Prostitutional Paradox 

Curses, Foiled Again
Boston police accused Zachary Tentoni, 26, of snatching a woman’s purse because when he grabbed the purse, he dropped two bags he was holding and fled without them. One bag contained his birth certificate; the other, a letter from his mother. Officers stopped a man fitting the robber’s description and learned that he was Tentoni. (The Boston Globe)

• Police identified Edward McNeill Jr., 40, as one of three men who attacked two other men in Jersey City, N.J., because when he walked into a hospital for treatment to wounds he received during the attack, the victims were there being treated at the same time and recognized him as their attacker. (Hudson’s County The Jersey Journal)

Prostitutional Paradox
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes told New York City police to “immediately cease” seizing condoms from prostitutes in the borough to use as evidence against them so the prostitutes won’t be discouraged from using the condoms, which the city Health Department hands out by the millions to stem the spread of deadly diseases. Police official Paul J. Browne acknowledged the directive but pointed out condoms still have “evidentiary value when going after pimps and sex traffickers,” such as when officers find “a bowlful of condoms in a massage parlor.” (The New York Times)

Judge Not
When Circuit Judge Michael N. Cook, 43, appeared on the other side of the bar in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Ill., to answer federal charges of using cocaine while carrying a firearm and possessing heroin, he wore cut-off jeans and a blue T-shirt declaring, “Bad is my middle name.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

What’s in a Name?
Liberals and conservatives favor different names for their children, according to three University of Chicago political scientists. Names with the soft consonant “l” or that end in a long “a” are more likely to be found in Democratic neighborhoods, while names beginning with hard sounds, such as K, G or B, are more popular in Republican communities. Also, according to the study, “Liberellas versus Konservatives: Social Status, Ideology & Birth Names in the United States,” high-status liberal mothers more often choose uncommon, culturally obscure birth names, whereas conservative parents rely on popular or traditional names. (The Washington Times)

Sun Sets on the Light Life
Naveena Shine, the 65-year-old woman who gave up eating to subsist on sunlight in Seattle, abandoned her breatharian lifestyle after 45 days, explaining she’d maxed out her credit cards buying video cameras to install in her trailer home so she could record herself around the clock to prove she wasn’t cheating on her no-food diet. Shine had hoped for contributions to help defray the cost of the equipment but received only $425. She added she didn’t want to be responsible for others trying to live on sunlight without having their “belief systems lined up,” because that would be like “giving a loaded shotgun to a baby.” (Seattle Times)

Claw-Licking Good
A man who came across a bear while eating lunch at Alaska’s Eklutna Lake Campground threw it a piece of barbecued meat. The bear ate the meat, but when the man threw the bear a second piece, “it kind of went ballistic,” Alaska State Troopers official Beth Ipsen said, explaining the bear attacked the man, puncturing skin along his jaw and scratching his back. Park rangers who found the man concluded the bear “was pretty much goaded into this,” and Ipsen noted the unidentified victim “had been drinking.” (Anchorage Daily News)

Out of Control
Darrell Moore, 53, walked into police headquarters in Omaha, Neb., and announced that he’d just witnessed a murder. When asked for details, Moore dropped his pants and began masturbating. He spit on one officer who tried to stop him and attempted to punch another. (Omaha’s WOWT-TV)

Foul Is Fair
Chinese students taking their university entrance exams rioted because they weren’t allowed to cheat. The outbreak occurred in Zhongxiang, a small city in Hubei province, which places a disproportionately high number of students in China’s most elite universities and has aroused the suspicions of education officials. This year, when some 800 students showed up to take the exam, they found the proctors weren’t their own teachers but 54 outside ones, who confiscated mobile phones, secret transmitters and other devices used to improve test scores. When the exams ended, an angry mob swarmed inside the building and trapped the examiners in an office area, then went on a rampage. Outside, 2,000 students gathered to vent their rage, throwing rocks through the school’s windows and waving signs declaring, “We want fairness. There is no fairness if you do not let us cheat.” (Britain’s The Telegraph)

Irony of the Week
CIA Director John Brennan announced a new campaign to “reinforce our corporate culture of secrecy” aimed at stopping leaks to the media, according to a secret memo leaked to the media. (Associated Press)

Venue Follies
Indianapolis is spending $6 million to upgrade a park by adding a cricket field, as well as space for Gaelic football, rugby, hurling and other popular sports overseas but relatively unknown among the local citizenry. Mayor Greg Ballard hopes his World Sports Park project will help local companies attract overseas workers by offering them a place to watch their favorite games. (Associated Press)

• Britain’s Chelmsford Sport & Athletics Center is turning off the sensors of its automatic doors to stop squirrels from opening them and raiding trash cans inside. Manager Dave Griffin said the super-sensitive doors trap the rodents because they require a push button to exit. (The Essex Chronicle)

Bull Run
A bull escaped while being unloaded at a slaughterhouse in Girard, Pa., and rammed a woman riding a motor scooter. “It looked like a calm bull at first,” the victim’s husband, Kevin Morton, 34, said, “then suddenly it up and charged … and hit her in the face.” (Associated Press)

Compiled from the press reports by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.