Esthela Clark is a 47-year-old Florida woman who allegedly paid to
have a woman smuggled into the US from Mexico to serve as a surrogate
mother. Instead of the medically supervised procedure that the
woman expected, she apparently received syringefuls of Clark's
boyfriend's semen, collected from used condoms. She was fed a
beans-only diet and forced to do domestic chores while Clark waited
for signs of pregnancy.
Court documents state that after these impregnation efforts failed,
'Clark forced Y.L. to have sex with two complete strangers through
threats of force and coercion'. Two years after the woman entered the
US, one of Clark's relatives intervened and the police became involved.
Clark faces up to 20 years in prison.
Idaho's Moscow--Pullman Daily News describes a collision on a motorway. A 50-year-old woman from Tensed explained to officers with the Benewah County sheriff's office that she had been driving along when she noticed a deer being pursued by a larger creature at the side of the road. She said that she'd become distracted by this sasquatch as it homed in on its cervine quarry. This is why she didn't notice that the deer had run in front of her vehicle until it was too late. The responding officer did not detect any evidence of Bigfoot.
Zurich's administrative court has upheld a local registry office's decision to reject a name chosen for a recently born child. The parents explained that they wished to honour the girl's great-grandparents Johanna and Josef by giving her 'J' as one of her middle names. The court ruled that this was not in the child's best interest - in their view, using 'Jo' would have suited the stated aim without a risk of people applying the German pronunciation for the letter or putting a full stop after the 'J' as if it were an initial.
In the US, meanwhile, Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk are unhappy
because state public-health officials wouldn't issue a birth
certificate for their child: ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah. The
couple explain that their choice of a 'noble' name for the girl, now
nearly two years old, has left her unable to receive a Social Security
number and necessitated cancellation of a family trip to Mexico.
The Georgia Department of Public Health explained that a baby's
surname must be the father's, that of the mother, or a combination of
the two. A change in surname is allowed after the initial birth
record is made.
With another child on the way and plans for a second noble name of
some sort, Handy and Walk hope that the state ACLU chapter will soon
prevail in its lawsuit on their behalf.
Police say that Ohio's Damari Wayne committed three armed carjackings
within 10 days. The third was his downfall. When the 18-year-old
Wayne forced his way into a man's car, his 17-year-old accomplice took the
driver's seat and soon was confounded by the gear stick. The duo
pointed a gun at the car's owner and interrogated him about how to
change gears. In the end, these two ne'er-do-wells decided that it
would be best to run off.
They took only the victim's mobile phone with them, so the police
used it to determine their location. They had boarded a train, so the
rapid-transit authority locked the train's doors and waited for officers
to arrive. Both young men were arrested, and the keys to several
stolen cars were found on the train.
When asked what he wanted as a 100th-birthday gift, New Jersey's Bill
Hansen said that he wanted to return to his old job as a permit
co-ordinator.
Hutchinson Plumbing, Heating and Cooling made his wish come true in
a sense, with CEO Fred Hutchinson agreeing to pay him $1 and arrange a
full day of work assignments for him.
Hansen, who had retired at age of 97 after spending more than three
decades with the company, explains that he really hates being retired.
Our final story too features elderly people. At the airport in Fort Lauderdale, the Allegiant Air personnel responsible for 'meet and assist' service wheeled a 96-year-old woman and her 89-year-old husband to the wrong gate on Wednesday. The result was that Helen Wheeler and George Nobel ended up in Ogdensburg, New York, instead of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hilarie Grey, speaking for the airline, claimed that a malfunctioning boarding-pass scanner was responsible for the mistake going unnoticed. The couple have been given a full refund and were flown back to Florida, with plans to try for Michigan again on Saturday.
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© 2017 Anna Shefl