:Peanut Butter News

Full Story At  CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Pirates holding a ship full of tanks and ammunition off the coast of Somalia are likely to be paid millions of dollars in ransom within days, senior U.S. military officials said.
Somali pirates holding the MV Faina stand guard on the merchant vessel’s deck on October 19.

Somali pirates holding the MV Faina stand guard on the merchant vessel’s deck on October 19.

The pirates have been holding the Ukrainian-operated, Belize-flagged MV Faina and its 20-person crew in the Gulf of Aden since September 25.

Military officials said the cash payment will be brought on the ship, directly to the pirates. Such a procedure is common because of the lack of electronic banking in Somalia.

The officials would not say how much ransom is being paid or who is paying it because it would be up to the individuals or company to make that announcement.

What’s known is that the pirates originally asked for a $35 million ransom, but lowered their demand to $20 million, Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya Seafarers Association told CNN in November.

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Full Story At  USATODAY.com

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A state legislator wants to dump a 19th-century law banning the sale of yellow margarine, though it’s been years since any violator was ordered to spread ‘em.

Rep. Sara Lampe said Tuesday she plans to file legislation repealing the law when the 2009 legislative session starts in January.

Most of Missouri’s restrictions on imitation butter date to 1895, and they were last amended in 1939. Although the state no longer enforces them, the penalties could still make dealers in contraband dairy product toast: up to a month in jail and a $100 fine for first-time offenders and six months in jail and a $500 fine for repeat offenders.

Enforcement of the law falls to the state Agriculture Department, and officials there didn’t know when someone was last prosecuted under it. Case records from the late 19th and early 20th century show that Missouri courts upheld the constitutionality of the restrictions in several appeals.

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Full Story At  Reuters

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Fourteen crew and officers, mostly from the Philippines, have been stranded for three months in an Argentine river on a cargo ship abandoned by its owner, surviving on charity donations of food and water.

The Philippine consulate was working to help the crew, who had not been paid, leave the ship and fly home, a coast guard official told Reuters.

The Symphony I, a Liberian-flagged vessel owned by Greek-based Harmony Navigation, sailed into Argentina’s River Plate in September, planning to load soy oil, the coast guard said.

But local authorities detained the ship because of lawsuits against its owner for not paying clients and providers. The company abandoned the vessel and the crew anchored it in the huge river, a few miles from the city of La Plata.

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Full Story At  USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House will not display a Christmas tree ornament that calls for President George W. Bush’s impeachment.

The ornament was made by artist Deborah Lawrence, who says she wanted to honor Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat and a longtime Bush foe who backs impeachment.

The nine-inch ball, submitted to the White House earlier this year, is covered with swirly red and white stripes and features a picture of McDermott. Tiny glued-on text salutes the impeachment resolution.

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Full Story At  USATODAY.com

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) — A 74-year-old blind woman’s 1 cent debt to a Massachusetts city has been settled.

People from across the country called Attleboro City Hall on Tuesday offering to pay the 1 cent balance owed by Eileen Wilbur for an overdue water and sewer bill.

Antonio Viveiros, a former city councilor who does not know Wilbur, wrote a check for one penny. He says he was “irked” by the fact that the federal government can spend billions for bailouts, yet a senior citizen was threatened with a lien on her home over 1 cent.

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Full Story At Video -CNN.com

The “pregnant man” is pregnant again. Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy talk with CNN’s Larry King

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Full Story At Yahoo! News

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland has rated the DVD release of the much-loved children’s television series “Little House on the Prairie” suitable for adult viewing only.

To save money, Universal Pictures decided not to submit the series to state inspection, the company’s Finland marketing manager Meri Suomela told Reuters on Wednesday.

Finnish authorities charge 2 euros ($2.57) per minute for assessing the correct age limit on films and television series. Distributors who forego this can only sell their shows with a sticker saying “Banned for under-18s.”

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CNN.com

MIAMI, Florida (AP) — Evel Knievel never denied his scrapes with the law — the late motorcycle daredevil often reveled in them. But even he objected to a 1970s FBI investigation of whether he was involved in a string of beatings.
Daredevil Evel Knievel, shown in 1974, has a long history with the FBI, but was never charged by the agency.

Daredevil Evel Knievel, shown in 1974, has a long history with the FBI, but was never charged by the agency.

According to documents, the federal government came close to charging Knievel, who in turn threatened to sue the FBI for alleging he was connected to a crime syndicate.

Neither followed through.

Knievel, who died last November in Clearwater, Florida, repeatedly denied his involvement to both investigators and victims, according to the documents.

“Knievel stated that he was not responsible for what just happened to (name redacted) and that he had no control over the ‘thing”‘ according to one phone conversation recounted in an FBI interview.

Knievel, immortalized in the Smithsonian Institution as “America’s Legendary Daredevil,” donned red, white and blue for his death-defying stunts. He had a knack for outrageous yarns and claimed to have been a swindler, a card thief, a safe cracker and a holdup man.

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