A Mississippi woman is lucky to be alive after being picked up and nearly crushed by a garbage truck.
The unnamed woman was looking for her keys Wednesday morning in a Dumpster behind her Ridgeland, Miss., apartment complex, reports the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson.
As tends to happen, the Dumpster was picked up by a garbage truck, turned over and emptied into the truck's waste compactor.
The truck put the Dumpster down and kept going on its rounds. A couple of miles later, someone heard screams and told the driver, who was about to start crushing the load of garbage.
The woman, who complained of joint pain after climbing out of the back of the truck, was treated at a local hospital and released, according to Waste Management (search) district manager David Myhan.
Myhan advised people who think they've lost something in the trash to call his company instead of diving into Dumpsters.
"We take this real seriously," he said. "We do not want people getting in our containers."
— Thanks to Out There reader Chad W.
Marijuana Advocates Forget to File for Ballot
LAS VEGAS (AP) — An initiative to legalize pot in Nevada might go up in smoke after organizers forgot to file 6,000 petition signatures by a June 15 deadline.
Clark County (search) Registrar Larry Lomax said Billy Rogers, president of the political consulting firm seeking to qualify the petition, is pleading for him to accept the 6,000 names.
"Unfortunately, the state law says they have to turn it all in by June 15," Lomax said.
The oversight doesn't kill the petition outright, but drastically lessens the chances that the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana's (search) initiative will qualify in 13 of the state's 17 counties and thus secure a spot on the November statewide ballot.
In Clark County, organizers submitted about 35,000 signatures — but given the usual 30 percent signature error rate, probably no more than 25,000 are valid.
The extra 6,000 signatures would have increased the chances, though by no means guarantee, that the initiative would reach its goal of 31,360 valid signatures.
If the petition fails to qualify in Clark County, it must qualify in each of the other 13 counties validating signatures.
Rogers, who works for the Marijuana Policy Project (search), a Washington, D.C., lobbying group, protested to Lomax that the 6,000 signatures had been properly notarized before June 15 — even if someone had forgot to submit them.
Nevada voters in 2002 overwhelmingly rejected Rogers' efforts to legalize up to 3 ounces of marijuana.
The new measure would amend the Nevada Constitution to legalize possession of 1 ounce of marijuana sold, licensed and regulated by the state. It also would raise penalties for driving under the influence of a controlled substance and for selling marijuana to minors.
Voters would have to approve the measure in November and again in 2006 before it could take effect.
— Thanks to Out There reader Frank A.
Cheating Wife Caught by Traffic Camera
HAWTHORNE, Calif. (AP) — A red light camera in Southern California caught one woman in the act — of adultery.
Hawthorne Officer Mark Escalante said a local resident is challenging his $341 red-light violation ticket.
The ticket was mailed to the registered owner of the car. But the car owner says the camera's automatic videotape shows he wasn't driving — it was his wife's lover behind the wheel. The jilted husband is getting a divorce.
The new red-light traffic cameras snagged more than 1,400 motorists last month in Hawthorne, leading to a slew of complaints.
There's been a threefold increase in tickets since the red-light cameras were installed this spring. Cameras snapped pictures that resulted in 1,414 tickets issued in June.
Some motorists outraged over getting the tickets storm into the police station to dispute the violations, not knowing the photos come accompanied by videotape.
— Thanks to Out There reader Kathleen L.
Angry Strippers Bust Colleague's Breast Implant
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Two exotic dancers who punctured a third dancer's breast implant with a broken wine glass onstage have been spared jail time.
According to testimony Wednesday in British Columbia Supreme Court, customers in a downtown nightclub were stunned when two dancers attacked a third after a performance on July 18, 2002, cutting her in the right breast and rupturing her implant.
The attackers got angry because they believe the dancer had a snooty attitude, Justice Deborah A. Satanove was told.
Andrea Hauser, 25, convicted of aggravated assault, was sentenced to a year of community service, a year on probation and payment of $3,750 to the injured dancer for medical expenses.
Shayla Clewis, 25, convicted of assault, received a three-month conditional sentence and three months on probation.
Family Sent Poisoned Soda, Cupcakes
EDWARDSVILLE, Kan. (AP) — A couple has been accused of trying to kill the mayor of a Kansas City suburb and her husband with poisoned soda and cupcakes sent through the mail.
Donna Ozuna-Trout, 47, and Ralph Trout, 57, were charged Thursday with attempted first-degree murder.
They're accused of mailing poisoned food to the home of their neighbors, Mayor Stephanie Eickhoff and James Eickhoff, a lieutenant in the Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office.
The mayor said her family received the package in late April. Inside, she said, was a card addressed to her, her husband and their three children, ages 6, 8 and 14.
The state has evidence linking Trout and Ozuna-Trout to the package, which contained a 2-liter bottle of soda and cupcakes spiked with chemicals including lye and antifreeze, prosecutor Nick Tomasic said.
Tomasic said the seal on the bottle was broken and the cupcakes obviously were tainted.
Defense attorney Kevin Baldwin said he believes the evidence against his clients is circumstantial and won't be enough for a conviction.
The two families have been embroiled in an ongoing feud for several years, including lawsuits filed by each, the mayor said.
SILVERDALE, Wash. (AP) — A Rotary Club has been left with a $7,000 bill for roasted duck, but this fowl was no fall-off-the-bone confit — it was a little more on the rubbery side.
A 25-foot inflatable rubber duck the club was using to promote a fund-raiser caught fire on Tuesday.
Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue crews quickly put out the flames, but the fire left behind burned grass and "one melted duck," said spokeswoman Lindsy Ingram.
Witnesses reported seeing some young people leaving the area, Ingram said.
Race chairman Steve Slaton said the rented duck would cost about $7,600 to replace.
The duck was being used to advertise the 11th annual Great Kitsap Duck Race (search) on July 26. Participants pay $5 to race normal-sized rubber ducks on Dyes Inlet and the proceeds are donated to charitable causes.
Club president Robert J. Cathcart said there were two more ducks on reserve.
The other big ducks are still alive and well and very much uncooked," Cathcart said.
Compiled by Foxnews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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