Watercooler Stories

Moose plummets 150 feet onto highway

GIRDWOOD, Alaska, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- An Alaska state trooper says a moose fell about 150 feet from a cliff towering over a highway and nearly struck his car when it landed.

Trooper Howard Peterson said he was driving Feb. 2 on Seward Highway, a few miles north of McHugh Creek, when he saw a large, black object fall from the sky in front of him, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday.

He said he initially thought it was a boulder, but recognized it as an adult moose after he went in for a closer look.

"How would you say it -- moose-icide? He probably thought he was the only moose, with all those sheep around," Peterson said.

However, state wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott said moose suicide is an unlikely explanation.

"I'm sure the moose didn't jump," Sinnott said. "They occasionally have bad days like the rest of us. They slip and fall. Maybe he was reaching for a branch and the snow just gave way."

Bigamist spared jail after wives forgive

NORWICH, England, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A Norwich, England, court has decided not to impose a jail sentence on a convicted bigamist after both of the women he married said they have forgiven him.

Randolf Edge, 54, was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and 12 months of supervision after he admitted bigamy in Norwich Crown Court, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The court was told that Edge, 54, had began a relationship with Patience Carey, who is more than 33 years younger than him, in 2004 while he was still married to Edna Winkle.

"He told her he had been married 20 years earlier and all her family were present at the service where he declared himself to be single," prosecutor Frank Ferguson told the court.

However, Edge, who had married Winkle in 2002, had never received a divorce and was still married to her when he wed Carey in 2006.

A guest at Edge's wedding to Carey, who was also present at his previous wedding, tipped off the authorities that he had never been divorced.

The judge said the forgiveness of Edge's wives was a factor in deciding not to impose a jail sentence.

Edge and Carey have ended their relationship, and he is once again seeing his first wife, defense attorney John Morgans said.

Detroit named 'Most Miserable' city

DETROIT, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Detroit has topped Forbes' inaugural list of America's Most Miserable Cities, which cited the Motor City's high rates of violent crime and unemployment.

The list analyzed the 150 largest U.S. cities in terms of unemployment, personal tax rates, commute times, weather, crime and toxic waste dumping, Forbes.com reported Tuesday. The data was gathered by researcher Bert Sperling of Portland, Ore.

Stockton, Calif., came in second on the list, while Detroit neighbor Flint, Mich., came in third.

Rounding out the top 10 were New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Modesto, Calif., Charlotte, N.C., and Providence, R.I.

Forbes said Detroit was chosen as the list topper in part because of its high rate of violent crime -- 1,251 crimes per 100,000 residents annually -- and its 8.5 unemployment rate during the past three years.

Lawyer: dangerous dare victim's idea

MILWAUKEE , Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The lawyer for a man accused of making a woman violently ill by feeding her a caustic fluid argued in a Milwaukee court that she chose to drink it.

Joseph Reback, an attorney for Sean Kobin, said in his opening statement in Milwaukee County Circuit Court that the woman decided to take Kobin's dare to drink the fluid, which contained sodium hydroxide, after months of joking between the two about the stunts performed on MTV's "Jackass," the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Tuesday.

Reback said the dare was the woman's idea.

"She raises the thing of, 'Well, why don't we do this? I'll do it for $20,'" Reback said. "She takes him up on it. The rest is tragic."

However, prosecutor Holly Bunch said Kobin was liable for giving the caustic fluid to the victim.

"Any person in Mr. Kobin's place would have known that giving any amount of this substance to a human being could be fatal," Bunch said.

"It is only by virtue of a miracle or chance or incredibly good medical treatment that (the woman) is alive," she said.

Kobin could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted on a charge of recklessly endangering safety.