Just like home, university students get their allowance if dorm room clean

Ann Arbor, Mich. Some University of Michigan students are cleaning up their acts in more ways than one.

They are getting $100 cash payments for keeping their dorm rooms presentable and opening their doors so prospective students and their parents can take a look during campus visits.

Among the 18 students participating in the tour program are sophomores Aaron Bennick and Eric Romain, engineering majors who have loft beds that fit over their desks, a clean beige love seat with light-blue pillows, two refrigerators and a bookcase filled with laundry supplies and food.

“Last semester, the room was not as neat,” Bennick said. “My dad asked me if I was sure I was going to be able to do this.”

Participants must let tour groups see their room in the middle of the day, and have to be out of bed and dressed, said Randi Johnson, the university’s housing outreach coordinator. Display of anything illegal, offensive or banned is forbidden.

The program is not available to everybody who wants in. Roommates Natalie Wowk and Adele Coehlo applied to be in the program but say they never got a response.

“They probably thought no amount of money could improve this room,” Coehlo said.

Priest gets probation in football player’s death

Pittsburgh A Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Tuesday in the death of a teenager who fell through a church ceiling from an attic while drunk.

The Rev. Henry Krawczyk entered the plea on the day his trial was to begin, and he was sentenced to seven years’ probation.

The priest provided the alcohol to 19-year-old Billy Gaines during a cookout at a church outside Pittsburgh, prosecutors said. Krawczyk, 52, was the only adult of legal drinking age at the cookout.

Gaines, 19, a wide receiver on the University of Pittsburgh’s football team, and another team member had been exploring the attic crawl space when he fell onto his head from a height of more than 20 feet.

The sentence was the maximum amount of probation the priest could have faced. While on probation, Krawczyk will not be allowed to have private contact with anyone under 21 years of age.

Judge John Zottola imposed the sentence under a plea bargain crafted with the approval of Gaines’ parents, who didn’t want the priest to go to jail.

Gaines’ family has a $75 million suit pending against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, which has placed Krawczyk on administrative leave. They said the priest was not properly disciplined for past accusations involving alcohol and minors.

Man shot after trooper attacked with chain saw

Wilkes-Barre, Pa. A man was shot and killed by police Monday after he ignored pepper spray and officers’ commands and attacked a state trooper with a chain saw, authorities said.

At least 13 bullets struck William Henkle after state and local officers who had surrounded him opened fire, police said.

Henkle, 40, allegedly struck Trooper Michael Hartzel in the shoulder, lower back and buttocks with the saw. The trooper was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and released.

Henkle called 911 early Monday and said he was having a heart attack, but when police and an ambulance arrived, he was outside the house with the chain saw running, said Capt. Kenneth Hill, commander of the state police barracks at Wyoming.

About 10 state and local officers formed a semicircle around Henkle and ordered him to drop the chain saw, but he revved the saw and refused to put it down, Hill said.

Police said they used pepper spray, then fired when Henkle lunged at Hartzel.

Man’s best friend retrieves pot in front of cop

Grapevine, Texas J.D. the Labrador’s owner may be wishing his dog wasn’t such a good retriever.

Matthew Porter and two friends were in a suburban park last week when a police officer who thought he smelled marijuana began questioning them.

As the officer was checking for outstanding warrants, J.D. waded into a nearby creek and emerged with a plastic bag filled with pot.

Porter, 25, was charged with possessing drug paraphernalia. Micah Hays, 24, was charged with marijuana possession. J.D. was turned over to the third person at the park, who was not charged.

J.D., meanwhile, may have a new job opportunity.

“People have been asking if we’re going to recruit the dog for police work,” said police Sgt. Todd Dearing.

In this case, they were hoping it was silent

Sanford, Fla. There’s no tiptoeing around the problem. Call it flatulent footwear.

Customers complained that with every step, their shoes made the sound of someone passing gas.

“They were whoopie cushions for the feet,” said Bryan Thomas, an officer with shoe maker Goosebumps Products Inc.

The Orlando-area company sued a supplier on Feb. 16, accusing it of delivering the wrong chemical for an insole gel, giving the shoes an unwanted sound effect.

“It very nearly put us out of business,” Thomas said.

Goosebumps’ largest distributor complained as well, and the company tossed at least 35,000 pairs at a cost of $200,000 to $250,000, said attorneys Robert W. Anthony and William H. Beaver II.

The suit claims Bell Chem Corp. of Longwood delivered a low-grade glycerin that was watered down in late 2002 and early 2003. That caused air bubbles to form inside the insoles, it said.

When people step down on them, the inserts produce “a flatulence-like noise,” according to a report by a Goosebumps’ chemist, Richard Cavestri.

Bell Chem President John Cervo said the dispute was a matter between his insurance company and Goosebumps.