Attempts to Bar Nevada Voters From Wearing Chicken Suits at Polls Lays an Egg

Protesters of a statewide ban to keep people dressed as chickens from coming closer than 100 feet to polling places are crying "fowl."

It seems Secretary of State Ross Miller's ban did not stop some peeps from flocking to vote Wednesday.

Clad in a bright yellow chicken suit, Michael Ginsburg voted at the Rainbow Library despite the ban, claiming the debate has transformed into a free speech issue rather than a jab at any one particular candidate.

"The concern is they could ban something else," said Ginsburg, an at-large board member for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. "I understand the chicken outfit has become synonymous with a certain campaign, which we weren't actually discussing or out in opposition to. This really just interferes with someone's First Amendment rights."

For weeks, chicken jokes have permeated the news, with pundits chiding Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden for her remarks suggesting people could barter with doctors for medical care.

But Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said the Election Department cannot stop someone from voting as long as they are not interfering with the process.

"This whole thing is ridiculous," Lomax said. "You've got a state with a $3 billion deficit, a country that's bankrupt, and that's what we're dealing with. We instructed our workers to let them vote. They can vote.

"Then we get them out of there as quickly as possible."

Immediately after voting, Ginsburg was escorted from the polling place.

Miller has refused to lift his ban, saying state law prohibits "electioneering" or campaigning for or against a candidate closer than 100 feet to polling places.

But he also acknowledged that local election officials have discretion when it comes to voter dress at the polls.

The law that Miller cites as giving him authority to prohibit people in chicken suits from being in polling places does not specifically mention what people can or cannot wear.

Instead, it states people cannot buy, sell, wear or display "any badge, button or insignia which is designed or tends to aid or promote the success or defeat of any political party, candidate or ballot question."

Miller said it would not be unlawful for people to show up at polls dressed as Uncle Sam or even Freddy Krueger of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" fame as long as it did not interfere with other voters.

Miller said that despite the ban, people in chicken suits are showing up at polls and standing more than 100 feet away.

"Obviously, some people are trying to get publicity out of this issue," he said. "Their protest of my ban laid an egg."

Everyone knows that the chicken suit wearer is sending a message against one particular candidate, Miller added.

"I know they aren't at the polls to vote for Colonel Sanders," he quipped.

Man dies of uterine cancer linked to kidney transplant

VINCENT Liew waited five years for the kidney that was supposed to change his life. Instead, the organ ended it.

The kidney came from a woman who had uterine cancer, but she and doctors didn't know it. Once her disease was discovered after the transplant, Mr Liew's doctors highly doubted it could spread to him.

But in seven months, Mr Liew was killed by cancer that his autopsy linked to the transplant. His death, the subject of a medical malpractice trial in which closing arguments were scheduled for today, is believed to be the only reported instance of uterine cancer apparently being transmitted by transplant, medical experts say.

The case has reignited questions about the sometimes hidden risks carried by transplanted organs, risks that transplant experts say they have worked to minimise but can't eliminate - but are worth taking for many patients.

Mr Liew, a 37-year-old from Singapore who worked in the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, didn't know the chance he was taking with the February 25, 2002, transplant that held the promise of freeing the diabetic from three-times-a-week dialysis.

"He was very excited, very happy," his widow, Kimberly Liew, testified last week, according to the Daily News. But, she said, he ended up with "a bomb in his body."

Donor Sandy Cabrera had died of a stroke about a day earlier. The 50-year-old had seemed healthy until she collapsed while checking e-mail at her Newburgh, New York, home, and she and her loved ones had no clue about her cancer, said her boyfriend, Michael Daniels.

"I feel real bad for the guy who got the kidney, but I'm telling you, no one knew she had cancer," Mr Daniels said in a telephone interview.

The doctors who treated her at St Luke's Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh didn't know either, until an autopsy found the uterine cancer days after her death, according to testimony.

The news didn't reach Mr Liew's New York City transplant surgeon, Dr Thomas Diflo, until April 17, 2002, according to testimony. It's unclear why the information didn't travel faster; St Luke's declined to comment, and the organisation that arranged the transplant, the New York Organ Donor Network, didn't immediately return a call yesterday.

A gag order has prevented all the parties from speaking about the case outside court.

Dr Diflo testified that he told Mr Liew the safest plan was removing the kidney, but the odds of Mr Liew developing the cancer were slim, given its origins in the female reproductive system.

"It would be extremely unusual for a man to get cancer of the uterus," Dr Diflo testified he told Mr Liew, according to the Daily News.

Mr Liew decided to keep the organ, and Dr Diflo said he respected his patient's choice. Tests from May to August found no indication of cancer in the kidney, according to testimony.

Suffering from back pain, Mr Liew had Dr Diflo remove the kidney on August 29, 2002. Tumours were readily apparent, according to trial testimony, and Mr Liew died within a month.

His autopsy attributed his death to cancer that derived from the transplant and had genetically female cells, though it didn't specify the form of cancer. Dr Robert Gelfand, a NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Centre cancer specialist who reviewed the records for Mr Liew's widow, concluded Mr Liew died of uterine cancer.

Woman Turned Away from Amusement Park Because of Her Tattoos

DALLAS, Texas -- A 30-year-old mother of three said she was refused entrance into Six Flags Over Texas because of her tattoo.

Samantha Osborn, a Texas girl through-and-through, has two six-shooters surrounded by yellow roses tattooed on her chest.

"I got it because I love Texas," she said. "I thought of cowboys and six-shooters and the yellow rose of Texas."

But a Six Flags employee stopped her at the entrance gate when she and her husband, Matt, went to the Arlington amusement park to celebrate his birthday.

"We tried to enter, one employee grabbed me and said my chest tattoo was offensive and that I may not be allowed into the park," Osborn said. "I was flabbergasted."

She said the employee told her Six Flags was a family-friendly place. Osborn told the employee she was the mother of three girls.

"She said it was as offensive as a swastika and that she would sell me a $5 shirt to cover myself up and that they didn't let people with swastikas into Six Flags, and that my tattoo condoned violence," Osborn said.

Six Flags' dress code says park management can deny customers entrance if their clothing is deemed inappropriate or vulgar. The code does not mention tattoos.

The Osborns, determined to celebrate the birthday, eventually entered the park through another line without being bothered, but the damage had been done.

"It just soured the whole experience, and we left," Samantha Osborn said.

Osborn, who has several tattoos, said she has never been harassed about them. Her husband's tattoos are much more visible than hers and cover about 70 percent of his body.

"I've never been denied access or even asked to cover up entering any public place, ever," he said.

Samantha Osborn complained to Six Flags about what she called unfair and discriminatory treatment. She later received a letter of apology by e-mail from Cindi Brickett, Six Flags guest services supervisor.

"We are dedicated to providing a fun-filled day that goes beyond your expectations," the e-mail said. "On behalf of the entire management team, I sincerely apologize that we did not meet that goal and hope that you will not allow this experience to diminish your impression of our park."

Brickett also promised the employee would be dealt with appropriately.

"I received an e-mail, which wasn't a phone call. I would have really liked to speak to a person," Osborn said.

The Osborns said they don't plan on returning to Six Flags.

German robbers miscalculate explosive charge and level local bank

Would-be bank robbers in Germany miscalculated the amount of explosives needed to open the front door and instead leveled an entire building, Die WeltOnline reports.

The safe and the ATM machine survived intact, however, and the robbers apparently fled without taking any money from the bank branch in Malliss.

Police initially thought one of the robbers might have been buried in the rubble, but search dogs turned up nothing, Die Welt reports.

In addition, police found a stolen delivery van on fire outside the building. They surmise that the thieves brought it along to use to cart off the ATM machine.
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This reminds me of the classic line in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" after Butch tried to blow up a safe on a Union Pacific railroad train and blew up the safe, the rail car and all the money..Sundance says to Butch.."use enough dynamite there Butch?"