Watercooler Stories

Proposed Calif. divorce ban moves forward

SACRAMENTO, July 20 (UPI) -- A California opponent of the state's 2008 gay marriage-banning Proposition 8 said he is collecting signatures for a divorce-banning measure.

John Marcotte, 38, a Sacramento father of two, said he was inspired to create the 2012 California Marriage Protection Act by the pro-Proposition 8 campaigners claiming the 2008 referendum was intended to protect traditional marriage, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported.

"Don't stop gay people from getting married; stop straight people from getting divorced," Marcotte said of the idea behind his proposed ballot initiative, which would ban divorce but allow for religious annulments. "It's a much more direct way of achieving the goal of Prop 8."

Marcotte said he received permission from the California secretary of state's office last week to begin collecting signatures. He needs nearly 700,000 approved signatures by spring to get on the June 2012 ballot.

Errors in Mass. '1,000 places' list

BOSTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Massachusetts officials say the state's recently released list of "1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts" includes duplicates and closed venues.

Erik Turkington, a former state representative from Falmouth who led the effort to compile the list, released last week, said he now wishes he could "proofread one more time" to delete the duplicates, which reduce the total to 996 places, and replace several shuttered attractions, the Boston Herald reported.

"We said there would be some mistakes," he said. "But this is the best we could do. It's sort of a snapshot of the places people thought were important."

Turkington said the list includes about a dozen places listed in the wrong towns, plus several misspellings. The closed locations include the Baker Robinson Whale Oil Refinery in New Bedford and the African Cultural Center in Worcester.

"We did our best to verify everything," said Greg Liakos, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Cultural Council. "But we really did want this to be a democratic process, not an elite one."

Police: Vodka mocking led to shooting

SAN ANTONIO, July 20 (UPI) -- Police said an uninvited man who was ridiculed for his bottle of vodka shot and wounded a guest at a party in San Antonio.

Investigators said the host of the party on the West Side allowed the man to enter early Sunday to avoid a confrontation, but the party-crasher became angry when revelers mocked his bottle of Nuvo, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

An incident report said party guests told the man the "bottle looked like a lipstick cap, indicating that (he) is or was a homosexual, which made (him) upset."

Police said the man left the party and returned with a handgun, which he first fired into the air, then aimed shots at guests in the back yard.

One of the shots struck James Collins, 23, in the lower abdomen at about 2:15 a.m.

The suspect fled the party and Collins was taken to University Hospital in stable condition.

ACLU slams proposed council decorum rules

BOULDER, Colo., July 20 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union says the Boulder, Colo., City Council's proposed "rules of decorum" would constitute a violation of free speech.

The Boulder County chapter of the rights group sent a letter to the Boulder City Council saying the proposed rules -- which would ban those addressing the council from actions such as stripping, wearing masks, clapping and stomping their feet -- are an overreaction to a February incident involving a man stripping down to his boxer shorts, The Daily Camera in Boulder reported.

Chapter Chairman Judd Golden said the rules as proposed are wrought with "vague, overly broad and unduly restrictive limits on free speech and conduct by the public."

"Examples include use of the terms, 'personal,' 'impertinent,' 'contemptuous' and 'boisterous;' that no speech may be directed toward staff or a single council member; and a ban on obscuring the face, which would exclude women who wear a hijab or veil for religious reasons," Golden wrote.

The council is scheduled to vote on the rules Sept. 7.