Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Thursday

California's strangest elected official [No, even stranger than him]
Chapman University's campus police (Orange, Calif.) detained Steve Rocco for allegedly trying to swipe a bottle of ketchup from the school cafeteria under his coat. Rocco is a trustee of the school district board in Orange, and his election in 2004 was highlighted in News of the Weird [NOTW 877, 11-28-2004]

Perhaps the strangest election result this year was in Orange County, Calif., where a school board seat went not to the favored establishment candidate but to an unknown, Steve Rocco, who never campaigned or even appeared in public. (He did tell a friend after the election that he would appear at the board meeting on December 9.) Among the little information known about him: His candidate registration included one page of [according to the Los Angeles Times] “densely typed text cut and pasted together, and filled with rambling prose,” and several years ago, he hosted a 17-episode interview series on public-access TV while wearing dark glasses.

Rocco still wears dark glasses, and this fall is running for the city council in Santa Ana, where his platform includes taking on "the Mexican Mafia, their Caucasian Puppetmasters and Judicial Miscreants" and pursuing other quixoticisms. Los Angeles Times
Comments 'steve_rocco'

Barack Obama running for municipal office in Brazil
In fact, three of them are. Brazil allows candidates to register with whatever names they want: hence, O. J. Saddam, Chico Bin Laden, Kung Fu Fatty, The Second King of Prawns, and 200 who copied the name of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, since his approval rating is around 80 percent. Daily Telegraph (London)
Comments 'brazil_candidates'

The Testicle Cookbook
Serbian chef Ljubomir Erovic has just released a downloadable e-book under that name, seein' as how he's probably the world's foremost authority. Tastiest: bulls, stallions, ostriches. Aphrodisiac: sheep, stallions. Other sources: pigs, turkeys. Favorite dishes: testicle pizza, barbecued testicles and giblets. Most important instruction: "Wash thoroughly for 30-45 minutes." Agence France-Presse via News.Com.au
Comments 'testicle_cookbook'

Incorrigible rapist-murderer awarded money because prison guards laughed at him
Muri Peace Chilton, serving life for the 1977 rape-murder of a 15-yr-old girl, accidentally mangled his thumb in a prison shop in 2000, and when guards couldn't resist mocking him, he sued. Federal Court of Canada said he deserved $2,500 (Cdn). National Post
Comments 'muri_chilton'

Leading Economic Indicators: (1) An actual house in Saginaw, Mich., legitimately closed on eBay for $1.75 (plus $850 back taxes). (2) A Wells Fargo bank branch in La Mesa, Calif., was robbed on Monday by two different perps, three hours apart. (3) The South Korean gov't has no economic crisis, as it said yesterday it would subsidize gym classes for kids so they won't get fat. (4) "Beavers Blamed for Likely Bank Failure" [Ed.: I'm just messin' with you; that one's about a river bank] Saginaw News /// Associated Press via Yahoo /// Reuters via Yahoo /// San Francisco Chronicle
Comments 'economic_081002'

Your Daily Loser
Add Victor Pagano Jr. to the list of sad-sack husbands who failed to treat the missus properly. Apparently, he roughed her up; she filed a domestic violence complaint; and she called his employer, demanding that they come and pick up all the "work equipment" he'd been storing at home. Employer is the Navy. What equipment, they asked? Answer: $1.6 million worth of things (19,000 items, if you count computer disks) Pagano had allegedly embezzled. The Examiner (Washington, D.C.)
Comments 'victor_pagano'

People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Guy Milford, 34, convicted in Scotland's Dumbarton Sheriff Court on a sex charge after police spotted him in his car, across from a high school, with an electrical device whose wires ran from inside his pants to the car's cigarette lighter. Clydebank Post [link from Dumbassdaily.com]
Comments 'guy_milford'

Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Well, how about it: It's irresponsible to leave your baby at home while you're out doing your thing, so these must be conscientious parents, right? KSAZ-TV (Phoenix)
Comments 'conscientious_parents'

More Things to Worry About on Thursday
Least Competent Snake (Yes, it was a pretty egg, but it was a ceramic egg) . . . . . Retired: It was all over the news yesterday, but it's No Longer Weird (using a cigarette lighter to check the gasoline level when you're siphoning). Today's Newsrangers: Bruce Alter, Phil Daley, Emmitt Dove, Kathryn Wood
Comments 'worry_081002'