In a move likely to be popular with tourists and fish alike, Pennsylvania officials will not prohibit feeding bread to the carp at a park near Linesville, along the state line with Ohio.

Faithful readers of Mid-Daily Items may remember that complaints delayed the start of a bread ban this year at Pymatuning State Park. Now, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has dropped the idea altogether.

More than 300,000 people visit the park each year to see throngs of bread-hungry carp so thick that ducks can walk on the fish.

Officials wanted only fish food pellets used, because they say other food harms the fish. Visitors have tossed chicken, watermelon, doughnuts and other foods to the carp. The state will ask tourists to stick to fish pellets and bread.

— Maybe someone is leaving food at the Palm Beach County Courthouse in Florida. There are so many mice running around the courthouse, that they’ve been seen falling from ceiling tiles.

One judge calls it an infestation. Some staffers say they check their handbags for stowaways before leaving the building each day.

Court employees and lawyers say the rodents scuttle down corridors, munch legal papers and scratch behind the walls. Last week, one mouse ran around a courtroom floor for an hour during a burglary trial.

The courthouse facilities manager says he’s put out a few dozen traps to capture the rodents. He says he’s not sure there has been an uptick in mice lately but says they’re getting more press than they deserve.

— Officials in Oakland, Maine, report this morning that someone is swiping old telephone poles right out of the ground.

According to FairPoint Communications, about 35 poles on Smithfield Road have been cut and stolen. The thefts began last fall and stopped in the early winter, but have resumed as snowbanks have retreated.

The poles didn’t have any wires attached to them and were going to be removed later. They were left behind when the company put in replacement poles next to them.

FairPoint supervisor Simon Thorne said the pressure-treated poles aren’t good for burning because they contain preservatives. He speculated somebody might be taking them to use for cribbing framework.