Bottom of the News… Friday, July 11, 2008

Good morning my fellow Rotarians… I thought it might be interesting to go back into the archives for Iowa based bottom of the news events over the years and our crack research team came up with these stories…

Parking Tickets
In April of 1994 in Cedar Rapids Erin Prendergast, 20, pleaded guilty to 174 more parking violations, with total fines reaching nearly $5,000. Earlier in the year, in January, she had pleaded guilty to 248 parking tickets totaling more than $7,000. Officials said still more violations against her were awaiting processing. When the judge asked how she could accumulate so many violations, Prendergast, who was described as very cooperative by a Gazette reporter, said, "I really don't know your honor."

Lottery Tickets
In June of 2002, a woman described only as in her 40s, spent five hours off and on shopping at a Des Moines convenience store buying scratch-off lottery tickets, stopping only when her paycheck of $60 had been exhausted with just one winning ticket. A few minutes later, she returned to the store and robbed it.

Fish Story
Ronald Clark, age 30 in 1991, was charged with assault in Cedar Rapids in February for reportedly hitting Thomas Jones in the face with a frozen fish, A broken nose and cut up face sent Jones to the hospital. Clark was confronted in his home by Jones in an argument over a woman.

The Streaker
In 1998, John Thomas was arrested in Council Bluffs in May after he was found running naked over a bridge on Interstate 480. He told police that bolts of lightning in a recent storm had instructed him to undress and run about town.

Road Kills & Hiway Spills
The year 1996 was a record for highway truck spills in Iowa…
o A semi load of frozen French fries spilled on I-80 in eastern Iowa,
o A pickup truck full of ricotta cheese spilled in central Iowa,
o 21 tons of large plates of glass shattered on a downtown street in Davenport.
o 12,000 roofing nails, that punctured tires of about 50 cars, spilled on I-35 in southern Iowa,
o 30,000 cans of Milwaukee's Best beer exploded on the highway near Dubuque,
o And finally, 103,000 eggs fell off a truck and covered a major section of Highway 92 near Winterset. The locals use this event to claim the Guinness Book record for having the world’s largest batch of “scrambled eggs!”

Only in Iowa! And as an FYI, you can check out our Bottom of the News blog at http://daybreakrotary.blogspot.com. And there you have it, weird news in Iowa history as our Bottom of the News for Friday, July 11, 2008.

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