Real News!

News that's just too strange to be made up.

Let's start with this little tidbit:

Texas Man Aims to Visit Every Starbucks
By CHUCK BROWN, Associated Press Writer

Documenting a caffeine-powered quest to visit every Starbucks in the world has become the mission of a Nebraska attorney.

Bill Tangeman, 32, of Kearney, who was a journalist before going into law, is making a documentary film about a Houston native who goes by the name Winter, who set out in 1997 to get a caffeinated drink at every corporate-owned Starbucks store on the planet.

On his Web site (http://www.starbuckseverywhere.net) Winter, who was born Rafael Antonio Lozano, said that as of Aug. 8, he had visited 4,775 Starbucks in North America and 213 in other parts of world. Outside of North America, Winter has gone to Starbucks in Spain, England, France and Japan. There are 5,715 corporate-owned Starbucks in the world, according to the Seattle-based company's August newsletter on it Web site.

Winter said his trek has been satisfactory on many levels, not the least of which is that it has allowed him to be on a nearly constant road trip for eight years.

But having the incessant goal of reaching the next Starbucks provided another benefit.

"Every time I reach a Starbucks I feel like I've accomplished something," Winter said, "when actually I have accomplished nothing."

Tangeman wanted to film a documentary for years. When he read an article about Winter last year, he realized he had found his muse.

"I found his story fascinating," Tangeman said Monday.

Tangeman got in touch with Winter and has since spent several days on the road with him, gathering about 40 hours of film for the movie, which will be called, "Starbucking."

The 33-year-old Winter said he is baffled by the attention his quest has gathered.

"I'm tickled pink that anybody would want to make a movie about my project," Winter said.

Tangeman, who has been a deputy county attorney in Buffalo County since 2003, uses vacation time and long weekends to meet Winter at various spots around the country.

The two will meet again late this month in Reno, Nev., where Winter will begin another leg of his tour — this one into Northern California.

"It's been a lot of fun," Tangeman said. "I've been to 22 states with him."

On one trip, Tangeman and Winter gave a presentation, including a screening of a "Starbucking" trailer, at the University of California-Santa Barbara. On this Southern California tour, Winter set a personal single-day record by visiting 29 Starbucks.

"On the day he hit 29 stores he wasn't feeling too good," Tangeman said. "He was a little nauseous."

Winter has visited Tangeman at his home and even grabbed a cup of coffee from a local shop. But he was deprived of his Starbucks fix: There aren't any corporate-owned stores in Kearney, 126 miles west of Lincoln.

Tangeman said Winter has visited every corporate-owned Starbucks in Nebraska except for one that was just finished in Omaha. The speed at which new Starbucks are opened has been a major obstacle in Winter's quest, Tangeman said.

Tangeman wants to complete "Starbucking" by the end of the year in hopes of submitting it to the Sundance Film Festival, which begins in late January in Utah.

"I am pretty close to having everything I need," Tangeman said.

If Sundance doesn't accept the film, Tangeman said, he will submit it to other festivals.

"There's a million film festivals, so hopefully we'll find someone who will take it," he said.

Winter, who earns money to keep his quest going by doing computer programming work, and currently lives in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring, Md., said he and Tangeman will split whatever profits the movie may make.

Winter hopes the movie does well. One basic reason for his hopes is that it could give him more money to continue his quest.

And some of the perks of fame that might come if the film is successful, like maybe meeting Natalie Portman or Scarlett Johansson, wouldn't be too bad either, Winter said.

"On a superficial level," Winter said, "celebrity has its benefits."

how about this one ?

By Matt Jachman
Staff Writer

A Redford Township couple reported an unsettling discovery in their house on Lola Drive last weekend: a video lens and transmitter in the television set at the foot of their bed.

The couple told police they suspect a relative, a Livonia man, of placing the equipment in the TV. The television, in its original packaging, had been a gift from the man, according to a police report.

Their finding came the evening of July 30 after the husband went into the rafters of their garage to look for insulation, he told police. He stumbled across a videocassette recorder connected to a wireless video receiver, he said.

The couple and an adult son then began a search of the house, they said. When they saw a small hole in their bedroom television, the couple opened the TV and found the lens and transmitter, they said.

According to police reports, the couple also reported what they said was inappropriate behavior by the suspect: roses left on their bed for Sweetest Day, and romantic e-mails from him to the wife.

The man also has been spending time at their house to assist with home repairs, they said, and often makes trips into the garage.

The equipment was turned over to police, who are investigating.


mjachman@oe.homecomm.net - (734) 953-2115

People Try to Lose Weight at McDonald's By VALERIE BAUMAN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 7 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/fit_mcdon...BhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

RALEIGH, N.C. - Inspired by the documentary "Super Size Me," Merab Morgan decided to give a fast-food-only diet a try. The construction worker and mother of two ate only at McDonald's for 90 days — and dropped 37 pounds in the process.

It was a vastly different outcome than what happened in the documentary to filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who put on 30 pounds and saw his health deteriorate after 5,000 calories a day of nothing but McDonald's food.

Morgan, from Raleigh, thought the documentary had unfairly targeted the world's largest restaurant company, implying that the obese were victims of a careless corporate giant. People are responsible for what they eat, she said, not restaurants. The problem with a McDonald's-only diet isn't what's on the menu, but the choices made from it, she said.

"I thought it's two birds with one stone — to lose weight and to prove a point for the little fat people," Morgan said. "Just because they accidentally put an apple pie in my bag instead of my apple dippers doesn't mean I'm going to say, 'Oh, I can eat the apple pie.'"

Spurlock, who turned his surprise-hit movie into a TV show on the FX network, isn't talking about Morgan or the many other McDieters who have criticized his film and found success losing weight by eating healthy foods off the McDonald's menu, said his agent, David Magdael.

One person went so far as to make her own independent film about dieting at McDonald's. "Me and Mickey D" follows Soso Whaley, of Kensington, N.H., as she spends three 30-day periods on the diet. She dropped from 175 to 139 pounds, eating 2,000 calories-a-day at McDonald's.

"I had to think about what I was eating," Whaley said. "I couldn't just walk in there and say 'I'll take a cinnamon bun and a Diet Coke.' ... I know a lot of people are really turned off by the whole thought of monitoring what they are eating, but that's part of the problem."

As might be expected, McDonald's also objected to the impressions left by Spurlock's film. Walt Riker, the company's vice president of corporate communications, said Oak Brook, Ill.-based company is pleased — but not surprised — that some customers have lost weight eating only at the fast-food giant.

Spurlock's film "really spurred a backlash based on common sense," Riker said.

Morgan used nutritional information downloaded from McDonald's Web site to create meal plans of no more than 1,400 calories a day. She only ate french fries twice, usually choosing burgers and salads. Those choices are a stark contrast with those made by Spurlock, who ate every menu item at least once.

At the end of the 90 days, she had dropped from 227 to 190 pounds.

"It feels great," she said. "Because, the truth of the matter is that beauty is power, and if you're fat, or your overweight, then people don't really take you seriously."

Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, agreed that a low-calorie, McDonald's-only diet can help people lose weight but said it may not offer enough long-term variety. Whatever an individual does to lose weight, they need to do for the rest of their life, she said.

Morgan said she hasn't decided if she will stick with the McDonald's-only plan to reach her goal of 150 pounds. But she does have one complaint about McDonald's.

"If I could suggest anything to McDonald's, I would suggest the McMargarita," Morgan said. "Dine-in only, of course."

Girl banned from pizza orders after assault

Canadian Press
Aug. 11, 2005 10:33 AM

FERGUS, Ont. - A teenager who assaulted a delivery woman over a late pie was banned by a judge Wednesday from ordering pizza for a year.

"This is the first case of pizza rage I've ever heard," Justice Norman Douglas said.

As a term of probation, the 17-year-old girl is not allowed to "order or be a party to any order of delivery pizza" for the next 12 months.

The teen pleaded guilty to assaulting delivery woman Crystal Mills, 21, and to kicking Mills' car, causing $400 in damage.

Court heard Mills went to a Fergus house party to make a delivery on May 9.

Someone else at the party paid Mills for the pizza, but as she returned to her car, the accused, who was intoxicated and upset the pie was late, followed her and yelled at her.

Without warning, the girl punched Mills three times in the face and also kicked her car door. Mills was not injured in the attack.

Duty counsel Elizabeth Renfrew acknowledged the teen should not have been drinking at all because of her age, and that she engaged in uncharacteristic but "extremely inappropriate behaviour."

In addition to the no-pizza term, the girl was ordered to pay for the damages to Mills' car within the next six months, and to have no contact with the victim.

Man silences car alarm by shooting it 3 times

Associated Press
Aug. 10, 2005 06:30 PM

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - A man annoyed by a noisy car alarm fired at least three bullets into a Toyota Camry, silencing the alarm and bringing out police who hauled him away in handcuffs, authorities said.

David Owen Rye, 48, was arrested and booked for investigation of reckless discharge of a firearm and felony vandalism, Sgt. John Adamczyk said. Rye allegedly told officers he grabbed his handgun and went out to put a stop to the car alarm.

The owner of the Camry, a sailor whose ship the USS Theodore Roosevelt just returned from an eight-month cruise, was visiting a friend when he heard the gunfire at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, KCAL-TV reported.

"I mean, that's not a safe guy. I mean, you get upset over an alarm, over a noise like that, (then) there's some little kids making too much noise and he decides to do something awful," sailor Nicholas Moreno, 25, said.

Police were called to the Yosemite Avenue apartment building and Rye was ordered out of his apartment by an officer with a bullhorn. A Los Angeles Police Department helicopter also responded and Rye was arrested.

Neighbor Ken Davis said he heard gunshots and looked outside to see Rye holding a gun.

"It was little scary," Davis said. "I didn't know what kind of mood he was in. I didn't want to say anything to him."

Truck with 35,000 pds of explosives blows up in traffic

Associated Press
Aug. 11, 2005 07:45 AM

SALT LAKE CITY - A tractor-trailer carrying 35,500 pounds of explosives overturned and exploded on a Utah highway, injuring at least 19 people.

The explosion left a giant crater - estimated to be 70 feet wide and 30 feet deep - on U.S. 6 about 60 miles south of Salt Lake City and forced the two-lane highway's closure in both directions.

Several small fires were started by the explosion and flying debris.

"The entire road is gone, shoulder to shoulder, there's no asphalt left," said Tom Hudachko, Utah Department of Transportation spokesman.

Witnesses said the truck's driver appeared to lose control of the vehicle after taking a curve at high speed, Highway Patrol Lt. Doug McCleve said.

The driver, Travis Stewart, 30, was flown to University Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he was in fair condition, spokesman Chris Nelson said.

Troy Lysfjord, 37, was lying down in the back of the cab when the accident occurred. He told The Salt Lake Tribune that he helped Stewart out of his seat belt and they climbed out of the cab with the help of nearby motorists.

By that time, between 20 and 30 people had gathered around the wreckage to help and Lysfjord said he shouted, "It's explosives! Get out of here."

"I was close enough that it literally picked me up off my feet and threw me on the ground," he told the newspaper. "I felt it literally all the way through me."

Lysfjord was in fair condition at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo and was expected to be released Thursday.

At least 19 other people were treated for injuries at various hospitals. Others may have been injured but sought medical care on their own, authorities said.

The rig from R&R Trucking of Duenweg, Mo., had just left commercial explosives maker Ensign-Bickford Co. at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon when the accident happened. The truck was headed to Oklahoma, company officials said. They wouldn't say what kind of explosives the truck was carrying.