UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Japanese monkey ad under fire

TOKYO, July 3 (UPI) -- Some African Americans residing in Japan said they were offended by an ad for a telecommunications company that featured a monkey running for U.S. president.

The TV commercial featured a suit-wearing monkey behind a podium holding a sign with the word "Change" on it, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

The ad was supposed to be a parody of the U.S. presidential election, the newspaper said.

Some African Americans said they felt the ad was offensive and contained racist undertones aimed at presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Some people have said the ad is being blown out of proportion because its producers were unaware of its potentially racist interpretation, the report said.

The newspaper said confusion over the ad may also stem from Americans' inability to understand the popularity of monkeys as cartoon and television characters in Japan.

Monkey on the loose in Florida

ORANGE PARK, Fla., July 3 (UPI) -- Florida wildlife officials said a monkey has repeatedly been sighted in Clay County but authorities have thus far been unable to capture it.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission said it has received photos of what is believed to be a Japanese or snow macaque in the OakLeaf Plantation community in the city of Orange Park, the (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union reported Thursday.

"Do not attempt to capture or trap this animal yourself," commission investigator Lt. David Lee said. "We also ask that no one attempts to feed it. The monkey has large canine teeth and can inflict a painful bite."

Lee said the agency has obtained a trap from the Jacksonville Humane Society that it plans to set in a wooded area away from residences.

"We're concerned about the monkey, to be sure, but right now public safety is at the forefront," Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Karen Parker said.

Mom allegedly hid weapons in stroller

UTICA, N.Y., July 3 (UPI) -- An upstate New York woman has been charged with concealing a small armory of weapons in her child's stroller.

Stephanie Wilson of Utica was arrested Tuesday after she got into an argument with another woman about money, the Utica Observer-Dispatch reported. Police say that she pulled a knife and then a sawed-off shotgun out of the stroller to threaten the other woman.

"She had the weapons because she had just been in an argument with an individual, not because she was going to an extreme to protect herself," said Utica Public Safety Commissioner Daniel LaBella.

By the time police discovered Wilson, the weapons were back in hiding. They allegedly found a total of two knives, the shotgun and a box cutter.

Wilson is being held without bail on three counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one of illegal weapons possession. The child in the stroller is now in the custody of a social service agency while an older child is being cared for by relatives.

Organic fertilizer upsets school neighbors

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 3 (UPI) -- An attempt by a California school district to make its athletic fields greener in both senses of the word by using compost fertilizer has upset the neighbors.

Residents around several schools in the San Jose Unified District have been complaining about the smell, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

"It is like Highway 5 going through Stockton's feed lot," said Mona Dawn Edwards, who lives near Rachel Carson Elementary School, named after a founder of the modern environmental movement.

While some people complain that the compost smells like cow manure, officials say it is only decaying lawn cuttings.

"There is no cow poo out there," Karen Fuqua, a spokeswoman for the district, said.

Fuqua said there were no complaints in previous years. She and other officials say that smoke and ash from the wildfires plaguing California may be holding the compost smell.

Most residents are willing to put up with the smell, which will dissipate once landscapers complete their work.

"It's not going to be there forever, and the end result will be nice," said Rebecca Auran, who lives across the street from the Carson school.