THIS IS TRUE  ( Part 2 )
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THIS is TRUE for 23 April 2000 
COCKY: The town of Fruita, Colo., wanted something a little less boring
than the usual "pioneers" to focus on for Colorado Heritage Week, so
the city revived the story of Mike the Headless Chicken. In the 1940s,
farmer Lloyd Olsen went to get a chicken for dinner. Wanting to leave
as much of the neck as possible, he lopped off the chicken's head as
tightly as he could. The chicken did not die, and continued to "peck"
for food as it walked around the yard. Amazed, Olsen started feeding
the chicken with an eyedropper. The headless bird, dubbed Mike,
appeared in Life magazine and traveled to exhibitions around the
country. Fruita's Mike the Headless Chicken Festival is a smashing
success, and a new Mike sculpture ("I made him proud-looking and
cocky," the artist says) was recently unveiled downtown. Mike lived for
18 months after his head was chopped off. (AP) ...Big deal: politicians
can live like that for decades.

CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK: When Gregory W. Kasey Jr., 20, of Maryland was
accused of violating the terms of his probation, his 41-year-old
father, also named Gregory W. Kasey Jr., took the rap and got a four-
year prison term. It wasn't that big a deal, really: the elder Kasey
was already serving 20 years for assault with intent to murder. When
the judge discovered the mixup, he had the younger Kasey brought in and
taken to jail. Asked what he thought of his father's action, he said
"It showed me he still cares." Meanwhile, Gary Graham, 38, is awaiting
execution after being convicted of murder during a 1981 robbery in
Houston, Texas. His son, Gary Hawkins, 21, has just been charged with
capital murder after a robbery-shooting in Houston. If Hawkins receives
the death penalty, the two will become the only father-son pair on
death row in Texas. "Obviously Gary Graham's been gone for a whole lot
of time and hasn't had an influence" during the son's upbringing, a
Houston police spokesman said. (AP) ...No, it looks like he had a huge
influence indeed.

YES DEAR: Michael Sgalla was having a fight with his girlfriend Pam
DeVincent at his trailer home in Morgantown, W.Va. Sgalla grabbed a
.38-caliber revolver, handed it to DeVincent and said if she hated him
so much, she should shoot him. Sgalla says she did just that, hitting
him in the shin. She has been charged with endangerment with a firearm.
Sgalla was hospitalized. (Morgantown Dominion Post) ...You always hurt
the one you love. Just usually not quite so severely.
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THIS is TRUE for 30 April 2000 
DO IT YOURSELF: Police in Albuquerque, N.M., say Edward Hall, 50, stole a
utility trailer from a Home Depot store by hitching it to the back of
his pickup truck and driving away. A few miles from the store, it came
loose and crashed beside the road, so he went back to the store and
stole a second one. The second also came loose and crashed just 75
yards from the first. As a Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputy
investigated the crashes, Hall clipped the deputy's parked patrol car
with, yes, a third trailer as he drove by. A chase ensued as Hall tried
to get away -- at a mere 25 mph, "probably because he knows the
trailers, at high speeds, don't stay on very well," a detective said.
Hall was charged with possession of burglary tools, three counts of
unlawful taking a motor vehicle, and leaving the scene of an accident.
(AP) ...However, he's been signed to do a series of Home Depot
commercials with their new slogan, "Take it From Us!"

POETIC INJUSTICE: An 11-year-old sixth-grader in Mamaroneck, N.Y., said
something "rude" in the schoolyard. His parents had offered to make him
apologize, but the school insisted on a five-day suspension for sexual
harassment. That's when they hired a lawyer, who got the boy reinstated
to school after three days. Attorney Ronald Kuby said the case was an
example of "political correctness gone berserk," adding the boy "had
never heard the term sexual harassment and may not even know what sex
is." What, exactly, did he do? He stepped up to two girls on the
playground and chanted, "Roses are red / Violets are black / Your chest
is as flat / As your back." (AP) ...Perhaps he knows what sex is after
all.

I'M GONNA MAKE YOU EAT THAT GUN: Clarion County, Pa., school bus driver
Angelo Salvo panicked and screeched to a stop when he saw student Jamie
Hinderliter, 16, "waving a gun around." He raced back to confiscate it
as other students "doubled up in laughter." He found out why when he
looked at the gun: it was made of chocolate. The boy's father agrees
Jamie was "clowning around on the bus" and "should be punished without
being fined," but Union High School officials are pressing criminal
charges of disorderly conduct. And where did the boy get the gun-shaped
candy? The school sold it to him as part of a fund-raising drive.
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) ...If schools were subject to real-world law,
that would be called entrapment.
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THIS is TRUE for 7 May 2000 
DUMPSTER DIVER: An audit of the Denver, Colo., police department's
property room found that $100,000 in cash -- mostly evidence from
crimes -- is missing. Chief Gerry Whitman says the money has probably
been stolen and launched a criminal investigation. But Eric Russell, a
33-year-old former employee of Waste Management of Colorado, has come
forward to say he thinks he knows where the money is: in the trash.
Russell says he picked up trash from the dumpsters in the locked
basement of the police station every day from 1994 to 1998, and
"routinely" found money in the trash. "There were all kinds of things
there," he says. "I found knives, evidence bags ... awful crime scene
photographs, and objects tagged as evidence in cases. I once found a
handgun, but that was broken." Some things he sold at flea markets, but
threw away any drugs he found. The police are asking for the return of
any items he still has, and say they have changed their disposal
procedures. (Denver Rocky Mountain News) ...It's obvious he's right,
considering he retired at age 31.

WHAT ARIA LEARNING IN SCHOOL? Sentencing young offenders to listen to
music they don't like seems to be catching on , so Eastern Connecticut State University in Hartford decided to try
the tactic with students who break campus rules. But the punishment
doesn't seem to be working out the way administrators intended. "It was
awesome," sophomore Kevin Bochiccio, 19, said about the production of
Tosca he was sentenced to attend for having beer in his dorm. "I loved
the show," agreed another student. "It's definitely not punishment.
It's a privilege." At least one student in the audience was there
voluntarily -- he so enjoyed his sentence to watch The Magic Flute last
semester that he now goes to the opera regularly. (AP) ...You better
shape up, young man, or it'll be season tickets for you!

SHORT AND SWEET: The night clerk at Kelly's Gas in Davenport, Iowa, said
a man wearing a black ski mask came in just before midnight and pulled
a gun from his pocket. "I want your money," the man said. The unnamed
clerk looked at the robber and uttered two words: "Don't even." The
surprised robber answered "O.K.," put the gun back in his pocket, and
left empty-handed. (AP) ...Wow: that works even better than "Cellmate's
wife."
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THIS is TRUE for 14 May 2000 
HONEY, IT'S FOR YOU: Accident investigators say the car was airborne for
about 150 feet before crashing through the roof of Joanne and Mahlon
Donovan's house in Derry, N.H., at 3:00 a.m. Driven by a 20-year-old
woman who was later arrested for drunk driving, the car came through
the ceiling and dropped right over the Donovan's bed. "The thing was
right in front of my face," Mr. Donovan, 65, said. "I could feel the
heat from the exhaust system coming through the sheets." Still, that
wasn't enough to wake his wife. He had to shake her awake after the
crash. (AP) ...There go any awards for "emotional damages."

A 1001 USES! Gemini Wink, 26, of Louisville, Ky., realized he was lost.
While visiting a friend in Tampa, Fla., Wink waded into a swamp to
shoot pictures of alligators. Taking along a roll of duct tape to mark
his path, he was ready to head back around dusk when he couldn't find
his marks. Afraid he would be eaten by 'gators when he fell asleep, he
climbed 40 feet up a tree to keep out of their reach and -- using his
ever-more-handy roll -- taped himself to a branch for the night. Wink's
friend called for help when he didn't return by dark, and sheriff
deputies found him in the tree, just 400 yards from his friend's house,
so securely taped down that deputies had to climb up to help free him.
(Reuters) ...Next week, Wink will demonstrate his new duct tape tiger
snare during a breathtaking adventure in India. Don't miss it!


OK, BUDDY, COUGH UP THE EVIDENCE: After a jewelry store clerk said Rudolf
Nyari, 64, of Hurst, Texas, had stolen a diamond tennis bracelet,
police in Dublin, Ohio, searched him and his car. They didn't find it.
"At first he denied he had the bracelet," a police detective said. "But
once we told him we had the X-ray, he chuckled and joked." Officers had
obtained a search warrant -- of Nyari's body. An X-ray showed he had
swallowed the $17,000 bracelet, and it was still in his throat. "He
drank several glasses of water and smoked cigarettes to build up enough
phlegm to cough it up," the detective said. "It took about an hour."
(AP) ...There you are, kids: the glamorous real life of a jewel thief.

SKY-HIGH PROPERTY VALUES: Plastic surgeon Dr. William Moore rented a
backhoe to do some serious work in his yard in Boxford, Mass. It wasn't
long before he called the gas company to report a "strong smell" of
natural gas -- he apparently ruptured a gas main with the heavy
equipment. Three minutes later, he called the gas company again. "The
house exploded as he was making the second call," said a gas company
spokesman. "He said, 'Forget it. The house is gone.' " The five-bedroom
home was worth about a half-million dollars. The spokesman said Dr.
Moore did not call before he started his project to find out if there
were any gas lines in the area he was digging. (Boston Herald) ...Huh:
apparently it DOES take a brain surgeon to know to check that first

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THIS is TRUE for 28 May 2000 
A MENU AS LONG AS YOUR ARM: Peter Johnson loves the All In One restaurant
in Brighton, England. A lot. He not only eats there five days a week,
he had the restaurant's name and phone number tattooed on his forehead.
All In One's owner Nasser Bandar says he doesn't give Johnson free
food, "because he did it on his own free will. But whenever he comes
in, he'll go straight to the front of the queue." Johnson, 49, says the
tattoo is no big deal. "Some people, including my family, think I am
crazy. But I like tattoos, so why not?" (AP) ...Because someday they
might change their phone number.
READ IT AGAIN AND AGAIN: When the Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel
restaurant chain ran a promotion to give free books to libraries,
customers thought it was a great idea. The libraries are a little less
enthusiastic. The Gilbert, Ariz., library, for instance, isn't sure
what to do with the 11,796 copies of a preschool book, 1,000 copies of
"Quick and Easy Pasta" and 200 copies of "How To Use Microsoft Windows
95" it received. "We can find a creative way of doing something with
the children's books," said county library director Harry Courtright,
"but Windows 95 is of no value to anybody." The restaurant chain said
it did not get a chance to review the titles. It didn't say what it
would do to make up for the useless gifts. (Arizona Republic) ...Maybe
the library can send them a few hundred copies of "In Search of
Excellence".
MAN OF STEEL: The town of Metropolis, Ill., is having a hard time finding
a man to play Superman at their upcoming Superman Festival. The
successful applicant must be tall, handsome, muscular, dark-haired,
willing to strut around downtown wearing blue tights and, please, not
have a southern drawl. But so far only balding men with pot bellies
have applied. "I think these guys must have forgotten what Superman
looks like," complains Jim Hambrick, owner of the town's Super Museum
and co-chairman of the search committee. (AP) ...At least they're ready
when it's time to cast Lex Luthor
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THIS is TRUE for 11 June 2000 
MOTORING MADNESS: Lorain, Ohio, police officer Joseph Kopronica pulled
over a van because it appeared "out of control." He said the driver,
Nancy M. Lang, 42, appeared drunk. But if he hadn't noticed that, Lang
may have given him a clue: "Please give me a break," she asked him.
"I'm drunk." After failing a field sobriety test, he told Lang she was
under arrest. She protested "Wait: I can do this!" and proceeded to do
jumping jacks and a push-up. When she started to do a cartwheel,
Kopronica stopped her "for her safety and mine." Lang has been charged
with speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a
suspended license, and driving with expired license plates. (AP) ...Any
calisthenics can and will be used against you in a court of law.
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THIS is TRUE for 25 June 2000 
FAME IS FLEETING: Two girls, aged 16 and 17, were arrested in the murder
of a friend, a 16-year-old girl, in San Fernando de Cadiz, Spain. The
two girls allegedly told police the murder made them "feel good." Their
motive? They said the killing would make them "become famous." Police
refused to release the killers' names. (AP) ...Good.

PICTURE THIS: Bill Easterbrook and his wife, Joan, were looking through a
travel brochure when Joan turned the page and spotted a photo of her
husband dancing with another woman at a swanky hotel. The woman was a
"complete stranger," he insisted, and he swore he had never been to the
hotel. Easterbrook thinks the photo was taken years ago when he was on
a cruise -- with his wife -- and that the other woman had been spliced
in with a computer. The travel company promises to delete it from their
next brochure. Meanwhile, Leslie Brown of Clackamas, Ore., is suing
Vagrant Records for using her "embarrassing" high school prom photo on
the cover of "Before You Were Punk 2". Brown says she doesn't want to
be reminded of her 80s hairstyle or her prom date. The suit asks for
$100,000 and demands the photo be removed from the CD and Internet site
promoting the record. Her prom date Jon Halperin gave the photo to the
company and insists "it was just for fun. I didn't get paid for it."
(PA, AP) ...Just like you didn't get anything on prom night, punk.
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THIS is TRUE for 2 July 2000 
DRESS FOR SUCCESS: Police in Annapolis, Md., are looking for a few ugly
women. The band of thieves are "very unattractive and obviously male,"
a police detective says. The men wear tight skirts and high heels, and
the distraction they cause allows accomplices to steal money, credit
cards and checks from stores. "They might look kind of silly when they
dress up, but they're really good at what they do," the detective
added. (AP) ...It's a good ploy by the crime boss: he knows the gang
won't brag about the scheme to their friends.
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THIS is TRUE for 9 July 2000 
UNLIKE AMSTERDAM, THEY DON'T DO WINDOWS: A recession in Romania has hit
the world's oldest profession hard. To drum up business, prostitutes
are now also doing housework. "We had to invent something because
people don't have money and clients are rare," says an unnamed "sexual
agent" in Bucharest. "After solving the [client's sexual] problem, the
girls clean and cook, for free." He says the clients are happy with the
service because "the girls help them get rid of the three things which
torment their lives: sex, cleaning and cooking." (Reuters) ...He wants
a WHAT job?
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THIS is TRUE for 16 July 2000 
MY CARD, MADAM: Another British collecting craze is threatening the
Pokemon card frenzy. Children as young as 5 are now trading prostitute
calling cards. The cards, which hookers leave in telephone booths to
solicit customers, have long been a problem in England, with an average
of 13 million being trashed by British Telecom every year. "We have
received complaints about this problem from several schools but we are
not disclosing which ones," said a Westminster council spokeswoman. "We
understand that children are swapping them and forming collections."
(PA) ...Which players can put up against each other based on the
character's experience, specialties, flaws and the number of times they
are mentioned in the police blotter, in a game based on tramps.


BAD BOY, BAD BOY, WHATCHA GONNA DO? Benjamin Davis, 23, is charged with
running S&M parties. Actually, the charges are keeping a house of ill
fame for lewdness, lending or selling articles for self abuse and, for
good measure, assault on a police officer. Davis lives with his mother,
who admits she was "stunned" to learn he "may be" involved in "the
sadomasochistic scene." Davis had allegedly been holding parties every
two weeks for six months, and when the Hudson, N.H., police raided a
recent party they "discovered about 55 men and women in various stages
of undress along with whips, chains and other paraphernalia." But, she
said, he is her son: "I'm proud of him. But the other part of me wants
to spank him." (Hudson Sun) ...That may be what got him started in the
first place.
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