UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Former foster mom adopts man, 32

SAN DIEGO, March 15 (UPI) -- A 32-year-old San Diego man and his one-time foster mother are headed to a courtroom to make their family connection official.

Lisa Godbold said she and her husband spotted Maurice Griffin at an orphanage near their Sacramento home in the early 1980s and decided to make him a part of their family, CNN reported Friday.

"Interracial relationships weren't as common or accepted as they are today and the fact that Maurice was biracial, and we were a biracial family, made us a great profile, so to speak," Godbold said.

Griffin quickly connected with the couple and their two boys, who were younger than Griffin.

"We were best friends," Griffin said. "We'd run around, we did mischievous things and fun things. It was a good time."

However, a few years later, when the couple was two months away from officially adopting the then-13-year-old Griffin, he was taken away by foster care officials during a dispute about spanking.

"You can't spank foster children. Maurice very much wanted that," Godbold said. "We wanted him to feel like the rest of our kids. And there was a difference of opinion with some of the [child welfare] supervisors."

Godbold, whose husband died in 1998, reconnected with Griffin about six years ago via social media.

The pair are headed to a juvenile courtroom in San Diego Friday to allow Godbold to finally adopt Griffin.

"I just feel like this makes it official," Godbold said. "And we don't have to keep explaining it now."

Police: Man stole clothes from schoolgirls

SAGAMIHARA, Japan, March 15 (UPI) -- Police in Japan said a 40-year-old man faces charges for allegedly stealing girls' clothing from several high schools.

Investigators said Yasushi Uehara, who was arrested Feb. 23 for trespassing at a Kanagawa Prefecture school, was the subject of an additional arrest warrant Wednesday after police found a cache of girls' clothing at his Sagamihara home, Kyodo News reported Friday.

Police said Uehara admitted stealing the apparel -- including blazers, blouses, gym clothes and cheerleader uniforms -- from high schools in Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Shiga and Nara prefectures.

Titanic band leader's violin authenticated

DEVIZES, England, March 15 (UPI) -- The violin played by the bandmaster as the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean 1912 has been verified as authentic by experts in Britain.

The instrument -- which bandmaster Wallace Hartley used to lead the seven-piece band in hymns as the ship sank April 15, 1912 -- was recovered alongside its owner's body after about 10 days in the ocean, the New York Post reported Friday.

"When we first saw the violin, we had to keep a lid on our excitement, because it was almost as if it was too good to be true," said Andrew Aldridge of the Henry Aldridge and Son auction house, which worked for seven years to confirm the artifact's authenticity. "It is the most important artifact relating to the Titanic to ever emerge, and probably the most valuable."

The auction house said the current owner, who wished to remain anonymous, discovered the violin in his mother's attic in 2006. The violin was given to his mother, a musician, by a music teacher who obtained it from the Salvation Army, where it had been donated by the sister of Maria Robinson, Hartley's fiancee.

The auction house said the violin is currently being displayed in Devizes, England, and will later be moved to Belfast City Hall in Northern Ireland. The owner has not yet decided whether to sell the violin, Aldridge said.

TV station shows breasts for Women's Day

HARTFORD, Conn., March 15 (UPI) -- A Connecticut Fox affiliate apologized for a montage of close-up shots of women's breasts shown during a segment on the state's Women's Day.

The station, WTIC-TV, Hartford/New Haven, apologized Wednesday on its Twitter account after a news report earlier in the day featured anchor Erika Arias talking about the state's event while the broadcaster showed a montage of close-up shots of women's breasts as they walked down the street, the New York Daily News reported Friday.

Online newspaper The Huffington Post reported the Twitter posting attributed the "error" to a mishandling of file footage.

"Fox CT apologizes for today's file footage error. We will continue to recognize great contributions of women in CT and around the world," the Twitter posting said.

The Permanent Commission on the Status of Women in Hartford said it was "appalled at the level of sexism" displayed by the TV station.

"It is an insult not only to the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and to all who attended Women's Day at the Capitol ... but to women everywhere who are tired of being objectified," the group said in a statement.