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IRS agent pleads guilty to tax charge

LOS ANGELES, March 31 (UPI) -- An Internal Revenue Service official has pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Jim Liu of Diamond Bar, Calif., has pleaded guilty to filing a tax return in 2002 that claimed he suffered a loss on a real estate transaction when in fact he made a profit, a government statement said.

He faces up to three years in federal prison.

Liu is an IRS revenue agent and conducts audits of taxpayers.

The statement said Liu sold property in Pomona, Calif., for a profit of more than $48,000, but claimed he had suffered a loss of more than $4,200. The misstatement cost the federal government of $14,642.88.

Does pennies for pizza campaign break law?

COPPELL, Texas, March 31 (UPI) -- A pizza chain may be violating U.S. laws with a promotion involving advertising stickers on pennies.

CiCi's Pizza, which has its headquarters in Coppell, Texas, and operates 650 restaurants, mostly in the eastern United States, started its Penny Picker Up campaign Monday, the Jacksonville, Fla., Times-Union reported. The company distributed a total of 1 million pennies to stores with stickers redeemable for food.

A spokesman for the U.S. Mint declined to comment on whether the stickers violate laws against defacing U.S. currency or using it for advertising, saying any decision to prosecute would be up to the Justice Department.

Tom Koenigsberg, CiCi's head of marketing, said he believes the campaign is legal because the stickers are redeemable. Any pennies returned to the stores are to be donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters, Advertising Age said.

Couple begin adventure in tiny plane

LANTANA, Fla., March 31 (UPI) -- A German couple have departed from a Florida airport for a three-year adventure in a tiny kit-built airplane that can only carry 200 pounds of luggage.

Experienced pilot Detlef Heun and fiancee Liliana Tagliamonte, who recently obtained her pilot's license, took off Monday from Lantana Airport on trip that is to include a wedding in the Bahamas, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Tuesday.

Heun said the plan is to fly the small plane, which the couple purchased as a kit and assembled over the course of three years, from island to island in the Caribbean before turning around in Brazil to turn their attentions to the north.

"Every small space is used," Heun said of the aircraft. "We're sitting here on our clothes and sleeping bags. There's not much room for anything else. We can only carry 200 pounds."

The couple said they packed tents and a small stove but plan to stay in other people's homes during their tour as a cost-cutting measure.

"It's one thing to jump from one international airport to another, (but we're) landing at the smaller airstrips and spending time in the communities," Heun said. "All you know are the fuel station and the customs personnel at the (international airports). You can't get to know anything about the people and their cultures."

Resonant voices may turn on plants

SURREY, England, March 31 (UPI) -- The Royal Horticultural Society says it is taking a leaf from Britain's Prince Charles, conducting a study of how the human voice affects tomato plants.

The Times of London reports the experiment will involve plants listening to different recordings via MP3 players attached at root level. Control plants will not be required to listen to anything.

Charles has been promoting the importance of talking to plants for two decades.

The society's garden in Surrey will hold auditions for voices to record Shakespeare and a piece about bloodthirsty monster plants apparently selected to buoy up the plants' spirits.

Colin Crosbie, a gardens superintendent who came up with the idea, speaks encouragingly to plants, but also threatens them.

"Sometimes it's gentle encouragement, but there are times with a plant when you say, 'If you don't do something, this is the end. You are not producing flowers. I'm very sorry, it's going to be the compost heap.' It's amazing how they respond," he said. "People say I'm slightly mad, but I do believe in it, I really do."

The experiment will determine what type of voice plants like best. Trevor Cox, professor at the University of Salford, told The Times low-frequency sound might vibrate the plant to positive effect. "My recommendation would be to impersonate Barry White, or some Buddhist chanting at low frequency."