedia on Gundam, but could not be identified, Shimomura said.

Shimomura said the ministry reprimands were not related to WikiScanner, a recently introduced free program that reveals the identities of the computers used to make Wikipedia changes.

The agriculture ministry issued an order prohibiting employees from accessing Wikipedia at work, while disabling access to the site from the ministry, Shimomura said.

An Imperial Household Agency official was reprimanded last month for deleting references criticizing imperial tombs on the Wikipedia through the agency computer.

[via AP]

Michael Martin, 33, was freed on $300,000 bond on the charge of conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana.

Federal drug agents last week raided Tainted Inc. in Oakland and arrested three of Martin’s employees on drug charges for allegedly producing such marijuana-laced products as honey, soda and other snacks. Federal officials couldn’t find Martin and considered him a fugitive. Martin said he was on vacation and arranged to turn himself in once he heard of the raids, according to his supporters.

Martin’s supporters with the nonprofit Safe Access Now organization said he was making the products for medical marijuana clubs in California. Martin’s attorney Sara Zalkin didn’t return a telephone call to her office.

California law has legalized marijuana use to treat medical conditions, but federal law bans the plant’s use for all purposes. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that federal law trumps state law when it comes to medical marijuana.

According to the search warrants, Tainted Inc.’s products first came to the attention of investigators in April 2004 when an internal Drug Enforcement Administration publication reported that agents had recently seized marijuana-laced candy bars called Buddafingas and Stoners that were wrapped in packages mimicking the popular brands Butterfingers and Snickers.

The three others charged along with Martin are Jessica Sanders, Michael Anderson, and Diallo McLinn. All are free on bond. None have entered a plea.

[via AP]