LA reservoir covered with balls to protect water

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of shimmering black plastic balls were dumped into one of the city’s last open-air reservoirs to prevent a sunlight-fueled chemical reaction that can harm the water supply.
Workers on Monday unleashed 400,000 of the hollow, 4-inch "shade balls" down a slope to cover the surface of the Ivanhoe Reservoir, which provides water to parts of downtown, central and south Los Angeles.
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power drained two of its six remaining open-air reservoirs because a rare sunlight-and-chlorine reaction tainted the water with bromate, a cancer-causing chemical. The amounts were small and didn’t violate federal water regulations, but the water was dumped as a precaution.
The plastic spheres are "a cost effective method of creating shade without elaborate construction, parts, labor or maintenance," the department said in a statement.
The balls are a temporary fix while the city completes an underground water storage project to replace the open-air reservoirs within several years.

Pa. man walks 25 miles to court for DUI sentencing

CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) — A man facing sentencing on a drunken-driving conviction couldn’t get a ride to court. So he start walking.
And walking.
Stephen Shoemaker was scheduled to appear at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday for sentencing.
Shoemaker, 33, of Shippensburg, doesn’t have a car or driver’s license. So he started hoofing it to the courthouse at dawn. He kept walking for about 25 miles in 90-plus-degree heat.
Shoemaker arrived about 3:30 p.m. — after a detour to a hospital, where he was treated for dehydration.
Judge Edward Guido had issued an arrest warrant when Shoemaker failed to appear. But he agreed to defer sentencing until July. Guido said he hesitated only because "that means he’ll have to walk back to Shippensburg."
Deputy Public Defender Anthony Adams volunteered to give Shoemaker a ride home.

Missing Cape Cod lighthouse located in Calif.

WELLFLEET, Mass. (AP) — Local historians for decades thought the 30-foot tall lighthouse that once overlooked Wellfleet Harbor had been taken down and destroyed in 1925.
Turns out, it had just been moved to the California coast.
The fate of the cast-iron tower was uncovered last year by lighthouse researchers and reported by Colleen MacNeney in this month’s edition of Lighthouse Digest.
MacNeney told the Cape Cod Times in Wednesday’s edition it was her most exciting discovery.
Wellfleet historian Helen Purcell says the discovery of the lighthouse at Point Montara at the southern end of San Francisco Bay was a genuine shock.
MacNeney says she discovered correspondence that proved the lighthouse, first erected in 1881, had been moved by the Coast Guard from Wellfleet to Yerba Buena, Calif., and eventually to Point Montara.
There is no known documentation explaining how it was moved across the country, MacNeney said.
But Jim Walker, chairman of the Cape Cod Chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, speculates that because it is metal, it could have been disassembled bolt by bolt, with the pieces then transported by rail.
The lighthouse is still used as a navigational aid and a hostel.

Fan wins funeral at minor league baseball game

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (AP) — Elaine Fulps is thrilled about the prize she won at a minor league baseball game. But she’s hoping she doesn’t have to collect on it anytime soon.
Fulps, 60, won a $10,000 paid funeral at Tuesday night’s Grand Prairie AirHogs game.
The prize won’t expire until after Fulps does, said Ron Alexander, the sales manager at Oak Grove Memorial Gardens, which partnered with the team and Irving’s Chapel of Roses Funeral Home to sponsor the event.
"I almost croaked many times," said Fulps, who was wearing a neck brace — the most recent effect of about 20 surgeries she’s undergone for various medical problems. "God still has me around for a reason. To win a funeral."
Fans in this Dallas suburb were eager to join in the grim fun.
Some finalists for the prize arrived dressed in black or looking like death. The finalists participated in a pallbearer’s race, a mummy wrap and a eulogy delivery.
Fulps, randomly chosen as the winner at night’s end, said she’ll choose a casket and plot as soon as she recovers.
"I’m going to pick a spot under a tree out of the Texas heat," she told The Dallas Morning News. "And let’s hope it’s a pet-free cemetery. I don’t want to get watered on."

Oregon fishing town loses namesake tuna statue

CHARLESTON, Ore. (AP) — Sorry, Charlie. You’re a crime victim.
The blue, 8-foot wooden statue of a tuna stood for two decades at the end of a bridge, welcoming folks to the coastal fishing town of Charleston.
Now the tuna, named Charlie, is missing. Because the chain holding the statue in place was cut, Charlie is presumed stolen.
Mel Campbell of the local merchants association says Charlie was last seen wearing an orange hat and glasses, similar to StarKist’s pitch-fish.
She says the group has another tuna statue, a 12-footer at the information center. But Charlie was more popular, and, she says, "looked cute at the end of the bridge."
The local sheriff’s office has notified police departments to keep an eye out for Charlie.