■UNITED STATES
Elderly thief sent to prison
An 80-year-old woman with a criminal record stretching back to 1955 has been sentenced to three years in state prison for ransacking and stealing cash from a medical office. Doris Thompson thanked a judge on Wednesday for not sending her to Los Angeles County jail, which she doesn’t like, and said she deserved a longer sentence, the Daily Breeze newspaper reports. She also told the judge, “God bless you.” State records show Thompson, who has used 27 aliases, has repeatedly been arrested during the past 55 years, mainly for theft.
■UNITED STATES
Zombies have speech rights
An appeals court in Minneapolis, Minnesota rule on Wednesday allowed a group of zombies — or rather, several protesters costumed as such — to press ahead with their lawsuit against police who arrested them for disorderly conduct. The appeals court overturned a lower court in finding that the group of seven “zombies” had been wrongfully detained during a 2006 shopping mall protest against consumerism. Made up as zombies, the plaintiffs had lurched through the mall urging shoppers to “get your brains here” and “brain cleanup in aisle five.” The judges ruled the police lacked probable cause to arrest the demonstrators for disorderly conduct but upheld the lower court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims of “false imprisonment.” The decision allows the protesters to revive their lawsuit against Minneapolis and its police.
■UNITED STATES
Beauty riles Beverly Hills
The mayor of Beverly Hills is outraged over a Miss USA contestant who spoke out against same-sex marriage and said she represented the city in the pageant. Mayor Nancy Krasne said on Wednesday that 23-year-old Lauren Ashley, Miss California USA, lives in Pasadena and doesn’t represent Beverly Hills in any capacity. Krasne said in a statement that she was shocked to see statements made by a beauty pageant contestant under the name of Beverly Hills, “which has a long history of tolerance and respect.” Ashley recently told Fox News and other media outlets that same-sex marriage goes against God and the Bible. The pageant’s executive director Keith Lewis says contestants choose the area they represent and Ashley chose to compete as “Miss Beverly Hills” in November.
■CANADA
Missing actor found dead
The parents of US actor Andrew Koenig, best known for his role in the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains said their son has committed suicide. “My son took his own life,” Walter Koenig — who starred in Star Trek — told CBC television after visiting Stanley Park in Vancouver where his son’s body was found. The 41-year-old Andrew Koenig was last seen on Feb. 14 when he left the Vancouver apartment of a friend he had been visiting, and he was reported missing four days later after his father, in Los Angeles, received a despondent letter from his son.
RSS