Year: 2015

Wine drinkers in South Dakota may have one more reason to raise a glass pretty soon -- a bill that will allow consumer-direct shipping of wine is slated to reach the governor's desk after being approved by the full Senate Tuesday. The Senate approval takes wine aficionados in the state one more step closer to being able to have wine legally delivered to their doors. According to the Rapid City Journal, South Dakota is one of only nine states in the U.S. that outlaw consumer-direct shipping of wine. The initiative began as an effort of South Dakotans for Better Wine Laws, which is a group of Sioux Falls anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists who enjoy drinking wine. Though the bill was shot down last year, careful study and amendment has helped bring it to reality. Opposition to the bi...

It started out with just one rabbit and a small garage. It ended with a call to animal services and the discovery of 62 rabbits. A police officer was responding to an unrelated call in Santa Ana, CA when he spotted at least a dozen rabbits wandering near a house on the 400 block of South Broadway. Because local law only permits four rabbits per household, the officer contacted animal services to report a possible rabbit hoarder. Animal Services tracked the rabbits to a detached, 200-square-foot garage where a woman who was only identified as "Blanca" was living with 62 rabbits, some only a few days old. A few of the rabbits were in cages, and there were lights to set up to keep them warm. "There is a pretty overwhelming smell inside," Santa Ana Police Animal Services supervisor So...

The most recent set of storms battering the Northeast and Midwest have caused a number of deadly accidents and road closures across the eastern half of the country. Distracted driving already causes about 20% of all accidents in the United States, and it is easier for those crashes to become serious when slippery winter conditions are involved. As of Feb. 16, The Weather Channel’s website attributed six total deaths to the storm pattern, named Neptune. Three people were killed in accidents in Ohio, including one pregnant woman and her unborn child who were caught in a multi-car pileup on the Ohio Turnpike. In Indiana, a seven-year-old child died in another multi-vehicle accident on US-20. Two people, a woman and a nine-year-old girl, were killed in an accident on the New York Thruway. ...

Driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol is one offense that cops don’t take lightly, especially when children are in danger -- and thanks to one Zamboni driver in Fargo, North Dakota, the country is being reminded that drunk driving charges can occur in the most unexpected situations. According to police reports, the Davies High School girls’ hockey team was playing the Williston High School team on Friday, January 30th, at the Fargo South Sports Arena. A spectator watching the game noticed that the Zamboni, a large machine that cleans ice shavings and smooths the surface of the rink during breaks in play, was being driven in an “erratic” manner. The New York Daily News reports that the Zamboni was “weaving on the ice” during a break, and that it crashed into the sideboar...

Starting Monday, February 9th, the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) began offering a digital bus tracking timetable for its public bus lines running in Baltimore and the surrounding suburbs. Although the real-time tracking system is new, public demand for accurate bus arrival information has been building up for quite a while. As the Baltimore Sun explains, “riders have been clamoring for the system for years, complaining that MTA buses often operate outside of posted schedules -- leaving them [the riders] out in the cold and making their commutes unpredictable..” The timetable tracking system, called “My MTA Tracker,” will allow commuters to access updated arrival times for each of the MTA’s buses. The system is not yet available as a mobile app, but it’s accessible via the MTA’s web...