Ride a lion, swing a bear cub and stroke a tiger at Lujan Zoo in Argentina

You're 14. You've got 100 pounds of pot and an illegal immigrant in the car, and you're being chased by a ticked-off deputy.

Where do you go? The mall, naturally.

On Tuesday night, a Department of Public Safety officer tried to pull over a passenger car on Interstate 10 near Casa Grande, but the driver fled. A short while later, a Maricopa County Sheriff's deputy saw the vehicle fly by at more than 100 mph.

With the deputy on his tail, the boy drove to Arizona Mills Malls and crashed his car into a garage door at GameWorks. He then took off his shirt and ran inside the mall, but cops soon collared both him and the passenger.

The kid probably won't serve serious time for this -- and he'll have a helluva story to tell his delinquent buddies at the food court.

Mexican Drug Lord Officially Thanks American Lawmakers for Keeping Drugs Illegal

THORNTON — All that is missing from the Highline Circle of Life Center is a birthing center and an IRS agent.

Otherwise, Larry and Andrea Tabler have all of life's major events — both good and bad — covered at their new venture.

The couple will conduct funeral services, cremations and weddings in the 6,000-square-foot building at 12144 Grant Circle in Thornton.

They'll have a grand opening at 1 p.m. today.

The Tablers say they are only using good business sense when they mix, inside the same walls, the starting of a new life with the ending of another.

"It's the new paradigm in the funeral business today," said Larry Tabler, who has been in the funeral-home business for 42 years.

"We have learned to be flexible," added Andrea Tabler.

With the number of traditional burials declining while cheaper cremations are rising, funeral directors have to find ways to keep their bottom lines healthy, said Steffani Blackstock, executive director of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association.

Hosting weddings and receptions is the newest way to go, Blackstock said.

"Weddings and funerals are the two major events in life," Blackstock said. "You use flowers for both; you use ministers for both; and it's the one time when everybody comes together."

The center, which opened in November, is small but stately. Funerals and weddings will be performed in the same chapel, which seats about 150 people.

"It's not big and fancy, but it's adequate," Larry Tabler said.

A few paces away is the state-of-the-art crematorium. Inside the women's bathroom is a small table where a bride can apply and fix her makeup.

Tabler hopes to perform about 300 funerals a year, and up to 50 weddings. Three weddings have been booked.

The Tablers say they cater to the wishes of their clients and that a growing number prefer a nondenominational service — be it wedding or funeral.

"We work with families and help them with whatever they want," Tabler said. "We take pride in that."

SANTA ANA – The wife of a Sunny Hills High School teacher admitted today that she conspired with a former boyfriend to plant a shotgun and drugs in her husband's Jeep Cherokee to get him arrested.

Devon Eileen Abbott, 33, of Mira Loma, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to falsely charge a crime, false imprisonment by fraud, conspiracy to commit a crime, and misdemeanor transportation of marijuana.

But she avoided a prison term – which had been requested by prosecutors – after her husband, history teacher Gregory Abbott, asked for leniency.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals said he considered giving Devon Abbott prison time until he considered the husband's request and learned that the couple are back together.

Instead, Goethals ordered Devon Abbott to serve one year of home confinement, if she is approved by the Orange County Probation Department, or six months in the Orange County Jail.

Soloman Brian Silver, 42, of Maine – Devon Abbott's former boyfriend – wasn't so lucky.

He was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to similar charges plus one felony possession of a firearm by a felon.

Devon Abbott and Silver conspired in May 2008 to hide a shotgun, marijuana and prescription pills in Gregory Abbott's car in order to set him up for an arrest for crimes he did not commit, according to Deputy District Attorney Keith Bogardus.

An investigation revealed that Devon Abbott and Silver sent several text messages back and forth to each other, including some in which Devon Abbott provided Silver with the location of her husband's car and his whereabouts, according to police.

Fullerton police arrested Gregory Abbott on May 27, 2008, at Sunny Hills High after an anonymous caller claimed that the teacher was a drug dealer with a gun in the trunk of his car.

Two days later, police cleared Greg Abbott and targeted his estranged wife and her then-boyfriend after the teacher contended he had been set him up as part of Devon Abbott's ploy to win custody of the their two children.

Devon Abbott and Silver were arrested in June 2008 after an investigation by Fullerton and Anaheim police.

The Abbotts were married in 1997 and separated in 2005, according to Orange County Superior Court records.

Defense attorney Kenneth L. Morrison said this morning that the Abbotts are reconciled and are focused on the well-being of the two children.

"They want to put this behind them," he said.

Devon Abbott, the wife of Greg Abbott, talks to her attorney Mike Coffey as the court date was set for her trial at the Orange County Superior Court North Justice Center in June.

ROD VEAL, FILE PHOTO

Devon Abbott declined to comment.

WTOP

103.5 FM

March 28, 2009 - 3:52pm

WASHINGTON—A Montgomery County police officer was arrested for drunk driving in a marked police car Friday night.

Prisoners baby-sit toddler found on Maryland motorway

A prison work crew looked after a toddler who was spotted on Friday running along the centre of a rural motorway in Maryland as trucks loaded with gravel rumbled by, police and correctional officials said.

 NY Daily News--A police chase that exceeded speeds of more than 130 mph ended when the driver crashed and begged officers to shoot him. Police used a stun gun Friday morning on the man, who faces charges of driving under the influence, fleeing and eluding, aggravated assault by motor vehicle and resisting arrest.

Police say an officer tried to stop the man on Ga. 400 for speeding about 1:45 a.m., but he sped away in his Mercedes C230. He left Ga. 400, went westbound in the eastbound lanes of Old Milton Parkway, forcing oncoming drivers off the highway. He sideswiped a police car, lost control and slammed into a tree.

Police said he jumped from the car and started yelling, "Shoot me, shoot me."

The man was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A retired police chief said he was robbed by "probably the dumbest criminal in Pennsylvania," at a police officers' convention on Friday morning. John Comparetto said as he came out of a stall in the men's room, a man pointed a gun in his face and demanded money. There were 300 narcotics officers from Pennsylvania and Ohio at the gathering.

Comparetto gave up his money and cell phone. But when the man fled, Comparetto and some colleagues chased him. They arrested a 19-year-old man as he was trying to leave in a taxi.

The suspect is also awaiting trial on four previous robbery charges.

The suspect was arraigned and taken to Dauphin County Prison. When a reporter asked the suspect for comment as he was led out of court, he said, "I'm smooth."