Watercooler Stories

iPhone app investigates dates

BELLEVUE, Wash., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A Washington state company has unveiled an iPhone application allowing users to run background checks and net worth calculations for prospective mates.

Intelius, an information commerce company in Bellevue, said its iPhone application, Date Check, allows users to find information about their dates by plugging in their names or cell phone numbers, ABC News reported.

The program's Sleaze Detector checks criminal records for charges, including drug possession, assault and battery, drunken driving and sex crimes. Its Net Worth option searches information about property value and home ownership, as well as checking social networking sites for information on employment and education.

"Date Check is like having a private investigator in your purse," said John Arnold, Intelius co-founder and executive vice president of business development. "Letting a stranger into your life is a huge risk, and in the age of Internet anonymity, a simple online search isn't enough to tell you everything you need to know."

Pickens' wife sues city over pruning order

DEL MAR, Calif., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The wife of Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens said she is suing a California city over an order to prune plants on her back deck.

Madeleine Pickens, 62, filed a lawsuit Sept. 18 in Superior Court against the city of Del Mar when the city, enforcing its view ordinance, ordered her to prune the evergreen shrubs and palms on the back deck of her $35 million home in the city, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The city issued the order after neighbors Charles and Lynn Gaylord complained that Pickens' plants partially block their view of the coast.

"Apparently, they feel they're entitled to their view all the way down to La Jolla from their couch," Pickens said.

The lawsuit claims the city's enforcement of the view ordinance is "arbitrary, capricious, and unconstitutional" in "retroactively imposing landscaping requirements."

Official sends man 'offensive' e-mail

IOWA CITY, Iowa, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- An Iowa man says an e-mail he sent a county supervisor about his user profile on a newspaper's Web site was met with a vulgar response.

Yale Cohn of Iowa City, who said he had previously interacted with Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan on the Iowa City Press-Citizen's Web site, sent a private message to Sullivan on the site asking why he had set his user profile to private, the Press-Citizen reported.

"Are you afraid of accountability? Being on the public record? Being caught in a lie?" Cohn asked in the message, which he admitted was sharply worded.

However, Cohn said he did not believe his message was as "outrageously offensive" as the reply Sullivan sent him by e-mail -- a four-letter profanity followed by "you, 'Donny,'" referring to Cohn's Press-Journal user name.

"(People) should expect more from their elected officials," Cohn said.

However, Sullivan called his e-mail "appropriate to what I was confronted with."

The supervisor said he does not feel "obligated to sit back and take this crap from somebody I don't know."

Toothpick leads to harassment citation

CARLISLE, Pa., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Police in Pennsylvania said a man who allegedly flicked a toothpick onto the sidewalk outside of another man's home was cited for harassment.

Brian Taylor, 43, told Carlisle police Richard Cantor, 56, drove out of his way Friday morning to flick the toothpick onto the sidewalk in front of Taylor's home, The Patriot News of Harrisburg, Pa., reported.

Taylor told police Cantor makes frequent attempts to annoy him.

Cantor was cited for harassment, which carries a maximum fine of $300.