Offbeat News

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The U.S. Air Force has warned people against participating in an internet joke suggesting a large crowd of people “storm Area 51,” the top-secret Cold War test site in the Nevada desert. A prank event on Facebook that’s attracted more than 1 million interested

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Officials in West Palm Beach are hoping a continuous loop of children’s songs played throughout the night will keep homeless people from sleeping in a city park. West Palm Beach parks and recreation director Leah Rockwell tells the Palm Beach Post

BELL, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida man held his wife’s lover at gunpoint, cut off the man’s penis and fled with it. News outlets report 49-year-old Alex Bonilla was arrested hours later on charges including aggravated assault. The Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Almost three dozen cannabis plants have been found growing in the flower beds in front of the Vermont Statehouse, police said Friday. A visitor to the Statehouse alerted police to what turned out to be 34 plants found by officers this week among the cultivated flowers

MOSCOW (AP) — Residents of a city in Siberia don’t need to fly off to tropical locales for picturesque selfies taken by pristine turquoise waters. Thousands of Novosibirsk residents — ranging from scantily clad women to newlyweds — have been busy instagramming near a bright blue lake

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — A 75-year-old Florida man says he kicked an alligator in the snout after it attacked his dog. Buddy Ackerman says the 8-foot gator came from a retention pond near his Palm Harbor condominium earlier this week and grabbed the dog while they were out for an early morning

WEST MILFORD, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man is promising to give his neighbor’s dog a steak for chasing a black bear from his backyard. Mark Stinziano tells WABC-TV his home security camera captured what happened Tuesday night when the bruin decided to snack on the bird feeder behind his

GUTHRIE, Okla. (AP) — Police in Oklahoma say they found a rattlesnake, a canister of radioactive powdered uranium and an open bottle of Kentucky Deluxe whiskey during a traffic stop of a vehicle that had been reported stolen. The traffic stop happened June 26 in Guthrie, about 30 miles (45

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia honored singer Patti LaBelle with her very own street earlier this week. Unfortunately, the signs didn’t get her name right. The city’s Streets Department didn’t capitalize the “b” in the legendary soul singer’s last name on

EAST WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) — Police and bystanders teamed up to rescue a 6-foot-long snake that had wrapped itself around the engine block of a car in Connecticut. East Windsor police say the reptile had to be removed from a resident’s vehicle on Thursday. Police wrote in Facebook post that