Wire
Kansas woman recalls lessons of Great Depression
Sylvia Hilliard said times were hard but her family did not suffer in the ‘20s Clara Kilbourn The Hutchinson News COPELAND (AP) — Sylvia Feuers Hilliard sums up her memories of the Great Depression with only three words. “Times were hard.” Hilliard, 91, graduated from high school in 1935, during the worst of the Dust Bowl days and in the heart of the Great Depression. She married soon after graduation. Fortunately, her bridegroom, Cliff...
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KDOT OKs study of Amtrak expansion
HUTCHINSON (AP) — Transportation officials have agreed to spend $200,000 for the state’s portion of a study into whether it’s feasible to operate a passenger train service between Kansas City, Mo., and Fort Worth, Texas. The Amtrak study, which is also being funded by the Oklahoma and Texas transportation departments, will identify construction and equipment requirements for the proposed route. It also will estimate potential annual operati...
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Oddities
N.J. woman sues sports bar for toilet seat break ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A woman is suing a Pennsylvania sports bar and restaurant, saying she got stuck inside a toilet bowl for 20 minutes after the seat broke. Kathleen Hewko of Delran Township, N.J., says she was in the bathroom at Starters Pub near Allentown when the handicapped toilet seat she was sitting on cracked and dumped her into the bowl. Hewko says in her lawsuit filed in federa...
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Celebrities
Estrada returns to Muncie for police patrols MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Erik Estrada has returned to Muncie to take part in overnight police patrols in the city where he starred in the short-lived reality series “Armed & Famous.” The former star of the 1970s motorcycle cop drama “CHiPs” is a reserve officer on the Muncie Police Department. The 60-year-old actor plans to work the midnight shift for three nights this week, patrolling city stre...
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Who runs Kansas City ­­­­-­ ­the mayor or his wife?
Andale Gross Associated Press Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The people of Kansas City thought they were getting a straight-shooter with financial smarts as their new mayor. What they got, critics say, is a henpecked husband who needs his wife to tell him what to do. In an era when politicians get in trouble for infidelity, Mayor Mark Funkhouser finds himself under fire for his devotion to his wife, a sharp-elbowed New Yorker whose role a...
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Gun club, police chief indicted in boy’s Uzi death
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle. The club where the fair was held also was charged. The fair had promised shooters would have certified instructors in an advertisement, but District At...
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Wire briefs
California couple charged with torturing, abusing teen STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — A California couple has been charged with kidnapping and torturing a 17-year-old boy police say they sometimes kept shackled in their home. The boy’s one-time guardian, who also stayed in the couple’s home with the teenager, was also charged with similar abuse allegations. Kelly Layne Lau and her husband, Michael Schumacher, both of Tracy, are charged with 13 c...
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Lil Wayne leads Grammy nods with 8, Coldplay 7
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lil Wayne didn’t get “A Milli” Grammy nominations, but his total haul was still pretty amazing — eight. Nominations for the prolific and ubiquitous rap MVP, who became pop’s biggest success in 2008 with his top-selling album, “Tha Carter III,” included a coveted album of the year bid. Although the New Orleans rapper — who has been nominated for Grammys before but has never taken home a trophy — was the leading nominee, h...
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Celebrities
Wrap-up of entertainment quotes from the AP “They’re reporting that I’m on my last legs and saying goodbye to my tearful family! ... It’s upsetting that the shoddy and reckless reporting from these publications cast a negative shadow on the positive and good fight I’m fighting.” — Patrick Swayze, lashing out against tabloid reports that say he’s losing his battle with cancer. ——— “Look, I’ll be in the back. I’ll sit on the Lincoln steps a...
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High five
The Associated Press TELEVISION 1. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC. 2. “Dancing With the Stars Results,” ABC. 3. “60 Minutes,” CBS. 4. “NCIS,” CBS. 5. “The Mentalist,” CBS. FILM 1. “Four Christmases,” Warner Bros. 2. “Bolt,” Disney. 3. “Twilight,” Summit Entertainment. 4. “Quantum of Solace,” Sony. 5. “Australia,” Fox. HOT FIVE 1. “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” Beyonce. Music World/Columbia. 2. “Live Your Life,” T.I. feat. ...
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‘Twilight’ time: Vamp tale seeks blockbuster bite
David Germain AP Movie Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Girl-meets-boy stories are not the usual stuff of Hollywood blockbusters, even when it’s girl-meets-vampire. Neither are stories created by women, with a predominantly female audience, shot on a bargain budget with a cast of relative unknowns and released by an independent distributor trying to establish a niche among Hollywood’s half-dozen studio behemoths. Yet Summit Entertainment has go...
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Celebrities
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Timothy Hutton is unshaven, uncombed and dressed down in a T-shirt and sweat pants, but he can be forgiven the grooming and fashion violations. He’s in character to shoot the TNT drama “Leverage,” in which he plays the leader of a motley crew of con artists and hackers who are crusading for truth and justice. Every new mission can mean new impersonations for Hutton’s Nathan Ford and his cohorts: In this scene, Ford is po...
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Government recommends Kansas for biodefense lab
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government has recommended a site in Kansas for a new $450 million laboratory to study biological threats like anthrax and foot-and-mouth disease, officials said Wednesday. The Homeland Security Department’s choice of Manhattan, in central Kansas, beat out intense competition from other sites in Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas. Agency officials revealed their decision to several lawmakers late T...
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Family of NY man trampled by shoppers sue Wal-Mart
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) — The family of a worker trampled to death in a “Black Friday” crush of bargain hunters at a Long Island Wal-Mart store filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on Wednesday, claiming store ads offering deep discounts “created an atmosphere of competition and anxiety” that led to “crowd craze.” The lawsuit claims that besides failing to provide adequate security for a pre-dawn crowd estimated at 2,000, Wal-Mart “engaged in spec...
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Judge upholds Kleypas death sentence
GIRARD (AP) — A judge upholds a second death sentence for a man who raped and murdered a Pittsburg State University student more than 12 years ago. A jury in September recommended that 52-year-old Gary Kleypas be given the death penalty for the March 1996 slaying of 20-year-old nursing student Carrie Williams in her apartment. On Wednesday afternoon, a Crawford County judge upheld that sentence. It’s the second time Kleypas has been senten...
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Oddities
Stupid Is As Stupid Does UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) _ A Pennsylvania man who wrote the Forrest Gump phrase “stupid is as stupid does” 1,000 times after rejecting a special probation deal for first-time offenders has relented and accepted that punishment. Fayette County Judge John Wagner told 21-year-old Robert Mitchell Jr. of Connellsville to write the phrase in June. That happened after Mitchell refused probation and instead demanded a trial on ...
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Heloise
Dear Heloise: I like working on plant repotting or trimming, but I don’t have a work area in the house. So, when I can’t do this outside, I take a large tray that I place on my counter and use that to work on. I was using newspaper, but it would get so messy and wet, the dirt would fall to the floor, and print from the paper would get on the countertop. Now I just have to pick the tray up and empty it in the trash. -- Jill Price, Newington, ...
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Ask Amy
Dear Amy: Please answer as quickly as possible, because I must make a decision soon. All my life, I have wanted to attend college and become a doctor. I will be 54 in June, so I know I’m too old for medical studies. But am I too old for college? What can a person my age possibly hope to accomplish -- at this age and at the age I finally will graduate? -- Middle-Age Applicant Dear Applicant: Fortunately I have something of an expert on t...
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Celebrities
NEW YORK (AP) — Brad Pitt has some strong words for the paparazzi. In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Pitt said: “Let me be very blunt: I hate them. I hate these people. I don’t understand ... that they do that for a living.” Pitt said there should be laws against celebrity photographers who “climb over your walls wearing camouflage and calling out your kids’ names as you’re trying to take them to school.” The actor appeared Tuesday t...
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Oddities
Police: Man swallows stolen earrings at Florida mall NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — An X-ray marked the spot for southwest Florida police who say a teenager swallowed a $16 pair of earrings after taking them from a JCPenney store at a mall. Authorities say William Colburn faces charges that include retail theft and tampering with evidence. Naples Police say the 18-year-old was in the store on Saturday when security saw him remove the earrings from a...
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