Watercooler stories

STATION CLEARED IN 'TATOO' COURT FLAP

An Iowa court has dismissed a suit against a Davenport radio station over call-letters tattooed on the foreheads of two listeners.

The Des Moines Register says a step-father and son, David Winkleman and Richard Goddard, sued the owners of station KORB and a well-known disk jockey, claiming the station did not follow up a promise made to them.

The pair claims the station said it would fork over $150,000 if they would put permanent tattoos on their faces with the station's call-letters.

The lawsuit claims the DJ who made the offer, Ben Stone, actually made the promise as a practical joke but told them otherwise.

COLLEGE REJECTS GOVERNOR'S PICK

Officials at Colorado State University have ignored a call from that state's governor and are still searching for a new college president.

Gov. Bill Owens made what the Denver Post says was a "controversial choice" when he named Marc Holtzman as his pick to head the prestigious school.

The university this week announced it won't accept Holtzman and has decided to choose between two of its own candidates, either University of Florida Vice President Michael V. Martin or the dean of Arizona State University's business school, Larry Penley.

The current head of CSU, Albert Yates, is stepping down after 12 years at the helm of the university. His term will expire at the end of June.

EAST COAST TEAM TO STAY WITH CONFERENCE

Officials at the University of Connecticut say they will keep the school's football team in the Eastern Conference -- at least for a while.

The Hartford Courant reports UConn contends indications the college would bolt from the conference by the 2005 season are not true. The publication says many thought that would be the year the football team would be "dressed up with no place to go."

One school official is quoted as saying the school could eventually leave the conference, but there are no immediate plans to do so.

UConn is scheduled to be voted in as a full-fledged member of the eight-team conference in two years.

COMPANY FINED FOR EXPERIMENTAL CROP

Officials of the Environmental Protection Agency have fined a Hawaiian farm products company for failing to tell it about the escape of some genetically modified corn pollen.

Pioneer Hi-Bred was fined some $72,000 for not using mandated notification procedures when some of the pollen escaped a research site on Kauai.

The Honolulu Advertiser says it was only last year the company, one of the nation's largest developers of corn hybrids, was fined nearly $10,000 to settle another EPA complaint alleging it broke environmental rules by planting an experimental corn that contained a gene designed to be a mild insecticide.

In settling that complaint the company agreed to quarantine all nearby plants and to test other strains for any contamination or gene-swapping.