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Drunk pilots could still walk
Two former America West pilots charged with operating a plane full of
passengers while drunk may have consumed alcohol and smelled of alcohol
but they could still walk and see, their lawyers told a jury on Monday.
Pilots Christopher Hughes and Thomas Cloyd were hauled off an Airbus 319
in Miami on July 1, 2002, and charged with operating a plane under the
influence of alcohol.
They were in the cockpit as the aircraft was being towed to the runway
for takeoff from Miami International Airport on a flight to Phoenix,
Arizona. But after a security screener reported the pilots were
red-eyed, flushed and reeking of alcohol, air traffic controllers
ordered the plane back to the gate.
Police said Cloyd’s blood-alcohol reading was 0.091 and Hughes’ was
0.084. Florida law assumes a vehicle operator, including the operator of
a plane, to be drunk if his blood alcohol level is 0.08 or higher, and
state authorities charged them with operating an aircraft while
intoxicated.
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Bear takes dip in L.A. pool
A 140-pound bear wandered into a suburban neighborhood and took a dip in
a swimming pool before being tranquilized and returned to the wild.
The female bear ambled into the San Fernando Valley’s Porter Ranch area
shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, bumping into doors and windows before
taking a few splashes in a backyard pool, fire spokesman Brian Humphrey
said.
Homeowner Maryam Salahael pulled her children out of the pool when the
bear showed up, and she called 911.
“My dog began barking very loudly. I went to see what’s going on. I see
a bear in my backyard,” Salahael said.
Authorities cordoned off the area as wildlife officials tranquilized the
bear, said Cindy Wood of the California Department of Fish and Game. The
animal was then released into the Santa Susana Mountains.
“It looks like it’s possibly in heat,” Wood said. “She probably just
made a wrong turn and ended up in a neighborhood. She belongs up in the
hills and that’s where she lives.” |
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Pope’s apartment for sale online
An apartment rented more than 40 years ago by the new Pope Benedict
close to the German city of Bonn is up for sale on an Internet auction
site just weeks after an online bidding frenzy for his six-year-old car.
Joseph Ratzinger, the German cardinal who became Pope last month, lived
in the flat in a suburb of Bonn between 1959 and 1963, while teaching
theology at the local university.
The apartment is one of six within a four-story block built in the 1950s
and being sold by Bonn property dealer Christopher Blatzheim.
Since it first appeared on the Web site Friday, the building has drawn
13,424 hits, a spokeswoman for eBay said. Prospective buyers have a
further 27 days to make private offers to the owner, as eBay rules
forbid auctioning property.
“The seller had been thinking of offering the building through eBay for
a long time. It was a coincidence that the Pope’s Golf suddenly also
became available -- but it proved his was a good idea,” the spokeswoman
said.
Last month an Internet casino company paid 21-year-old German Benjamin
Halbe 188,938 euros ($238,900) for the gray Volkswagen Golf he had
bought for 9,500 euros just three months before. |
Tailpiece
Solution for stammering
A man had a bad case of stuttering. He went to many doctors over the
years, but none of them could help him. Finally one doctor said to him
“I believe I found the reason for your stuttering”.
The man asked, “Wha.. wha.. wha..what is my pro.. pro.. problem.”
The doctor replied, “Your organ is very, very large. The weight of your
organ is causing a strain on your larynx, and this results in your
stuttering. The only solution to this is to perform a organ transplant.”
The man was really tired of his stuttering, so he agreed to a
transplant. Several days later the doctor called the man up and informed
him that they have found a suitable donor. The transplant operation was
successfully performed and the man could speak without any stutter.
At first he was happy, but after a while he began to miss his large
organ, and how the girls used to love it. He finally went back to his
doctor and said, “Doctor, I am grateful for the opportunity you have
given me to speak without a stutter, but I miss my old organ. Please
find the transplant donor and tell him that we have to exchange organs
back.”
The doctor shook his head and replied, “That’s im.. im.. im.. impo..
impossible.” |