• DUCT TAPE PROM DRESS COULD WIN KANSAS TEEN $5,000: SOLOMON, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas teen has earned a spot as a finalist in a national design competition with a prom dress made entirely from duct tape.

Brooke Wallace, 17, of Solomon, spent more than 200 hours fashioning a western-style prom dress for herself and a suit for her date from 42 rolls of duct tape. Wallace told The Salina Journal (http://bit.ly/MhlIuh) the effort wasn’t just for kicks: She and her date, Mark Aylward, could each win $5,000 scholarships and their school could get $5,000 too.

The couple was recently named one of 10 finalists in a design contest sponsored by duct tape maker Duck Tape. The competition required couples to make and wear outfits made from duct tape to their spring proms and post pictures on a website. The winners will be chosen through online voting that runs through July 11.

Wallace said she went with a rodeo theme for their outfits because “we both live in the country, so it fit our style.”

For her dress, made a slip out of light cotton material and then sewed sections of duct tape onto the fabric. The torso of Wallace’s dress and Aylward’s cowboy vest were made from 1,500 to 1,800 hand-folded triangles of tape, she said. Ruffles on her skirt and trim on his vest were crafted from turquoise and hot pink tape.

The duct tape dress wasn’t Wallace’s first foray into unusual design. She won a blue ribbon at the Tri-Rivers Fair last summer with a dress made from 60 Mountain Dew cans and nearly 600 pull tabs.



• 2 WOMEN IN THEIR 80S PARACHUTE FOR OHIO CHARITY: LIMA, Ohio (AP) — Two great-grandmothers in their 80s have parachuted from a plane to raise money for a veterans’ food pantry in northwest Ohio.

The Lima reports 83-year-old Marjorie Bryan and 82-year-old Marianna Sherman parachuted Saturday at the Allen County Airport in Lima. They made tandem jumps with retired Sgt. 1st Class Michael Elliott, who has done tandem jumps with former President George H.W. Bush.

The women parachuted to raise money for the local chapter of Blue Star Mothers of America and its veterans’ food pantry. Blue Star members are mothers whose children have served in the military.

Bryan is from Lima. Sherman is from Kenton. Bryan likes parachuting so much she wants to accompany Bush if he jumps for his 90th birthday. She would be 85.



• POLICE: DAD, SON START FIGHT AT NM POT DISPENSARY: ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Police say a 42-year-old father and his 15-year-old son are facing charges after the pair got into a violent altercation with the owners of an Albuquerque medical marijuana dispensary.

KOAT-TV reports that police say the fight last week began after Raul Garay was denied medical marijuana and threatened the owner of Zia Health and Wellness with an airsoft gun.

The owner told police that Garay also bit him and the owner’s son, a dispensary employee.

Police say Garay’s son then struck the owner of a marijuana dispensary in the back with a golf club during a melee in the parking lot.

The elder Garay was charged with aggravated assault and child abuse. The son was charged with two counts of aggravated battery.



• VIDEO CAPTURES 2 BLACK BEARS WRESTLING ON FLORIDA LAWN: LONGWOOD, Fla. (AP) — A video shows two black bears wrestling on the front lawn of a Florida home — but residents say they don’t want the animals forced to live somewhere else.

In the video, the bears appear to be play-fighting on the ground and later while standing up. The fight spills over into nearby bushes and ends about two minutes later with both bears leaving in separate directions.

The bears were on Tammy Snell’s lawn. The Longwood resident says bears are part of the scenery for the area. She told the Orlando Sentinel that residents don’t want to relocate the bears. As she put it: “We moved into their area. It’s really like living in a zoo.”



• NH POST OFFICE CUTS HOURS TO JUST 30 MINUTES A DAY: CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Express service might be all you have time for at one New Hampshire post office.

The hours at the post office in Sugar Hill have recently been cut back to 30 minutes a day, down from a few hours. The post office is open from 10:15 to 10:45 each morning.

New Hampshire’s two U.S. senators have written a letter urging the U.S. Postal Service to hold a community meeting in the northern New Hampshire town so that residents, government officials and business owners can ask questions and offer their thoughts on the future of retail postal service there.