Watercooler Stories

Snowmen protest taxes in Michigan

LANSING, Mich., Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A Michigan activist group claimed responsibility for a series of snowmen protesting tax policies on the lawn of the state Capitol.

Common Sense in Government, a mid-Michigan group affiliated with the Tea Party movement, built dozens of snowmen at the Lansing Capitol and gave them signs with messages including: "Raise New Taxes? When Hell Freezes Over," the Detroit Free Press reported.

"If the legislators feel a chill in the air, it isn't just because it is February in Michigan. People are watching closely and won't stand for any new taxes," said Wendy Day, a spokeswoman for the group.

Cliff-top garden collapses days after sale

TORQUAY, England, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Authorities in Britain said a cliff-top house lost a bit of land in a rockslide mere days after the home was purchased for $231,000.

Police and Coast Guard investigators said Ridgemont House, which overlooks Oddicombe Beach in Torquay, England, lost a "substantial" amount of land when more than 5,000 tons of rock from beneath the home's garden plummeted to the ground below, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"It happened in the middle of the night so no one saw how bad it was until daylight. It was a huge cliff fall," a neighbor said. "Ridgemont House lost a large chunk of its land -- it was only sold last week. The timing was pretty terrible."

Fox & Sons of Southampton, England, which handled the auction of the house, said all bidders were informed of the potential for structural problems on the cliff. The latest owner, who was not named, is said to be a London property developer.

A Torbay Council spokesman said Oddicombe Beach has been temporarily closed due to fears of further rock falls.

Man bulldozes home ahead of foreclosure

MOSCOW, Ohio, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- An Ohio man said he made good on his threat to tear down his home before allowing his bank to foreclose on the property.

Terry Hoskins of Moscow said RiverHills Bank refused a $170,000 offer to pay off the money owed on the $350,000 mortgage, with officials saying they could make more money from a foreclosure sale, so he gave the bank an ultimatum for the final fate of his house: "I'll tear it down before I let you take it," he said.

"When I see I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone decides they want to take it -- no, I wasn't going to stand for that, so I took it down," Hoskins said.

Hoskins said he used a bulldozer two weeks ago to raze the home he built decades ago.

"As far as what the bank is going to get, I plan on giving them back what was on this hill exactly (as) it was," Hoskins said. "I brought it out of the ground and I plan on putting it back in the ground."

Hoskins said he is also considering bulldozing his business in Amelia, Ohio, which is scheduled to go up for auction in March.

RiverHills Bank declined to comment.

School completes porn probe

SILVER CITY, N.M., Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A New Mexico school superintendent said he has completed an investigation into a seconds-long porn clip that was inadvertently shown to high school students.

Officials said students at a Cliff High School history class in Silver City were shown a film by a substitute teacher about the Paris 1919 Treaty of Versailles, but the beginning of the tape contained a few seconds of footage depicting two nude women, one of whom was masturbating, the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News reported.

Silver Consolidated School District Superintendent Dick Pool said the tape shown Feb. 11 was a program recorded from the History Channel and had apparently been taped over pornographic materials. Pool said the teacher who left the tape to be played by the substitute was shocked at the pornographic content and had shown the tape previously without the explicit materials becoming visible.

Pool said attempts to play the tape in several VCRs found the pornographic clip could only be seen on some machines. The superintendent said his investigation is complete but declined to say what action was taken against the teacher.

"As far as the district is concerned, the investigation is complete," he said. "Anything further, if it is to come, will come from the Department of Education."