Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: SAVE THE DOLLARS: An investigation by the Chicago Tribune has found that several U.S.-based charities formed to "sponsor" and help feed poor children in third-world countries are "rife with scams". Organizations such as Save the Children and Childreach, the newspaper says, do not always send donations directly to needy children as they claim. The paper anonymously sponsored several children for two years, then made surprise visits to their villages. In one village they found a 44- year-old teacher who was hired to write the letters local children were supposed to send to their sponsors. In some cases, they found the sponsored children had been dead for years, but the sponsors had no idea, apparently because the letters were still arriving regularly. (AFP) ...See? We told you that this poor child hadn't eaten in a long time! SAVE THE PENNIES: A private investigator has advised the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information of a major terrorist threat facing the country: cents-off supermarket coupons. "To terror organizations hiding in our communities, the coupon inserts mean financing, here and abroad," claims Ben Jacobson. He says that terror groups are clipping coupons from newspapers and fraudulently redeeming them to help finance terrorist operations, and it's imperative for the country to toughen coupon fraud laws. (UPI) ...Help fight terrorism: pledge to pay only full price for Cap'n Crunch. COP ROCK: When Oakland, Calif., police officers arrested Julian Aldarondo for allegedly stealing a cookie, Aldarondo says the cops subjected him to "excessive force". Specifically, he says, they made him sit and listen while an officer sang "Escape, The Pina Colada Song", which he alleged was "the most degrading and humiliating experience" of his life. Officer Anthony Toribio said he sang the song to "defuse tension" over the arrest after he found out that Aldarondo was a singer. "It's a snappy song with one of those catchy tunes," Toribio said. The Oakland Police Review Board rejected the excessive force claim. (Reuters) ...Aldarondo has denied reports that, if convicted, he will adopt "Wasting Away in Margaritaville" as his jailhouse theme. OFF TO THE SHOWERS: British football referees have a limit to the amount of abuse they will take before they pull out their dreaded red card. So when Melvin Sylvester lost his temper at an amateur game in Charlton and punched out a player, out came the red card. But the card came out of Sylvester's own pocket. He was the referee at the game, and he pulled the card on himself, ejecting himself from the game. "I was sorely provoked," he said later. But Sylvester feels bad enough about the incident that he says he's making his expulsion permanent, and will never officiate at a match again. (AFP) ...Don't you just hate refs who go straight to the red card without even having the courtesy of giving a warning first? TERROR FROM ABOVE: British evangelist John Holme says he saw heaven over Salisbury, England. He decided to get a closer glimpse of his final reward, and while he was at it spread The Word, by flying over the town in a motorized paraglider armed with a megaphone. "I thought that maybe if they heard this voice booming out from the sky, they would think it was God," Holme said later. Witnesses said Holme was veering around trees and fences with a look of "sheer horror in his eyes", but the parapreacher said he wasn't afraid. "Considering it was the first time I had flown, I think my performance was not too bad," he told a reporter. A local magistrate was not amused. He fined Holme 1,050 pounds (US$1,730) plus court costs for flying too close to a populated area. "I can't believe I've got a criminal record after this," lamented Holme. (Reuters) ...Coming this fall from BBC: the new zany sequel to "The Flying Nun". HOT HOT HOT: The Firefighters Historical Society in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, are planning a new museum in town to hold their antique fire equipment and memorabilia. They even have a site: an old firehouse. However, the building does not meet fire codes. The Society is raising money to bring it up to current standards, but they better hurry: the building is the third firehouse on the site. The first two burned down. (AP) ...The third time's the charm. SHORTCUT: A northern California company says addresses on the Internet are too long, too complex, and too hard to remember and type. So the company, centraal, has released a new product that allows a lengthy "URL", such as http://www.thisistrue.com/books.html, to be replaced with simple key words. Their demonstration: replacing a lengthy address for a Walt Disney web page with the keyword "Bambi". But when reporters and customers tried the example keyword, they were not shown a doe-eyed cartoon deer, but doe-eyed live dears on a pornographic site. "THIS AIN'T DISNEY, BOYS!" complained one irate user. "I think I might not use the Bambi example anymore," sheepish company president Keith Teare told reporters. (Reuters) ...That's nothing: you should see "Thumper". OFFICIAL SCORECARD SHOWS 53,297 DOWN, JUST 1,946,703 TO GO: "Poll: 2 Million Women Fantasize about Clinton" -- UPI headline -- Kathy E "I can only please one person a day, today is NOT your day, and tomorrow isn't looking too good for you either" http://members.delphi.com/kathylaw/ Law & Issues Mailing List http://pw1.netcom.com/~kathye/rodeo.html - Cowboy Histories http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/2990/law.htm Crime photo's Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
