Interesting News Stories of 2008

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Added: Thu. Jan 01, 2009 6:35pm
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When I worked in television news, we always had a segment of the newscast to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the year.  Although I'm not working in news these days, I still have some thoughts on the stories I saw and read during 2008.  Here are my picks for those stories that were interesting and even weird to some degree:

 

1) A Beverly Hills doctor faces accusations that he turned fat removed via liposuction from his patients into biodiesel for his Ford SUV and his girlfriend's vehicle. Some patients have filed lawsuits, alleging he allowed his assistant and his girlfriend to perform the liposuction surgeries with a medical license.

2) 42-year-old Michelle Duggar of Arkansas delivered her 18th child, a baby girl by Caesarean section. The baby, named Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar, weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces. Michelle and her husband Jim Bog Duggar’s other children are: Joshua, 20, Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 17; Jessa, 16; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 12; Joy-Anna, 11; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 8; James, 7; Justin, 6; Jackson, 4; Johannah, 3; and Jennifer, 1.

3) A defense lawyer says an Ohio woman dubbed "the Granny Robber" in several bank heists was trying to support a grown son who had fallen on hard times. Sixty-eight-year-old Barbara Joly has admitted she robbed a bank in March and investigators suspect her in as many as three other holdups. Police say the former bank teller from Middletown, Ohio, probably got away with less than $10,000 total. Attorney Chris Atkins said in court Tuesday that his client wanted to send money to help her only child.

4) Eau Claire, Wisconsin police said a man accused of stealing a soda worth $1.57 chose to go to jail rather than pay up, even though he was carrying more than $70. Police responding to the report of a theft recently say the 27-year-old man appeared drunk. An employee told officers the man had taken a cup from the counter, filled it and began drinking. When employees told him he had to pay for the drink or leave, the man refused to do either. A police officer told the man he could pay $1.57 or go to jail, and the man chose jail. The officer handcuffed and searched him, finding the money in his pocket.

5) A 33-year-old Indian farmer married a female dog to atone for stoning two other dogs to death and stringing them up in a tree 15 years ago. He believed the act cursed him and he had been suffering ever since. After he stoned the dogs he said his legs and hands got paralyzed, he lost hearing in one ear, and his speech was impaired. With doctors unable to help him, Selvakumar turned to an astrologer who told him he was cursed by the spirits of the dogs he had killed. He could undo the curse only if he married a dog and live with it. Family members chose a stray female dog who was then bathed and clothed for the wedding occasion.

6) A Canadian man has built an android to fulfill a man’s fantasy. Her name is Aiko. Talk dirty to Aiko the android, and she will talk dirty back. She's five feet tall, with brown eyes, and cost $20,000 to develop. She has breasts, nipples, and other lady parts. Aiko is a 32-kilogram female android built by Le Trung. She is just under five feet tall, has brown eyes that can distinguish 300 faces per second and speaks 13,000 English and Japanese phrases. Her skin is made of silicone and her insides are made of an expensive collection of wires, motors and various sensors.
In total, Trung has spent more than $20,000 developing Aiko, maxing out three credit cards in the process. The silicone alone cost $6,000 -- but Trung insists it was a necessary expense. He could have made Aiko out of rubber, "but it looks creepy when you touch it and it doesn't look as real," he said. According to the official Project Aiko website, the android can read newspapers, provide weather reports and tell different types of medicine apart. Aiko can also distinguish between types of touch to her body and can even make toast. But she cannot walk -- yet. Trung said he needs 14 motors worth $500 a piece to get Aiko walking, and until he gets a financial sponsor, that goal has to stay on hold. Trung hopes to make Aiko capable of completing tasks that he hates to do. On his wish list? Teaching Aiko to dust, to clean toilets and to clean his ears with a Q-tip.

7) A man in Mary Esther, Fla., at the DRS Technologies building, got his arms stuck in machinery that resembled an elevator and he saved himself by dialing 911 with his big toe. Police pried him free and he was airlifted to a Pensacola hospital.

8) Steve Kruescher, a 57-year-old school bus driver from Illinois, has won the right to change his first name to "In God" and his last name to "We Trust." The father of four says God pulled him through a painful divorce, and he's worried atheists might succeed in having "In God We Trust" removed from U.S. currency.

What were your picks of 2008?