Welcome to Casual Friday where we wake you up with the overlooked news stories of the week. The offbeat, strange and sometimes downright weird news items that mainstream media tends to ignore, all wrapped up with a few funnies, all designed to get your face in smiling shape for the weekend.
PA minor-league team installs 'urinal gaming system'
Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies' AAA-minor league team has a surprise waiting for the male fans when the season kicks off at Coca-Cola Park next week. It is a "urinal gaming system" installed above the urinals that displays a downhill snowmobile competition. The user's "flow" controls the snowmobiler by directing the "stream" left or right. There's points for hitting penguins as well.
“It’s just like a joystick on a video game,” said Brian Downs, Director of Media Relations for Lehigh Valley Health Network. The health system will be advertising on the game’s screens.
Downs says his team had a few laughs when they were approached to be a sponsor, but quickly decided it would be a great way to educate men about prostate health.
“You kind of have a built-in audience and an opportunity to create an awareness about the importance of prostate health,” he said.
The "game" was first introduced in several Pubs in London, England to an appreciative audience. How appreciative? Let's just say that beer sales were waaay up!
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Man accused of baggin buck from Walmart parking lot
At the Resort Plaza Walmart, people can save a dollar. And, apparently, waste a buck as well.
By shooting it with a handgun, that is.
Which is why Arcangelo Bianco Jr., 40, finds himself in trouble with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
According to the commission, Bianco fired several rounds at a hapless white-tailed deer from within the Burrell Township store’s parking lot and bagged the animal on the other side of Old William Penn Highway (Old Route 22) one afternoon last November.
The deer ran around a corner of the store, and Bianco hopped out of the truck, gun in hand, and “began firing multiple rounds at the deer,” Jack Lucas, the wildlife conservation officer who investigated the incident wrote in the charging documents that the deer ran around the corner of the store and Bianco hopped out of his truck, gun in hand and began firing multiple rounds at the deer.
“The defendant pursued the deer through the parking lot and across Old William Penn Highway, where he killed the deer. The defendant then loaded the deer into his vehicle and took it to a meat processor for butchering,” he said.
Bianco faces a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment and 5 summary offenses, all hunting law violations. He is not charged with hunting out of season as the incident took place on the first day of antlered deer season.
A preliminary hearing before District Judge Jennifer Rega has been scheduled for May 1.
Dog travels 10 miles in cold to reunite with his love
Ben, the white mixed German shepherd was adopted from the Terre Haute, Indiana Humane Society so things should have been looking up for the 4 1/2 year old, 70 pound dog, but it seems Ben couldn't bear to live without his lady love. Jade, a tan German shepherd and Ben were found together as strays and brought to the shelter. It was soon discovered Jade was pregnant and later had 6 puppies which were adopted out. The shelter believes the two have been together for quite some time.
On Dec. 28, the 4 1/2-year-old, 70-pound dog ran away from owners Courtney and Jason Lawler and traveled across a wooded landscape in freezing temperatures to return to the Humane Society shelter, where Jade was still living.
After finding out about Ben's remarkable journey and seeing the strong bond between the two dogs, the Lawlers decided to bring Jade home as well.
“It was amazing,’’ Courtney Lawler told TODAY.com. “I was really shocked because we thought he was still in our area when he got away, and he walked 10 miles away from us. We knew that they had been caught together (by the Humane Society) and that they stayed together (before Ben was adopted), but we didn’t realize how strong of a bond they had.’’
Santorum Claims Minority Cardinals Voted Twice in Papal Conclave
At a hastily-called press conference former Republican presidential candidate and conservative Catholic RIck Santorum is claiming some ethnic minority cardinals may have voted more than once in the recent election of Pope Francis I. Pope Francis I, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the first non-European pope in a thousand years and the first Hispanic pope ever.
“It seems odd that for nearly a millennium the Catholic Church was led by a European,” said Santorum at a hastily-called press conference in Pittsburgh, “and then suddenly, this happens.”
The last several papal conclaves have resulted in Republican claims of voter fraud and Democratic counter-claims of voter suppression, with both sides calling for legal reforms. After the election of Pope Benedict XVI, there were unsubstantiated rumors of robo-calls telling minority cardinals to arrive at the Sistine Chapel the day after the conclave was to begin, which liberals claim tipped the election to the recently-retired Pope.
Rush Limbaugh regurgitated several Vatican election fraud theories on his nationally-syndicated radio show today, including that there have been reports of people voting in the names of dead cardinals.
The liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice, a New York-based organization that monitors voter rights issues, released a report in 2007 debunking claims of voting irregularities in the papal conclave, but many of the debunked theories are still aired in conservative media and blogs.
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