■UNITED STATES
Fruitvale brushes off fame
A baby sea lion who had a brief brush with fame when he wandered on to a busy San Francisco Bay area freeway last month has returned to the sea. The pup was released on Saturday near the Farallon Islands about 43km west of the Golden Gate Bridge. The sea lion was nicknamed Fruitvale for the Oakland neighborhood where he was found on June 22. He was rescued from Interstate 880 near the Oakland Coliseum after dozens of drivers reported the odd sight on the freeway’s center divider. He and other rescued sea lions rode on a fishing boat from San Francisco and released at a protective cove where sea lions are known to gather.
■UNITED STATES
Jackson butter statue axed
Michael Jackson, who has been memorialized around the country in events lavish and little, will not be sculptured in butter at the Iowa State Fair next month after all, despite plans announced earlier by the fair’s leaders. “We started hearing concerns from the public that he wasn’t an Iowan and didn’t have a connection to the fair,” said Lori Chappell, the fair’s marketing director, explaining why organizers ultimately put the question to a public vote. No such concerns were raised about Tiger Woods or Harry Potter, previous honorees. And in truth, Chappell said, the King of Pop and his four brothers did perform at the fair in 1971. But apparently the link was too tenuous [or discomforting] to a majority of those who cast votes last week in the fair’s admittedly “unscientific online poll.”
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