News of the Weird

LEAD STORY
In all likelihood, convicted murderer Paul Powell would have been sentenced to life in prison for his 1999 crime, but he could not resist gratuitously ridiculing the prosecutor. Powell’s original sentence of death was overturned because of a technicality in Virginia law: The “aggravated” circumstance in a murder that warrants the death penalty must be committed against the actual murder victim (whereas the prosecutor had proved only that Powell had also raped the victim’s sister). Powell assumed that the prohibition against “double jeopardy” thus ruled out the death penalty and so decided to gloat, calling the prosecutor “stupid” and taunting him with details of his crimes. For the first time, Powell admitted that he had also raped the murder victim. That was evidence of a new aggravated circumstance (i.e., no “double jeopardy”), and the prosecutor obtained a death sentence. In January 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Powell’s appeal.

CAN'T POSSIBLY BE TRUE
A Toronto restaurant, Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, announced that its Valentine’s Day promotion this year would not just be a romantic dinner but would also include an invitation for couples to have sex in the restrooms. Toronto Public Health officials appeared unconcerned, as long as there was no sex in food-preparation areas and as long as the restrooms were clean. “Bodily fluids” were not a concern, said one unruffled health official, because after all, that’s what restrooms are for.
Women’s rights activists in Uganda finally got the attention of the Western press in December, when London’s The Independent verified the plight of Jennipher Alupot, who periodically for seven years had been forced to breastfeed her husband’s hunting dogs as she was nursing the couple’s own children. Farmer Nathan Awoloi of Pallisa explained that his dogs needed to eat, and since he was forced to send Jennipher’s family two milk cows in order to win her hand, he felt his demands were reasonable.

INEXPLICABLE
A team of researchers led by a University of Connecticut professor, writing recently in the ornithology journal The Auk, declared the local saltmarsh sparrow to be America’s most promiscuous bird, in that 95 percent of the females hook up with more than one male during a mating season. The likelihood that any two chicks in a nest had the same father was only 23 percent, and in one-third of the nests, all chicks had different fathers. The researchers hypothesized that the frequent flooding of Connecticut’s marshes destroys so many nests that non-choosy females have gained evolutionary advantage. (A wren in Australia and a parrot in Madagascar are said to be comparably promiscuous.)
Police are still baffled by how Gregory Denny, 37, was able to “deport” Cherrie Belle Hibbard from her home in Hemet, Calif., in January back to her native Philippines. According to Hemet police, Denny, with a gun and fake U.S. Marshal’s badge and shirt, knocked on Hibbard’s door and convinced her that he was there to escort her to the airport and out of the country and that Hibbard’s husband had to buy her the ticket. Denny then accompanied Hibbard through airport security and put her onto a flight. Upon questioning by police later, Denny apparently remained in character, continuing to insist that he is a Marshal. Denny was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, impersonating a peace officer and several other charges.
    — Buffalo, N.Y., television meteorologist Mike Cejka was arrested in December after a brief police chase and charged with trespassing after he was spotted at 4 a.m. tinkering with the covering of a motorcycle in a stranger’s yard. Cejka told police he was on his way to work at the station and had merely stopped to admire the motorcycle he had remembered seeing in that yard over the summer. He was wearing a dress shirt and shoes and leather chaps topped by a pair of sweat shorts.

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT
In December, British Columbia’s District of Sechelt Council approved a bylaw making it illegal for licensed dogs to chase squirrels, seagulls and other wild animals. The councillors added a defense of “provocation” but left it undefined, which might be especially problematic in instances in which the dog is the only witness to the alleged provocation.
A 27-year-old man was arrested for trespassing in January in Seattle’s Lusty Lady peep-show arcade, whose layout is a strippers’ dance stage surrounded by private viewing stalls for customers. According to police, the man climbed from his stall, through a ceiling panel, and navigated the overhead crawl space, which only allowed him to peep at the strippers from a different angle.