ASPEN REVIEWS 14 MPH SPEED LIMIT TO ALERT DRIVERS: ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Aspen city council members are considering a 14 mph speed limit in a residential area of the Colorado mountain town in attempt to get the attention of drivers and have them slow down.
Residents say few drivers are obeying the current 25 mph speed limit and are ignoring other efforts to protect people.
The Aspen Times reports Mayor Mick Ireland suggested an 18 mph limit because the number is out of the ordinary for a speed limit. After further discussion, council members decided to drop the proposed limit down to 14 mph.
POLICE: PA. MAN STOPPED FOR BEER AFTER BREAKOUT: BURGETTSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Police say a western Pennsylvania man stopped at a bar and had a beer minutes after he broke out of a police station holding cell after his arrest on an assault charge.
The Washington County public defender's office on Wednesday declined to comment on the charges filed against 40-year-old Smith Township resident Timothy Bonner.
Police say they were processing Bonner and had removed his handcuffs and placed him in the cell. That's when Bonner allegedly knocked the cell door off its hinges and ran away.
After stopping at a house to borrow shoes, police say Smith went to Richy's Bar, where a customer tells WPXI-TV the suspect acknowledged breaking out of jail and then asked for a beer.
The customer says he bought a beer for Smith, who didn't get to enjoy it before police arrested him.
PIPE THEFT REPORT LEADS LINCOLN POLICE TO POT BUST: LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say they discovered a budding marijuana-growing operation after residents of a Lincoln house called police to report the theft of marijuana pipes.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that officers were called to the house Saturday morning. Residents had reported that two people, one of them armed with a handgun, forced their way inside the house and took two hookah pipes.
Officers questioning the residents noticed marijuana, paraphernalia and several bottles of fertilizer. They also saw light shining from under a door barred with a padlock and a power cord snaking into the room.
After getting a search warrant, police say they found three marijuana plants, grow lights and other equipment.
Police arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of manufacturing marijuana and ticketed his roommates for having marijuana paraphernalia.
CYPRUS REPRINTS ELECTION BALLOTS IN GUINNESS FLAP: NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus has been forced to reprint all 575,000 ballot slips for next month's presidential election after Guinness World Records objected to a candidate's use of its logo, officials said Wednesday.
The government will ask Andreas Efstratiou to pay at least €15,000 ($20,000) to cover reprinting costs, election commission official Demetris Demetriou told state-run Cyprus News Agency.
Demetriou said Guinness had initially permitted Efstratiou to use the logo in his second presidential run in 2008. Efstratiou, who runs a bridal wear shop, earned a Guinness Book of World Records entry for creating the longest wedding gown train at 1,362 meters (4,468 feet) in 2007. He no longer holds the record, which now belongs to Lichel van den Ende of the Netherlands for a 2,488-meter (8,164-foot) train.
But Guinness told Efstratiou to stop using the logo in 2011 and complained to Cypriot authorities when it recently found out that he had used it again.
Efstratiou said he thought Guinness was being unfair, saying he believes he still can be called a record-holder despite not holding the current title.
ROAMING COWS CREATE HAVOC AT MASS. CEMETERY: SOUTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) — The vandals that damaged a Massachusetts cemetery this week have pleaded "moo."
Police say a small herd of cows knocked over 40 American flags and veterans' bronze grave markers, then snacked on a few flower arrangements, at the Center Cemetery in Southampton on Monday.
Motorists called to report that the cows were loose. Police contacted the owner, Henry Wykowski, who caught and removed the cows from the cemetery.
Chief David Silvernail says the cows are an "ongoing problem," and his department has responded to complaints about the roaming bovines three or four times since last spring.
Cemetery Commission member Robert Floyd tells The Daily Hampshire Gazette he plans on asking the farmer to pay for the damage once he comes up with an estimate.
