Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Small dog cleared of 'dangerous' label PATASKALA, Ohio, June 26 (UPI) -- An Ohio woman won a court battle to remove the "dangerous dog" classification from her 2-year-old bichon frise. Advertisement Shannon Mills, 43, of Pataskala, said she took the case to Licking County Municipal Court Monday after her dog, Hershey, was classified as dangerous under a law signed by Gov. John Kasich in February, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported Tuesday. The designation arose from a May 26 incident when a mother said her 12-year-old boy was bitten on the ankle and called the dog warden to ensure the canine had received its rabies shot. Mills was required to obtain special tags and a microchip as well as confine Hershey behind a fence and post signs warning of a dangerous dog being present. "We couldn't understand how it got as far as it did," Mills said. "We just felt like our case was not the reason this law went into effect." Advertisement Judge David Stansbury tossed the designation for Hershey after the boy and his mother failed to show up for the hearing and there were no photographs or other evidence of the alleged wound. Mills' neighbors also testified they had never had any problems with Hershey. The hearing was the first under the new law, which took effect May 22. Hidden cameras catch litterbugs JUNEAU, Alaska, June 26 (UPI) -- Authorities in the Alaskan capital said they have used hidden cameras to catch litterbugs at popular dumping sites around the city. Juneau police said since the start of spring, they have issued tickets to five people who were caught on camera abandoning trash at the sites along remote country roads, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday. "As far as I know we were able to identify everybody who dumped anything in that area," said George Schaaf, parks and landscape superintendent for the city and borough. Police said ticketing the litterbugs used to be difficult due to officers being unable to identify the culprits. "We get tired of digging through piles hoping to find a scrap of paper with somebody's name on it," said Bob Dilley, lead community services officer for the Juneau Police Department. Advertisement About 60 protest swearing rules MIDDLEBORO, Mass., June 26 (UPI) -- About 60 people gathered in a Massachusetts city to protest a bylaw allowing police to fine people who use profanities in public. Protest organizer Adam Kokesh, 30, a Marine veteran, led the crowd Monday in repeating curses and flashing their middle fingers to protest the Middleboro bylaw, which was passed 183-50 at a town meeting this month, The (New Bedford) Standard-Times reported Tuesday. "I'd like to open up this megaphone now as an open mic to let anybody who wants to take the stage join me here and give the town of Middleboro, Mass., a piece of their [expletive] mind," Kokesh told the crowd. "We disagree with the idea that the government should be regulating our speech in this way because it's an individual and family matter," said Middleboro resident Debbie Lafond, 38, who was accompanied at the demonstration by her 4-year-old son. "If they can regulate this, what's next?" Police said they did not receive any complaints about Monday's protest. They said the bylaw is still in the process of being approved by the state attorney general, so any fines would have had to have been issued under a 1968 bylaw, which requires a court appearance for obscene language. Advertisement Instant confessor pleads guilty GRESHAM, Ore., June 26 (UPI) -- Police in Oregon said a man who took $425 from a bank drove directly to police headquarters to confess and return the cash. Investigators said Raymond Carl Knudson, 50, who pleaded guilty Monday to bank burglary, entered the Bank of America branch in Gresham April 6 and gave a note to a teller reading, "Give me all the money no marked bills no die pack," The (Portland) Oregonian reported Tuesday. Knudson then drove directly to the Gresham Police Department with his pilfered $425 and confessed to the crime. Police said Knudson told them he took the money because he had viewed "Inside Job," a documentary about the causes of the 2008 global financial crisis. Knudson faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 10.
