The News

Bus drivers caught drag racing
SYDNEY (UPI) -- Australian bus drivers in Sydney have been caught on video drag-racing each other. Many of the races were in a bus tunnel under a shopping center, The Sydney Daily Telegraph reported. In one case, a security camera showed a pedestrian taking evasive action to avoid being hit by a bus heading for the tunnel entrance. The newspaper said it obtained an archive of documents on driver misbehavior that included e-mails. In one, a regional manager for the regional transit authority sent a private bus company a list of the rules drivers had been caught breaking. Part of the problem with the bus tunnel is that no one has been willing to take responsibility for it, the newspaper suggested. Police say they cannot monitor buses there for safety reasons. The drivers' union convinced the transit authority to remove some of the speed bumps from the tunnel on the grounds that they were causing back problems for drivers.

Aussies are like that!

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Smokers to face picture warnings
Images highlighting the dangers of smoking will be printed on all tobacco products sold in the UK by the end of 2009, under regulations being set out.
Manufacturers will have to start complying from October next year.
After a public consultation 15 images, including ones of diseased lungs, have been chosen to accompany text warnings about lung cancer and heart disease.
Anti-smoking campaigners welcomed the move but smokers' lobby group Forest said they were being "victimised".
Health Secretary Alan Johnson told BBC News there was evidence from other countries that the new images would help people quit.
"We do think it will help the number of people, who want to give up to smoking - the vast majority of smokers want to give up - and this will give them an extra push," he said.

Yeah, that's the problem.

We need pictures to tell us it's a bad thing to do!

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Lawn mower ignites home
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (UPI) -- No serious injuries were reported when a Johns Creek, Ga., home burned to the ground in a fire started by a lawn mower that exploded. Danny Fendley said the mower exploded Tuesday when he tried to start it, causing a blaze that leveled his home, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. "It's a goner," Fulton County Fire Lt. Gregory Chambers said of the home. "There's not even one brick standing." Fendley told the newspaper the trouble began when he was unable to start the mower in the garage of his two-story brick home. He removed the spark plug to check that it was in functioning condition and replaced the part, giving the pull chord one last tug. "Poof! Flames just flared up at me," he said. The fire worsened when Fendley's wife spilled gasoline while trying to get it away from the flames, the newspaper said. The couple and their pet cats escaped the blaze without any serious injuries.

Leave it to a guy to find a way out of a job!

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No Wonder That Water Bill Was So High
PHOENIX (AP) - A woman who spent four years trying to figure out why her water bills were exorbitantly high now knows why: Her lines were switched with a neighbor's.
Deanna Glener had endured unexpected water shutoffs and amazingly high bills since she moved into her Chandler home in 2003. Calls to the city water department brought no explanation or relief, so she finally called a plumber.
When he turned off her meter last week, he discovered the problem: Glener's water line was connected to her neighbor's meter and vice versa. The neighboring house has leaky sprinklers and a larger lot.
Jim Crocker of the city's water department said he has only seen three others in Chandler during 30 years of rapid growth and home building. And the city will make things right, he said, reimbursing the Gleners for years of overpayment
They'll also seek compensation from the neighboring home's owners, investors who live in Los Angeles, Crocker said.
Glener said the city promptly gave her credit for 348,000 gallons, the difference between her actual water use and her neighbor's.
"I won't have to pay a water bill for months," she said. She would like her neighbors to repair their sprinkler system, however, because it's flooding her rock yard.
The owners of the rental property, Opher Mizrahi and partner Robert Moskovits, were unaware of the mix-up. Mizrahi said he hasn't been contacted by Chandler officials and said it would be unfair for the city to bill him for past use.

She should have showered with a friend!

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Police Chief On Lunch Break Nabs Suspected Shoplifter
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Police Chief Delsa Bush stepped out of her office for a salad. She ended up nabbing a suspected shoplifter.
"It's no big deal," Bush said. "I'm a police officer first and secondly a chief and that's just what we do. It's been a while, but nevertheless, a cop is a cop. We have to intervene. It's just what happens."
Bush was driving past a Publix grocery store Monday morning on her way to get lunch when she saw a woman barging out past several employees who were accusing her of stealing wine.
The chief quickly pulled over and flashed her badge to Mary Richardson, 43, who continued to put up a fight, police said.
"I don't think at that point she would have cared who I was. She wanted to get away," Bush said. "I went behind her to stop her. She started flailing and fighting. I had to restrain her."
Bush said she held the woman's arms while she waited for backup.
"She (Bush) was never afraid to mix it up on the street," said Capt. Pat Maney. "In this job, from time to time, you have to go hands on with people."
Richardson was charged with larceny and resisting arrest. She was released Tuesday. No attorney was listed in her court record.
Richardson's husband, Todd, declined to comment when reached by telephone at the Smyrna, Ga., home address listed in her jail file. He said his wife was living in West Palm Beach, but declined to provide her cell phone number.

Now that is a working lunch!