UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

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Romney portrait joins gallery of also-rans

NORTON, Kan., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A portrait of Republican Mitt Romney, the 2012 U.S. runner-up, joined those of 59 other presidential election also-rans Tuesday at a gallery in a Kansas bank.

The GOP presidential nominee's 16-by-20 black-and-white portrait was hung Tuesday in the "They Also Ran Gallery" in the First State Bank in Norton, The Hays (Kan.) Daily News reported.

William Rouse, the bank's former president and owner, began collecting portraits of presidential losers after reading Irving Stone's "They Also Ran." The portraits hang along the bank's mezzanine, bank bookkeeper and gallery curator Lee Ann Shearer said.

Romney did not attend President Barack Obama's second inauguration Monday -- and likely didn't watch it on television, either, an aide to the 2012 Republican presidential nominee said.

Romney is the first losing nominee not to attend the inauguration since 1989, when Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis didn't attend George H.W. Bush's swearing in. However, all the losing candidates in that time held federal office at the time of the inaugurals, so they would have been in Washington for the occasion in any case, political analysts have noted.

The only exception was 1996 GOP nominee Bob Dole, who had left the U.S. Senate before losing to incumbent President Bill Clinton, but still attended Clinton's second inauguration.

Man holds sign seeking kidney donor

BEAVERTON, Ore., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- An Oregon man holding a sign at the roadside said he isn't seeking money -- he's looking for a kidney donor.

Earl Martinez, 28, of Beaverton said he was born with a genetic kidney disease that required him to receive dialysis treatments for four hours three times a week during the past 18 months, KOIN-TV, Portland, Ore., reported Tuesday.

"I definitely don't need money," Martinez said from the roadside. "I just need a kidney."

Martinez said the genetic disease, Alport Syndrome, prevents him from receiving kidney donations from family members.

"Need Kidney Donor," his sign reads.

"My insurance would cover all medical costs on my side and the donors side," Martinez said. "The donor would have no medical costs at all."

Police: Robbers foiled by cash register

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Springfield, Mass., police said three would-be robbers were foiled when they were unable to open the cash register at a Chinese restaurant.

Police Capt. Cheryl Clapprood said three masked men, one armed with a handgun, entered the Peking House Monday evening and the clerk fled into the back of the restaurant, The (Springfield) Republican reported Tuesday.

Clapprood said the men left empty-handed after they were unable to open the cash register.

Police responded to the scene shortly after 8 p.m. Clapprood said officers spoke to a group of men matching the descriptions of the suspects, but they were unable to tie them to the crime.

Hundreds of gallons of soda frozen to road

EXETER, Pa., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Police in Pennsylvania said hundreds of gallons of soda froze to the surface of a road in the collision of two tractor-trailers.

Investigators said the tractor-trailers collided around 12:40 a.m. on the Exeter Township side of Route 422's Schuylkill River Bridge and one of the trailers split open, spilling hundreds of gallons worth of 2-liter soda bottles onto the road, The Reading Eagle reported Tuesday.

Police said the soda instantly froze to the surface of the road and westbound lanes were closed for more than five hours while a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation crew cleaned up the wreckage and de-iced the highway.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

The drivers, Phillip Schmidt, 50, and Timothy Moyer, 63, were not injured, authorities said.