Sunday was the first day Floridians could buy tickets for Powerball, the multistate lottery with bigger jackpots than Florida's own games.

MiamiHerald

Sunday, 01.04.09

BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ AND JENNIFER LEBOVICH

LEAD STORY: How can four people (or in another case, six) confess in detail to a murder even though they had nothing to do with it?

Aggressive police questioning of a weak-willed suspect can produce an occasional false confession, but experts now believe that six men in a single case, and four in another, confessed to group crimes they did not commit, even though some described their roles in vivid detail.

Recent DNA evidence in a 1989 Beatrice, Neb., murder case implicated only a seventh man, and similar evidence in a 1997 Norfolk, Va., murder case implicated only a fifth man, who insists he acted alone. (Governors in both states are currently mulling pardons for the men.)

 It is still possible that the six, or the four, are guilty as charged and that the DNA was left in completely separate attacks on the victims, but the more likely explanation, say psychologists, is that people with low self-esteem or mental problems, or who are drug- or alcohol-addled, are more easily convinced of fantasy.

[Omaha World-Herald, 11-28- 08; Washington Post, 12-15-08]

The Associated Press

Sat, Jan. 03, 2009 08:07 AM

James Howarth is a little confused by two letters he has received from the Internal Revenue Service.

The Detroit defense lawyer received one letter in November that said he owed the IRS money - five cents.

He was warned that he should pay "to avoid additional penalty and/or interest," the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.

Howarth says he then received a second letter telling him the government owes him money - four cents.

He was told he would have to request the refund since it's less than $1.

"When I owe them a nickel, I must pay them. It's not optional," he said. "But when they owe me, I have to ask for it."

Howarth says he's not sure if there is a connection between the two notices, or if the refund represents a recalculation of the original bill.

The perplexed lawyer says he called an IRS 800 telephone number but gave up after spending a long time on hold.

IRS spokesman Luis D. Garcia says the agency doesn't comment on individual accounts.

Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

Kansas City Star

Fri, Jan. 02, 2009 10:15 PM

Muoi Van Nguyen, 31, was arrested in Spokane Valley, Wash., in November, charged with breaking a window with a hammer at a state liquor store and grabbing a bottle of wine valued at $9.

Earlier, Van Nguyen had tried unsuccessfully to break the window with a rock but decided he needed a hammer to do the job and went to a nearby store, where he purchased one for $11.

JOHN SHARP

GateHouse News Service

January 2, 2009 7:15 EST

PEORIA – Gov. Rod Bla­go­jevich might deny selling the state’s U. S. Senate seat, but “Al the Jeweler” is hopeful the public will want to buy plenty from him.

Brad Pettet, owner of Pettet Jewelry Designs in Peoria, is selling three-quarter-inch tall charms for necklaces and bracelets shaped as a U.S. Senate seat.

“The whole point of this is to have a little bit of fun,” Pettet said Tuesday. “People say they are embarrassed to be from Illinois. I’m not embarrassed. It’s Chicago politics. You ought to be used to it by now.”

Pettet is selling the charms in three forms: sterling silver for $35 each, 14-karat gold for $175, and in platinum, which will go at market prices.

Proceeds from the sales are being referred to as “donations,” which will go toward the Al the Jeweler’s retirement fund, Pettet said.

Pettet, who turns 60 in February, said he came up with idea of the unique charms after he saw an advertisement before Christmas simply stating, “We Sell Everything but Senate Seats.”

This got Pettet thinking, and on Christmas Day, he came up with the idea of selling a Senate seat charm.

On Friday, Pettet returned to work and started on his idea. A jewelry craftsman for 25 years, Pettet designed the chair, but the first rendition didn’t look so much like a Senate seat as it did a bar stool.

After some refinement, a more visually accurate Senate seat was created out of wax. He has several of the wax creations at the jewelry store; they are no bigger than a “Monopoly” game piece.

With the prototype design completed, Pettet said he was ready to mass produce the charms. He was unsure how many he would sell in the coming days, but he has the capability to make five to 10 charms from each mold.

“One caller said, ‘Will you limit it to 100 pieces?’” said Pettet, describing the callers’ reference to the U.S. Senate’s 100 seats. “I said, ‘No, this is Illinois politics. We can oversell.’”

On Friday, employee Charity Schierer took three orders for the charms to be done in silver. One call came from Canada. Another was from a radio station in St. Louis wanting more information.

And what if U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald finds out Pettet is selling Senate seats?

“I could be in big trouble,” he joked, adding that some of the proceeds could go to a local charity. “But I will be collecting sales tax on each one of these.”

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A man who dressed as the Norse god Thor for a costume party in Scotland said he returned home and scared off a burglar who had entered his house.

Torvald Alexander, 38, a construction firm manager who stands at 6 feet tall, said he ran after the burglar with his red cape and silver-winged helmet still in place, making for an intimidating sight, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

"As soon as he saw me his eyes went wide with terror," Alexander said of the burglar. "He looked like he had had a few drinks and decided to do a late night break in, but he hadn't counted on the God of Thunder living here."

"I had just got back from a fancy dress New Year's party and because I have a Norwegian name I decided to go as Thor," he said.

Alexander said the burglar did not have time to steal anything from the house and fled from a ground floor window without his shoes. He said the shoes will be turned over to police to help them attempt to identify a suspect.

SETTLE, England, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- An English shopkeeper who wanted the day after Christmas off kept his store open with a sign telling customers to take what they needed and leave the money.

Tom Algie, who owns Practically Everything, a store catering to do-it-yourselfers in the village of Settle in Yorkshire, told The Daily Mail that he used a funnel and cereal box to create a container for payments. The next day, he found 187 pounds ($270) in the box.

The day after Christmas, known as Boxing Day, is a major holiday in England. Algie said that he wanted to spend the day with his family and to give his employees the day off as well.

"Settle is a lovely quiet rural town and there's never any trouble here. I put my faith in my customers and I wasn't disappointed," he said. "It was a spur of the moment decision, I just wanted to spend the holidays with my family but thought it would be quite nice to open up the shop, so this seemed like a good solution."

 United Press International, Inc.

08:54 AM PST on Tuesday, December 30, 2008

By ERIC ADAMS, kgw.com Staff

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A man who robbed a northeast Portland car wash is on the loose and police are asking for the public’s help in apprehending him.

Police said a masked man robbed the Washman Carwash on NE 81st Avenue Saturday morning, but his gun fell apart in the middle of the heist.

The suspect approached an employee at about 10:45 a.m., pulled a gun out from underneath his sweatshirt and demanded money.

He then dropped his gun and it fell apart, police said.

The suspect began waving his fist at the employee and demanded money, according to a police report, and the employee opened up the cash register.

But as the suspect reached for money the employee grabbed a power washer and sprayed him in the face, causing the suspect to flee on foot, westbound down NE Everett Street, police said.

The suspect was described by police as a white male in his 20s, about 6’ tall, weighing 180 pounds and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with a white “skeleton” ski mask.

The employee described the man as having “unusually long arms” and dark eyes.

Police said the man should be considered armed and dangerous.

Crime Stoppers offered a $1,000 cash reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.

Dec 29, 2008 5:00 pm US/Mountain

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. (CBS) ?

Have you ever rubbed up against your cell phone in your pocket, causing it to randomly dial someone in your contact list without you realizing it? A similar situation happened to a man in Middletown, N.Y. – a man whose apparent plan to steal car parts was foiled when he "pocket-dialed" 911 in the middle of the act!

Sometime around 3 a.m. Monday at Sierra Auto Body Parts in Middletown, police say Andre Pryce and Fabian Corley were breaking into cars to steal parts. A third party, Xavier Jenkins, was waiting nearby in a getaway car, according to police.

The suspects were captured quickly by police because one of the suspects accidentally called them from his own cell phone.

"The criminal, or defendant actually called the police department accidentally and conversations were heard by the dispatcher," said Middletown Sgt. Jay Tobin.

On the police tapes one of the suspects is heard saying: "You better come! We're getting the tires…just shut the car off. They're going to think we're stealing it!"

That's when the dispatcher radioed officers saying, "It sounds like they're ripping a car off…it dialed in their pocket by accident. They're taking the tires off a car.

Police say when they arrived they caught two of the suspects in the act stealing parts from the cars. The suspects tried to run, jumped a fence, but there was no way out.

John Sierra Jr., who runs the shop, told CBS 2 that because of tough times, they'd been keeping customers' cars longer while they get back on their feet.

"Kind of like pay as you go along, so we're trying to help and it turns out this morning they broke into a couple vehicles, and it's really not a good time," he said.

If it wasn't enough that one of the culprits dialed 911 by accident, but the dispatcher kept the line open, monitored it and used GPS technology to pinpoint the location and tell cops exactly where to go.

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says it is holding an emerald estimated to be worth as much as $370 million while the stone's owner is determined.

A department spokesman said the 850-pound gem will be in safekeeping until a federal judge determines who rightfully owns it.

The "Bahia Emerald" was reported stolen in September from a secured vault in South El Monte, Calif.

CNN reported the emerald has been at the center of a dispute between a California man who claimed ownership, a company with which he contracted to sell it and a potential buyer.

It is alleged the gemstone's owner tried to go around the broker, who received a $19 million offer, and sell the emerald to the same buyer for $75 million.

The Brazilian stone was located in a Las Vegas warehouse, where the person in possession claimed to be the rightful owner, Los Angeles Sheriff's Lt. Thomas Grubb said.

A federal judge ordered the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to hold the 180,000-carat emerald until he can sort out the legal issues, Grubb said.

United Press International