Bus Stops - December 5

RTD Wants $70K From Driver Of SUV Its Bus Hit (The Denver Channel) 

(The Regional Transportation District wants $70,000 from a teen who was rescued from her car minutes before an RTD bus smacked into the wreckage.
Holly Hunt rolled her sport utility vehicle on Highway 36 at McCaslin Boulevard on the night of Nov. 2. Rudy Bernard, a Good Samaritan, rescued Hunt and her passenger Katherine Dobija then called 911.)

Madman kills teen in apartment, then opens fire on bus in Queens (Daily news) 

(A lunatic ex-con turned an afternoon bus commute in Queens into a bloodbath Friday, executing a commuter in cold-blood and shooting a second in the jaw — minutes after killing his girlfriend’s teenage son. Fueled by dangerous paranoia following his release from prison, Damel Burton, 34, carried out a psychotic 15-minute spree that left two people dead and sent terrified passengers stampeding off a Q111 bus, police sources said.)

Kokomo school bus driver arrested for DWI while kids were on bus (Fox 59) 

(Howard County, Ind.— A Kokomo Center Township school bus driver is under arrest for driving while intoxicated. She also had kids on the bus at the time. The Howard County Sheriff's Department arrested Theresa Mast, 56, of Kokomo, Saturday morning. Investigators say she was transporting students to an athletic event around 8 a.m., when Sheriff's dispatch received calls that the bus driver was driving erratically on U.S. 31.)

Parents' decision: 'Take her leg off, or she would die' (Philly.com) 

(Weeks after a school bus ran over 17-year-old Ashley Zauflik outside Pennsbury High School, mangling her body, her parents faced a daunting decision: “Take her leg off, or she would die,” Marguerite Zauflik testified Friday in Bucks County Court. “It was excruciating. It was the worse day ever of my life,” Marguerite Zauflik told the jury of eight women and four men. “Would she be upset with me, mad at me? I had to do it – it was either that or die.”)

School bus driver charged in sudden-stop incident (Eagle Tribune) 

(A Derry school bus driver was arrested Thursday and charged with 24 counts of disorderly conduct and two counts of simple assault in connection with a sudden-stop incident Sept. 19. Amy Weeden, 35, had 24 elementary-school children on her bus when she hit the brakes suddenly, sending children lurching forward in their seats and injuring two of them, police said.)

Everyone Who Has Used Ticketmaster In The Last 12 Years Is Getting A Refund (Yahoo) 

(If you used Ticketmaster's website to buy tickets between October 21, 1999 and October 19, 2011, you're in for a windfall. Well, a $1.50 per ticket order windfall. Because of a proposed class action settlement, Ticketmaster is being forced to credit $1.50 per ticket order (up to 17 orders) to customers due to the fact that they profited off of "processing fees" without declaring as much.)

Elementary school teacher tells kids there's no Santa Claus (NY Post) 

(Even the Grinch wouldn’t be this mean. A sourpuss teacher in Rockland County ruined Christmas for a class full of second-graders this week, when she told them that there is no Santa Claus during a lesson about the North Pole. The evil educator even told the youngsters — mostly 7- and 8-year-olds — that the presents under their trees were put out by their parents, and not St. Nick. The stunning Scrooge-like behavior has caused a blizzard of outrage at the quiet George W. Miller Elementary School in Nanuet, where angry parents would like to see the teacher roasted like a chestnut over an open fire.)

Emergency Response Workers Cleared For Body-Bagging A Live Man (Job Mouse) 

(A North Carolina man who was erroneously declared dead following a car accident cannot collect damages from first responders who placed him in a refrigerator drawer, a state appeals court ruled. Larry Donnell Green, 29, suffered an open head wound in 2005 after being hit by a car. According to the lawsuit, Wade Kearney of the Epsom Fire Department declared him dead. Emergency Medical Services worker Paul Kilmer arrived on the scene but refused to confirm that the 29-year-old did not have a pulse.)

Student arrested for burping, lawsuit claims (Eagle Tribune) 

(A 13-year-old was handcuffed and hauled off to a juvenile detention for burping in class, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed against an Albuquerque public school principal, a teacher and a city police officer. The suit was filed Wednesday, the same day the district was also sued by the family of a 7-year-old autistic boy who was handcuffed to a chair. The Albuquerque Journal reports the unnamed seventh grader was arrested last May 11 at Cleveland Middle School after he "burped audibly" in his P.E. class.)

1st-grader faces sexual harassment complaint (AZ Central) 

(The mother of a Boston elementary school first-grader being investigated for possible sexual harassment for punching another boy in the groin says her son acted in self-defense. Tasha Lynch said Thursday the other boy had choked her son on a school bus and stolen his gloves late last month. She tells The Boston Globe her 7-year-old son reacted in an attempt to protect himself.)

Man Dies From Severe Nosebleed (ABC) 

(The death of a 47-year-old British man who suffered a severe nosebleed has medical examiners perplexed. Robert Ford of Gravesend, Kent, was walking with a friend when the nosebleed started, the U.K. Daily Mail reported today. The bleeding was so severe that Ford went to a local medical center. After the bleeding stopped, doctors told Ford to go home and put ice on his nose. But hours later, he was dead.)

Riot suspect a pageant contender and Miss Congeniality winner (Global TV) 

(A young Richmond woman accused of participating in the Stanley Cup riot is a one-time Miss Congeniality award winner and three-time pageant contestant. According to a Jan. 7, 2011, post on her now defunct blog, Sophie LaBoissonniere, 20, “brought home The Miss Congeniality Title and Royalty award” at this year’s Miss Coastal Vancouver pageant.“I was proud of myself coming home with my first beautiful crystal studded crown along with a handful of new friendships and some pretty good swagger,” LaBoissonniere wrote.)

Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will be 'end of virginity' (Telegraph) 

(Academics at the Majlis al-Ifta' al-A'ala, which is Saudi Arabia's highest religious council, said the relaxation of the rules would inevitably lead to “no more virgins”. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are banned from driving. The academics, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the conservative King Fahd University, produced the conclusions in a report for the country's legislative assembly, the Shura Council.)

Forever 21 condemned for selling Kurt Cobain’s Flipper shirt (Seattle PI) 

(Forever 21 is under fire again, this time for selling a shirt designed by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide at his Seattle home in 1994. No, Cobain wasn’t much of a fashion designer. But he knew how to use a magic marker, which is how he made the noted Flipper band T-shirt he wore during a 1992 performance on “Saturday Night Live.” Earlier today, a replica of the shirt was retailing on Forever 21′s website for for $16.90. The shirt has since been pulled from the site, meaning Forever 21 might not be too keen on fighting legal battles over items that cost less than $20.)

Fort Worth Schools Ban Christmas Cards (610 WIOD) 

("In their effort to be PC, they've achieved the absurd," parent Brandon Brewer wrote in an e-mail to the Star-Telegram. Brewer is unhappy because he says the district is essentially making it impossible to celebrate Christmas -- and other holidays -- at school. On Thursday, the district's attorney sent a memo to staff explaining that students should not be allowed to exchange gifts or "distribute personal holiday messages" during class. Bertha Bailey Whatley's memo says there are legal concerns associated with the distribution of personal holiday messages.)

Sex And Blunts: Two Men Arrested For Inappropriate Fast Food Orders (Huffington Post) 

(Another day, two more examples of completely inappropriate incidents at fast food establishments. In Goshen, Ct., John Traonetta, 35, was charged with second-degree harassment after ordering takeout and requesting to perform a sex act on a teenaged female employee at the Zoar Drive-In. Traonetta has agreed to write an apology to the woman. Moving down the East Coast, Shawn Porter, 32, of Deltona, Fl. got himself arrested after asking for "a blunt and some herbs" at a Burger King drive-through.)

Movers And Deputies Refuse To Evict 103-Year-Old Woman (Newsone) 

(A 103-year-old woman was shown compassion by deputies and movers, when they decided against following through with a court-ordered eviction. After Vinia Hall lost a legal battle with Deutsche Bank earlier this year, movers were sent to evict the century old mother, and her 83-year-old daughter Vita Lee. But the elderly mother and daughter were spared when they arrived to the house.)

Blu-ray Review: Kevin Smith: Too Fat For 40 (Geeks Of Doom) 

(Virtually anyone who was alive in the Nineties knows the name Kevin Smith. His movies are both epic and notorious. His ability to draw in the viewer is no different whether he is in front of the camera or behind it. Kevin Smith: Too Fat For 40 is his fourth Q&A-styled video presentation and his only one filmed on his birthday. Filmed in the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey (Smith’s hometown), this was originally aired as a two-hour special, but the video release is an uncut three-and-a-half hour version! Let me say that I have been a huge fan ever since Clerks and have thoroughly enjoyed all of his films (I refuse to speak of *cough cough* Jersey Girl *cough cough*) and his Q&As.)

Jason Mewes gets real, comes clean in Jay and Silent Bob Get Old (Gig City) 

(Jay and Silent Bob have making “reality” shows for almost 20 years. It only seems like fiction that the truth is stranger than. According to actor Jason Mewes, “Jay” is real – at least “me from age 14 to 19,” he says. Partner-filmmaker Kevin Smith wrote the sex-crazed stoner character “straight up from who I was,” whom you might know from such films as Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks II. “It’s 50-50 now,” Mewes says. “I’m still obnoxious. I’m silly. But I have boundaries now. I can’t be shouting things at girls on the street.”)

Steve Buscemi Faces Batman On Saturday Night Live, The Black Keys Perform (CinemaBlend) 

(Steve Buscemi hosted Saturday Night Live last night, with The Black Keys serving as the episode’s musical guest. We have the highlight videos from the episode, including the cold open, which lays out the hierarchy of power in the U.S., and the Batman digital short, which features Buscemi as Jim Gordon. There were a number of funny sketches during last night’s episode, including the cold open, which had Fred Armisen as President Obama, talking about America’s Most Powerful. Congress tops the list there, but Oprah, Pixar, and the NFL also make the cut.)

Steve Buscemi Faces Batman On Saturday Night Live, The Black Keys Perform'London, Paris, New York' crew shoot next to 'Batman' (Mid-day) 

(We all have our favourite superhero. But little do we imagine coming close to watching them perform live. However, producer Goldie Behl and his London, Paris, New York crew almost did. he cast and crew of the film were shooting at Times Square in NYC when they realised that the legendary Batman and the infamous Joker may be just around the corner.
Christopher Nolan was shooting for his The Dark Knight Rises, the third film in the Batman series.)

Swearing helps ease pain, especially if you are usually polite, UK study claims (Pocono Record) 

(Uttering expletives can help people cope with pain in the short-term, but is less effective if a person curses often, according to a British study published in America's Journal of Pain. Dr. Richard Stephens, from the research team at Keele University's School of Psychology, told the Independent there was no "recommended daily swearing allowance," and it was unclear if certain swearwords were more effective than others.)

Albino baby dolphin photographed off Brazilian coast becomes the first recorded of its species (Daily Mail) 

(Brazilian biologists have found an extremely rare example of an albino dolphin among an endangered species that lives off the southern coast of South America. The research group, based at Univille university in Santa Catarina, said yesterday that it was the first recorded instance of an albino in the pontoporia blainvillei species, a very shy type of dolphin that rarely jumps out of the water.)

Why some see the face of Jesus in their toast (MSNBC) 

(You might have scratched your head in wonderment when a 10-year-old cheese sandwich sold at auction for a cool $28,000 simply because people thought they saw the face of the Virgin Mary in the folds of the stale food. But there’s a long history of people finding meaning in mundane objects. And scientists now say they know why this happens -- and how it works.)

Napster now officially finished (AV Club) 

(In 1999, Napster emerged as the biggest threat to bottom lines in the history of recorded music; eventually, it became part of the music industry, turning into a subscription music service owned by Best Buy. Now, like seemingly everything the music industry touches, Napster is dead after officially merging with Rhapsody. The deal was signed last month, so the die for Napster has long been cast. It's possible that many people thought Napster was already finished after its turn-of-the-century heyday, when it became a staple of dorm rooms across the country as the most accessible conduit for a massive digital music land grab.)

FACT: MANY OF US GO ONLINE FOR NO REASON (Short List) 

(Although we assume that you turned on your laptop just to check out the latest happenings at Animals Being Dicks, for many people, the act of going online often has little to no motivation. Yes, strange to believe, but some people just open up their web browser just because they can. An earth-shattering report from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project (?!) found that 53% of 18-29 year olds will go online just to pass the time.)

Woman fights to put Effin on Facebook (Digital Life) 

(Effin is a village in the county of Limerick in Ireland. It is also a word used to delicately replace a vulgar term for sexual intercourse. And it is a place which Facebook refuses to accept in the "hometown" field of one woman's social networking profile. BBC News reports that Ann Marie Kennedy, an employee in the department of nursing and midwifery at the University of Limerick, recently noticed this oddity when she attempted to acknowledge her hometown on Facebook.)

E-cigarettes banned in workplaces in Boston, and city prohibits sales to minors (Boston.com) 

(Boston health officials today voted to treat electronic cigarettes, known as e-cigarettes, like tobacco products, banning use of the increasingly popular products in the workplace and restricting their sale to adults only. Battery-powered e-cigarettes, which often resemble regular cigarettes, deliver nicotine in the form of vapor and have been largely unregulated.)