Curses, foiled again
When John Comparetto exited a bathroom stall at a Holiday Inn outside Harrisburg, Pa., he said a man pointed “a very large handgun” in his face. The Philadelphia Inquire reported the robber fled with Comparetto’s money and cell phone, but Comparetto, a retired New York police chief, pulled his ankle gun and gave chase, joined by some of the other 300 police officers attending a convention at the hotel. They quickly arrested Jerome Marquis Blanchett, 19, whom Comparetto dubbed “probably the dumbest criminal in Pennsylvania.”
Oklahoma state police arrested David Louis Siany, 51, for bank robbery after a criminal justice student at the University of Central Oklahoma identified him from a surveillance photo on a news Web site. The student was Michael Siany, 21, the suspect’s son. “A lot of things went through my mind,” the younger Siany told the Tulsa World, “but I knew the right thing to do.”
Flu fever Swine flu fears prompted Pennsylvania’s Slippery Rock University to announce the school would hold a separate graduation ceremony for 22 students who recently returned from Mexico, where, health officials said, the flu originated and spread rapidly. University official Karl Schwab said the school would recognize the students’ sacrifice of not graduating with the rest of their class by videotaping the private ceremony and showing it at the main ceremony.
Noting Jewish dietary law considers pigs unclean, Israel’s Orthodox Jewish deputy health minister, Yakov Litzman, declared that swine flu would be called “Mexico flu.” Mexico’s ambassador, Frederico Salas, promptly complained to Israel’s foreign ministry, which labeled Litzman’s announcement “a slip of the tongue.” A ministry official told Agence France-Presse, “Israel has no intention of giving the flu any new names.”
While lobbyists and officials discounted the likelihood of pigs transmitting the flu to humans, a human infected 200 pigs on a farm in Alberta, Canada, with the H1N1 virus. Brian Evans, a senior official from Canada’s food safety agency, told journalists that the man, a farm worker who recently returned from Mexico, and the pigs were recovering.
Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Submit items, citing date and source, to P.O. Box 8130, Alexandria VA 22306.
