Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Weekly coin deposits a tip-off

ST. PAUL, Minn., Oct. 10 (UPI) -- A parking meter reader's explanation for why he's been depositing bags of coins weekly for about a year may not add up for police in St. Paul, Minn.

Vincent Carl Schettner, 63, allegedly had given different reasons for depositing hundreds of dollars in coins each week into his personal account at the City and County Credit Union, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Wednesday. Then a teller spotted him on the street doing his job emptying meters and she told an off-duty police officer working at the credit union, the newspaper said.

Schettner, who has worked for the city for 37 years and makes $21 per hour, is under investigation but has not been charged. A message left at his home was not returned late Tuesday, the Pioneer Press said.

Stripper's injury compensation upheld

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- An Indiana appellate court says a stripper injured while pole-dancing was entitled to a previous workers compensation award.

The state Court of Appeals found that the Indiana Worker’s Compensation Board had been correct when it awarded Angela Hobson $10,400 for a 2001 injury she suffered while twirling on a pole at Indianapolis' Shangri-La West, the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette said Wednesday.

Hobson had filed a workers' compensation claim in 2003 after discovering she had a herniated disc in her cervical spine from her stripping performance.

The strip club, which did not have workers' compensation insurance when the injury occurred, had appealed the Compensation Board's ruling in an attempt to avoid the compensation award.

The newspaper said not only did the strip club lose its appeal, but the state court tack on 5 percent under a mandatory state law regarding such appeals.

Bookmakers would put money on environment

OSLO, Norway, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Environmentalists being considered for this year's Nobel Peace Prize are odds-on favorites to take home the award, Norwegian bookmakers concluded.

NordicBet bookmakers have former U.S. Vice President Al Gore as a 4-1 favorite to win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, the same odds they give Irena Sendler of Poland, Aftenposten reported Wednesday.

Sendler was nominated for saving 2,500 Jewish children during World War II. Gore is being considered for the honor for his best-selling book and Academy Award-winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth."

Other top favorites among the odds makers are environmental activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier and Indian climatologist Rajendra Pachauri.

Betsafe.com made U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change leader Rajendra Pachauri its favorite for the prize. The online betting site also has Watt-Cloutier and Gore as top candidates to accept the award when it is presented Friday, the Norwegian newspaper said.

Thief apparently couldn't resist nude rug

MCMINNVILLE, Ore., Oct. 10 (UPI) -- A handmade rug featuring a nude self-portrait of an artist was stolen this week from Oregon's Linfield College by an unknown thief, a report said.

The McMinnville (Ore.) News-Register reported Tuesday that artist Tamera Brewer's unusual work, "the sexy sex: all nude revue rug one," vanished from the college's James F. Miller Fine Arts Center this week.

Gallery Director Cris Moss said he feels terrible about Monday's theft of the extremely personal artistic item.

"I'm just distraught about it," Moss said. "The fact is the artist trusted us with it. It's very personal."

Bremer was equally distraught about the latch-hook rug's disappearance, saying the curvaceous work of art took her a year to create.

"I don't understand why anyone would want to steal something like this," she said. "Whoever did it doesn't understand what they've done. It's my life's work."

Local police told the newspaper a college student may have taken the risque rug, as an erotic wall-hanging for their dorm room.