Small Bits of News

Sheriff orders drunk drivers to bury alcoholics
A sheriff known for housing inmates in old military tents has a new idea — a chain gang of drunken driving convicts wearing pink shirts and performing burials of people who died of alcohol abuse.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he wants the chain gang to act as a deterrent to potential drunken drivers. He has already used the color pink on inmates — he issued them pink underwear.
"Maybe this will warn people — knock it off, don't drink and drive," Arpaio said. "You'll end up in pink underwear on the chain gang." On Tuesday, 15 county jail inmates cleaned up a busy east city street while wearing the shirts, which say "Sheriff D.U.I. Chain Gang" on the back and "Clean(ing) and Sober" on the front. With more photos.

Drunken Driver Gets Maximum, Tells Judge He's Bored
Lance Majors today denied driving drunk with his young daughter in the car and told Judge Frank LaBuda that he expected no justice from a man with a reputation for sarcasm in court.
Then he shook his head and laughed out loud as LaBuda sentenced him to the maximum of 2 1/3 to seven years in state prison for several crimes related to a drunken driving incident on March 24, where he was clocked at 107 mph with his 11-year-old daughter in the passenger's seat.
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Burglary Suspect Flees In Squad Car
A woman suspected in a burglary found a convenient getaway: the squad car of the officers who arrested her.
McKenzie Schafer, 27, of Minneapolis, was arrested and handuffed Sunday by officers investigating the theft of a laptop from the North St. Paul Athletic Association building.
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Priest Sentenced To Religion
A judge in southern Chile has sentenced a Catholic priest to recite seven psalms daily for three months as punishment for illegal parking.
Judge Manuel Perez said he issued the unusual sentence after Father Jose Cornejo claimed he could not afford the 50,000 peso ($49) fine that would have been the regular sanction for illegal parking in the city of Puerto Montt.
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Teacher mistakes janitor's karaoke as death threat
Karaoke can be scary, but threatening? A school custodian's impromptu after-hours karaoke performance prompted a police response when a teacher thought she was being threatened over the loudspeaker.
State police say the teacher at Booth Free School barricaded herself inside a classroom on Wednesday when she mistook someone singing a Guns N' Roses song over the public address system for a threat.She was working after hours and thought no one else was in the building. Then she heard someone say over the loudspeaker that she was going to die.