Copyright 2008 by Chuck Shepherd.  All rights reserved.

Lead Story

* The divorce of Anton Popazov and his wife Nataliya is about to
go through, but the couple are still contractually committed to the
Moscow State Circus, where their act includes Nataliya's shooting
an apple off of Anton's head with a crossbow.  The Times of
London asked Anton during a show in Sheffield, England, in
February whether he was afraid.  "I still trust her because Nataliya
is very professional," he said.  "[T]he show must go on." [The
Times (London), 2-12-08]

Can't Possibly Be True

* Two Park Vista High School girls who admitted that they swiped
money off the table of a Girl Scout selling cookies at a supermarket
in Boynton Beach, Fla., in January told WPBF-TV later that they
had no remorse.  Said one (on camera):  "We went through all that
effort to get [the money].  We got all these charges [against us],
and we had to give the money back.  I'm kind of pissed."  Added
the other, "I'm not sorry.  I'm just pissed that I got caught."  The
victim's mother said that the girls returned to the supermarket the
next day and taunted the little girl. [WPBF-TV (West Palm Beach),
2-1-08]

* In February, a court in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, sentenced
Briton Keith Brown, 43, to the standard four-year-minimum term
in prison for violating the country's extreme "zero tolerance" drug
laws, even though the only drug found was a "speck" (0.003
grams) of cannabis caught in the tread of his shoe and discovered
only because the Dubai airport uses sophisticated drug-detection
equipment.  Previously, a Canadian man was imprisoned for
"possession" of three poppy seeds (from a bread roll he had eaten
at Heathrow Airport in London) that had fallen into his clothing as
he prepared for a flight to Dubai. [The Independent (London), 2-
20-08]

* Roy Chamberlin, 29, has been charged with 1,100 criminal
counts in connection with what Pennsylvania police said was a
series of nearly 200 rapes against a married woman in Potter
Township (and had his first court hearing in January).  According
to the police report, the woman said she was too terrified ever to
report the crimes to police or to her husband.  Once, said the
husband, he came home unexpectedly about 9 a.m. and found the
bedroom door locked and a struggle occurring inside (hearing "Get
off me!" and "You're hurting me!").  After the husband pounded
on the door, Chamberlin walked out, leaving the wife "crying
hysterically and trembling."  However, the husband said that his
wife declined to explain the situation and that he didn't question
her (not wanting to upset her further, since she had recently had
surgery). [Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.), 1-9-08]

Inexplicable

* In January, Derry, N.H., Town Administrator Gary Stenhouse
told Thomas Souhlaris that he'd have to move his sausage stand
because he was trespassing on city property.  Souhlaris had set up
the stand at the town's garbage transfer station, and Stenhouse said
there might be municipal liability issues, especially if other food
vendors followed Souhlaris and set up stands at the dump.
[WCVB-TV (Boston)-AP, 2-1-08]

* In January, Shafkat Munir, 26, was sentenced to 12 months in jail
for an attempted hoax in Lancashire County, England, in 2007 after
receiving three speeding tickets.  Rather than pay the fines, totaling
the equivalent of about $350 (and retain his license, since his
record was otherwise clean), Munir created his own death
certificate to get the charges dismissed.  Said an official, "I have
never known anyone to go to such lengths [over speeding tickets]."
The judge also revoked Munir's license. [BBC News, 1-21-08]

Unclear on the Concept

* On November 30th, for a social justice project at Cheektowaga
Central High School (Buffalo, N.Y.), students spent an 18-degree
night in cardboard boxes on the school's lawn, in supposed
solidarity with the area's homeless population.  According to a
Buffalo News report, the suffering students brought DVD players
to watch movies inside their boxes, ate donated Dunkin Donuts
and pizzas, and ducked into the school's heated gym whenever
they got too cold or bored. [Buffalo News, 12-6-07]

The Classic Middle Name (all new)

* Arrested, and awaiting trial for murder:  Bobby Wayne Ledbetter,
Northport, Ala. (February); Michael Wayne Adams, Fairfax
County, Va. (February); David Wayne Cole, West Nottingham, Pa.
(October).  Confessed to murder:  Calvin Wayne Inman, Houston,
Tex. (February).  Sentenced for murder:  Jerrell Wayne Stanley,
Orange, Tex. (October).  Executed for murder:  Michael Wayne
Richard, Huntsville, Tex. (September).  Already serving time for
other crimes but expected to be charged with as many as nine
murders based on recent DNA evidence:  Timothy Wayne Krajcir,
Cape Girardeau, Mo. (January).
Ledbetter: [Tuscaloosa News, 2-11-08]
Adams: [Washington (D.C.) Examiner, 2-12-08]
Cole: [Daily Local (West Chester, Pa.), 10-8-07]
Inman: [San Francisco Chronicle-AP, 2-18-08]
Stanley: [Beaumont Enterprise, 10-18-08]
Richard: [Houston Chronicle, 9-26-07]
Krajcir: [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12-14-07]

Names in the News

* Arrested in October for vehicular assault in Tacoma, Wash.,
(after which he told a police officer that he had "definitely had a
few"): Mr. Glen Alan Casebeer.  The victim of a vehicular assault
in McMinn County, Tenn., in January (in which his wife allegedly
tried to run him over):  Mr. King Money Tarzan Jenkins.  Arrested
for DUI near Burleson, Tex., in January (after crashing into a
house):  Mr. Bryan Scott Moron.  Falsely accused of kidnaping a
17-year-old girl in Oshkosh, Wis., in November:  a previously
convicted sex offender, Mr. Pheuk Kue. [Tacoma News Tribune,
10-2-07] [WRCB-TV (Chattanooga), 1-11-08] [Fox News, 1-8-08]
[Sheboygan Press, 11-17-07]

Creme de la Weird

* In February, on "signing day," when hundreds of highly-recruited
high school football players announced which colleges they would
attend, lineman Kevin Hart of Fernley (Nev.) High School met
local reporters with his coach at his side and dramatically chose the
University of California over the University of Oregon.  However,
when the reporters called those college's coaches for reactions,
they learned that Hart had not been meaningfully recruited by
either school, or any other prominent one.  Hart explained two days
later that he passionately wanted to play at a major school and that
when no offer came, "I made up what I wanted to be reality."  Hart
did not elaborate on what conceivable useful outcome he could
have expected from the ruse. [Lahontan Valley News (Fallon,
Nev.), 2-6-08]

When These People Vote, Theirs Count as Much as Yours

*  During the media hoopla on February 5th, about that day's 24-
state "Super Tuesday" "national primary" for president,
enthusiastic voters called election offices for the addresses of their
polling places so they could run down and vote.  400 called in
Virginia (but its primary would be the following week); 1,000
called in Dallas, Tex. (its primary would be a month later);
"hundreds" called in Florida (its primary was the week before).  At
least six people were lined up to vote by 6:30 a.m. at one precinct
in Milwaukee (Wisconsin's primary would be two weeks later).
[MSNBC-AP, 2-5-08] [Dallas Morning News, 2-6-08] [Orlando
Sentinel, 2-5-08] [WTMJ Radio (Milwaukee), 2-5-08]

Recurring Themes

* It's not quite the 2006 News of the Weird story of the
kindergarten-bound Broward County, Fla., boy diagnosed with
gender identity disorder at age 5, but there will apparently still be
steep problems for parents, teachers, and students in Highlands
Ranch, Colo., when a second-grade boy soon enters third grade as a
girl.  One student's parent said there'll surely be an issue of, "Why
are you in a dress this year when you were in pants last year?"
Among the school's problems:  building unisex restrooms and
preventing bullying.  [WUSA-TV (Denver), 2-7-08]

Thinning the Herd

* A 39-year-old man fell to his death while trying to slide down a
bannister in the Hollywood & Highland Center mall in Los
Angeles in January.  And three more people died recently as a
result of disrespecting railroad tracks:  a 42-year-old man, hit by a
train on tracks near Burlington, Ill., while listening to his iPod
(September); a 31-year-old man, hit by a train in Berkeley, Calif.,
while talking on his cell phone (November); and another man, hit
by a train in San Leandro, Calif., also while on his cell phone
(December). [Sacramento Bee-AP, 1-13-08] [Chicago Tribune, 9-
10-07] [KCAL-TV (Los Angeles), 11-16-07] [San Francisco
Chronicle-AP, 12-5-07]

     Thanks This Week to Tom Barker, Kathy Schulz, Pam
Leah, Charles Onley, Dana McDonnell, Charles Gongre, Mindy
Cohen, Ted Cushman, Chris Douthitt, Rhett Walla, Teresa Hardy,
Ambeur Johnson, Alan Magid, Randy Johnson, Stephen Taylor,
Jeff Ledford, Jason Struthers, Mike Mendenhall, Richard Sabel,
David Melcher, and Bill Schoenbart, and to the News of the Weird
Board of Editorial Advisors.

                  * * * * *
     Visit Chuck Shepherd daily at
http://NewsoftheWeird.blogspot.com (or
www.NewsoftheWeird.com / WeirdNewsT...@Yahoo.com / P.O.
Box 18737, Tampa FL 33629).