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Saggy-pants spat gets man deplaned

CHICAGO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A man and his companion were thrown off an airliner in Chicago over the weekend after arguing with attendants over his severely sagging pants, the airline said.

The Chicago Tribune said the man, whose name was not reported, was kicked off a Spirit Airlines flight, bound for Orlando, Fla., at O'Hare International Airport.

The report said the man and the woman with whom he was traveling Sunday morning became "verbally abusive" and threatened physical harm to flight attendants. His pants were "excessively low," hanging below his buttocks, Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson said.

The couple gathered their things and left when law enforcement arrived, but they were booked on the next Spirit flight to Orlando. The original flight was delayed about 5 minutes, the Tribune said.

The airline's code requires customers to wear shoes and "adequate" clothing, Pinson said.

Canada extends life of penny coins

OTTAWA, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The Canadian government has given doomed copper pennies six more months to circulate so as not to disrupt the Christmas and holiday shopping season.

In the Conservative government's March budget, it was announced the coins would be phased out of circulation by this fall and the last pennies were stamped by the Royal Canadian Mint in May.

However, the federal finance ministry announced this week the one-cent coins won't start being retrieved by banks until February so as not to disrupt the December shopping season, the Toronto Star said.

The copper-coated steel pennies cost 1.6 cents each to produce and many Canadians discard them as trash. UPI has observed homeless people who beg in Toronto throwing pennies down sewers.

The government said there would be an $11 million dollar annual saving by abandoning the lowest-value coin.

Retailers will have to round prices up or down to the nearest 5-cent value when the pennies begin to disappear, while non-cash transactions will still include cents-value, the report said.

Trucking company: Spa billboard offensive

TROUTDALE, Ore., Aug. 1 (UPI) -- An Oregon trucking company filed a lawsuit alleging a billboard on its property for a resort and spa is offensive to its customer base.

Coast Truck Centers of Troutdale said workers for Meadow Outdoor Advertising, which has a longstanding agreement with the trucking company for its billboard, "surreptitiously" came onto the property outside of business hours and put up the ad for the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort & Spa, The (Portland) Oregonian reported Tuesday.

The suit objects to the lavender coloring of the billboard, the "artistic, cursive writing" of the ad and its promotion of "such a lavish, upscale and expensive resort." The lawsuit contends the billboard is offensive to its customer base.

The billboard company declined to comment.

'Christ' banner headed back to N.J. street

PITMAN, N.J., Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A controversial banner reading "Keep Christ in Christmas" is making its return to a New Jersey road, officials said.

Mark Pawlowski, the grand knight of the Pitman-based Knights of Columbus council Our Lady Queen of Peace 6247, said town officials have told the group they are on track to hang the banner over the intersection of Broadway and Second Avenue, where it has been posted every year for decades, the Gloucester County Times, Woodbury, N.J., reported Tuesday.

"One of the pillars of Knights of Columbus is community. We want them to know we're here and this is what we believe. We want to reach out to the community. It's important to keep Christ at the center of life," Pawlowski said.

Pawlowski said the group has two backup locations on private property in case they run into resistance from officials, but Mayor Russ Johnson said the city has no plans to block the banner.

The Wisconsin-based non-profit Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving the separation of church and state, unsuccessfully lobbied officials last year to have the banner moved to a church instead of being posted on public property.