NY MAN QUESTIONED FOR COMPUTER SEARCH HISTORY: NEW YORK (AP) — A former employee of a New York computer company was questioned after his workplace computer search history revealed inquires for "pressure cooker bombs" and "backpacks," but no criminality was determined, the Suffolk County Police Department said in a statement Thursday.
Authorities have said the bombs used at the Boston Marathon in April, which killed three people and wounded more than 260, involved pressure cookers placed in backpacks.
The man was questioned after detectives from the department's intelligence unit received a tip from a Long Island-based computer company claiming the recently released employee's computer had suspicious searches, the police said. After interviewing company representatives, they questioned the man at his home where they determined there was no criminality.
SHARK FOUND AT DOOR OF 'SEA DOG' PUB ON NANTUCKET: NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — A cleaning crew has found an unexpected mess after arriving at Sea Dog Brew Pub on Nantucket: a 5-foot-long shark blocking the door.
Pub manager Jimmy Agnew says he doesn't know why anyone would have dumped the sea creature there.
Nantucket's public works department hauled it away after its discovery around 7 a.m. Thursday.
But Agnew said the pub fielded calls and questions all day long after word got out about the land shark.
He said a comedian whose band performs at the pub also posted a series of jokes about it on Facebook.
PLAYBOY, PENTHOUSE GET THE AX AT MILITARY STORES: NEW YORK (AP) — Playboy, Penthouse and other sex-themed magazines will no longer be sold at Army and Air Force exchanges — a move described by the stores' operators as a business decision based on falling sales, and not a result of recent pressure from anti-pornography activists.
The 48 "adult sophisticate" magazines being dropped are among a total of 891 periodicals that will no longer be offered by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service at its stores on U.S. military bases worldwide. Other titles getting the ax include English Garden, SpongeBob Comics, the New York Review of Books and the Saturday Evening Post.
Morality in Media, a Washington-based anti-pornography group, called the decision "a great victory" in its campaign against sexual exploitation in the military, and said it would continue to urge operators of Navy and Marine Corps exchanges to follow suit.
Chris Ward, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, said the cutbacks — which took effect Wednesday —would reduce the space allotted to magazines by 33 percent and free up room at the exchanges for more popular products.
POLICE: CHILD CALLS AS DAD DRIVES UNDER INFLUENCE: STONINGTON, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut police say a frightened 10-year-old boy called to say he was considering jumping from a car his father was driving while under the influence.
Police said 49-year-old Owen Gilman, of Warwick, R.I., hit another vehicle Wednesday night on Interstate 95 in Stonington. The unidentified motorist in the other vehicle was hospitalized. His condition wasn't known Thursday.
Gilman was charged with reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and other offenses. It wasn't clear if Gilman has a lawyer. A telephone listing for Gilman couldn't be found.
Rhode Island state police first got the call from the boy, who said he was with his 12-year-old sister.
The children were treated for lacerations.
Police said Gilman was uninjured and arrested when he failed a field sobriety test. He's being held on $35,000 bond.
RI HOME LIVED IN WHILE FAMILY WAS ON VACATION: BARRINGTON, R.I. (AP) — In a stunt straight out of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," a Rhode Island family came home from a weeklong vacation to find that someone had been living in their house.
Tracy Woodard of Barrington tells WJAR-TV the family found wet towels and blankets strewn about the house, someone's underwear on the couch, and condom wrappers and marijuana left behind. She says whoever broke in also made cookies.
The family says the intruders took alcohol, cash and other valuables from the home and caused damage, including breaking some doors.
Woodard says the unwanted guests had taped blankets over the home's glass doors so neighbors couldn't see in.
YELLOWSTONE'S STEAMBOAT GEYSER SEES RARE ERUPTION: BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Old Faithful it's not.
Yellowstone National Park's Steamboat Geyser — the world's tallest — has erupted for the first time in more than eight years.
The nine-minute blast sent steaming hot water an estimated 200 to 300 feet in the air, park geologist Hank Heasler said Thursday.
Unlike the park's popular and famous Old Faithful geyser, which spews water like clockwork every hour-and-a-half, no one knows when Steamboat will erupt next.
In the past, it's gone as long as 50 years without a major event. In 1964, it erupted a record 29 times. The last blast came in 2005.
Steamboat is one of more than 500 geysers at Yellowstone, which boasts the largest collection of hydrothermal features in the world.
WORKER HOSPITALIZED AFTER 130-FOOT FALL IN VEGAS: LAS VEGAS (AP) — A sign company says one of its workers is in critical condition at a Las Vegas hospital after surviving a 130-foot fall at the MGM Grand casino marquee.
Officials with Young Electric Sign Company identified the victim in the Wednesday morning fall as Charles Schueler, who has worked with the company for six years.
Authorities say the accident happened a little before 10 a.m. while Schueler was working to upgrade the large casino sign. The sign company says his fall was broken in part by trees and landscaping.
STRONG SALES FOR ROLLING STONE BOMB SUSPECT COVER
BOSTON (AP) — The issue of Rolling Stone magazine with Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover has sold nearly twice as many copies as an average issue.
That's according to Adweek, which says people bought more than 13,000 copies of the issue at more than 1,400 retailers from July 19 to July 29. That's more than double the magazine's average sales for previous years.
Retailers including Stop & Shop, CVS, Walgreens and others said they would not sell the issue after a public outcry over the cover, which critics said glamorized Tsarnaev. The 19-year-old has pleaded not guilty in the bombing.
