Bentley did it!
A dog left inside a running van put the vehicle in drive, causing it to crash into a Long Island coffee house.
Suffolk County police say no one was injured in the incident, which damaged the glass window and some patio furniture at Cool Beanz coffee shop in St. James.
Police say a 60-year-old Port Jefferson resident left the van running while he went into the shop. His dog, Bentley, somehow knocked the controls.
— Meanwhile, police in Dallas are looking for an irate pet lover so intent on liberating his lost cat that he wielded a bat to fend off animal shelter employees.
Dallas Animal Shelter manager Kent Robertson says the man found his missing gray and blue short-haired cat at the shelter, where it had been brought by someone who thought it was a stray.
He blew his stack when told he had to pay a $132 fee to take his cat.
Police say the man returned Monday, loaded his cat into a carrier without paying the fee, and threatened the staff with the baseball bat. No one was injured.
Most people thank shelter workers. Says Robertson: “This was pretty extreme.”
The man could be charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated assault.
Police Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse says police have a clue — the man signed the shelter guest book before fleeing.
— From Framingham, Mass., comes word today that authorities are trying to figure out who keeps leaving chunks of meat on the town common, and why.
Police say residents have been finding butcher-quality cuts of meat on the common for about five weeks. In the most recent incident, a resident discovered a large piece of raw, unwrapped meat, along with what appeared to be a liver and some bones on Tuesday.
Police Lt. Paul Shastany says someone may be trying to poison animals, so the meat has been sent for testing.
He says police are counting on the public for help in solving the meat mystery.
— And finally, it’s hard to avoid seeing an advertisement, even at lunch.
Businessmen in Mambai, India, will now be getting ads delivered with their home-cooked lunches.
Some 5,000 of the city’s famed lunch box delivery men — or dabbawallas — have traded their loose shirt-and-trouser uniforms for T-shirts advertising a mutual fund.
Rather than eating out at restaurants many of Mumbai’s office workers pay to have a cooked meal delivered from their homes. Getting those meals to the city’s army of office workers is the job of the dabbawallas, who deliver to some 500,000 customers each day.
Jaideep Bhattacharya, the head of marketing at UTI Asset Management, said the delivery men were the perfect way to advertise the company’s mutual fund at a time when finances were strained.
“We found the dabbawallas a great way to reach our target audience at the lowest possible cost,” he said Thursday.
It’s also a boon for the dabbawallas, who have become an integral part of Mumbai’s landscape, often seen on bicycles and trains balancing wooden crates filled with lunch boxes on their heads.
Other companies have also expressed interest in the advertising, said Shopan More, president of the Dabbawallas’ Association.
“Our main business is delivering lunch,” More said. “But of course since there is so much interest, we will do it.”
News
Mid-Daily Items: Bentley the dog needs driving lessons
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New Report: Large charitable donations on the rise
SEATTLE — Money donated by the nation's most chartable people is starting to catch up with pre-recession giving, thanks in part to some very large bequests from a few donors. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports today in its annual report of the nation's most generous people that the top 50 donors made pledges in 2011 to give a total of $10.4 billion.
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State Rep. William DeWeese convicted on five counts in corruption case
HARRISBURG — A jury today convicted a senior Democrat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on all but one of six charges in the latest corruption trial stemming from a five-year investigation into the use of taxpayers' resources for political purposes.
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State gas-drilling bill may pass today
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's top-ranking state senator says he's hoping for a speedy vote in his chamber on sweeping legislation to impose a drilling fee and update safety regulations on the booming natural gas industry.
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HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's top-ranking senator says he expects dramatic and difficult spending cuts in Gov. Tom Corbett's budget plan. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said Monday that Pennsylvanians should be prepared for a debate on how best to use tax dollars, and he warned that he can't envision lawmakers raising taxes to ease spending cuts.
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'It's just amazing'
PAXINOS -- Eli Manning may have been the Super Bowl's Most Valuble Player, but Henry Hynoski was the name on everyone's tongue in the Valley onSunday night. Patrons gathered in blue Giants jerseys to support Hynoski, the 23-year-old Elysburg native and Southern Columbia High School graduate who is now the proud owner of a Super Bowl championship ring.
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Schools await word on Corbett's budget
SUNBURY -- Winston Churchill once said, "A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."
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DA wants Loving Care leader held liable for $68G fine
MIDDLEBURG -- More than a year has passed since the former corporation that operated a Selinsgrove personal care home was convicted of stealing a resident's money, but the case still lingers in court. In December 2010, Loving Care Nursing Center Inc. was convicted of stealing about $32,000 of former resident Francis T. Simonoski's money while he lived at the 308 S. Market St. home in 2007. The corporation was fined $100,000, which later was reduced to $68,000 following an appeal.
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For Riverside couple, game day means party
RIVERSIDE -- Super Bowl Sunday is more than just a sports day for Joe and Leanna Muscato. It's also one of their biggest parties of the year. They have been holding Super Bowl parties for 32 years. They have been holding Super Bowl parties for 32 years. "When it started, it was in my little apartment" in Danville, Leanna said. Only eight people were at the first gathering. Now, there are usually 25 to 30 people every year.
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SUNBURY -- More than 60 percent of farmers are over the age of 55, and without young farmers to replace them when they retire, the nation's food supply would depend on fewer and fewer people. "This is an alarming revelation that we have been hearing for several years," said Tim Lesher, a member of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's Young Farmer and Rancher Committee and president of the Northumberland County Farm Bureau.
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A dip'll do: Few linger in 41-degree water
LEWISBURG -- Why? Group by group, about 250 otherwise perfectly sane-looking folks dived in and ran out of the Susquehanna River at St. George Street landing Saturday in the Seventh annual Polar Bear Plunge, part of the yearly Heart of Lewisburg Ice Festival.
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5 of 9 coaches: Giants will be super
CATAWISSA -- Around 10 tonight, it will be the New York Giants being showered with multi-colored confetti, holding preprinted newspaper front pages that proclaim "GIANTS ARE SUPER!" and getting sweaty fingerprints all over the 7-pound sterling silver Lombardi Trophy, so say five of nine Valley high school football coaches.
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State mandates manure must be managed
HARRISBURG -- Anyone who spreads manure on fields or has a pasture, barnyard or feedlot must now have a manure management plan, even if he has no animals and imports manure only for his fields, a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection official said Friday.
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New Report: Large charitable donations on the rise
