4 NJ COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYERS REWARDED FOR HONESTY: WAYNE, N.J. (AP) — Four New Jersey college football players are being rewarded for their honesty.
The members of the William Paterson University football team each received $50 gift cards after surveillance cameras captured them paying for some batteries and sunglasses even though no employees were around.
Buddy's Small Lots in Wayne, N.J., was actually closed Sunday night. But the lock malfunctioned and the lights were on, making it appear as though it were open.
Cameras showed the men calling out for a clerk. Two can be seen depositing cash on the counter, one waving bills in the direction of a camera.
One of the players, Thomas James, tells News 12 New Jersey (not everyone is a thief.
EADS TAKING LEAVE FROM 'CSI,' RETURN UNCERTAIN: NEW YORK (AP) — The investigators on CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" will be without forensic scientist Nick Stokes for a while.
CBS said Wednesday that George Eads is taking a leave of absence after appearing in the show's first three episodes of the upcoming season.
Eads has portrayed Stokes since the series premiere in 2000. It's unclear when or if he'll return.
CBS won't comment on a Hollywood Reporter story that Eads got into an argument with a writer on the show about his character.
Eads' manager hasn't returned messages seeking comment.
"CSI" was the 20th most popular show on TV last week, watched by 5.8 million people.
MARIJUANA-WRAPPED ARROW SHOT AT WASH. JAIL : BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — A man is accused of trying to get marijuana into a Washington state jail by attaching it to an arrow he shot onto the roof.
A Whatcom County sheriff's employee saw the man step out of his pickup truck and use a bow to launch the arrow toward the jail's second-floor recreation area, but it missed its target.
Sheriff Bill Elfo says the man, identified as 36-year-old David Wayne Jordan, was arrested for investigation of introducing contraband into the jail, resisting arrest and obstructing law enforcement.
The Bellingham Herald reports Jordan served 20 days in the jail earlier this month for assault and resisting arrest.
The sheriff says Jordan told deputies he had been aiming at a squirrel, but he couldn't explain why he needed to attach marijuana to the arrow to go squirrel hunting.
LOS ANGELES CLOSE TO LIFTING BAN ON PUBLIC MURALS: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles city leaders are a step closer to lifting a decade-long ban on public murals.
The City Council voted 13-2 on Wednesday to allow the murals again.
The decision comes after years of debate over how the city should regulate murals, which flourished in the 1970s and chronicled generations of Los Angeles history.
A proliferation of advertising on walls led to the ban and lawsuits by advertisers.
The new rules, which must come back for an expected final approval next week, will permit new murals in business and industrial zones as long as artists register projects with the city and pay an application fee. Commercial messages are prohibited and the murals must stay in place for at least two years as part of the city effort to control advertising.
'EVERYTHING BUT THE PEWS' STOLEN FROM MASS. CHURCH: SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A longtime member of a Massachusetts church says thieves have ransacked the house of worship, taking "everything but the pews."
Bernadine Smith says the thieves entered the Holy Temple Church of God in Christ in Springfield sometime last week and snatched an organ, communion dishes, the PA system, microphone stands, furniture, silverware and other items. She estimates the losses at $150,000.
Police Sgt. John Delaney said somebody used a key to enter the church between Aug. 20 and Aug. 22.
The 80-year-old congregation has been at its present Bay Street location since 1965.
Smith tells The Republican the church has insurance, but those documents may have also been stolen.
She says everything is gone except for "the pews and a couple chairs out of the pulpit."
MINISTER CONVICTED IN SLAYING FOUND HANGED IN CELL: IONIA, Mich. (AP) — The former minister of a small Michigan church who allegedly told police he killed his fiancée's 24-year-old daughter because he wanted to have sex with a dead body has killed himself.
Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan told the Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant that 56-year-old John D. White hanged himself in his cell at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia. He says White was pronounced dead early Wednesday after efforts to resuscitate him failed.
White pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder in the death of his fiancée's daughter, Rebekah Gay. Police say he said he killed the young mother to fulfill a desire to have sex with a dead body.
White was sentenced to at least 56 years in prison. He was minister of a tiny Deerfield Township church.
PA. ATTORNEYS: GAY COUPLES LIKE KIDS, CAN'T MARRY: HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Marriage licenses given to same-sex couples in the state are invalid because the couples were barred from marrying, just like 12-year-olds, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's attorneys said Wednesday.
Corbett's administration has filed a lawsuit seeking to block same-sex marriage licenses in Montgomery County, where Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes has issued more than 150 to gay and lesbian couples since July 24.
State attorneys said in a court filing on Wednesday the gay marriage licenses have no "value or legitimacy" and can't be defended in court. They compared gay and lesbian couples to children, who can't marry because a 1996 law says marriage is between a man and a woman.
"Had the clerk issued marriage licenses to 12-year-olds in violation of state law, would anyone seriously contend that each 12-year-old ... is entitled to a hearing on the validity of his 'license'?" the state wrote, according to a story on the Philly.com news website .
Hanes says the law is unconstitutional and discriminatory. He's scheduled to appear in Commonwealth Court next week in the case.
More than 30 gay and lesbian couples that received marriage licenses from Hanes say a ruling against him could invalidate their marriages, and they've sought to participate in the case.
