DPS: Man wearing monkey mask gets 37 speed cam tickets

Dave Vontesmar hates photo enforcement.

Vontesmar drives nearly 30 miles a day from his home in north Phoenix to his job at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
and passes through the photo-enforcement gantlet on Interstate 17, Arizona 51 and Interstate 10.

But when state Department of Public Safety officers served 37 unpaid photo-enforcement tickets to Vontesmar recently, he wasn’t fazed.

The photos all show the driver wearing a monkey mask.

“Not one of them there is a picture where you can identify the driver,” Vontesmar said. “The ball’s in their court. I sent back all these ones I got with a copy of my driver’s license and said, ‘It’s not me. I’m not paying them.’ “

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Parents honor dead son’s wish, wed at end of his funeral

Asa Hill was 7 years old when he died. Although the boy was pulled out of a burning car alive in a horrific accident on the Niagara Thruway on Thursday, his injuries proved critical, and he passed away the following night.

The Buffalo, New York, community, shaken, turned out in large numbers at his funeral Monday to support his parents, Amilcar Hill and Rahwa Ghirmatzion, and were pleasantly surprised when the couple ended the service with a wedding ceremony, a fulfillment of their son’s wish.

The Rev. Joel Miller of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Elmwood, where the service was held, was unsure at first when the idea of a wedding was proposed by the couple and their family.

“I asked twice, ‘We’re doing a wedding?’ This was new for me. I never did a funeral service and a wedding ceremony at the same time, and normally wouldn’t, but they have known each other since they were teens,” Miller said. “And they had been providing for Asa, and they made a home together for all of Asa’s life. … It was clear they were following through on something they had been talking about for some time.”

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Mother upset by football player son’s baptism

The head football coach at Breckinridge County High School took about 20 players on a school bus late last month to his church, where nearly half of them were baptized, school officials say.

The mother of one player said her 16-year-old son was baptized without her knowledge and consent, and she is upset that a public school bus was used to take players to a church service — and that the school district’s superintendent was there and did not object.

“Nobody should push their faith on anybody else,” said Michelle Ammons, whose son, Robert Coffey, said Coach Scott Mooney told him and other players that the Aug. 26 outing would include only a motivational speaker and a free steak dinner.

Full Courier-Journal.com Article

I wonder if the steak was bacon-wrapped?  If so, then the mother should chill.

However, doesn’t this have the makings of a Simpson’s episode?  I can totally imagine Homer converting to anything for a steak or a donut.

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Ban on hymn at high school graduation upheld

A federal appeals panel has upheld a decision to bar the instrumental performance of a Christian hymn at a high school graduation in Everett, Wash.

The case arose after seniors in the Henry M. Jackson High School wind ensemble asked to play an instrumental version of “Ave Maria” at their commencement in June 2006. When school officials said no, one of the students, Kathryn Nurre, challenged them in court.

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