May 07, 2008 10:30 am
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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.
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