Watercooler Stories

Blue bigwigs urge bailout funds for porn

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- The porn business apparently needs a little boost, as two industry bigwigs are asking the U.S. Congress for some economic stimulus money.

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis announced Wednesday they sent a joint request to Congress asking for a $5 billion federal bailout to help the adult entertainment industry make it through the difficult economic times, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

"People are too depressed to be sexually active," Flynt said. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

Francis said the money for the $13 billion industry would be "just to see us through hard times."

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind," Flynt said. "It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."

Canada claims baby born in plane

OTTAWA, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A baby born to a Ugandan woman while on an international flight over Canada is the first airborne newborn ever granted Canadian citizenship, officials say.

The 6-pound baby, named Sasha, was delivered while aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Boston on New Year's Eve, the Ottawa Citizen reported Wednesday. The mother, whose name wasn't released, went into labor about 6 hours into the 8-hour flight, giving birth in Canadian airspace.

Alykhan Velshi, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, said under Canadian law almost anyone born in the country is a Canadian citizen and that a legal review concludes that includes those born directly above Canadian soil.

"Our government believes that Canadian territory -- and, as a result, the full reach of Canadian sovereignty -- extends to our airspace," Velshi said. "This means that a child born in Canadian airspace is a Canadian citizen."

Seal caught at Mass. fish hatchery

SANDWICH, Mass., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Massachusetts wildlife officials said a seal that found its way to the state fish hatchery was caught and released at a beach 20 miles away.

Officials said the female harbor seal, which experts estimate was born in May, was first spotted at about 7 a.m. Tuesday by Division of Fisheries and Wildlife employees making rounds at the Sandwich Hatchery, the Cape Cod Times of Hyannis, Mass., reported Wednesday.

The seal, which was released 20 miles from the hatchery at a beach in West Dennis, had to travel a long path of creeks to find the hatchery, officials said.

"It's either a very smart little seal or a very lucky little seal," said Katie Touhey, a spokeswoman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Cape Cod Stranding Network. "It looks healthy enough, pretty full in fact."

Woman plans to sue over knife left in head

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A Florida woman who claims part of a knife was left inside her head after she was stabbed three years ago said she plans to sue the hospital that treated her.

Chad Roberts, an attorney for Edith McQueen of Jacksonville, said his client went to the Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center in August 2005 after she was stabbed twice in the head during a random act of violence, WJXT-TV, Jacksonville, Fla., reported Wednesday.

"Somehow, someway, the knife was left in her head. She presented to the emergency room for treatment from the stab wounds to the head, and they were simply stitched up and Mrs. McQueen was sent home," Roberts said.

He said the knife fragment can be seen via X-ray lodged next to McQueen's jawbone.

"A simple X-ray is comparatively easy, inexpensive and accessible, and you would think that a stab wound would probably justify a $25 or $50 X-ray to make sure no foreign body, either dirt or gravel or some foreign object, remained in the wound site, but apparently that didn't happen," Roberts said.