Nation in brief: Officer shoots jar off skunk’s head
Officer James Kellett knows it’s his job to serve and protect – even when it comes to nature’s stinky black and white creatures.
When a skunk with its head stuck in a salad dressing jar wandered into the Carrollton Township police station’s parking lot, he grabbed a pellet gun and shot the jar from about 40 feet away.
The shots shattered the jar, leaving a glass collar around the skunk’s neck. With its head free, the skunk ran off.
“I didn’t want to use deadly force, and it is a residential area,” Kellett told The Saginaw News. “The way he was when he took off, he was able to eat, breathe and spray – and do anything else skunks like to do.”
Kellett didn’t get much in the way of gratitude, but he’s grateful the skunk didn’t spray. There is one bonus – the makers of T. Marzetti’s salad dressing are sending the officer coupons good for free dressing as a reward.
New York
Leaky kitchen gas hose blamed for blast
A leaky kitchen gas hose was blamed Sunday for an apartment building explosion that threw residents against walls, blew out their windows and hurled debris into the streets.
The explosion Saturday injured more than 20 people, including four badly burned girls.
Fire marshals believe natural gas leaked from a flexible hose connection behind a stove in a first-floor apartment, said Tony Sclafani, a fire department spokesman.
The burned children were in critical condition at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.
The mother of the four girls, ages 1 to 5, was also in critical condition, said John Rogers, a hospital spokesman.
SALT LAKE CITY
Men accused of trying to sell F-14 parts
Two Utah men are accused of trying to illegally export surplus pieces of F-14 fighter jets, a plane that is flown only in Iran.
Abraham Trujillo, 61, and David Waye, 22, both of Ogden, are alleged to have tried exporting the parts to Canada, but the charges don’t specify how they supposedly got the parts and don’t list all buyers.
Federal agents placed online orders, then intercepted the goods before they made it out of the country, the charges said.
Trujillo and Waye were charged Friday with three counts each of attempting to export a defense article without a license. Telephone listings could not be found for the men.
Iran, trying to maintain its F-14s, is aggressively seeking components from the retired U.S. Tomcat fleet. Members of Congress have expressed concerns about the Department of Defense selling surplus F-14 parts because they’re worried they could wind up in Iranian aircraft.
The U.S. sold the F-14 to Iran in the 1970s when it was under the rule of the Western-friendly shah. In 1979, the shah was deposed, and the U.S. eventually banned the sale of military equipment to Iran.
From wire reports