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'Redneck' couple wed in mud pit

PALATKA, Fla., May 2 (UPI) -- A pair of Florida mud-bogging enthusiasts married at the same mud pit where the groom proposed a year ago.

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Kodie Umphenour, 24, and Carina Pasco, 31, were wed Saturday at the Hog Waller Mud Bog & ATV mud pit in Putnam County in a ceremony described on the invitations as "Our Big Ol' Muddy Redneck Wedding," The St. Augustine Record reported Wednesday.

The wedding was preceded by several minutes of mud tossing among guests and independent visitors to the mud pit. ATV riders were asked to silence their engines during the ceremony.

The wedding blended the families of Umphenour, who has two children, and Pasco, who has four.

Umphenour said the wedding doubled as a honeymoon.

"I've got to get back to work Monday," he said. "This is our honeymoon."

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Doctor in audience saves dancer

NEW YORK, May 2 (UPI) -- A New York doctor rushed to the stage and saved the life of a 22-year-old dancer whose heart abruptly stopped in mid-performance.

Andrew Wollowitz, a director of emergency medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, said he heard someone call for the show to be stopped and a 911 call to be made when the male dancer, a former student of Wollowitz's wife, collapsed on stage during an April 19 show at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

Wollowitz said he rushed to the stage and soon discovered the man had no pulse.

"He wasn't alive, so I started compressions -- 80 to 100 a minute," Wollowitz said.

He said the dancer briefly started breathing on his own, but he had to start CPR again when his condition again worsened.

Firefighters soon arrived and used a defibrillator to shock the dancer's heart.

Wollowitz said the man would have risked brain damage after a few more minutes without oxygen.

The man was taken to Bellevue Hospital and Wollowitz rode along in the ambulance to advocate for his patient.

The dancer, who asked not to be named, said he was thankful Wollowitz was in the audience that night.

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"I feel very grateful he was in the audience," he said. "I don't know where I'd be if he wasn't there."


Traffic stop prevents drug deal

SARASOTA, Fla., May 2 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said they pulled over a speeding vehicle and discovered two alleged drug dealers on their way to sell marijuana.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said a deputy pulled over a vehicle driving 63 mph in a 45 mph zone around 1:20 a.m. April 12 and smelled the odor of burnt marijuana in the car, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported Wednesday.

Deputies said the driver, Kristi Dane Clark, 23, of Lakeland, was found to be concealing a .22-caliber handgun and three bags of marijuana in her bra. A search of the vehicle resulted in the discovery of more bags of marijuana.

Investigators said the Clark and her passenger, Michael James McCoy Jr., 22, were on their way to meet a pair of customers, who told deputies they had planned to purchase $200 worth of marijuana.

Clark was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possession with intent to sell cannabis and possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime. McCoy was charged with possession with intent to sell cannabis.

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Florida school visitors 'posed no threat'

KEY WEST, Fla., May 2 (UPI) -- FBI officials said at least four people who asked to tour Florida schools, saying they were teachers from Italy, were found not to pose a threat.

School officials in the Florida Keys said two men asked for a tour of Marathon Middle/High School on April 24 and they were allowed to look at a classroom before leaving, and the same men visited Horace O'Bryant Middle School in Key West but they were turned away by the front office, KeysNet.com reported Wednesday.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office said some employees at the Marathon school were uncomfortable with the visit, so they reported it to authorities. The sheriff's office soon discovered Glynn Archer Elementary in Key West, Key Largo School and the Treasure Village Montessori in Islamorada had also been visited by "several people with foreign accents."

Staff members at Treasure Village Montessori said it was two women who visited their school.

The sheriff's office contacted the FBI, which soon announced the school visitors "posed no threat and were there for a legitimate purpose."

Investigators did not elaborate on the purpose of the visits.

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