WhiteBoard News for Friday, November 28, 2003

Johnson City, Tennessee (AP):

A bullet fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the head, critically injuring him, authorities said. 

Gregory Allen Freeman, 45, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in the Saturday night incident that wounded Jeffery S. Murr, 24. 

About 10 people, including two children, had gathered for the ceremony. The man who was being initiated was blindfolded, tied with a noose to a tree and shot with paintball guns as Freeman fired a pistol in the air to provide the sound of real gunfire, Sheriff Fred Phillips said. 

A bullet struck Murr on the top of the head and exited at the bottom of his skull, authorities said. 

Freeman fled the ceremony but was arrested near his home, authorities said. He was released on $7,500 bail. 
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Seattle, Washington (AP):

A new Turkey and Gravy Soda tastes, well, pretty much like you would imagine. But that's not stopping people from buying it. 

Even the producers of the Thanksgiving-themed beverage at Jones Soda Co. were surprised by the demand. They sold out all 6,000 bottles online within about two hours last week. 

"To be honest, we really didn't think so many people would want it," said a Michelle Whitehead, marketing assistant at the Seattle-based premium soda company that has a reputation for quirky flavors. 

Founder and CEO Peter van Stolk dreamed up the seasonal flavor on a lark, but admits he can't stomach an entire bottle. 

The liquid's ominous, murky brown color accurately warns consumers about the taste. The first sips bring a mix of sweet caramel and savory lard _ and it's downhill from there. 

A limited number of Turkey & Gravy Sodas will be available in stores around Seattle and Olympia for the suggested retail price of 99 cents. A few entrepreneurs are selling theirs on eBay.com; by Tuesday, the bidding was up to $63 for a two-bottle set. 

Mary Turner, a radio DJ in Lansing, Mich., who is auctioning off a bottle for charity, has sampled the drink and warns that it's not for the faint of stomach: "If you roasted a turkey and mashed potatoes, put it in a blender, left it out for three days and then poured it into a Jones bottle, you'd know exactly what this drink tastes like!" 

The company, founded in 1996, plans to donate proceeds from sales of Turkey & Gravy Soda to the Toys for Tots charity, and van Stolk said he will personally match the donation. 
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Winfield, West Virginia (AP):

A woman whose rescue from her flooded car was broadcast on CNN and The Weather Channel has pleaded guilty to driving with a revoked license after she was charged by a deputy who saw TV footage of her driving around a roadblock and into high water. 

"She wasn't driving on a public highway, it was more like driving on a public stream," said Putnam County Magistrate Kylene Brown. "It's going to be tough to find a judge who didn't see that tape." 

Christy Walker, 37, of Scott Depot was arrested in January on a charge of driving under the influence. 

The arresting officer, Putnam County Sheriff's Deputy David Bailey, saw Walker on a newscast Wednesday. A TV crew filmed her driving past screaming firefighters, fire trucks and cones set up to block part of W.Va. 33, where 6 feet of water covered the road. Her car submerged and she was rescued by Teays Valley volunteer firefighters. 

Though uninjured, Walker was shaken and said what had happened was "stupid." 

Because he remembered her, Bailey ran a driver's history check on Walker and confirmed that her license was invalid. 

On Thursday, he used what he saw on TV to charge her with driving on a DUI-related revoked license. Bailey also had spotted Walker driving in September and also charged her then. 

On Monday afternoon, Walker pleaded guilty to two counts of driving on a revoked and suspended license. She faces up to $500 in fines and up to six months in jail for each charge when she is sentenced Dec. 15. 
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Warrington, England (Ananova):

A Warrington woman freed a young boy who'd become trapped under a car, by pushing it off him.

Lisa Hodgkinson has been dubbed Wonder Woman by Jean-Luc Archer after she freed him from under the car's back wheel.

The boy had been knocked down by a BMW after running into the road and was trapped by his pelvis, says The Sun.

Lisa, who weighs just over 126 pounds and is 5ft 7in tall, managed to push the car forward even though the driver was so traumatised he still had his foot on the brake.

Then she knelt in the road in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, to give Jean-Luc mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The youngster, who suffered multiple injuries, was unconscious for four days but is now recovering in Booth Hall Hospital.

She said: "I found the strength from somewhere to push the car off him. But he wasn't breathing so I gave him mouth-to-mouth. My instincts just took over."

Last year Lisa received an award for reviving a truck driver on the M62.

Jean-Luc's mother Maggie said: "He wouldn't be here if it weren't for Lisa. He calls her Wonder Woman and that's what she is."
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New York, New York (Reuters):

Petite former Burger King manager Sonya Thomas wolfed down 7-3/4 pounds of holiday food in 12 minutes on Wednesday to defeat a pair of 400-pound rivals and win the Thanksgiving Invitational eating contest. 

The 106-pound Thomas of Alexandria, Virginia, devoured massive helpings of yams, green beans, cranberry sauce and turducken, a turkey stuffed with duck, chicken and sausage, to win the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) event. 

"I'm full but I could eat more," Thomas, 36, said. Asked her secret, she said, "I just eat fast, that's all." 

Thanksgiving, which traditionally centers around a family feast, brings out the overeater in many Americans, but Thomas ruled supreme as she ate her way past 400-pounders Ed "Cookie" Jarvis and Eric "Badlands" Booker, who came in second and third, respectively. 

"You need four things" to participate in this sport, said Booker before the contest. "Capacity, strategy, mental toughness and stamina." 

"I'm an eating machine," said Booker, who holds world marks in the matzo ball, corned beef hash and doughnut contests. 

Being big is no requisite for success, as Thomas proved. 

The glamour event on "the circuit" of competitive eating is Nathan's Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest held in New York's Coney Island neighborhood. Takeru Kobayashi, a slender Japanese man who ate a record 50-1/2 hot dogs and buns in 2001, is the current superstar. 

In the Thanksgiving contest, most of the nine competitors used their hands to stuff in the food, while Richard and George Shea, the brothers who head the IFOCE, stood behind them offering commentary. 

The IFOCE hosts official eating contests and tracks the world's top eaters, like record-holder Oleg Zhornitskiy, who downed four 32-ounce bowls of mayonnaise in 8 minutes. 

Asked her plans for Thanksgiving, Thomas replied, "I'm going to eat more turkey." 

The victory earned Thomas two airline tickets anywhere in the continental United States, and a turkey statuette. 
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Chow
SuperChef
www.joeha.com