We'll be debuting our new segment "Comedy Showcase" tonight. We will begin
our showcase with the spotlight on the lovely and talented Laura O'Neal. Laura is
the winner of the 1st annual Olympic Peninsula Comedy Contest. Laura is also a
semi-regular guest on the Rob's World Radio Show. Make sure you check in
tonight to hear some of her comedy. Here's a line up of the show topics we will
be discussing tonight:
New Orleans, Lousiana – A high-ranking NOPD officer is being looked at as the target of an official police inquiry. Police Association President Michael Glasser is being accused of altering the license plate on his police vehicle. It is a particularly touchy subject because Captain Glasser is the integrity control officer for the NOPD’s special operations division – among other things, the department is involved in handing out red light camera tickets. According to Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas, Glasser’s NOPD-issued take home vehicle was observed with a device over the license plate that obscures the numbers and letters on that plate.
Mexico City lawmakers are proposing legislation that would allow newlyweds to apply for temporary marriage licenses, instead of making the plunge into wedded life a lifetime commitment. The change to civil code was proposed this week and would allow couples to decide the length of the commitment, with two years as the minimum. If couples are still enjoying wedded bliss when the contract ends, then they would be able to renew the license. And if they’re unhappy, the contract expires and they are both free without going through a divorce. The legislation has proved to be controversial in Mexico, the country with the second largest Catholic population in world, after Brazil.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida – The Broward Sheriff’s Office is threatening to stop dispatching emergency calls in the city beginning at midnight. The county and city are locked in a stare-down over who should pay the $5.7 million annual cost. Neither set aside money for the new budget year that begins tomorrow, and now leaders are scrambling to figure out what to do, at least until a summit scheduled for next Thursday. Both county and city officials are promising that residents don’t need to worry that calls for help will go unanswered as a result of the dispute.
Colorado – A former student at Colorado Mountain College says she was forced to drop a class because she had a seizure. Channing Seideman was in the middle of an emergency medical technician class when she had an epileptic seizure. She said faculty members asked her to drop the class, saying the episode was too distracting to other students and there could be more. Seideman said it was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and she’s filed a complaint against the school.
An Indiana woman was arrested as she left a drug store with a scarecrow and a bottle of whiskey following reports that she had been driving a golf cart erratically around Chesterton, Ind. Police responding to a call from a motorist about an intoxicated woman on a golf cart weaving between lanes with no lights on say they found Jacqueline Hamilton, 59, stumbling out of a CVS pharmacy. Hamilton was holding a bottle of Canadian Mist whiskey and a large scarecrow, and told police she was buying Halloween decorations for her grandchildren. She said she planned to return home and drink the whiskey by the fire. Officers noticed the smell of alcohol on Hamilton’s breath and a police report said she had difficulty standing up while talking to them.
Pennsylvania – A judge says Wal-Mart must pay up for overpricing sausages by 2 cents. Consumer activist Mary Bach was awarded $100 in damages and $80 in court costs today, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. Bach, of Murrysville, says sausages she purchased last month in Delmont were listed at 98 cents, but she was charged $1 at checkout. The clerk refunded the difference and noted the error, Bach says. But when she went back to the store six days later she was again charged $1, though the shelf price was still 98 cents. Bach says the overcharges happen far too often. Wal-Mart says new packaging was to blame.
Paris, France – A French amateur photographer has been hospitalised in a serious condition after receiving a powerful electric shock while shooting soft porn on top of a freight train. The 25-year-old photographer broke into a railway marshalling yard in the northern French city of Reims along with another photographer and a young female model in the hope of making the most of the original location. He was alone on the train’s roof when he was shocked and is now in the major burns unit of a Paris hospital.
Washington DC – In its quest to promote taxpayer-funded entitlement programs, the Obama Administration has actually rewarded one state with a $5 million bonus for its efficiency in adding food-stamp recipients to already bulging rolls. It’s part of the administration’s campaign to eradicate “food insecure households” by improving access and increasing participation in the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Incidentally, the program was recently changed to SNAP to eliminate the stigma that comes with a name like food stamps. Just a few months ago the federal agency that administers the program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), launched a multi-million-dollar initiative to recruit more food-stamp participants even though the number of recipients has skyrocketed in the last few years.
Castaic, California – The children of a 67-year-old man who survived for five or six days on leaves and creek water after his car plunged 200 feet off a California mountain road says one of the first things he asked for was a chocolate malt. Chardonnay, Sean and Lisa Lavau described how they found their father’s car in a ravine. Another car and a dead man were found nearby. Officers are trying to figure out what happened. Chardonnay Lavau says the family reported David Lavau missing, then worked with detectives to narrow the search area using cell phone towers, text messages and other clues.
New Orleans, Louisiana – A group of about 60 people protested outside a New Orleans home where a man mounted a sign depicting President Barack Obama in a diaper. The protesters, who included former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, gathered outside Timmy Riley’s Calhoun Street home to demand the removal of the sign, which they said is disrespectful to Obama and African-Americans in general. However, the sign remained in place and police said Riley has the right to express himself.
A Style Network special called ‘Sperm Donor’ that follows the life of ‘Ben,’ an unassuming guy who’s been a sperm donor for years, premiered. He’s recently been contacted by 15-20 of his biological children, and he reveals to his fiance that his sperm may be responsible for fathering as many as 70 offspring. To her credit, Ben’s fiance manages to contain her reaction, but the shock, and possibly horror, in her face is evident. Ben’s fiance tells him she sees his actions as selfish, and the gravity of his decision seems to hit him in a way it hadn’t before.
Florida – Three people were arrested after authorities raided a Boca Raton pawnshop suspected of selling stolen dental hygiene products. A precise estimate of the value of the stolen items was unavailable, but investigators said it could total more than $3 million. Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies raided Citi Pawn in the 900 block of North Dixie Highway and arrested its manager, Igor Roytikh (Picture), 44. Lauren Ann Healy, 23, and Brian Hegmann, 26, both of Deerfield Beach, were arrested after authorities alleged they supplied the shop with merchandise stolen from retail stores in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Portland, Oregon – It turns out that the down-and-out in Portland like to eat free food and linger. For hours on end. While the point of the eatery is to help people out, the experiment was never intended as a homeless shelter. The business model depends on attracting customers who will pay retail for their meals, and some who will pay a little extra. There’s a difference between a restaurant with a diverse clientele and a day shelter with paintings of bread on the walls, and the restaurant began to resemble the latter. “We had to help them understand that this is a café of shared responsibility and not a handout,” Panera founder Ron Shaich said. “It can’t serve as a shelter and we can’t have community organizations sending everybody down.”
Charlotte, North Carolina – Police in North Carolina said a couple’s first date was interrupted when a man accidentally shot himself in a parking garage. Charlotte police said the couple returned to the man’s car after eating at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse on Fairview Road and the man’s gun, which was in the car, somehow went off and shot the man, The Charlotte Observer reported. His date was not injured and he was treated at Carolinas Medical Center for a non-life-threatening leg wound.
Fresno, California – A Northern California teacher says he doesn’t want to hear a common courtesy in his classroom. He’s even lowering students’ grades if they say “bless you” after someone sneezes. Steve Cuckovich says the practice is disrespectful and disruptive. He’s banned saying “bless you” in his high school health class in Vacaville. He even knocked 25 points from one student’s grade for saying the phrase in class. After parents complained about students losing points for saying “bless you”, Cuckovich says he decided to stop the practice. However, the teacher says he will just find another way to discipline students for saying “bless you” in class.
Massachusetts – A giggling Onyango Obama – the president’s illegal alien half uncle – made a brief appearance in Framingham District Court today on charges he was drunk when he nearly struck an unmarked police cruiser last month. Obama, 67, was visibly amused at the media spectacle, stifling laughter several times before his 30-second court appearance where a judge set a Nov. 17 pre-trial conference. Onyango, who had a valid driver’s license and Social Security card when he was arrested, was in the U.S. illegally having already faced a 1992 deportation order. When he was arrested by Framingham police on suspicion of drunken driving he suggested his first call should be to the White House.
