National Spotlight

* The Associated Press reports a retired zoo director Earl Wells died after he was stung about 1,000 times by European yellow jackets while cleaning windows at his home in Indiana.

Wells had been in a coma at Lutheran Hospital since the Sept. 12 attack near Huntertown. He died Tuesday at the hospital.

The yellow jackets swarmed Wells when the stepladder he was standing on to wash windows collapsed onto their underground nest.

* According to the Associated Press, a doctor for civil rights leader Rosa Parks told a federal magistrate that Parks has dementia and should not be forced to answer questions in her lawsuit against a record company.

Parks’ lawsuit says the 1998 song “Rosa Parks” by OutKast violated her publicity and trademark rights and defamed her. It also says that OutKast and record company BMG exploited her name for commercial purposes. OutKast has been dismissed as a defendant.

* According to thesmokinggun.com Web site, 20-year-old motorcyclist Samuel Tilley was clocked Saturday afternoon going
140 mph over the U.S. Highway 61 speed limit.

Tilley registered at 205 mph on his Honda 1000, while riding on the Minnesota highway. Tilley was clocked by a State Patrol pilot flying overhead, stopwatch in hand. The pilot radioed ahead to a state trooper who pulled Tilley over and issued a reckless driving citation.

* CNN reports that Viacom Inc. was hit with $550,000 in fines for the infamous Super Bowl half-time show.

The fine is one of the largest ever imposed by the Federal Communications Commission.

“No television event has ever received as many complaints from the American public — over 540,000 — as the Super Bowl XXXVIII half-time show produced by CBS,” said a statement from FCC Chairman Michael Powell.

* According to CNN, officials have identified the body of a second American beheaded this week by insurgents in Iraq, the man’s family said Wednesday.

Officials notified the family of Jack Hensley on Wednesday that a headless body found by Iraqi police was his.

Hensley, a resident of Marietta, Georgia, would have turned 49 Wednesday, the family said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 24 2004. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry