Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
• Evidence of election rigging in New Zealand's Bird of the Year competition has set organizers all atwitter, NPR reported.
Officials at Forest & Bird, a conservation organization, noticed that more than 1,500 votes in the annual event had come from one email address on Nov. 9, all in favor of the spotted kiwi.
"That is an amazing bird," spokeswoman Laura Keown said, "but ... these votes had to be disallowed, and they've been taken out of the competition."
The disqualification cleared the way for the competition's eventual winner: the kakapo, or moss chicken, a rare nocturnal bird and the world's only flightless parrot. [NPR, 11/14/2020]
• Police in Corvallis, Oregon, said Dylan Milota was high on marijuana when he crashed the 2019 Tesla S he was driving at more than 100 mph into a utility pole on Nov. 17, breaking the pole and spraying hundreds of small batteries through the windows of two nearby residences.
One landed on a bed, starting a fire in the bedsheets, KMTR reported. A tire from the car struck the second story of a nearby apartment building so forcefully it broke water pipes inside the wall, destroying the bathroom on the other side and causing flooding in the lower level, police said.
Citizens were warned not to pick up any stray batteries, which can stay hot for up to 24 hours and release toxic fumes.
Milota fled on foot but was quickly apprehended and charged with various offenses. [KMTR, 11/19/2020]