Ready, set, snore! Spain holds siesta contest in shopping mall
 
MADRID (AP) — Some clutched pillows or stuffed animals, others fought back giggles as they sought to take a siesta in public — all in the name of plugging a quintessential Spanish custom endangered by the demands of modern life.
 
Amid the bustle of a shopping mall, with babies wailing and pop music piped in overhead, clutches of people tried to snooze Thursday in what was billed as Spain’s first siesta competition.
 
The goal — to promote Spain’s cherished post-luncheon nap — is no joke, although the costumes of some who participated may be.
 
Contestants in groups of five were given 20 minutes to lie down on garish blue coaches and timed by a doctor with a pulse-measuring device to determine how long they spent snoozing. They could win extra points for snoring, adopting goofy sleep positions or wearing outlandish night wear in plain view of gawking shoppers.
 
Their sofas were lined up in parallel numbered lanes like those of a track and field meet, and eight rounds were being held per day.
 
 
Tourist killed in Mexico may have been a victim of mistaken identity
 
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The American tourist who reportedly was shot and killed by Mexican pirates on a border lake may have been a victim of mistaken identity, a U.S. consulate official said Thursday.
 
Tiffany Hartley, of McAllen, Texas, says that on Sept. 30, she and her husband, David, were returning to the U.S. from Mexico where they went to photograph a historic, half-submerged church.
 
They were crossing Falcon Lake on Jet Skis when pirates who patrol the Mexican half of the lake opened fire, shooting David in the back of the head. Tiffany Hartley says she barely escaped with her life after vain attempts to save her husband while men on three speedboats pursued them, firing their guns.
 
 
Ole Miss picks black bear for new, un-Confederate mascot
 
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — It took seven years, but the University of Mississippi has a substitute for a beloved and reviled mascot who brought the Confederacy to mind. The new guy is still a rebel, only cuddlier.
 
“Rebel Black Bear” won 62 percent of the vote in a final poll, the school announced Thursday. Its athletic programs will keep the Rebels nickname.
 
 
Phoenix police officer charged with on-duty murder of unarmed suspect
 
PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix police officer has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge for the on-duty shooting of an unarmed suspect during a violent encounter in which he also shocked the victim with a stun gun and killed his dog, officials said Thursday.
 
Officer Richard Chrisman was served a summons on the indictment and was not taken into custody, said his defense attorney Craig Mehrens.
 
 
New Southern University chief proposes merging with UNO
 
(AP) — Southern University’s new president says it might make sense to merge the University of New Orleans into the Southern University System.
 
Ronald Mason Jr. made the suggestion Wednesday to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge.
 
But Mason told The Advocate later that racial issues likely would derail any such plans, and he hasn’t decided whether to make a formal proposal.
 
He said consolidating the two universities would strengthen urban public education in New Orleans in the face of budget cuts.
 
Previous talks of merging UNO and Southern University at New Orleans have resulted in protests from SUNO alumni and students. But such discussions never involved putting UNO in the Southern University System. UNO is currently regulated by the LSU System.
 
 
Jury awards Ohio tourists $650K in Katrina false imprisonment lawsuit
 
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal jury on Thursday awarded more than $650,000 to two Ohio tourists who were arrested in New Orleans on public drunkenness charges two days before Hurricane Katrina and jailed for more than a month in the storm’s chaotic aftermath.
 
The jury unanimously concluded that Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman falsely imprisoned Robie Waganfeald and Paul Kunkel Jr., both of Toledo, Ohio, and awarded them a total of $459,300 for those claims.
 
The seven jurors also found that one of Gusman’s chief deputies, William Hunter, was “deliberately indifferent” to the men’s constitutional rights to call an attorney or relative after their arrest. For that violation, jurors awarded them $200,000.
 
The two friends hugged each other after the verdict was read.
 
 
 
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