Wash. district rejects 'butt' billboards
KENNEWICK, Wash., May 27 (UPI) -- Officials in a pair of Washington counties voted to bar colon cancer awareness billboards bearing the slogan "What's up your butt?"
The Benton Franklin Health District board, comprised of Benton and Franklin county commissioners, voted 5-0 Wednesday to reverse an earlier decision allowing the boards to go up with the district's name on the advertisements, The (Kennewick, Wash.) Tri-City Herald reported Thursday.
The Yakima Health District, which would have paid for the billboards with money left over from its own identical campaign, said the ads will not go up without support from the Benton Franklin Health District.
The Benton Franklin board had voted unanimously April 20 to approve the boards but the decision was reversed after complaints from residents who said they found the content of the advertisements to be in poor taste.
'Loose living' monks being evicted
ROME, May 27 (UPI) -- A Vatican spokesman said about 20 concert-staging Cistercian monks are being evicted from an Italian monastery as part of a crackdown on "loose living."
The Rev. Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, said the monks at Rome's basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme are being transferred following reports they had run a hotel with a 24-hour limousine service and organized concerts featuring a former exotic dancer who became a nun, Britain's The Guardian reported Thursday.
"An inquiry found evidence of liturgical and financial irregularities as well as lifestyles that were probably not in keeping with that of a monk," Benedettini said. "The church remains open but the monks are awaiting transfer."
Benedettini said the move is part of Pope Benedict XVI's crackdown on "loose living" in the Catholic Church.
The basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme houses some of the Catholic Church's holiest relics, including nails and wood splinters said to be from Jesus' cross and thorns from his crown.
Boy, 10, captures 6-foot alligator
ROCKLEDGE, Fla., May 276 (UPI) -- Animal authorities in Florida said a 10-year-old boy who hooked a 6-foot alligator while fishing wrestled with the reptile and dragged it to his home.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers said Michael Dasher of Rockledge was fishing with friends Wednesday at a canal near Green Road and Fiske Boulevard when he hooked a 6-foot alligator, WKMG-TV, Orlando, Fla., reported Thursday.
Dasher said the alligator ran at him, so he struck it with sticks and was eventually able to climb on the animal's back and wrestle with it. The boy was able to drag the gator back to his home, where his grandfather, Benjie Cox, called authorities.
Cox said he explained to his grandson that he should not have confronted the alligator and wildlife officers told him the boy would have been arrested on a felony charge had he been older.
Wildlife officers said they were planning to release the alligator into the wild.
Suit seeks $15,000 for rose thorn prick
LAKE MARY, Fla., May 27 (UPI) -- A Florida man's lawsuit against Winn-Dixie Stores and a flower importer is seeking $15,000 in damages for a finger prick from a rose thorn.
Charles Imwalle, 41, of Lake Mary filed a lawsuit Monday against Winn-Dixie and Passion Growers LLC claiming he suffered pain, disfigurement, medical bills and lost wages after pricking his finger on a thorn from a rose he purchased from his local Winn-Dixie in February, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Thursday.
The suit states the roses should have been stripped of their thorns and the stems should have been wrapped more carefully. The litigation also claims anti-bacterial solution was not used in the display buckets.
Imwalle lawyer Paul Thompson of Altamonte Springs declined to comment on the case.
Sam Ferrara, founder of Passion Growers, said Imwalle's cut became infected and he blamed the roses, but the company sterilizes all of its flowers.
"We've been doing this 20 years," Ferrara said. "We've never, never had anything like this where anyone has gotten an infection by a thorn prick."
A Winn-Dixie spokesman declined to comment.
