Man calls feds to report he lost two bags full of coke

Dumb? Or, Dumber?

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com Leroy Carr, 46, called the feds on Aug. 7 to report that someone stole 31 kilograms of cocaine that he had stashed outside a Boy Scout camp near Maple Falls, Wash. "He indicated that he had been attempting to take the narcotics into Canada but had stashed them overnight," Department of Justice spokeswoman Emily Langlie tells KOMO-TV. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says he wanted federal agents to issue a press release announcing that they had seized the drugs so "the drug-trafficking organization would believe his statements that he had not stolen the cocaine."

Pope refused to meet with Condi Rice

Pope getting into politics? Good idea, bad idea?

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com Pope Benedict XVI refused to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice while she was on her way to the Middle East last month, according to reports from the Vatican. Corriere della Sera says the Vatican rebuffed Rice, who "made it known to the Vatican that she absolutely had to meet the pope," because the Catholic leader was on vacation at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. AFP says the reply "'illustrated the divergence of view' between the Vatican and the White House about the 'initiatives of the Bush administration in the Middle East.'" BBC News, which appears to have confirmed the Italian paper's story, says: "Instead of meeting the Pope, Ms Rice had to make do with a telephone conversation with the Vatican's number two, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was visiting the U.S. during August on other business."

It came from outer space — and it stinks

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com Peruvian scientists have confirmed that the mysterious, flaming object that slammed into the Andes and sickened villagers over the weekend was in fact a meteorite, according to Living in Peru, which cites the official news agency. The meteorite left a crater 55 feet wide and 16 feet deep. Somewhere between 100 and 600 people who went to investigate have been treated for headaches, nausea and vomiting after inhaling noxious gases coming from the crater near Lake Titicaca and the Bolivian border. Scientists reportedly will deliver a full report Thursday. Here are earlier reports from the London Guardian and Reuters.

Poll finds solid support for Iraq withdrawal, more political pressure

Should be get out immediately or schedule a withdrawal?

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com The latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds that 59% of Americans support setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and sticking to it regardless of conditions over there. But Gen. David Petraeus' appearances before Congress last week did not change fundamental attitudes toward the war, writes USA TODAY's Susan Page. found essentially no shift in views on whether U.S. forces are likely to win the war — two-thirds predict they won't — and if the United States should set a firm timetable to remove troops. Here are the complete results.

Send Bonds Home Run Ball into Space? Vote

You can vote at Vote756.com. Options include: give the ball to the Hall of Fame, send the ball into space, or brand the ball with an asterisk.

Your vote?

clipped from www.bloomberg.com Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Fashion designer Marc Ecko said he is the buyer of Barry Bonds's record-breaking 756th home run ball, and left its future to a public vote that considers possible steroid use by the Major League Baseball player. ``I bought this baseball to democratize the debate over what to do with it,'' Ecko, who paid $752,467.20 for the ball on Sept. 15 in an Internet auction, said on vote756.com, the Web site he set up to determine the ball's future. The Web site offers three voting options for the ball: to bestow it, giving the ball to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York; to brand it, burning an asterisk into the ball before sending it to Cooperstown; or to banish it, putting the ball on a rocket and launching it into orbit.

Witness in custody case says Spears used drugs

What do you thinK?

clipped from news.yahoo.com LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A former bodyguard for Britney Spears offered on Monday to testify at a custody hearing about nudity and drug use at her home and his fears for the safety of her two young sons. Gloria Allred, the lawyer for bodyguard Tony Barretto, said outside the courthouse that she was shocked that her client was not questioned by the attorneys in the case and that, instead, Barretto's comments were filed with the court as what she described as evidence. Barretto, 28, said in a court filing that he worked for Spears from the time she left a rehabilitation clinic in March until May 17, 2007, and that he watched her behavior in and out of the house.

Professor delivers one last lesson before he dies

Are you Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams?

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com This lecture will be broadcast via the Internet at 4:30 p.m. ET. Here's how it's described on the school's website: Almost all of us have childhood dreams: for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. Sadly, most people don't achieve theirs, and I think that's a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I've actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (http://www.etc.cmu.edu/), of helping many young people actually *achieve* their childhood dreams. This talk will discuss how I achieved my childhood dreams (being in zero gravity, designing theme park rides for Disney, and a few others), and will contain realistic advice on how *you* can live your life so that you can make your childhood dreams come true, too.