The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA - Mid-Daily Items Blog

Mid-Daily Items: "Don't Taser Me Dude"

Sometimes, it’s just single word - or perhaps a single word repeated three times - that can spark immobilizing fear.
A Salt Lake City police officer couldn't catch up to a 32-year-old man until he yelled, "Taser, Taser, Taser."
Police say the suspect suddenly threw himself on the ground and surrendered Wednesday.
The pursuit began when curious detectives watching a house noticed the man coming from another house. His parole officer was working on an arrest warrant at the time.
Tasers use compressed nitrogen to fire two barbed darts that immobilize people with a 50,000-volt shock.

- An investigation into possible drug activity in an Alexandria, Louisiana neighborhood led city police to an abandoned car with 53 marijuana plants growing in it. Maybe the car acts like a little greenhouse.
Sgt. Newmon Bobb said the plants, which would have an estimated value of $53,000 when fully grown, were seized, and two people were arrested.
Jerome Thompson, 23, and Mahogany Morris, 23, both of Alexandria, were booked with possession of marijuana in a school zone and cultivation of marijuana, police said.
Thompson was also booked with resisting arrest by false information, probation violation and failure to pay a fine, authorities reported.

- Twenty-two years after graduating from high school, Angie Collins is now her former English teacher's favorite student.
Collins, 40, donated her kidney this week to Darren Paquin, who teaches English at Elwood Community High School in Elwood, Indiana, where she graduated in 1986.
Collins' husband, Dean, said she offered Paquin one of her kidneys after she learned that he was experiencing kidney failure.
"She knew she wanted to do it and she knew she was supposed to," he said.
Collins, a mother of three, and Paquin underwent the transplant surgery Tuesday at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Collins is scheduled to head home on Sunday.
Collins said she thought and prayed for about two months over whether she would offer to donate one of her kidneys to Paquin, who was her high school instructor in speech and composition.
"I wanted to make the decision to donate first, before I ever found out if I would be a match," she said. "Then, when I made the decision to donate, I knew I was a match. I knew it in my heart."

May 09, 2008 10:52 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Smile for the camera

We now have the photo snapped by those quick-thinking women we mentioned in Mid-Daily Items on Wednesday.
That’s Andre Smith, the guy who struck up a conversation with the women at a neighborhood bar in Bensalem, Pa., early Sunday morning.
The women snapped pictures of themselves with Smith, but he later was ejected from the bar for allegedly harassing customers.
Then, police say, when the women stopped by a convenience store, Smith robbed them of their pocketbooks.
The women showed police the pictures from the bar, and officers arrested Smith at his apartment. He is being held on $50,000 bail, charged with robbery and theft.

-From Evening Shade, Arkansas comes word today of an interesting find in the wake of tornadoes that tore through that state, causing extensive damage.
Gene Floyd of Sulphur Rock went to check on his camper Sunday at his hunting camp near Evening Shade and said everything looked normal, until he saw something lying on the ground. It was a check, folded in half, showing only a few stains to give away its age.
Floyd said he was surprised when he saw the check drawn on Sept. 1, 1971 from a bank account in Heber Springs — about 50 miles away. The check, for $1.50, was made payable to A.E. Williamson by Mrs. Bruce Murphree. The check bears the note "Gazette for August" and shows it was later cashed.

-The spray-painting of a Brooklyn neighborhood's beloved turtle has stirred up cries of animal cruelty and calls for justice.
Myrtle, as the turtle is known, was recently found roaming the backyards near Roebling Street and Union Avenue in the Williamsburg section sporting a fresh coat of garish orange paint on its shell.
"To me, it's beyond just being an inhumane act. To me, it's an abomination," said one resident and caretaker of the critter, Meredith Chesney, to a television reporter.
Chesney and other residents speculated that the turtle was sprayed as a prank at a nearby construction site where workers use paint of the same color.
Some bloggers who focus on Brooklyn real estate and development have latched onto the turtle's plight as a symbol of unscrupulous construction in the borough.
"I've probably done a thousand posts about illegal construction and violating regulations with impunity but this probably ticked me off more than anything," said Robert Guskind, founder of the Gowanus Lounge blog, in Tuesday editions of Newsday. "In the grand scheme I know it's symbolic, but it really makes my blood boil."
Chesney said she tried unsuccessfully to remove the paint from the box turtle's shell. "You can't use solvents or paint removers," she said. "That's not good for the turtle."

-And finally, it’s time once again for our weekly American Idol update. Let’s go to the videotape:

Click here to see video

May 08, 2008 10:31 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Singin' "Price Gouge'n"

A man with a guitar and a megaphone climbed atop a convenience store roof in Valparaiso, Ind. to serenade commuters with his musical protest of high gasoline prices — until police halted the impromptu concert.
Once atop the roof of the Family Express store and above pumps dispensing fuel at $3.78 a gallon, 29-year-old Jay Weinberg performed his ditty, "Price Gouge'n."
Dozens of supporters chanted along with the lyrics: "I can't afford it. I'm banging on my dashboard. I can't believe they think I'm a fool."
The performance lasted about 15 minutes before three police officers arrived and arrested Weinberg on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct. Police said he was cooperative.
The crowd, made up of Weinberg's friends and other people who just happened to be pumping gas, continued singing. Then some, including his wife, Danielle, drove to Porter County Jail to bail him out. Weinberg was greeted with cheers as he left the building.

- A congressional candidate probably got a few cheers of his own by offering cut-rate gasoline to motorists in Boise, Idaho.
Police were called to help with traffic control after the Chevron station's price was cut by $1.33 a gallon to $2.26 for an hour Tuesday. Aides to Democrat Walt Minnick said his campaign paid more than $4,200 for the subsidized sales. Now there’s a way to buy a few votes.
Minnick is running for the Democratic nod in Idaho's 1st Congressional District. He said the purpose was to get the attention of the news media to show voters in Idaho are upset by high gasoline prices.
One motorist, Aaron Mabey, says he waited in line for more than an hour to pump than four gallons.
Republicans, including incumbent Rep. Bill Sali, dismissed it as a publicity stunt. Minnick criticized Sali for holding a fundraiser with oil executives Tuesday.

- Some quick-thinking women armed with cameras assisted police with an arrest in Bensalem, Pa. over the weekend.
Police say Andre Smith struck up a conversation with the women at a neighborhood bar early Sunday morning.
The women snapped pictures of themselves with Smith, but he later was ejected from the bar for allegedly harassing customers.
Then, police say, when the women stopped by a convenience store, Smith robbed them of their pocketbooks.
The women showed police the pictures from the bar, and officers arrested Smith at his apartment. He is being held on $50,000 bail, charged with robbery and theft.

- And finally, an update on one of the two “Wedding Blitz” stories featured in this column recently.
The Pittsburgh area couple who ended up spending their wedding night in jail said they were drunk and joking around when they inadvertently started a fight with hotel guests.
David and Christa Wielechowski said in an interview broadcast Monday on WPXI-TV that the headlines and media attention over the brawl has damaged their reputation and possibly even their fledgling dental practice; David Wielechowski is a dentist and his wife is one of his assistants.
The Wielechowskis are accused of assaulting other hotel guests and throwing metal planters in the lobby of a Holiday Inn in suburban Pittsburgh on April 27. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 28.
The couple insist they are victims. Here are the details:
Christa Wielechowski said the fight began in the hallway outside their hotel room when she stuck out her backside and the drunken groom lightly tapped her rear with his foot. The bride said she also was intoxicated, tripped on her wedding gown and fell on her face. Her husband dropped four six-packs of beer on the floor.
Other hotel guests rushed over, thinking she had been assaulted and wanting to help, the bride said. She said she told them to leave her alone and that she was fine, but they exchanged profanities with the Wielechowskis.
A man then punched her husband in the face, she said, and the two sides erupted into an extended brawl, complete with kicking, biting, choking and stomping, that ended in the hotel lobby.
The Wielechowskis, who were legally married a month earlier and repeated their vows at a Pittsburgh reception hours before the fight, spent their wedding night in separate prison cells, the bride still in her gown.
Holding her husband's hand during the television interview, Christa Wielechowski said she would not put up with an abusive partner. Her husband still has a black eye and has a cast on his ankle.
Ross Township Police Sgt. William Barrett said some witnesses corroborated the couple's account, but he said those who intervened thought they were helping a woman in distress.
"Sometimes we have to apply some common sense," Barrett said. "Why would (the guests) attack these people? I think they were trying to help a woman who was struck. It wasn't like they were in an alley and they ran into some thugs. They were in a nice hotel with decent, upstanding people."
Mid-Daily Items is all over this story and we will continue to provide updates and details as they become available.

May 07, 2008 10:29 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Favre Jersey Sacked

Maybe it just wasn’t impressing the girls anymore.
Whatever the reason, 12-year-old David Witthoft finally shunned his Brett Favre jersey for the first time in 1,581 days.
The young man from Ridgefield, Conn. wore the No. 4 jersey every day since receiving it as a gift for Christmas in 2003. His father, Chuck Witthoft, said Monday that his son's last day wearing the jersey was April 23 — his 12th birthday.
Witthoft conceded his son was starting to become more concerned about his appearance after the jersey barely came down to his belt line.
Witthoft first gained national attention three years ago, and attended his first Packers game in December. He's also planning to attend the Sept. 8 game when the Packers retire Favre's No. 4.
His mother, Carolyn, had washed the jersey every other day and mended it when needed.

-Eternal Beer Update:
We now have video featuring Bill Bramanti, the Illinois guy featured in this column Monday who purchased a custom-made beer-can casket.
Click here to see video

- Pull over and put down the dog.
A California lawmaker wants to ban motorists from holding pets on their laps while driving and getting caught can result in a $35 fine. The bill passed the Assembly on a 44-11 vote on Monday, and heads to the Senate.
Assemblyman Bill Maze says his legislation has nothing to do with pet-loving celebrities who are photographed driving around Los Angeles with their small dogs.
Maze says he introduced the bill after seeing a woman driving with three dogs on her lap.

- A slightly larger animal may deter prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary from thinking about an escape.
The way the warden sees it, the more than 400-pound black bear living in the middle of the sprawling prison is an extra layer of security.
"I love that bear being right where it is," Warden Burl Cain said Monday. "I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to get out after dark and wander around when they might run into a big old bear. It's like having another guard at no cost to the taxpayer."
The bear was first seen by an inmate crossing a road in the prison on Friday.
Prison workers measured the bear's footprints, which were 6 inches in diameter.
"Every inch equals 75 pounds, so that would make it about 450 pounds," Cain said. "The wildlife people told us they think it's a big female they've been tracking for a while."
Prison officials believe they have eight to 10 bears on the grounds, said Gary Young, head of the executive management office at the prison.
The prison, known as Angola, is isolated and has plenty of other kinds of dangerous wildlife, including alligators, rattlesnakes and wild pigs. The last recorded escape was nearly three years ago, and the inmate was quickly recaptured before leaving the grounds.

May 06, 2008 09:54 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Eternal Beer

Bill Bramanti is a “die hard” beer drinker.
He loves Pabst Blue Ribbon beer so much that he purchased a custom-made beer-can casket.
"I actually fit, because I got in here," said Bramanti of South Chicago Heights, Illinois.
Bramanti ordered the casket from a funeral home and a local sign shop designed the outside to look like a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer label in the company's signature colors of red, white and blue.
The 67-year-old doesn't plan on needing the coffin anytime soon, though.
So on Saturday he threw a party for friends and filled his coffin with ice and his favorite brew.
"Why put such a great novelty piece up on a shelf in storage when you could use it only the way Bill Bramanti would use it?" his daughter said.

- Here’s the story of a guy who tried to conceal his identity, but picked the wrong name.
Police in Sheboygan, Wis. stopped a vehicle Saturday for improper registration. One of the passengers lied to police, giving them a false name in an attempt to hide his unpaid traffic citations.
It turned out to be the name of someone who had an active felony warrant for vehicular homicide.
When the passenger found out, he quickly gave police his real name. He said he lied earlier because he has outstanding traffic fines in another state and wasn't sure whether there was a warrant out for him. He was then arrested on an obstruction charge.
Before he was released, police verified through photos and fingerprints that he wasn't the vehicular-homicide suspect.

- A Denver man who wants the city to be prepared for space aliens is proposing a commission to deal with the matter.
The assistant city attorney says he doesn't know what officials will ask about Jeff Peckman's proposal during next week's "review and comment" meeting.
Peckman says an 18-member commission would form a strategy "dealing with issues related to the presence of extraterrestrial beings on Earth."
The 54-year-old Peckman also needs 4,000 signatures to get his proposal on the November ballot.

- And finally, let's end today with a good note about priorities.
Country music singer Gretchen Wilson has a mantel full of awards in her Lebanon home.
Her first radio single, "Redneck Woman," spent five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and it earned her a 2005 Grammy. Her debut album sold 4.5 million copies.
Despite all her successes, the 34-year-old songwriter was one of 20 percent of Tennesseans without a high school diploma. But no longer.
Wilson, who dropped out in ninth grade, passed her General Educational Development exam in April and will don a cap and gown during a May 15 graduation ceremony.
Wilson told The Tennessean that her 7-year-old daughter was the big reason to finally finish, saying, "I certainly don't want her to think you can be this successful without an education."

May 05, 2008 10:06 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Another Wedding Blitz

There is yet another “wedding blitz.” Yes, just days after a newly married couple kicked and cuffed each other in a suburban Pittsburgh hotel comes word of another matrimonial dustup in Port Chester, New York.
It seems that the bride trashed a set of conga drums in a spat with the band during her wedding reception.
The bride was also accused of breaking a speaker in a dispute over the music at the April 5 reception. Fabiana Reyes has been sentenced in Village Court to the six days she already spent in jail. The 41-year-old also paid the band $1,500 for the damage.
Her 42-year-old husband and their 21-year-old daughter were accused of interfering with Reyes' arrest. Elmo and Helen Fernandez pleaded guilty Thursday. Police used stun guns on both during the fracas. The daughter says the couple were legally married in 1986, but delayed their church wedding until last month.

- May Day was Lei Day in Hawaii.
Volunteers hoping to set a record for the world's longest lei strung together flowers that stretched for more than a mile at Kapiolani Park in Waikiki on Thursday, organizers said.
Video, photos and witness statements documenting the lei, which measured 5,336 feet in length, will be sent to Guinness World Records, organizers said.
Success seems all but certain, because organizers say there currently isn't a Guinness record for the world's longest lei.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann is expected to announce within a few weeks whether the record is official.

- A Long Island music shop owner accused of selling knockoff Gibson Les Paul guitars was arraigned in a pickup truck in a courthouse parking lot after his lawyer said the 500-pound defendant couldn't walk into the courthouse.
State Supreme Court Justice Robert Doyle said the man's "severe weight problem" prompted the unusual proceeding Thursday in Riverhead. A defense lawyer also had given the court a doctor's letter saying the defendant suffers from osteoarthritis.
The shopkeeper has been released without bail after pleading not guilty to trademark counterfeiting and criminal simulation. He says the case and health problems have forced him to close his store.
He's accused of selling bogus Gibsons for $1,500 to buyers who thought they were far more valuable genuine versions of the classic electric guitar.

May 02, 2008 11:44 am

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Mid Daily Items: Alive and Well

Rose Griffin is not dead.
So the call from someone trying to arrange her funeral was a bit of a shock.
The 75-year-old woman from Methuen, Mass. got the call at a late hour Friday night from someone looking for her son, who was not there.
By now she was a bit irate, so she used her caller ID to call back. The man at the other end of the phone line informed her he was a funeral director trying to make arrangements for her son's dead mother.
"You're talking to the dead person," Rose told the guy.
Joe Cataudella, co-owner of Cataudella Funeral Home, said someone played a "cruel prank" and left a message with the home's answering service that poor Rose had died.
Rose, a Wal-Mart greeter, joked that she expects to be around for some time because she's mean and only the good die young. She says she has no idea who was behind the prank.

- The watermelon seeds will be flying again in Pardeeville, Wis.
The 41st annual Watermelon Festival, complete with its trademark seed-spitting contest, has received the go-ahead after a core of about 10 volunteers stepped forward to run the event.
A decline in volunteers in recent years left only a few people trying to put on the festival. When a community meeting on the festival was held in late March, few people turned out and planners said the festival might be called off this year.
But festival chairman Clark Hodgson said a group of Pardeeville residents met Tuesday night and decided they now have enough people to hold the festival at Chandler Park as scheduled Sept. 6.
"A lot of people didn't want to see it die, and we are very grateful for that," said Kelly Moulton, festival treasurer.
Featured attractions include free all-you-can-eat-watermelon for everyone, the seed-spitting contest and a contest to see who can eat watermelon the fastest.
In the seed-spitting competition, competitors spit their seeds as far as they can, in some cases sending them 60 feet or more.
Hodgson calls it "THE hometown festival — the kind of thing that you go to when you're a little boy and keep coming back year after year."

- As we mentioned last week, we are totally hooked on this show, so look here for your weekly dose of American Idol chatter.
Brooke White, the 24-year-old folkster from Mesa, Ariz., was eliminated Wednesday evening as the Fox show trimmed the competition to the top four finalists.
On Tuesday's show, aka Neil Diamond Night, White sang two songs by Diamond: "I'm a Believer" and "I Am ... I Said."
Click here to see video
Simon Cowell called White's first performance "a nightmare," then heaped praise on her after her second act.
"This is the Brooke we like. Sitting behind the piano, singing a very good song," the snarky judge said. "It wasn't incredible, but it was a million times better than the first song. Well done."
White, who claimed never to have seen an R-rated movie, wiped away tears before her final performance. The former nanny told fans: "I just wanna say 'thank you.'"
The remaining "Idol" candidates — David Archuleta, David Cook, Jason Castro and Syesha Mercado (Wednesday night's other low vote-getter) — surrounded White on stage.
Cook, offering moral support, patted her on the back.
Earlier in the live telecast, Ryan Seacrest defended Paula Abdul against Internet chatter about her flub the night before: "Just for the record: The rumors — they're not true. She's part of our family, and we love her."
The host didn't explain what those "rumors" were, but said he'd been reading gossip online about Abdul. The "Idol" judge goofed on Tuesday night's performance show when she gave Castro feedback for two songs — even though he'd only sung one.
"American Idol" had switched up the format by making judges take notes and hold their appraisals until every contestant had performed. Abdul said later that she was thrown for a loop when producers apprised the judges of the change at the last minute.
Wednesday's show also featured performances by guest mentor Diamond and Natasha Bedingfield.

May 01, 2008 11:03 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Scout's Honor

In a change from all the stupid criminal stories normally featured in this column (see the latest one below) let's start out today with an uplifting bit of news.
When an 11-year-old Boy Scout in Michigan found someone's wallet with $800 inside, he understood what the person who lost it was going through.
Only a few weeks before, he had lost his own wallet and the $45 it contained.
J.R. Bouterse immediately told an adult about his discovery, which was turned over to a law-enforcement official and returned to its grateful owner.
"We're just so proud of him," said the boy's mother, Michelle Bouterse, 41. "We can't say enough."
To reward the boy, the Michigan State Police threw a pizza party Monday night, not only for the law-abiding child but for all 30 Scouts in Troop 90.
Another guest at the party, to J.R.'s surprise, was 20-year-old Jessica Cutler, the wallet's owner, who wanted to personally thank him for his act of honesty.
"I can't believe someone would find a wallet with that much money in it and not take some," she said. "A lot of people maybe wouldn't have done that same thing. I'm just glad he found it and not someone else."
J.R. found the wallet a little more than a week ago while leaving a Scout meeting at the church.
"I knew exactly how she felt," he said.
Not exactly: His own wallet has not been returned to him.

- We have an update today on the “Wedding Bliz” story that appeared in this column earlier this week.
From Pittsburgh comes news today that the new bride charged with brawling with her husband at a suburban hotel is maintaining her innocence and defending her husband.
Thirty-two-year-old dentist David Wielechowski, of Shaler, and 25-year-old Christa Vattimo married a month ago but repeated their vows Saturday. They were checking into their hotel room when police say they began fighting one another then against two men from a separate wedding party who tried to intervene.
But the bride says in a statement issued by her attorney that her husband did not start a fight with her or anyone else that night. She says she loves her husband and is standing behind him.
The couple spent the night in the Allegheny County Jail in their wedding attire. They still face a preliminary hearing May 7 on simple assault and other charges.

- And from our stupid criminals file, a man who wrapped his head in duct tape to conceal his identity has pleaded guilty to robbing an eastern Kentucky liquor store.
Under terms of a plea agreement, 25-year-old Kasey G. Kazee faces 10 years in prison, the maximum sentence. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree robbery.
Police said Kazee entered an Ashland liquor store on Aug. 10 with his entire head, except for openings at his eyes and mouth, wrapped in duct tape.
Kazee told a clerk he had a knife and threatened to harm her if she didn't give him the money from the cash register, police said. The clerk complied and the man left.
Before the "Duct Tape Bandit" could make his getaway, another store employee tackled him in the parking lot, police said. The employee and several other men who came running from a neighboring store detained the suspect until officers arrived.
Police didn't say how much money was taken, but the store manager said the register came up $15 short. Police said no weapon was found on Kazee when he was arrested.

April 30, 2008 10:40 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Chic Chicks

First, kudos today to Sandra Ferree of Sunbury who noticed tiny ducklings crossing busy Route 15 near K-Mart in Shamokin Dam. Thanks to her call, the 11 ducklings were rescued Monday evening after they fell into a 6-foot-deep drain.
Meanwhile, a batch of tiny chicks are receiving a high level of care at a new fashionable address in New York City.
The superintendent of a ritzy high rise near the United Nations headquarters said he uses a makeshift basement pen as a temporary home for mail-order critters that are destined for his upstate farm.
"I'm raising chickens because I plan to retire," the 62-year-old super, John Hyranyaz, told the New York Post for a story in Tuesday's editions.
On Monday, there were dozens of variously colored chicks, some yellow, some mottled, in the plywood-and-duct-tape pen.
But Hyranyaz denied raising animals at the building. "Everyone sees them, so they think I'm raising them," he said.
Instead, Hyranyaz said the little critters get to stay at his apartment only for a day or so before he transports them to his farm in Binghamton. "I got bunnies. I got chicks. I got geese. I live here. I get them all the time."
The building at 100 United Nations Plaza is home to many diplomats, and some of its two-bedroom condos are advertised at up to $1.8 million.
The Health Department reports that it is not illegal to keep chickens in the city, only roosters.

- Some people must really get tuckered out while they are committing crimes. Last week, we had the story of a Tennessee man who was found napping in his car after he allegedly broke into a garage.
Well, from Boston comes word today that police arrested a burglar found napping inside a church.
Officers called to Most Precious Blood Church in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood around 8 a.m. Sunday found a broken stained-glass window, chalices thrown about, missing Oriental rugs and an open safe.
Witnesses led officers downstairs, where a man was napping.
Police allege 47-year-old Charles Martin of West Roxbury resisted arrest and kicked an officer in the groin…Ouch!
A search of Martin allegedly turned up a gold spoon with religious symbols, two knives, a sword, and prescription pills.
He was arrested on multiple counts.

- It's not just a bad dream or imaginations gone wild because police in Pikesville, Md., have captured the middle-of-the-night mystery on videotape — and they're as baffled as everyone else.
Deafening blasts accompanied by blinding split-second flashes of light have been rattling residents of one neighborhood of this Baltimore suburb for months.
Elaine O'Mansky says she has heard the noise 25 times since September, always between midnight and dawn. She says the accompanying flash is bright enough to light up her bedroom.
Barbara Friedman says the first time she heard the blast she thought someone was shooting at her.
Police officers Vickie Warehime and J. Posluszny Jr. said the department set up cameras and recorded the phenomena last week, but didn't detect anyone in the area.
The recorded flash lit up an area the size of a football field. Based on shadows, police believe the light source was in the air about 30 feet above the ground near the Beth Tfiloh Community School. Utility workers have found no electrical problems or gas leaks that could explain the mystery.
We’ll let you know if there are any developments.

- And finally, Pennsylvania State Police in Erie County say someone stole a hog from a farm located on – get this - Porky Road.
The hog's owner, 58-year-old Nancy Pena of Conneaut Township, says the animal is reddish with black spots and weighs between 30 and 40 pounds.
State police in Albion believe the hog was stolen sometime April 10 or 11.
No word on whether there will be increased police patrols on Porky.

April 29, 2008 11:12 am

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Mid-Daily Items: Wedding Blitz

Let’s just say that this may not be the best way to start a marriage.
Newlyweds brawled with one another, then members of another wedding party, hours after they repeated their vows and were headed to a room at a suburban Pittsburgh hotel.
Police say the fight between dentist David W. Wielechowski, 32, of Shaler, and his bride, Christa Vattimo, 25, began as the couple were about to enter their seventh-floor room at the Holiday Inn in Ross Township, just north of Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
The dentist "used a karate-style kick with his leg to kick Christa, knocking her to the floor," the criminal complaint said.
Two guests of another wedding heard the bride's screams and rushed over to help her. But when they restrained Wielechowski, his bride began attacking her rescuers, police said.
The fight traveled from a hallway to an elevator then into the hotel lobby where, police said, the couple threw metal planters containing live plants into an elevator at the men who tried to break up the fight.
"It was pretty wild," Ross police Sgt. Dave Syska said.
Police arrived to find the dentist lying on the floor of the lobby and his bride "yelling loudly" and "apparently highly intoxicated."
Both bride and groom were charged with simple assault, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The bride was also charged with public intoxication. She asked a district judge not to require her husband to stay away from her while the charges were pending.
Both refused comment when they left Allegheny County arraignment court Sunday after spending the night in separate holding cells.
The bride, still wearing her wedding gown, was picked up by her father. The dentist left on his own, one eye swollen shut, wearing tuxedo pants, a bloody T-shirt and one shoe.
The couple face a preliminary hearing May 7. They had been married in the Bahamas last month, but repeated their vows Saturday before a reception for 150 guests.

- A choir director who hopes prayer can bring down high gas prices is trying out his approach at some of the costliest pumps in the country.
Rocky Twyman of Washington, D.C., went to San Francisco over the weekend to stage a pray-in at a Chevron station. He is also calling on churchgoers to ask for God's intervention where he says politicians have failed.
Gas costing $4 a gallon or more has become common around the San Francisco Bay area.
The 59-year-old Twyman says people praying for cheaper fuel should also walk more and use car pools.
Twyman also works as a community organizer and public relations consultant. He has led campaigns to nominate Oprah Winfrey for the Nobel Peace Prize and to encourage African Americans to donate bone marrow.

- And finally from Arkansas, an inmate awaiting trial on a murder charge is suing a county, complaining he has lost more than 100 pounds because of the jailhouse menu.
Broderick Lloyd Laswell says he isn't happy that he's down to 308 pounds after eight months in the Benton County jail. He has filed a federal lawsuit complaining the jail doesn't provide inmates with enough food.
According to the suit, Laswell weighed 413 pounds when he was jailed in September. Police say he and a co-defendant fatally beat and stabbed a man, then set his home on fire.
"On several occasions I have started to do some exercising and my vision went blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out," Laswell wrote in his complaint. "About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again."
But Laswell then goes on to complain that he undertakes little vigorous activity.
"If we are in a small pod all day (and) do next to nothing for physical exercise, we should not lose weight," the suit says. "The only reason we lost weight in here is because we are literally being starved to death."
The suit also asks that the county be ordered to serve hot meals. The jail has served only cold food for years.
The meals average 3,000 calories a day. A typical Western diet consists of 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day.