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FORMER PA. TEACHER CHARGED FOR CLASSROOM PIERCINGS: DILLSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former teacher in central Pennsylvania is facing charges after police say she allowed a student to perform body piercings in class.

Police in Carroll Township allege 34-year-old April Beard allowed a student to pierce Beard's ear and then pierce another student's stomach without parental consent at Northern York County High School. She's charged with endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.

Police say the student had a piercing kit.

The school district says that Beard, a family and consumer science teacher, did not return to the classroom after the April 16 incident. She resigned a month later.

MOTHER, SON ACCUSED OF STEALING GOPHER FEET: PRESTON, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota mother and her 18-year-old son are accused of stealing nearly $5,000 in frozen gopher feet and selling them for a bounty.

Thirty-seven-year-old Tina Marie Garrison and Junior Lee Dillon, both of Preston, were charged last month with receiving stolen property and theft. They allegedly gave the feet to local townships that offer rewards as they try to limit the gopher population.

Garrison has pleaded not guilty. Her son has a hearing next month.

The complaint says a gopher trapper reported to authorities that bags of feet were stolen from his freezer. According to the complaint, the owner found Dillon had turned in $1,014 in feet in November. In December, Garrison turned in $3,780 in feet.


MAN MAULED BY BEAR OUTSIDE WIS. CABIN: SHELL LAKE, Wis. (AP) — A man who was attacked by a black bear outside a cabin in northwestern Wisconsin is recovering at a hospital.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says the man was attacked in his yard near Shell Lake on Monday night. DNR carnivore specialist David MacFarland says the man's dog apparently initiated contact with the bear.

MacFarland says the man's brother came out of the cabin and shot and injured the bear, which ran away.

The Burnett County Sheriff's Department says the man was taken to a hospital in Shell Lake. He was then airlifted to a hospital in the Twin Cities. MacFarland says he's in stable condition.

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RI THEATER THREW OUT DISABLED GIRL OVER NOISE: NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — A woman says she and her 5-year-old developmentally disabled daughter were thrown out of a theater during a "Beauty and the Beast" performance because the girl was making giggling and humming noises she makes when she's happy.

Samantha Torres, of New Bedford, said her daughter, Nadia, suffers from a chromosome abnormality and can't speak. Nadia was squealing, giggling and humming along with the Disney musical at the Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island on June 2 when the entire party, including Torres' other child and a nurse, were told to leave, she said.

"They did not ask me to leave. They told me I had to leave," Torres told The Standard-Times.

Theater marketing director P.J. Prokop denied that.

He said the girl was distracting other theater-goers and the group was offered different seats. Audience members "were turning around; they were looking; they were also kind of gesturing," Prokop said.

"It is the theater's responsibility to try and ensure that everyone can hear and have a good time," he said.

MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SMUGGLING SNAKES ON PLANES:  TYLER, Texas (AP) — Samuel L. Jackson would have been cursing up a storm.

An East Texas man has pleaded guilty to smuggling snakes on several planes from South America to the United States.

During a court hearing Wednesday in Tyler, William Lamar pleaded guilty to importing wildlife taken in violation of foreign law.

Prosecutors say the 63-year-old eco-tourism guide bought the seven live snakes in August 2012 in a market in Lima, Peru, and smuggled them in his jacket on flights from Lima to Miami and then to Dallas.

Peruvian law prohibits the exportation of wild live animals coming from the forest or jungle unless the exporter has the proper paperwork.

Lamar faces up to five years in prison.

HEIMLICH RESCUES CHOKING TEXAS CONGRESSMAN : PHOENIX (AP) — A Texas congressman who was choking on a piece of popcorn is thanking a fellow Republican from Arizona and a House staffer who is also a doctor for stepping in to help.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Ted Poe said the five-term congressman from the state's 2nd District was eating dinner at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington Thursday when he began choking. Poe spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon was eating nearby and he and another bystander jumped into action and began doing the Heimlich maneuver to clear Poe's airway.

Hynes said that's when GOP House staffer Dr. Nick Muzin jumped in. As Salmon kept trying to dislodge the popcorn with strong slaps to the back, Muzin did the Heimlich maneuver again and was successful.