Estonian municipality put cannabis leaf on flag
Copenhagen, Denmark (AP) – The southern Estonian municipality of Kanepi has a cannabis leaf on its new flag – because that’s what its name means in Estonian. Andrus Seeme, mayor for Kanepi’s 2,500 souls, says a referendum was held in late 2017 and 80 percent picked the winning design – a silver cannabis leaf on a green shield – out of seven designs. Seeme said Wednesday the city council adopted it a day earlier. Kanepi chose a new flag after three municipalities merged into one following last year’s administrative reform. Seeme said the leaf has been used as a heraldic symbol by local groups for decades and the new flag has met little opposition in Estonia, where cannabis is illegal.
6 young squirrels rescued from ordeal of tangled tails
Omaha, Neb. (AP) – Six young squirrels whose tails were stuck together by tree sap are recovering after a Nebraska wildlife expert untangled them. A Nebraska Humane Society worker rescued the squirrels from a pine tree in Omaha last week. Nebraska Wildlife Rehab executive director Laura Stastny told the Omaha World-Herald that the sap-covered tails became knotted as the youngsters wrestled in their nest. Stastny says they are about 8 weeks old. Resident Craig Luttman spotted the rodents’ predicament, describing it Thursday as “kind of like a tug of war, going in completely opposite directions.” Stastny gave the squirrels a mild painkiller before removing the sticky fur and untangling them. She says some of them suffered injuries to their tails, but she expects all six to be released in a few weeks.
Foam rubber gold bars fool man who
burglarized Michigan shop
Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP) – Fake promotional gold bars apparently appeared so much like the real thing that someone broke into a western Michigan flooring shop to take them. WXMI-TV reports Old to Gold Hardwood Floors owner Rowdy Lapham arrived at work Monday to find his store in Grand Rapids burglarized. Foam rubber gold bars featuring the company’s logo were strewn about. A rock was used to break through a window around 2 a.m. Sunday. The burglar was seen on surveillance video roaming through the shop. Employee Nick Butler tells WZZM-TV that the thief may have walked past a window and saw the stack of bars and “thought, wow, someone forgot to put these gold bars away.” The squeezable bars are for stress relief. Butler says the company’s motto is stress-free flooring.
Ammo box falls from military chopper,
crashes into school
El Paso, Texas (AP) – Authorities are trying to determine how a box of ammunition fell from a military helicopter and crashed through the roof of an elementary school in Texas. The Ysleta Independent School District says no one was injured when the ammo box hit Parkland Elementary School in El Paso on Thursday afternoon. The ammo box left a hole in the roof and caused a power outage in part of the building. Officials at nearby Fort Bliss say they’ll reassess flight patterns as part of their investigation. In a statement, 1st Armored Division Combat Aviation Brigade commander Col. Jay Hopkins said he was sorry for the damage and grateful no one was hurt.
Message in a bottle washes ashore in Canada 18 years later
Gloucester, Mass. (AP) – A message in a bottle that a woman tossed off the coast of Massachusetts has been found nearly two decades later in Nova Scotia. Eighty-year-old Rita Ganim tells the Gloucester Times she dropped the bottle into Ipswich Bay in August 2000 with a short message asking the person who found it to contact her. The bottle was all but forgotten until Ganim received a call from the Buffalo News saying someone found it. Dallas Goreham had been looking for sea glass in the Canadian province last Wednesday when he came across the bottle. The 11-year-old’s mother tracked Ganim down through the newspaper and sent a photo of her son holding the message. While there are no plans set, Ganim says she would love to meet the finders of her bottle.
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