Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe IMPERSONATOR MAY BE REAL PRISONER James A. Ross has impersonated a firefighter, a funeral director, a police officer, a paramedic, a Marine and a federal agent. Advertisement Now he may be a real prisoner for impersonating a plain clothes detective drinking in an Edwardsville, Ill., bar while wearing a badge. If convicted, he faces three years in prison, the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat reports. The 21-year-old Ross, of Wood River, Ill., has been to prison twice. Once was for posing as a Marine at a funeral of a 19-year-old Marine. As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors dismissed three counts of impersonating a funeral director. DEMOCRATS WOULD RAISE SPENDING The National Taxpayers Union Foundation has calculated that all of the Democratic hopefuls for president would worsen the federal budget by billions of dollars. The Washington, D.C., organization systematically added up each of the Democratic contenders' agendas using campaign and third-party sources, such as the Congressional Budget Office. The group finds the agenda of any candidates, if enacted in full, would raise annual federal spending by a minimum of $170 billion -- by Joe Lieberman -- and as much as $1.33 trillion -- by Al Sharpton. Advertisement John Kerry would raise spending by $265 billion, John Edwards by $199 billion, Howard Dean by $223 billion and Wesley Clark $220 billion. If the Bush tax cut is repealed it would not offset the additional spending proposed, the report says. MACAW SWEARS AT HITLER AND NAZIS Charlie, a blue macaw bought by Winston Churchill two years before the outbreak of World War II, is believed to be 104 years old -- the oldest parrot on record. His owner, Peter Oram, bought him in 1965 to be in his pet shop in England, but he had to take him home because the bird was offending customers by swearing, the BBC reports. Churchill apparently told the bird what he thought of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and as a result the macaw still shouts a string of obscenities aimed at Hitler and the Third Reich. BIGGEST NICKEL SLOT WINNER Las Vegas cab driver Robert Baker won $3.2 million at a Las Vegas video slot machine at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino. Baker hit the jackpot on an Elvira, Mistress of the Dark Video Slots machine -- the largest hit ever on a nickel slot machine -- setting a new world record. Advertisement Baker says he will continue to drive his cab. "I need to take some time to figure out what I'm going to do from this point and going about my life as usual seems like the best way to keep my feet on the ground," Baker says in a statement. He says the only thing he knows for sure is that he'll fulfill a lifelong dream to buy a Lincoln Town Car.
