SNIPPETS

JUNE 20,  2010

MIAMI, June 20 (UPI) -- A legal battle is brewing in Florida over the estate of a woman who left millions in property and money to her pet Chihuahua, observers say.  Conchita the Chihuahua lives in an $8.3 million mansion, has diamond collars and a $3 million trust fund left to her by socialite Gail Posner, who died in March, The Miami Herald reported Sunday.  Posner's son Brett Carr is fighting his mother's will in court, alleging she was manipulated into changing it in 2008, the newspaper said.

Wait.  Who manipulated her?  Do three barks mean, "Leave everything to me"?

JUNE 19,  2010

RUSTENBURG (Reuters) – The United States training session ahead of Saturday's World Cup Group C opener with England was briefly delayed after an elephant blocked the route of the team bus.

JUNE 18,  2010

DETROIT, June 17 (UPI) -- Almost $350 has been seized from former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's prison commissary account for restitution to the city, officials say.

Now that is real justice, and creative as well.

JUNE 17,  2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 16 (UPI) -- A California woman who flew into an Ohio airport in a chartered jet with 13 suitcases had more than 500 pounds of marijuana in her luggage, investigators say.

The fool.  If she had kept it to 400 pounds, it probably would have slipped by our eagle-eyed security inspectors.

JUNE 16,  2010

From AP:  RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The desert kingdom whose oil reserves help fuel the world has developed its first car — an SUV that named after nimble desert deer found in Saudi Arabia.  The Ghazal 1, the product of at least two years of work at the country's King Saud University, was unveiled Monday night by King Abdullah at a ceremony at the King Saud University.

I'd like to be around when the first Saudi woman tries to buy one.

JUNE 15,  2010

(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is offering parents a cure for children who don't want to go to sleep. Have them watch his televised speeches.  In a television appearance on Thursday to extol the virtues of a portable computer his socialist government plans to introduce at public schools, Chavez said youngsters had stopped him in the street to tell him they saw him on television.  "It seems that there are mothers here who, instead of putting their kids to sleep with cartoons, put them to sleep with Chavez," he said.

Still not as accomplished as Obama, who can put adults to sleep as well.

JUNE 14,  2010

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., June 13 (UPI) -- A Miami Beach, Fla., mansion, listed for $25 million when it was finished in 2009, has sold for $16 million, a real estate agent said.  The mansion was sold to a German businessman, The Miami Herald reported, but the agent, Nelson Gonzalez of Esslinger Wooten Maxwel, declined to identify him. The German will not move to Miami Beach to live in the mansion, Gonzalez told the newspaper. "It's a vacation home."

Will they keep him out of Miami society because he bought at a discount?

JUNE 13,  2010

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (AP) - The bride wore white. The guests wore orange smocks. A southern California couple were married Saturday in front of more than 100 guests at a Home Depot store where they work. The wedding party for 56-year-old Carolyn Weatherly and Audwin Mosby, who's 55, marched down an aisle of light bulbs, grills and paint to the outdoor garden section, where a wedding arbor and stage had been built from the store's lumber and supplies.

I understand that the weddings at Staples are more elegant.