pileofcrapola

DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Tripp Foy’s sing-song chant rang out like a sentimental oldie for die-hard farmers clinging to the old way of selling tobacco, as a small procession of buyers shadowed him down long rows of reddish-brown leaf piled in bales.

Farmers who have spent their lives tending the aromatic crop in their fields find comfort in Foy’s rat-a-tat style, part of an auction system that’s been all but snuffed out by another way of selling tobacco after years of declining smoking rates.

“It’s kind of in our blood,” said tobacco farmer Walter Browning. “But I’m about bled out.”

This tobacco-belt tradition, once as much a part of Kentucky’s fabric as bourbon or horse racing, is fading away — and it’s taking the maestros like Foy with it.

“The chant of an auctioneer can sound as good as a song,” said Foy, 63, who has spent four decades auctioning tobacco in Kentucky — the nation’s top burley producer. “You can walk down a row and you can almost dance to the tune of the sale.”

Years ago, multiple auctioneers plied their trade in each of the state’s biggest burley markets as sales seasons typically stretched from late autumn until March. The competition for top auctioneers was fierce as warehouse operators looked for any edge to pull in more business from farmers.

Now, most burley is sold under contracts between farmers and tobacco companies. Contracting sprung up a decade ago after the demise of a federal program of price supports and production quotas that guaranteed minimum prices for most of the 20th century.

The new system cut out warehouse operators as middle men.

Tobacco companies typically don’t disclose how much contract leaf they purchase or for how much to avoid tipping their hand to competitors.

Excess world burley tobacco supplies and lower demand are driving down prices, said University of Kentucky agricultural economist Will Snell.

Last year’s crop averaged $2.06 per pound. Quality leaf sold under contract is still fetching prices in the $1.90s to $2 a pound this season, he said. But selling non-contract burley, especially lower-quality leaf, is “going to be a struggle,” he said.

Droves of farmers got out of tobacco as U.S. smoking rates declined. The number of U.S. tobacco farms dropped from 124,270 in 1992 to 16,234 during the last federal crop census in 2007. Burley, once a $1 billion crop in Kentucky, now generates about $300 million for the state’s remaining growers.

Despite the setbacks, a handful of auction markets have stubbornly hung on.

Supporters say they provide a necessary alternative for tobacco farmers unable or unwilling to sign contracts or unhappy with prices offered by the companies at contract receiving stations.

About 400,000 pounds of tobacco were available last month on the opening sales day at the Danville warehouse, where Foy presided as auctioneer. Jerry Rankin, the warehouse operator, plans twice-weekly auctions for larger supplies of non-contract leaf. Rankin bought up some of the burley when bidding by leaf dealers was too low. Rankin bought it on speculation, hoping to sell it to tobacco companies or dealers. He expects all the leaf to wind up in cigarettes.

Total output in burley-production states is forecast at 211 million pounds this year, with Kentucky accounting for an expected 161 million pounds.

Some Kentucky farmers found out in the spring they had been dropped from production contracts, after buying tobacco plants and preparing ground, Rankin said. They went ahead with the crop, putting millions more pounds of leaf in the auction system at a time when demand and prices are depressed.

“These growers grew it in good faith and did a good job doing it, and they’re spinning their wheels,” Rankin said. “Some of them are going to go under.”

Other than Foy’s familiar chant, little else resembled opening days from the era when every bit of leaf went through the auction system.

Grim-faced growers watched their burley sell for paltry amounts — generally $1.25 or $1.30 a pound.

“It’s a sad day,” said farmer Leland Turner. “I never thought I’d see the time when tobacco would be so cheap.”

Prices improved slightly in follow-up sales at the Danville warehouse, to an average of $1.35 to $1.44 per pound, Rankin said. But that’s not nearly enough to cover expenses for the crop, unless farmers and their families did all the work themselves.

Years ago, the auctions signaled the promise of money filtering through small towns and big cities alike.

For farmers, it was the anticipation of a big pay day. If early prices were good enough, the payoff came right before Christmas. Bankers and merchants kept tabs on how high the bidding went.

There was no festive mood as this year’s sales opened at the Danville warehouse. An ag credit lending agency supplied doughnuts for the few dozen people on hand. Rankin gave a short speech, thanking the farmers for their business.

For some of the growers looking on, the end of the line was coming into focus.

Browning said he already decided this year’s crop would be his last. He has a factory job and used his tobacco income to pay property taxes, but he wasn’t sure he would get enough to cover the bill this year.

“You spend a lot of time on it for what little I get,” he said. “Instead of going on vacations with my wife, I’m hauling tobacco.”

Foy’s own schedule has slowed considerably. Years ago, he presided over tobacco sales for nine months out of the year across the eastern U.S. Now, he auctions tobacco only at a handful of warehouses in Kentucky. He estimates only a couple of auctioneers besides him remain.

“I don’t know that I’m the last of the breed,” he said. “But unless the industry changes, the ones that are tobacco auctioneers now, when we’re all dead and gone, there won’t be any more.”

The post Tobacco auction system is all but snuffed out appeared first on WTOP.

Sometimes, a recipe calls for melted marshmallows, but it does not always tell you how to melt them. This article will show you three different ways to melt marshmallows, and tell you what recipe you can use each method for.

Ingredients

Stove Top Melted Marshmallows^[1]

• 1 bag (16 ounces/453 grams) of marshmallows
• 4 tablespoons water
• shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring (optional)
• 3 – 4 cups (375 – 500 grams) powdered sugar (optional, for fondant)

Oven-Melted Marshmallows^[2]

• 15 large marshmallows, halved
• ½ tablespoon butter
• 1 ½ cups (265 grams) chocolate chips (optional)
• Graham cracker squares (optional)

Steps

Melting Marshmallows on a Stove Top

1. Assemble a double boiler. Fill the bottom of a large pot with water and set another pot on top. You can also use a heat-resistant bowl instead. Make sure that the bottom of the upper pot or bowl is not touching the water. The double boiler will allow you to melt the marshmallows slowly so that you can use them as a dip or in fondant.
   
2. Grease a rubber spatula and the inside of the upper pot. This will prevent the marshmallows from sticking to the pot and spatula as they melt.
   
3. Empty a bag of marshmallows into the pot. You will need a 16 ounce bag (about 400 grams) of marshmallows. You can use large marshmallows or miniature marshmallows, although you may find that the miniature marshmallows melt easier. You can even use colored or flavored marshmallows, but be sure that they are all the same color and flavor.
   • If you use multiple colors all at once, the colors will mix together and make brown. If you use different flavors all at once, the flavors will combine, and the ending result may not be very tasty.
     
4. Add two tablespoons of water to the marshmallows and stir. You will notice that the marshmallows are starting to melt.
   
5. Consider adding some flavor and color. If you are using white-colored marshmallows, you can tint them another color with a few drops of food coloring. If you wish to add flavor to your marshmallows, you can add one teaspoon of vanilla extract or flavoring. Make sure that the flavoring you are using is clear, or your marshmallows will take on the color of the extract: brown.^[3]
   
6. Turn on the stove and set the heat to "low." If you use high heat, you will risk scorching the marshmallows.^[4]
   
7. Stir the marshmallows and add some more water. Once the marshmallows begin to melt, add two more tablespoons of water. This is to prevent them from drying out. Make sure that you stir the mixture so that the marshmallows heat evenly. If you find that the marshmallows are starting to stick to your spatula, wipe them off and re-grease your spatula.
   
8. Consider using the marshmallows in a fondant. If you wish to use your melted marshmallows as a fondant, you will need to add some powdered sugar into the mixture.
   • Using a greased spatula, stir the sugar one cup (125 grams) at a time into the mixture. Once it thickens, place the mixture onto a well-greased surface and knead it. Make sure that your hands are well-greased as well; this will prevent the marshmallow mixture from sticking. Once the fondant reaches the desired texture, wrap it and place it in the fridge overnight. The next day, you can roll it out and use it for decorating.^[5]
     
   • The fondant will tear if it is too dry. If this happens, add ½ teaspoon of water and knead. Keep adding more water, ½ teaspoon at a time, and kneading until the fondant no longer tears.^[6]

Melting Marshmallows in the Oven

1. Place an eight-inch (20.32 centimeters) cast-iron skillet into your oven and preheat the oven to 450°F (232°C). You will need the skillet to be very hot before you can add the marshmallows, so leave the skillet in the oven while it is heating. This method will allow you to make a s'mores dip.
   
   • If you do not have a cast-iron skillet, you can use another, similar-sized oven-safe dish instead.
2. Cut the marshmallows in half. Set the marshmallows down on their (curved) sides, and cut them in half using a sharp knife. You should end up with a disk-shaped marshmallow. Set these aside.
   
3. Take the skillet out of the oven and set it down on a heat-resistant surface. Make sure that you use a pot holder, because the skillet will be very hot. Do not turn the oven off.
   
4. Melt some butter onto the skillet. You can simply hold the skillet by the handle and twist and turn it until the butter coats the entire surface. If you are not using a skillet, then you can spread the butter around on the surface using a heat-safe spatula instead.
   
5. Consider making a s'more dip. If you wish to make a s'more dip, you will need to add some chocolate. Measure out 1 ½ cups (265 grams) of chocolate chips and spread them out evenly on the bottom of the skillet.
   
6. Place the marshmallows, sticky-side down, onto the skillet. Arrange them so that they are touching each other. They should fit snugly inside the skillet. Be careful not to burn your fingers on the skillet!
   
7. Put the skillet back into the oven. Let the marshmallows bake for 5 to 7 minutes. The tops will turn golden-brown and crispy, but the insides will be soft and gooey.
   
   • If you want a crispy, fire-like texture, turn the broiler on during the last few minutes. Watch them carefully to avoid burning them.
8. Take the skillet out of the oven. Set it down on a heat-safe surface and let the dip cool for at about 5 minutes.
   
9. Serve the marshmallows. You can spread the marshmallows onto graham crackers, cake, or cupcakes using a butter knife. You can also break graham crackers in half or into quarters, and dip them into the melted marshmallows.
   

Melting Marshmallows with Fire

1. Start a camp fire or gas grill. If you are using a gas grill, set it on medium to high heat so that you will have some flames. You will be roasting the marshmallows over the flames, which will give you a nice, crunchy outside and a soft, gooey inside.
   
2. Place a large marshmallow on a skewer or stick. Make sure that the skewer or stick is long enough so that you can hold the marshmallow over the flames without scorching your hand. You can use a metal skewer, but make sure that the handle is heat-resistant so that you don't burn yourself. If you are using a long stick, consider shaving the end into a point; this will not only make it easier to impale the marshmallow onto it, but it will also lessen the changes of any tree bark getting into your marshmallow.
   
3. Place the marshmallow over the flames and turn it. Keep the marshmallow just above the flames and turn it slowly to ensure that it roasts evenly.
   
   • If your marshmallow catches on fire, do not wave it around. Instead, gently blow the flame out.
4. Remove the marshmallow from the flames once it is cooked. You can tell when your marshmallow is melted on the inside if the outside is golden brown and crispy to the touch.
   
   • If you like your marshmallows charred, hold it closer to the flames and keep roasting it.
   • This method is perfect for toasting a marshmallow for topping. For example, a marshmallow milkshake can have several roasted marshmallows incorporated into the mixture in the blender and one on top for garnish.
5. Consider serving the marshmallow as a s'more. Break a graham cracker in half and place a small piece of chocolate on one of the halves. Place the marshmallow (without pulling it off of the stick or skewer) on top of the chocolate, and press down on it with the other graham cracker. While still pressing down on the graham cracker, gently pull the stick or skewer out from the marshmallow. Wait a few moments before serving, so that the marshmallow can cool down and melt the chocolate.^[7]
   
   • Don’t forget to turn off your gas grill when all of your marshmallows have been roasted.

Tips

• Make sure that you are buttering your bowls, dishes, pans, spatulas, and hands. Melted marshmallows are sticky, and the butter will help prevent them from sticking to everything.

Warnings

• If using a campfire, be sure to practice proper safety. Keep the fire properly reined-in and have a bucket of water close by.
• Never leave your stove, oven, campfire, or grill unattended.
• Keep in mind that baking and cooking times vary depending on your equipment and altitude. Watch your melting marshmallows carefully to avoid burning or scorching.

Things You'll Need

• Double boiler (stove top method)
• 8-inch (20.32 centimeters) cast-iron skillet or oven-safe dish (oven method)
• Bowls
• Spatulas

Sources and Citations

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WASHINGTON — A fight in a Chesapeake, Virginia, eatery that left one man dead Dec. 28 reportedly started over the Redskins-Cowboys game, according to the victim’s fiancée.

Ronnie Cisko, 36, of Chesapeake is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Charles Lee Setchel, 48, of Chesapeake.

Robin Stewart, Setchel’s fiance, says Setchell and his group were cheering for the Cowboys. Cisko and his friends were cheering for the Redskins.

The two men started jabbing each other during the game, and the interaction escalated into a fight, Stewart tells NewsChannel 3.

Surveillance video from Zino’s Italian Restaurant shows Cisko striking Setchel in the throat. The medical examiner says Setchel died from a vertebral artery dissection.

See video of the fight.

Cisko will be in court later this month.

Follow @WTOP on Twitter and on WTOP Facebook page.

The post Fight over Redskins ends in death, fiancée says appeared first on WTOP.

A family from New Jersey had previously flown with their daughter, who is a stroke survivor in addition to being quadriplegic. While FAA regulations require kids over 2 to have their own seats, their daughter is the size of a 1-year-old and unable to sit up on her own. This led to a dispute between the family and a flight attendant that kept their plane grounded for an hour. Now the family wants an apology.

In a blog post about the incident, the girl’s mother explained their daughter’s travel restrictions, adding that they purchase a seat for her, as the regulations require, but she isn’t physically able to sit up in it. Her parents hold her on their laps, as they would for a smaller child. This hadn’t been a problem during past travels for the family, but one literal-minded flight attendant on a United Airlines flight from the Dominican Republic wouldn’t tolerate this alternate seating arrangement.

The remaining 3 flight attendants pleaded our case, in fact one was in tears, but this one attendant dug her heels in and wouldn’t budge. The other 3 attendants scoured the Flight Attendants’ Handbook and found a clause that stated that if a passenger was unable to sit independently they were allowed to sit on a lap. She had the opportunity to make a justifiable exception and chose not to.

My husband pleaded with her, my other 3 children were sobbing, my niece was sobbing, other passengers were getting involved yet this woman still displayed zero compassion. The end result occurred when my husband finally approached the pilot and asked for help coming up with a solution that worked for everyone.

This compromise involved the girl being buckled into a seat per the regulations during takeoff and landing, with part of her body lying in her father’s lap. Her mother told ABC News that the family doesn’t want money or flight vouchers: what they want is an apology from United for the way the flight attendant treated them.

Update: United Airlines has clarified the situation in a statement. The airline explains that the rest of the family had seats in business class, but the seat purchased for the daughter was in economy class, even though she wasn’t able to sit by herself. In a statement to ABC News, the airline said:

The parents, who were ticketed in first class, wanted to hold the child in their lap rather than have the child take the seat they’d purchased for her in economy. Federal safety regulations require any child over the age of two to have his or her own seat, and flight attendants are required by law to enforce that safety rule. As we did in this case, we will always try to work with customers on seating arrangements in the event of any special needs.

Each child having their own seat doesn’t count if the family has no plans to actually put the child in that seat.

Mom of Child With Special Needs Says Airline ‘Humiliated’ Family [ABC News]
United With Ivy [Tumblr]

When you’re a company that’s struggling not to lose customers and you’ve been trying to build yourself up to some semblance of your formal glory, everything matters and any negative news isn’t going to help. Sound the pity horn if you have one, because there’s yet more bad news for Sears: One of its suppliers is suing the company, saying Sears would “routinely and deliberately” cancel already placed orders and then refuse to accept delivery or pay up.

SCI Apparel, a children’s clothing company formerly known as Sprockets, is suing Sears Holding claiming that it’s owed about $4 million in clothing orders and another $750,000 for fixtures and signs, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The lawsuit claims that Sears would order stuff, then cancel the orders after they’d already been placed and the items had been produced and shipped. Sears would allegedly refuse delivery of those items, SCI claims.

SCI says it also let Sears withhold some of those payments as Sears was buying signs that were supposed to turn into a “store within a store” idea that would feature Sprockets clothing. But alas, that never came to pass, the lawsuit says, so SCI claims Sears owes a hefty chunk of change that it previously held back, $750,000.

An attorney for SCI says the incidents took place between 2010 and 2011, while a Sears spokesman didn’t comment on pending litigation.

Sears has lost money for 10 straight quarters, including $1.5 billion it just leaked in the 39 months leading up to Nov. 1. It’s been closing hundreds of Sears and Kmart stores as it tries to turn its rapidly sinking ship of a company around.

Clothing company sues Sears, says it wasn’t paid for orders [Chicago Tribune]

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — In a story Dec. 31 about a fatal shooting at an Idaho Wal-Mart, The Associated Press erroneously reported the victim’s name in one reference in the story. She was Veronica Rutledge, not Victoria Rutledge.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Boy in shooting ‘unzipped’ special purse gun pocket

Idaho mother accidentally shot by 2-year-old son after he unzipped gun pocket, family says

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Concealed weapons are part of everyday life in Idaho, and that’s unlikely to change in the Mountain West state despite a shocking accident in which a 2-year-old boy reached into his mother’s purse, got ahold of her gun and shot her in the head inside a Wal-Mart.

Veronica J. Rutledge, 29, was shopping Tuesday morning with her son and three nieces in Hayden, Idaho, when the small-caliber handgun discharged one time, killing her.

Terry Rutledge, Veronica’s father-in-law, told The Spokesman-Review that the boy unzipped the special gun compartment in the woman’s purse where the weapon was kept while she was looking at clothing.

Terry Rutledge said his daughter-in-law did not put the weapon “loosely into her purse.”

Veronica Rutledge had a concealed weapons permit, and guns were a big part of Rutledge’s life, her father-in-law said.

“She was not the least bit irresponsible,” Terry Rutledge said in a brief interview with The Associated Press. He complained about people using the incident to attack his daughter-in-law.

Meanwhile, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday afternoon released a few more details about the incident. The boy removed the 9mm semi-automatic handgun from his mother’s purse and shot her once in the head, killing her instantly, the sheriff’s office said.

The manager of the store, who was nearby when the shot was fired, stepped in and took the firearm from the child, the sheriff’s office said. The manager and other employees secured the scene and evacuated customers.

The woman’s purse was new and was designed to carry a concealed firearm, the sheriff’s office said. Detectives continue to analyze video from the store, examine the weapon and interview witnesses, the sheriff’s office added.

Terry Rutledge told The Washington Post that Veronica Rutledge and her husband practiced at shooting ranges and each had a concealed weapons permit. He said for Christmas this year, her husband gave her the purse with a special zippered pocket for a concealed weapon.

About 7 percent of adults in Idaho had concealed weapons permits at the end of 2012, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. That ranked Idaho among the top third of states.

Kootenai County, which has about 140,000 residents, has issued close to 16,000 concealed weapons permits, Kootenai County sheriff’s spokesman Stu Miller said Wednesday.

“It’s very commonplace in northern Idaho for folks to have a concealed weapons permit,” Miller said, and most businesses do not prohibit firearms.

Veronica Rutledge lived in Blackfoot, in southeastern Idaho, and her family had come to the Hayden area to visit relatives for Christmas.

She was an employee of the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho, where she was a nuclear scientist. The laboratory supports the U.S. Department of Energy in nuclear and energy research and national defense.

“We’re deeply saddened by this tragedy,” said Nicole Stricker, a spokeswoman for the lab.

Rutledge graduated from high school in Harrison, a lakeside town in the Idaho Panhandle. She was the valedictorian of her class. She graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in chemistry.

She had taken the children to Wal-Mart on Tuesday morning to spend their Christmas gift cards, family members said. Her young son, her only child, was in a shopping cart.

Responding deputies found Rutledge dead in the electronics section of the Wal-Mart in Hayden, a rural town of about 12,000 people 40 miles northeast of Spokane.

Colt Rutledge, 32, arrived at the store in Idaho’s northern panhandle shortly after the shooting around 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, Miller said. All the children were taken to a relative’s house.

Officers viewed surveillance video provided by the store to determine what happened, Miller said.

Like other Western states, gun rights are a big issue in Idaho. State lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year allowing concealed weapons on the state’s public college and university campuses. Despite facing opposition from all eight of the state’s university college presidents, lawmakers sided with gun-rights advocates who said the law would better uphold the Second Amendment.

Terry Rutledge told the AP that his daughter-in-law “was a beautiful, young, loving mother.”

“She was taken much too soon,” he said.

The post Correction: Wal-Mart Shooting-Idaho story appeared first on WTOP.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The public is getting its first glimpse of a four-day-old baby gorilla at the San Diego Zoo.

The still-unnamed male was born Dec. 26 to mother Jessica and father Paul Donn.

Visitors to the zoo on Tuesday were able to see the newborn when Jessica brought him to a glass-enclosed viewing area. Zookeepers say she has been cradling and nursing the baby, who weighs just a few pounds.

She also carries the little one around as she forages for food.

Jessica has five other offspring, but this is her first with Paul Donn, who is a now four-time father.

The post Baby gorilla makes public debut at San Diego Zoo appeared first on WTOP.

CHICAGO (AP) — A wall at a Morton Salt storage facility has collapsed, burying several cars at a next door auto dealership in road salt.

Company spokeswoman Denise Lauer says a side wall broke Tuesday afternoon on Chicago’s northwest side, spilling road salt outside the facility and onto the neighboring property. Morton Salt Inc. is a 100-year-old company based in Chicago best known for its pourable table salt.

No injuries were reported.

Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford says the collapse happened around 2 p.m. He says several cars are buried in salt. He says city engineers will look at the building’s structural integrity.

Chicago police spokesman Thomas Sweeney says officers responded to a call about the collapse. He did not have further details.

The post Cars buried in salt after Morton storage collapse appeared first on WTOP.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say the pastor of a central Florida church shot and wounded an employee during a gunfight after the employee learned he was being fired.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that Living Water Fellowship Church Pastor Terry Howell had been meeting with maintenance worker Benjamin Parangan Tuesday to terminate Parangan’s employment with the Kissimmee church.

Witnesses say Parangan pulled out a handgun and fired multiple shots at Howell. He wasn’t hurt but returned fire with his own weapon and hit Parangan.

Officials say Parangan was listed in stable condition at a hospital.

Deputies are investigating the shooting as a case of self-defense. Authorities say charges are pending against Parangan.

Earlier this month, Pastor James “Tripp” Battle was fatally shot at his Bradenton church.

The post Florida pastor shoots armed former employee appeared first on WTOP.

HAYDEN, Idaho (AP) — Authorities: It’s unclear if woman fatally shot by 2-year-old in Idaho Wal-Mart is boy’s mom.

The post Authorities: It’s unclear if woman fatally shot by 2-year-old in Idaho Wal-Mart is boy’s mom appeared first on WTOP.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former TV pitchman in Utah accused of kicking an owl as he rode a motorized paraglider said Tuesday he will allow authorities to search his home for guns.

During a court hearing, Dell “Super Dell” Schanze called the inspection unconstitutional and said he feels exposed without weapons his lawyer said have now been removed from his home.

Federal Judge Brooke Wells told Schanze the routine search is legal, and he could be arrested if he doesn’t allow agents into his home as scheduled Wednesday.

Schanze agreed to give up the weapons during a court appearance earlier this month, but authorities said he hasn’t returned phone calls from agents trying to make sure he doesn’t have guns at his house.

The 45-year-old Schanze is known in Utah for his over-the-top personal style and the shrill, hyperactive TV commercials that advertised his now-shuttered Totally Awesome Computers retail chain.

Schanze arrived about five minutes late to the hearing on Tuesday and wore a pair of black sunglasses throughout the proceedings.

Schanze adamantly denied ignoring calls to schedule the search.

“Call me and see if my phone rings,” he said. “I called back every single time.”

Judge Wells reminded him of his first appearance in the case earlier this month, when he was handcuffed after interrupting a hearing in a separate case and loudly saying it was unconstitutional to bar the defendant from having guns.

Schanze was eventually released after he agreed to several conditions, including a prohibition on possessing weapons, a common requirement in such matters.

“You remember what happened last time when you wouldn’t be quiet? It could happen again,” Wells told him in court Tuesday. She ordered Schanze to appear in court again on Jan. 8 if he doesn’t allow the search.

Defense attorney Kent Hart said guns have been removed, even though Schanze said in court he needs the weapons because a human head had once been thrown through a window at his home. Schanze declined to elaborate after the hearing.

Police near his home in Utah County said they had no report of such an incident.

Schanze has pleaded not guilty to charges involving harassing wildlife and pursuing a migratory bird.

The charges came after a federal investigation into an online video that surfaced last year and appeared to show a paraglider kicking a soaring owl and boasting about it. Schanze says the video was a fake.

The post TV pitchman accused of kicking owl OKs gun search appeared first on WTOP.

DOVER, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man walked into his wife’s hospital room early Tuesday, fatally shot her then killed himself, a murder-suicide that he foretold in a candid and emotional Facebook posting to friends and family.

Authorities did not identify the man. But Dorcas Lavoie told The Associated Press that her brother, Mark A. Lavoie, shot his wife, Katherine, “out of love” before killing himself at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover.

“They both loved each other very much,” she said, declining to comment further.

Police got a 911 call at 6:03 a.m. reporting gunshots at the hospital near the state’s seacoast. They found a man and a woman dead in a private room in the critical care unit. Assistant Attorney General Jay McCormack did not answer specific questions, saying the killings were still under investigation. He said the victims’ identities would be released after family was notified.

In a 5:59 a.m. posting on what appears to be Mark Lavoie’s Facebook page, he said his 49-year-old wife had suffered for years.

“I want to start off by saying this is going to be officially ruled a murder/suicide when in all actuality it is a double suicide,” the Facebook post reads. “My baby was trying to escape the bi-polar demons that have been swirling around in her brain since childhood and now because of my selfishness in dialing 911 she is experiencing the only thing she feared more than her illness … life support on a respirator.”

Friends wrote back, some pleading with Lavoie, who was 50, not to follow through. Within hours, the responses turned to shock, grief and solace for Lavoie’s family.

At an afternoon news conference, hospital President and CEO Greg Walker said that a “very sad and horrific event took place.” Walker said visitors in the critical care unit are restricted to small numbers of family members and the hospital has a policy banning firearms.

The 178-bed hospital remained open after the shooting and Walker said services were not affected by the shooting. Counselors were being made available for staff, patients and visitors.

In Lavoie’s posting, he instructed friends and family that everything he owns and his 401(k) should go to two people. He asks that friends take care of the couple’s pets and use money in his bank accounts to pay for funeral services, including organ donation and cremation.

“I don’t care what is done with the ashes but I know Kathy loves Damariscotta Lake,” he wrote.

He also tried to explain his actions.

“Though a difficult subject I hope my family whom I love dearly can make some sense of what I’m doing though unless you have dealt directly with mental illness,” it will be difficult, he wrote.

He closes with: “Well in all the years I’ve been on FB I never was one for posting any drama. … I was due one. Love you all, peace out.”

The post Sister: Hospital gunman shot wife ‘out of love’ appeared first on WTOP.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sixteen state firefighters were placed on paid administrative leave for unrelated policy violations that grew out of an investigation into allegations of firefighters having sex on fire trucks, officials said.

The investigation began in May after Orville Fleming, fire academy instructor and battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, was charged with murder in the death of a former escort who became his girlfriend.

Fleming’s estranged wife told Sacramento County sheriff’s investigators and reporters then that she had viewed a video showing the victim, Sarah June Douglas, 26, having sex with her husband and other firefighters on fire trucks.

“The investigation has already determined that allegations of a sex tape are unfounded,” CalFire spokeswoman Janet Upton said. There also was no use of prostitutes or other improper sexual activity on state time or equipment, she said.

Sacramento County deputies previously said they never found a video, but CalFire asked the California Highway Patrol to investigate because of the seriousness of the allegations. The formal results of the investigation are expected early next month.

Upton said the firefighters were placed on paid leave on suspicion of “a variety of policy violations unrelated to allegations of a sex tape.” Further details were not disclosed.

The majority of the employees are or were full-time instructors at the department’s fire academy in Ione, where Fleming worked, 40 miles southeast of Sacramento, she said.

Highway Patrol spokeswoman Fran Clader said she would not comment, referring inquiries to CalFire.

Mike Lopez, president of the union representing department employees, and union spokesman Terry McHale both said they were given no details on the allegations faced by the suspended firefighters.

“If there are employees who broke protocols or procedures with academy or department policies, that’s a very sad situation that nobody’s proud of,” Lopez said.

Without knowing the particulars, it is too soon to know if the union would help employees with any appeals of their pending discipline, he said.

Fleming’s estranged wife, Meagan Fleming, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Orville Fleming was arrested following a two-week manhunt after Douglas’ body was discovered in the home they shared. Fleming is next scheduled to appear in court in March. He has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge.

His attorney, Peter Kmeto, said he was aware of Meagan Fleming’s comments but he never found a sex tape as part of his investigation, and Monday’s developments will have no bearing on the criminal case.

The post 16 firefighters on leave after sex-tape inquiry appeared first on WTOP.

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore Ravens’ security director is accused of groping a woman and pressing up against her at the team’s stadium after a December game, according to police and court documents obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Charging documents filed in Baltimore City District Court said 48-year-old Darren Sanders also is accused of kissing the 34-year-old woman’s neck and attempting to force her to grab his genitals.

Ravens senior vice president Kevin Byrne said Wednesday that Sanders has been placed on paid leave, per the NFL’s personal conduct policy. He isn’t with the team and won’t travel to Pittsburgh for the Ravens’ playoff game Saturday night.

Sanders’ lawyers say he denies the allegations.

Sanders had a role in the domestic violence case involving former Ravens running back Ray Rice, who is pursuing a grievance against the team over his release for hitting his then-fiancee in a casino elevator in Atlantic City. Sanders launched the team’s investigation of the incident, and Rice’s grievance centers on how much the Ravens knew about the situation while the team decided how to punish the player. Rice is seeking to recoup back pay beyond his initial two-game suspension.

A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press the grievance hearing will be held Jan. 15 and 16. The person spoke to the AP on Wednesday night on condition of anonymity because the dates haven’t been announced.

The woman worked in security at M&T Bank Stadium and was asked to escort Sanders to his vehicle outside the stadium the same day the Ravens beat the Jaguars on Dec. 14, court and police documents said. Police were called and interviewed the woman several hours after the game ended.

A police incident report said the woman said Sanders made several comments to her while they walked together, that he’d seen here around and she “looked very pretty.” The woman said he then grabbed her breasts and touched her buttocks, the report said.

“He hit and/or groped her buttocks more than once as they walked down the third level hallway,” the woman told Baltimore police Sgt. Kerry Snead, who outlined the accusations in court documents.

The documents said after the grabbing and other advances, the woman told Sanders to get away from her and walked away, then told several co-workers what had happened. A witness also saw part of their interaction, the documents said.

A hearing is set for Feb. 9.

“We are investigating this case thoroughly,” Byrne said Wednesday.

Byrne said the woman is not a team employee. The Associated Press does not generally identify people who make allegations of sex crimes.

The charge against Sanders lists his address as that of the Ravens’ team headquarters in Owings Mills. Normally, defendants in a criminal case are required to list a home address.

Sanders’ lawyers said he did nothing wrong.

“He is innocent and looks forward to his day in court,” the firm of Alperstein & Diener said in a statement.

“Mr. Sanders has worked his entire career to keep others safe as a police officer and as a detective with the Baltimore City Police Department and currently as the senior security director for the Baltimore Ravens,” the statement said. “He is a man who possesses tremendous integrity, and he has worked to ensure public safety by protecting the health, welfare and security of the community.”

A spokesman for the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office on Wednesday declined comment, saying the office does not comment on active cases.

In Maryland, a fourth-degree sex offense is the lowest level of such a charge. It’s punishable by a maximum one year in jail and a fine of $1,000.

News of the summons was first reported by the Baltimore Sun.

This year, Sanders launched the Rice investigation after being told by a police officer details of a video that showed Rice hitting his then-fiancee in an elevator.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said in a news conference in September that the officer described the scene from video inside the casino to Sanders, who relayed the information to other team officials, including coach John Harbaugh and general manager Ozzie Newsome.

Sanders’ first year as a full-time employee with the Ravens was 2004.

In 2004, Sanders was charged with bringing a concealed pistol into an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament game in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was shot in the hip when the gun accidentally fired. Sanders, identified in archived accounts of the incident as an off-duty Baltimore police detective, was working at the game as a bodyguard for Bisciotti.

Sanders pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed gun, Guilford County clerk of court Lisa Johnson-Tonkins said. He received a prayer for judgment and was ordered to pay court costs. In North Carolina, a prayer for judgment generally is considered a conviction without a sentence imposed.

__

Associated Press Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi and AP writers Amanda Lee Myers in Washington and Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

___

Online: AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL

The post Ravens security head accused of groping at stadium appeared first on WTOP.

BALTIMORE (AP) — The security director of the Baltimore Ravens was charged Tuesday night with a sex offense and is due in court in February, according to court records.

Darren Sanders, 48, was charged with fourth-degree sexual offense, related to an incident that occurred Dec. 14, according to online court records for Baltimore City District Court.

The charge against Sanders lists his address as that of the Ravens’ team headquarters in Owings Mills, Maryland. Normally, defendants in a criminal case are required to list a home address.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 9.

The record did not give more specifics on the charge or other details about the case. A spokesman for the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office on Wednesday declined to discuss the basis for the charge, saying the office does not comment on active cases.

A Baltimore police spokesman did not immediately respond to multiple requests about the case Wednesday.

News of the summons was first reported by the Baltimore Sun.

The Ravens did not immediately return several texts and phone calls from The Associated Press.

But Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne told the Sun in a statement, “We are aware of the situation and have been investigating thoroughly.”

Sanders’ lawyer, Andrew Alperstein told the Sun the charges were “totally fabricated, made up.”

This year, Sanders helped lead the Ravens’ investigation into the Ray Rice domestic violence case.

In 2004, Sanders was charged with bringing a concealed pistol into an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament game in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was shot in the hip when the gun accidentally fired. Sanders, identified in archived accounts of the incident as an off-duty Baltimore police detective, was working at the game as a bodyguard for Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti.

It’s unclear whether Sanders was convicted of the charge against him.

The post Ravens security director charged with sex offense appeared first on WTOP.

A couple visiting Asheville, North Carolina were hanging out in the hotel bar when they approached a petite young lady and invited her to come home with them. No, this story isn’t quite what it sounds like: that young lady was a four-year-old homeless dog wearing an “Adopt Me” vest, and at this particular hotel, dogs available for adoption greet guests and even mingle with bar patrons.

The hotel already had special appeal for animal lovers, allowing customers to bring their pets for no additional fee. The doggie greeters are a new amenity, part of a partnership between the hotel and a local dog rescue. There’s one hound-in-residence at a time, and it can also visit other parts of the building on a leash. Guests cannot bring the dogs to their rooms, but they do like being able to borrow a friend to visit the rooftop terrace or the restaurant with.

Since the program started, fourteen of the rescue dogs in residence have been adopted by hotel guests and people who live in the community. Dog number 14 is in the photo above, and her name is Ember. She’s been adopted already.

North Carolina hotel welcomes you with open arms and dogs to adopt [AP]

2014 has been a year of point-of-sale data breaches, so why should the last day of the year be any different? Chick-Fil-A is the newest member of the Possible Breach Club, and is currently investigating reports of fraudulent transactions on customer credit cards. The reported breach would have started on December 2, 2013 and lasted until September 30, 2014.

One bank employee who contacted the ever-vigilant blog Krebs on Security reports that more than nine thousand of their employer’s cards were part of this breach. More than 9,000 of its customers’ cards are part of this particular batch when the card numbers went on the market. For this particular bank, that meant more compromised cards than were affected during last year’s holiday season payment breach at Target. That may be an indication that the bank has a lot of customers who enjoy delicious fried chicken, but also the result of this being a very, very long breach.

Chick-Fil-A representatives said that they have received reports of customer payment cards used at their stores that have been used in fraudulent transactions, and they are investigating those reports. The company hasn’t confirmed that there was a breach or provided a list of locations. Banking sources told Brian Krebs that breached cards were used at Chick-Fil-A locations nationwide, but seemed to be concentrated in only a few states. In case you want to start checking your card statements early, those states were Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.

Here’s part of the statement that the company issued addressing the breach:

Chick-fil-A recently received reports of potential unusual activity involving payment cards used at a few of our restaurants. We take our obligation to protect customer information seriously, and we are working with leading IT security firms, law enforcement and our payment industry contacts to determine all of the facts.

Banks: Card Breach at Some Chick-fil-A’s [Krebs on Security]

Fairfax County Animal Watch Washington Post No incidents were reported by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. FAIRFAX CITY. The following incidents were reported by the animal control section of the Fairfax City Police Department.

Everyone knows that at midnight tonight in the Eastern time zone, there will be a giant ball dropping in the middle of New York City’s Time Square. And while other cities all over the world have adopted the ball drop as a sign of the new year replacing the old, there are some towns in our fair country where a humdrum sphere simply has no place.

The New Year’s Eve ball drop first went down in NYC in 1906, according to the Times Square Alliance, two years after the New York Times had just convinced the city it was cool to name the area in front of its new headquarters “Times Square” and start celebrating New Year’s there in 1904.

The city banned fireworks in 1906, so the Times changed its celebratory evening to feature a 700-pound iron and wood ball getting lowered down a pole.

Many imitations followed, with balls staying quite popular as dropping objects, but we’ve got to say that some are better than others. Also? People in Pennsylvania and North Carolina are really down to get weird. Here’s a round-up of some other objects you can find falling from the sky tonight:

• Beavertown, PA: Drops a beaver, of course.

• A seven-foot-tall Hershey’s Kiss drops three stories in the town of Hershey, PA.

• Bethlehem, PA: A 100-pound yellow illuminated Peep made from fiberglass drops (the town is the home of the Just Born factory).

• West Fairview, PA is lowering a giant, seven-foot-tall nail replica weighing 50 pounds, while elsewhere in weird Pennsylvania, yellow pants will be dropping in Lower Allen Township (home of the Yellow Breeches), a large strawberry in Harrisburg and a giant bologna in Lebanon.

• Port Clinton, OH: A walleye fish named “Captain Wylie Walleye” is dropped at midnight to the delight of those watching.

• The Big Cheese Drop in Plymouth, WI sounds fitting: 50-pound wedge of cheese is decorated festively and lowered from a fire truck ladder at midnight.

• The Possum Drop in Brasstown, N.C., is in its 21st year, but this year’s event will not feature the usual live possum lowered in a ox. Instead, a toy roadkill opossum or other stand-in in will be dropped.

• Eastover, N.C. drops a three-foot tall, 30-pound wooden flea.

• Vincennes, IN drops an 18-foot, 500-pound steel-and-foam watermelon at midnight that will release a load of 12 locally-grown melons to a “splatform” set up below.

• A muskrat wearing a top hat and bow tie named Marshall P. Muskrat gets dropped in Princess Anne, MD.

• Mobile, AL drops a 600-pound lit Moon Pie.

• Boise, ID drops a car-sized potato and the world expects nothing less.

• The Crab Drop in Easton, M.D. features a 6-foot-wide crab sculpture lowered at midnight — also at 9 p.m. first for those who don’t want to stay up.

2014 was a record-setting year in an enormous variety of ways, both good and bad. As we wrap up and head into 2015, here’s a look at what happened, and what we learned, in the 2014 that was.

Hacks, Breaches, and Bad Security

There have been 761 data breaches reported in 2014 so far (PDF).

Over 60 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen in point-of-sale retail hacks:

• 56 million from Home Depot
• 2.6 million from Michaels
• 1.16 million from Staples
• Unknown numbers from: Bebe, Kmart, Dairy Queen, Jimmy John’s, P.F. Chang’s, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, ACME, Albertson’s, and plenty of others.

Disaster at Sony:

• 47,000: The number of Sony employees whose personal data — including SSNs, salary, and even medical histories — was stolen and set loose on the internet.
• 25: days between when Sony found out it was hacked and when the feds officially blamed North Korea for doing it.
• $6: what Sony charged to view The Interview online after they pulled it from theaters.
• $15 million: what Sony earned in the virtual box office for The Interview during its first weekend of online release.

Cars and Recalls

60 million vehicles were recalled in the U.S. this year, shattering the previous annual record of 30.8 million set ten years ago, in 2004. Almost half of them came from just one company.

General Motors:

• 26.9 million: General Motors vehicles recalled in the U.S. this year
• 23 million: Total number of GM vehicles sold in the U.S. since 2006
• 11 million: GM recalls related in some way to faulty ignition switches
• 13 years: How long GM knew there was a problem with their ignition switches and ignored it
• $35 million: Fine GM paid for screwing up the recall, the maximum legally possible at the time
• 42: Number of death claims currently acknowledged by GM due to the ignition switch defect so far

Explosive Takata airbags:

• 14 million: total number of cars recalled so far in the U.S. due to faulty Takata airbags
• 2003: The first year Takata knew there might be something wrong with their airbags
• 2009: The first year any of the airbags were recalled
• 11: Carmakers that used the defective airbags, including Honda, Toyota, BMW, Nissan, Chrysler, Mazda, Ford, GM, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Isuzu.
• 8: Airbag-related deaths Honda never reported to regulators

The Internet, and Everything On It

It’s been a crazy huge year for changes in tech policy and the digital landscape. From mergers to mobile to arcane details of regulation, they’re all related when it comes to the impact on consumers.

Comcast:

• $45 billion: The amount Comcast plans to spend on buying Time Warner Cable
• 33 million: The number of customers Comcast would have after merging with TWC
• 20 million: The number of subscribers the second-largest pay TV company, DirecTV, has
• 4 million: The number of subscribers Cox, the next-largest cable company after Comcast and TWC, has
• 79%: The percentage of U.S. residents who will be subject to broadband data caps if the merger goes through

Competition:

• 56%: The percentage of U.S. residents who can choose among 3 or more internet (3 Mbps) providers
• 9%: The percentage of U.S. residents who can choose among 3 or more options for actual high-speed (25 Mbps) internet
• 3%: The percentage of U.S. residents who can get gigabit broadband service at all
• 2000%: How many times more expensive mobile data is to use than wired broadband for streaming video

Net neutrality:

• 3.9 million: The record-breaking number of comments the FCC received from the public about net neutrality
• 1 (one): Sitting U.S. president who asked the FCC to use Title II
• 100%: The chance that one or more ISPs will again sue the FCC over any regulation they enact

 

The High Cost of Higher Ed

Student debt:

• 63%: Of graduates finish college with outstanding student loans
• $28,400: Average loan debt burden of a recent graduate
• 48%: Percentage of current students who actually have no idea what their college education costs
• 40 million: Number of consumers with open student loans

Corinthian’s collapse:

• 72,000: Students currently enrolled at Corinthian-owned colleges
• $569 million: Value of predatory loans Corinthian should repay to students, according to a federal lawsuit
• 97: Corinthian-owned campuses being spun off or shut down
• 56: Of those Corinthian-owned campuses being sold to a loan servicer
• $1.2 billion: The amount of federal student loan dollars the government may have to eat if Corinthian fully folds
• 14: Attorneys general trying to get a watchdog group going to oversee for-profit colleges

It’s been a bad year for Comcast’s customer service image — probably not what the company wants to hear when it’s trying to convince federal regulators to let it swallow up millions of Time Warner Cable customers — and while many consumers are taking this week off from work, the folks at Kabletown know that bad service doesn’t take a holiday.

The latest customer service debacle comes to us via the above YouTube clip, in which a Comcast customer tries to figure out why he’s not getting the broadband package he was promised only months earlier.

See, after a few months of getting Comcast’s high-speed “Blast” service for the promotional price of around $50, the customer’s bill began to rise. When he called Comcast the other day, a rep told him that the $50 price was only good for three months and she doesn’t know where the “miscommunication” was that led him to believe that this price was intended to last a full year.

But the customer wasn’t imagining things and didn’t mishear the offer. How do we know? Because he has a recording of the call he made in August where the rep clearly and repeatedly states the $50 price is good for 12 months and does not require him to re-up his contract.

When he offers to play this recording to the rep trying to give him the bad news, he’s told that the only thing that the recording is only useful as something she could pass on to her supervisor “for coaching” purposes.

“So you’re telling me your company doesn’t stand by what they tell their customers when they’re trying to get them to sign up again?” he asks while the rep tries to say “no.”

“You said ‘I understand that she told you 12 months’ and ‘I understand that you’re saying you have a recording…’ but you’re not going to honor it because you don’t stand by your word?” the customer implores.

“I would honor if that was something that I had in front of me,” responds the rep, who claims that she is the highest-level person he can speak to and that she has access to all available promotional offers, but laments that, “Unfortunately, I do not have that promotion right now.”

After the rep explains that she can go back and tweak the dates so as to remove the most recent month’s over-charge, the customer suggests that they just go the full year and then he’ll call back at the end of that time and have the over-charges reversed then for the remaining months.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that,” says the rep.

That’s when things get really sore, as the rep tries to sell the customer on the value of paying full-price for Blast service.

Then she offers him a promotion that would be for half the speed of what he was getting at the same price as he was paying.

But of course, Comcast has charged the customer a different price each month since he first began the service, so it’s impossible to pin down exactly what he’s being offered.

“You’re doing the exact same thing as the last person,” he points out to the rep when she tries to negotiate a year of different promotional pricing. “I’ve never gotten a contract in the mail saying that I had this new price. What the hell are you going to send me? It’s just your word, and you obviously don’t honor what other people say.”

She then says that they send customers the contract “via e-mail, usually.”

“So I should have a contract from the last one?” he challenges.

A hesitant rep replies, “This one I can send to you. I wasn’t the last person you talked to, so I don’t know who the last person you talked to was.”

On Reddit, the customer provides an update, saying that he spoke to someone from Comcast Executive Customer Relations who refused to allow him to record the call.

However, this rep did send him an e-mail saying the call couldn’t be recorded “due to the nature of the reasons or possible intent that you may have for the recording,” like, for example, wanting a concrete record of what someone from Comcast tells you.

This rep says that, after listening to the “original and unedited version of your initial call,” (funny how the previous rep said she had no record of who he’d talked to back in August), that the customer had been given the “correct information on the service plan and promotional services at the time.”

The rep explains that the promotional pricing was for the entire pay-TV and broadband package, but that the upgrade to Blast Internet was only good through October.

“We have extended this promotional offer as a gesture of good will for an additional 12 months as long as you understand that at the end of that term if you wish to keep it, it will be billed at its standard rate,” reads the message from the rep.

The customer maintains that he was promised a year of the high-speed Blast service for a full 12 months and believes that while Comcast isn’t “accepting responsibility for anything, but they are offering me something.”

He’s asked Comcast to clarify that he will receive “100mbps down, 25mbps up” service at a monthly total of $53.85 and is currently waiting for a response.

When reached for comment by Consumerist, a Comcast rep said, “This certainly isn’t the type of experience we want our customers to have. We have reached out to the customer and are continuing to look into this.”

Recently here at Consumerist, we’ve reviewed some very unsuccessful ways to open up ATMs and get at the money inside. Smashing the machine with a forklift, for example, is not a useful method. Neither is pouring acid on it. Now we have a new addition to the list: you also cannot gain access to money inside a cash machine with an explosive.

The culprit in a recent attempted cash removal in Australia didn’t manage to steal any money, but he did knock himself backwards out of his sandals. This serves as yet another argument why flip-flops should never be worn outside of public showers and beaches.

Fortunately, the suspect wasn’t seriously injured, but the ATM was heavily damaged. Police believe that the man captured on film is also a suspect in a similar attempted ATM explosion in a nearby city on December 24th.

“In relation to sophistication it wasn’t something that was done by somebody who had expertise,” a police officer told media. Police believe that the suspect used some kind of gas to detonate the ATM, but only succeeded in destroying the electronics.

ATM explosion attempt backfires in Darwin [Sydney Morning Herald] (Warning: auto-play video)
Darwin ATM theft attempt backfires as masked man is knocked backwards by explosion [ABC]

Santa is not real, and neither are his elves. If you’re old enough to be on the Internet unsupervised, you probably already knew that. However, there are real-life people who fill in for the toy-manufacturing elves, the North Pole, and the flying reindeer. One part of that supply chain is at the Amazon warehouses where our stuff resides. Working there is not fun or easy.

Our semi-estranged ex-sibling site Gawker regularly puts out calls for people to talk about their jobs, and one reader who spent the holidays temping in an Amazon warehouse answered the call. You can read his surprisingly cheerful dispatches that began on December 3rd and ended yesterday over at Gawker. Here are a few quick takes on what is allegedly Amazon’s second-largest warehouse.

On scheduling: “Mandatory 60 hour weeks for the next two weeks. I forget, I think you have to work a minimum number of shifts before you can even THINK about asking for a day off.”

On the carrot of Amazon employment: “This man hints at saying that some people may have a chance at becoming an Amazon hire. He doesn’t really even say that. It’s well worded. But ultimately if we want to become a ‘success story,’ we have to really get out there and ‘give it our all!’ It’s like I’m in some elimination reality show all of sudden.”

On family: “I hate that I’m leaving my dog for 12-14 hours a day.”

On co-workers: “[T]hey do hire just about anyone…It’s all freaks and misfits, again, myself included.”

In all, the warehouse worker declares, it’s “a damn hard-earned $2,000.”

Christmas at Amazon: One Man’s Story [Gawker]

There are fascinating horrors hiding in letters from the Food and Drug Administration to the food, drug, and cosmetic companies that it regulates. One letter that we wish we could un-read is directed to New Yung Wah Trading Company, a Brooklyn-based company that supplies Chinese restaurants all over the East Coast. The results of multiple inspections of their warehouse near Pittsburgh were frightening to potential diners…at least, those of us who prefer our food to have as little rat urine as possible.

The letter describes inspections performed in October, but wasn’t sent until December 9 and was made public this week. Here are a few items out of the letter’s catalog of horror:

A box of “rib meat” (animal unnamed) that was set on top of a box of melons to thaw. The box of meat contained an “apparent active rodent nest containing multiple rodents,” which sounds very cozy for the rodents but maybe not so much for people who were planning to eat the meat. Or the melons.

Rodent carcasses throughout the building, during the October 15th inspection and a repeat inspection on October 20th.

Birds flapping around the warehouse and defecating on food items, which rarely ends well. Specifically, it ends in salmonella contamination.

Nesting material and rodent poop in a case of pineapples.

More rodent “excreta” in a walk-in cooler, and rodent gnaw holes and even more leavings contaminating bags of flour and of monosodium glutamate.

Insufficient plumbing in different parts of the facility created pools of standing water and even “marshy soil” indoors, which creates a fine hiding place for some pests.

Workers were spotted smoking while preparing food products for distribution.

When AOL’s DailyFinance site contacted the company, they didn’t respond. The distributor’s website has also mysteriously disappeared.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen: The former ruler of wide swaths of parking lot as the world’s largest mall when it was built in 1976, Randall Park Mall near Cleveland, has been dead for years. But the final nail in the coffin comes this week as the building undergoes the final demolition from which no mall can return.

Tumbling from its throne as the ruler of all the pavement it could see, Randall Park will soon be reduced to dust after demolition started yesterday, reports CNNMoney.

The mall was touted as the largest of its kind way back when, but has gone the way of many formerly busy malls, slipping into disrepair and decline until finally shutting its doors for good in 2009.

“I remember walking through it and feeling overwhelmed by the memories, most of which were good ones,” said Seph Lawless, a photographer who included the mall in his book of fallen malls, Black Friday, told CNN.

“I mean, this wasn’t just a place to shop, it was a place people went to talk and meet other people. We didn’t have social media or smartphones. We had malls and it was what we did.”

The land the mall sat on will be turned into an industrial park, reports Cleveland.com, to be haunted by the ghosts of tweens seeking an Orange Julius forevermore.

What do you think of when you think of White Castle? If it’s “steamed meat,” you’re not alone. Thus, friends, we can get through this together: In a direct challenge to those who thought they knew a little something about White Castle, the home of the steamed meat slider has gone ahead and added veggie burgers to the menu.

Not that there isn’t enough room on the menu to share — in fact, I’d like to be the first to welcome my vegetarian brethren into the warm, slightly damp embrace of a White Castle slider. Because why should meat heads have all the Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle inside jokes and Crave Case case races (you’ll have to ask my college self and her reckless friends about that one)?

The sliders are made from Dr. Praeger’s brand of veggie patties, which are “chock full of lots of vegetables like carrots, zucchini, peas, spinach, broccoli, and more,” according to White Castle, reports Grub Street. They’ll be available at all White Castle locations, the company says.

Veggie sliders come with a choice of honey mustard, ranch or sweet Thai sauce, and presumably, the same day-after sense of regret upon realizing you’ve eaten way, waaaaay too many sliders the night before. They’re just so little, ya know?

White Castle Unveils Veggie Burgers [Grub Street]

December 2014 really hasn’t been great for offsite airport parking facilities. Earlier this week, we learned about a parking lot hear the airport in Orlando that abruptly closed, stopping shuttles from running and trapping customers’ vehicles inside. A few weeks ago, we learned that Park-N-Fly payment information may have been breached. Now there are reports that another offsite lot operator, OneStopParking, may have been breached by the same gang of card-stealing baddies who were behind last year’s Target breach.

OneStopParking operates discount parking lots at hotels near airports and at seaports. Security reporter Brian Krebs’ usual gang of bank sources let him know that cards used on the company’s site had also been used in fraudulent transactions. A company representative confirmed that the parking lot operator has received complaints from customers, and they are investigating the possibility of a recent or ongoing breach.

Banks have found their customers’ card numbers online at store that sells credit cards for $6 to $12 each, including CVV codes and the card holder’s address and phone number. This store does not accept credit cards as payment, as you might imagine.

Meanwhile, Park-N-Fly reports that they are no longer taking online reservation payments, but are accepting payments over the phone.

Target Hackers Hit OneStopParking.com [Krebs on Security]

The McDonald’s brand — with its distinctive color scheme, yellow arches, and the use of “Mc” before just about anything it offers — is one of the world’s most well-known. Even people who’ve never had a Big Mac or asked which part of the chicken a McNugget comes from are still aware of the company and its food. Given the power of that brand, you’d expect the company to slap the McDonald’s name on every new venture, but it’s curiously absent from a recently launched eatery from the company.

On the other side of the globe in Sydney, Australia, you’ll now find a health food restaurant with the simple name of The Corner. It opened last week and sells things like lentils, tomato basil soup and pulled pork, along with craft sodas.

But wait — what are those scribbled words in small print below “The Corner” on its logo? It says “by McCafe,” putting a meta-distance between the restaurant and its corporate ownership, as if McCafe were a subsidiary restaurant chain and not just a brand that McDonald’s slaps on its sugared-up coffees and smoothies.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the only other sign you’ll find in the The Corner of its relationship to McDonald’s is a Ronald McDonald cookie jar on the counter.

“If they’re looking for a Quarter Pounder they’ll probably be sorely disappointed,” explains the manager. “It’s a new concept for us, it’s a learning lab where we test the things that Maccas has never done before and push the boundaries of what we can do in a cafe environment.”

[via BurgerBusiness.com]

Have you ever been so fed up by life that you just wanted to run amok in a retail store, ripping items off shelves and pulling down displays? No? Well, you’re apparently not the youngster in this video.

The above clip [via Reddit] (Note: NSFW language in the cameraman’s spirited play-by-play narration) features a young boy laying waste to the shelves of a dollar store.

He pulls items off the shelves, throws them to the floor, without any attempt to disguise his actions or any apparent fear of being caught.

When people, presumably store employees, catch on to what’s going on, they try to corner the kid, but he tries to escape through the stockroom (into which the vertical videographer follows). There’s no exit, but he is able to avoid capture.

At this point, he actually begins running through the store until he once again pauses to tear down a cardboard display.

Eventually he’s trapped in an aisle between two young men.

“Get back!” he warns the one man in front of him, while threatening to throw an object at him. “I’m not afraid to do it!”

What he didn’t notice was the bigger man walking up behind him, who was able to snatch the kid, saying “I ain’t either” as he uses the youngster’s shirt to take him out of the building and into the parking lot.

We’re trying to find out more about this video. If we get any additional info, we’ll let you know.

Sometimes, the scene of the crime isn’t the only place police can pick up a few clues about the actions of bad consumers. Consider the lowly toilet paper roll — seems innocent enough, and yet it was the missing piece for cops seeking to solve the mystery of whose idea it was to try to rob a pizzeria using a note demanding money.

A 29-year-old man is suspected of attempting to rob a New York pizza restaurant, reports TribLive, after police say he walked in and handed a worker a note written in blank ink on a piece of toilet paper.

It read: “I have a gun. Give me $300,” and he allegedly claimed that another man had “a gun on me right now, and if I don’t come out of here with the money, I’m going to get shot,” police said.

A worker hit the panic button instead of handing over the dough — err, the money, not the pizza dough in this case — and police arrived to find the suspect still on the premises.

He told police that a large, bearded man had threatened to shoot him and put a gun to his back, saying if he left the pizzeria without cash it’d be lights out.

But instead, police insisted on returning to the suspect’s home to check out his paper good. He told police he didn’t “have anything to hide,” and took them back to his bathroom.

Once there, cops say they found a recently opened packaged of toilet paper sitting out on a table, and one roll had “writing engraved in it that matched the exact wording on the piece of toilet paper that Frey handed” to the pizza shop employee, police said, with a black pen resting nearby that matched the ink on the threatening note.

The suspect at first claimed that the man who’d held a gun on him was in the apartment, but instead pointed to three men walking down the street and accused them. Police cleared those guys, then obtained a search warrant for the apartment.

After cops found 91 grams of marijuana, syringes and spoons containing burned drug residue, they arrested the man and took him into custody on attempted robbery, theft and drug charges.

Police use toilet paper roll to link Uniontown man to pizza shop robbery [Trib Live]