PHOENIX-AREA MAN HITS $1 MILLION JACKPOT SIX TIMES: PHOENIX (AP) — A suburban Phoenix man made a lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky guess in a recent multistate lottery game.
An Arizona Lottery spokeswoman says the Glendale man claimed six $1 million prizes after purchasing six Powerball tickets with the same winning numbers late last month.
NAKED UNICYCLIST CHARGED FOR DISTRACTING DRIVERS: KEMAH, Texas (AP) — Police say a man arrested in a Southeast Texas city for riding his unicycle in the nude was distracting drivers and creating a hazard.
Kemah police Chief Greg Rikard says 45-year-old Joseph Glynn Farley was not intoxicated or impaired when he was arrested Wednesday on a bridge in the city 20 miles southeast of Houston.
Rikard says Farley had been falling off the unicycle and into traffic.
Farley told officers that he liked the feeling of riding without his clothes, which were found at the base of the bridge.
N. IRELAND JUDGE JAILS MAN FOR TAKING CALL IN COURT: DUBLIN (AP) — Letting your telephone ring in a courtroom is rarely a good idea. Taking the call is worse.
A Northern Ireland man received a brief jail sentence Wednesday after his phone rang, the judge told him to turn it off, but instead he took the call and had a brief chat.
The judge ordered 36-year-old Paddy Sweeney behind bars for two hours, then fined him 200 pounds ($322) for willfully interrupting the court in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second-largest city.
SEARS WORKER ACCUSED OF VIDEOTAPING CHANGING ROOMS: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Sears maintenance worker has been charged with secretly videotaping women and young girls in changing rooms and bathrooms at the store in North Hollywood.
The city attorney's office says 27-year-old Alejandro Gamiz was charged Thursday with 30 counts each of peeping and concealing a video recording device inside a changing room.
Prosecutors say Gamiz secretly filmed women and girls at a Sears store in North Hollywood over a three-year period, possibly filming more than a thousand victims.
Gamiz is accused of using a sophisticated array of hidden cameras to film activity during store hours. He would then allegedly download the video during his after-hours shift as a maintenance man.
POLICE SEAL OFF PLOT OF OCCUPIED UNIVERSITY LAND: ALBANY (AP) — Police have sealed off a patch of University of California, Berkeley land that has been occupied by protesters for nearly three weeks.
University police went to the property in Albany around noon Thursday and announced it was closed to pedestrian traffic.
Officers were allowing people to leave, but no one has been allowed to enter the 10-acre site.
The move by police comes after officers on Wednesday put barricades around the property to keep vehicles from coming and going.
The protesters, on the property since April 22, have pitched tents and planted crops to protest planned housing and commercial development nearby.
CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST ARIZ. SHERIFF: PHOENIX (AP) — As defiant as ever, get-tough Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces a federal court showdown over charges that deputies on his trademark immigration patrols racially profiled Latinos in violation of civil rights law.
After months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over the allegations, the U.S. Justice Department took the rare step Thursday of suing.
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The main issue that caused talks to break down last month was federal officials' insistence that Arpaio agree to a court-appointed monitor for the department. Arpaio objected, saying it would undermine his authority.
CALIF. VOTERS TO WEIGH SEX TRAFFICKING PENALTIES: SACRAMENTO . (AP) — California voters will get to vote on a measure that would increase penalties for human sex trafficking and require social media disclosures by convicted sex offenders.
The Secretary of State's office says the measure qualified for the November ballot on Thursday, after county election officials verified that supporters turned in more than 500,000 valid signatures.
Those convicted of sex trafficking could face 15 years to life in prison and fines up to $1.5 million if voters approve. The measure also would devote fines from traffickers to services to help victims.
