Watercooler Stories

FBI on Vegas mob museum bandwagon

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The FBI says it has joined the backers of a new museum in Las Vegas that will be devoted to the shenanigans of organized crime in the gambling mecca's history.

A spokesman for the bureau's Vegas field office told the Las Vegas Sun Monday that the FBI will provide input to make certain the planned Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement accurately portrays its role in fighting the mob.

FBI headquarters in Washington is pitching in by going through its archives and warehouses in search of interesting artifacts that could be added to the collection.

The project was spearheaded by Mayor Oscar Goodman, a lawyer who had his share of Mafioso clients over the years, and will likely unveil its logo and marketing plan as early as next month.

The Sun said fundraising was going along well with the help of former FBI Agent Ellen Knowlton at the helm of a non-profit group working with the city.

Olympian: Bikinis better for volleyball

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif., Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A three-time Olympian from California says the two-piece bikinis sported by many beach volleyball players are more than fashion, they're function.

Holly McPeak, 39, who brought home the bronze from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, said players are given the option of wearing a more modest one-piece uniform but that choice comes with some uncomfortable side-effects, ABC News reported.

"When you dive, the sand goes down the top and collects in the bottom," she said.

Fabrizio Rossini, press officer for the Federation Internationale de Volleyball, which officially governs Olympic volleyball, said most female beach volleyball players prefer the bikinis.

"It's a very tough sport," Rossini said in an e-mail. "Only the best athletes in the world can perform at this level, playing more than one hour, running and jumping on a complicated surface like the sand, under strong wind, heavy rain or the hottest conditions. If they didn't like their uniforms, the FIVB would have received tons of complaints for them, which is not the case."

Poll: Dems edge out GOP as drinkers

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A U.S. survey of Washington bartenders concluded that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to still be standing at closing time.

Of the 100 D.C. servers polled by a trio of spirits companies, 53 percent said Democrats were more likely to the last ones left compared to 45 percent who gave the nod to Republican revelers.

The parties were pretty much evenly split when it came who was more likely to roll in first to kick off happy hour.

Democrats have better pickup lines than their conservative colleagues, and Republicans are far more likely to take drinks straight up than Democrats, who are more likely to order something pink and frothy, the poll indicated.

The survey wasn't strictly scientific but the Minneapolis Star-Tribune found it worthy enough to publish Monday with next month's Republican National Convention on the horizon.

The bad news for Twin Cities barkeeps is the District's conclusions on tipping: 60 percent see Democrats as the best tippers compared to 38 percent who gave the nod to the GOP.

Teddy cam catches thieving caregiver

WALTON, England, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A British woman pleaded guilty to theft after a camera planted in a teddy bear caught her stealing money from a terminally ill woman she was hired to care for.

Yvonne Allen, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and was sentenced to six months imprisonment at the Community Justice Center after the family of Thelma Sampson, 75 -- who has been diagnosed with a terminal case of leukemia -- videotaped Allen stealing $120 from the Walton, England, great-grandmother in July, the Liverpool Echo reported Monday.

Sampson's son, Robert, said his sister, Emma, had suggested the teddy bear camera after the family became suspicious that the caregiver had been stealing money.

"The first day when the carer came in we realized £40 ($80) had gone missing," Robert Sampson said. "I went out to Tasker's and bought a surveillance camera and put it into the eye of a teddy bear and put it in my mum's bedroom."

"The next day the carer came back and after she left we saw that a further £60 ($120) had gone missing," he said. "When we checked the video we saw her go into the bedroom and take the money."