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• Ohio township to feds: We don't want your money
  The federal government isn't used to being snubbed when it offers to help local governments.

• Parents want to flush N.C. school's potty policy
  Going potty without a partner can lead to punishment for students at a Burgaw elementary school, but parents want the policy flushed.

• Cops say boy, 8, took car for ride, caused crash
  Authorities said an 8-year-old Pontiac boy took a stolen car on a joy ride and caused a three-vehicle crash. Pontiac police said the boy sneaked out of his house Wednesday night and found an empty and running car in his neighborhood.

• Police say men trying to steal power lines shocked
  Two Somerset County men are charged with trying to steal live power lines that were still attached to a transformer and utility poles.

• Woman sentenced for having son dress up as Scout
  A former Bethlehem woman will serve up to 23 months in prison for having her 7-year-old son dress as a Cub Scout to collect money for a nonexistent cause.

• Half-eaten Snickers bar implicates hungry burglar
  Police say DNA found on a half-eaten candy bar helped them zero in on a robbery suspect.

• Father jailed over daughter's truancy to be freed
  A judge says he will release a man who was jailed last week for failing to make sure his daughter earned her high school equivalency diploma.

• Wis. man won't buy gas for 31 days, maybe longer
  Brian LaFave couldn't care less how high gasoline prices climb these days - he's parked his pickup truck and is refusing to buy gas for a month, possibly longer.

• 9-year-old girl's twin is found inside her stomach
  A 9-year-old girl who went to hospital in central Greece suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said Thursday.

• DNA tests exonerate 'Lizard Man' in van attack
  DNA testing has shown an attack on a family van some blamed on the legendary Lizard Man appears to have been actually done by a domestic dog. Something chewed up the front fender of Bob and Dixie Rawson's van in February. Bite marks were left on the wheel wells and blood was found on the vehicle.

• Pair say they attacked each other with frying pan
  Out of the frying pan and into the fire. That's pretty much what happened to a Cumberland County couple arrested and charged with whacking each other with a frying pan.

• Baby subpoenaed for unpaid chiropractor bill
  A Harrisonburg court has dismissed a case against a baby boy summoned to appear in court for an unpaid bill. Richard White said he was shocked when he got a subpoena in the mail requiring his 1-year-old son, Jacy, to appear in Rockingham County General District Court next Tuesday over a $391 chiropractor bill.

• Parked car thwarts purse-snatcher in Iowa
  A robbery was prevented Thursday by an unusual crime-fighting tool - a parked car. Karla Gierstors of West Des Moines was walking in downtown Des Moines about 6:15 a.m. Thursday when a man threatened her with a box cutter and grabbed her purse.

• Campaign mailing in Ark. race screams 'Judas!'
  A race for a seat in the Arkansas House has taken on biblical proportions as a contender's campaign mailing offers a one-word description of the incumbent: "Judas!"

• Police say men trying to steal power lines shocked
  Two Somerset County men are charged with trying to steal live power lines that were still attached to a transformer and utility poles.

• Hungry bear, cub take refuge on building's roof
  A mother bear and her young cub stopped traffic and caused panic Thursday in central Romania after they roamed through gardens in search of food and finally climbed the stairs of a 4-story building and broke onto the roof. A rescue team tranquilized the mother after failing to steer her toward a nearby forest, officials said.

• Michigan Girl Scout sells 17,328 boxes of cookies
  A Girl Scout sold 17,328 boxes of the group's signature cookies this year by setting up shop on a street corner, shattering her troop's old mark and probably setting a national record.

• Giant beetles seized at Pennsylvania post office
  Customs agents seized more than two dozen giant beetles - some the size of a child's hand - from an overseas package after postal workers heard the insects making scratching noises.

• Woman accused of faking cancer to avoid work
  A former Washington state social worker has been accused of faking brain cancer to avoid work. Theft charges were filed Tuesday against Sandra Dee Martinez, 40, formerly of Mountlake Terrace, who was employed by the Department of Social and Health Services in Arlington.

• Police thwart scheme to steal light poles
  Police say a dimwitted scheme to steal light poles from a village storage yard has resulted in two arrests on Long Island. Nassau County Police Lt. Ray Cote said Wednesday that neighbors noticed two men carving up the aluminum poles with a cordless power tool and stashing them in a van under the cover of darkness. He says plainclothes officers arrived and caught the thieves in the act.

• NYC cabbie is fined $1,000 for foul-mouthed tirade
  The days of the cursing cabbie may be over. A New York City cab driver has been fined $1,000 for launching a foul-mouthed tirade at another cabbie.

• Mich. city spends $5.21 to mail 51-cent tax bill
  A Michigan doctor is getting a laugh out of a 51-cent property tax bill. It isn't just that Phil Kazanji's bill is so low. It's that it cost the city of Brighton $5.21 to send it to him by certified mail.

• Forgotten tot left behind at Vancouver airport
  An immigrant family left a 23-month-old boy in the Vancouver airport and learned he was missing only when contacted during the next leg of the trip.

• 'Darth Vader' spared jail in Jedi church attacks
  A man who dressed up as Darth Vader, wearing a garbage bag for a cape, and assaulted the founders of a group calling itself the Jedi church was given a suspended sentence Tuesday.

• U. of Okla. freshman, 19, elected mayor of Muskogee
  A 19-year-old freshman at the University of Oklahoma was elected mayor Tuesday of Muskogee, a city of 38,000 in the northeastern part of the state.