Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Ad seeks sinners for Lent confessions

BRIDGEPORT, Conn., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Catholic leaders in Connecticut said they are trying to fill confessionals during Lent by taking out billboards seeking sinners wanting to shake their guilt.

Bishop William Lori of the Bridgeport Diocese said he took out a full-sized billboard urging Catholics to take advantage of the extended confessional hours being offered every Tuesday until the end of Lent, WFSB-TV, Bridgeport, reported Thursday.

"I wouldn't call it commercializing. It's evangelizing. The church has always used whatever media to get the message out and it's a great message," Lori said.

The bishop said many people are wary of confession.

"They get scared. It's hard to admit our sins. Sometimes people wonder what the reaction will be on the other side of the screen, but it's really about love, mercy, compassion," he said.

Suit: Welfare program unconstitutional

SEATTLE, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A Seattle woman's lawsuit against the state of Washington claims the Work First welfare program violates her right against "involuntary servitude."

Christal Wood, a University of Washington law school graduate who said she and her young daughter became poverty-stricken while she was studying for the bar exam, said she is suing the state under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution over the practices of the Work First program, KING-TV, Seattle, reported Thursday.

"Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime ... shall exist within the United States," the amendment states.

Wood said the $453 monthly benefit she gets from the program requires her to either spend 32 hours a week looking for work at a program office or serve an internship at a non-profit for the same amount of weekly hours.

Wood said she was able to find an internship at a law firm that would allow her to advance her career, but the position is ineligible for Work First because the firm is not a non-profit.

The case is scheduled to be heard next year in King County Superior Court.

Officials stumped by Va. cougar sightings

NORFOLK, Va., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Virginia wildlife officials said they are struggling to make sense of recent mountain lion sightings at the southern end of the state's Eastern Shore.

Glen Askins, a regional wildlife manager with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said at least three people reported seeing a cougar in late December and early January, but mountain lions have been extinct in the area for more than a century, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Thursday.

"None of it makes any sense," Askins, a regional wildlife manager with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "There hasn't been a mountain lion in that part of the world in well over 100 years."

Askins conceded a few mountain lions had been captured in Virginia in recent decades, but those were believed to be exotic pets that later were set free.

However, Ernie Coalter is sure the animal he saw near his home outside Capeville Dec. 30 and again two weeks later while driving with his wife was a mountain lion.

Randall Treadwell of Virginia Beach said he has also spotted a cougar twice, once in late December and again in late January.

"I'd never rule it out," Askins said of the possibility of a mountain lion presence in the area. "But you've got to understand. I've been chasing mountain lion reports for nearly 26 years, and I have yet to find any physical evidence that they still exist in the wild in Virginia. No bodies. No fresh kills. No hair. No scat. Nothing."

Film festival doesn't run, gives awards

ANKARA, Turkey, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Turkish officials are trying to unravel the mystery of a funded film festival that didn't take place yet gave a best music award to a film with no music.

The festival was billed as international to run in Ankara Dec. 14-20, allegedly organized by the Public Works Ministry, the Radikal reported Thursday.

Abdurrahman Celik, general manager for the Culture Ministry's movie copyrights board, told the daily newspaper the festival received $16,500 from the Ministry of Culture, but neither the jury members nor the award winners attended the event

"I am having the festival committee and their actions investigated," he said. "If there is a problem, the money will be taken back with interest."

Red flags were raised when the two directors of a film received plaques awarding them best music soundtrack although their film has no music, the Radikal said.

Professor Ruken Ozturk of Ankara University was supposed to be a juror, but said she refused as some films listed on the program didn't even exist.

"Everything about the festival was wrong," she said.