Monday 02/23/09

Human Interest News — Posted on February 23, 2009

Egg alert
Some might find the warning label on boxes of The Happy Egg Co.’s free-range eggs redundant. The label reads: “Allergy Advice: Contains Egg.” That may seem self-evident for Britons surveying egg cartons at the grocery store, but the United Kingdom-based egg producer said the warning is simply a response to stringent labeling requirements from Great Britain’s Food Standards Agency. “Some retailers insist on this information within their packs as part of a due diligence procedure,” a spokesman for Happy Egg told the Daily Mail. “Any products deemed as potentially allergenic are included in this. A crazy world, but occasionally we have to do silly things to cover ourselves.”

Prison plan
All Matthew Robert Kiss wanted was to see his brother. Problem was, his brother was in a Michigan jail. Even worse: Kiss’ plan to arrange a meeting. The 24-year-old Imlay City, Mich., resident was arrested on Jan. 27 after he allegedly broke into a gas station. Officials say he smoked a few stolen cigarettes, drank some stolen beer, and then dialed 911 to turn himself in. Sheriff Tim Donnellon said Kiss told deputies he wanted to see his incarcerated brother. Authorities booked Kiss into jail on a felony breaking and entering charge-where he was specifically kept from seeing his jailed kin.

Birds of prey
Rain, sleet, snow: These are merely nuisances for Rockport, Mass., postal workers. Turkeys, on the other hand, are proving to be another story. The U.S. Postal Service was forced to stop delivery service to some homes on a local Rockport route when a flock of turkeys began aggressively pecking at one mail carrier. Rockport Post Office Delivery Manager Tim Russell said the flock of about 10 has been attacking postal workers and their trucks for about five months. In mid January, “people had to intervene so (the mail carrier) could get back to his truck,” Russell told the Gloucester Daily Times. “He was trying to wave a bag full of mail at the turkeys as he ran when some folks pulled over to shoo the turkeys away.” An official with the state Environmental Police has advised the post office to arm its postal workers with umbrellas to fend off the territorial turkeys, saying the large aggressive males will interpret an opened umbrella as an even larger, even more aggressive turkey.

Water guards
If given the choice, the U.S. Navy would like to keep both its dolphins and its sea lions. After two years analyzing public comments from concerned environmentalists, the Navy said in January it wants to continue using trained Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and sea lions to help guard the waterfront of Naval Base Kitsap in Bangor, Wash. The marine mammals are trained to intercept swimmers who might try to infiltrate the base, which hosts both surface ships and submarines. Dolphins are trained to find swimmers and release a beacon directly above. Sea lions are trained to attach tethers to interlopers who are then reeled in by Navy personnel. Environmentalists have been concerned that the waters of Puget Sound are too cold for the warm-water dolphins. However, the Navy’s proposal would limit the dolphins to just two hours of work at a time before they are transported back into warm-water pens.

High flyer
It wasn’t a bird or a plane that crashed into the roof of a Lutheran church in Germany on Jan. 25; it was a flying car. Local police say a young mechanic they identify only as “David E.” veered his out-of-control car off a road in Limbach Oberfrohna, Saxony, quickly encountered a small grassy hill that served as a ramp, and launched the car 36 feet into the air. The car then hit the church’s roof and lodged itself there, 23 feet high. The damage to the car: about $12,800. The damage to the church: about $89,000. The damage to the driver: a pair of broken legs and some bruises. David E. reportedly received a friendly visit in the hospital from Andreas Voegler, who told him: “I am the minister whose church you ‘visited.'”