Cab Vomit Fee in Chicago

Cab Vomit Fee in Chicago, After three years of lobbying, cab drivers in Chicago finally got their wish — a Chicago cab vomit tax.When a cab driver gets a call late on a Friday or Saturday night, there’s a pretty good chance that the cab driver is picking up an inebriated passenger.

Just how inebriated these passengers are (and just how sturdy their stomachs are) is purely the luck of the draw. Unlucky cab drivers could get stuck with a customer with a weak stomach and too much to drink, leading to puke all over the cab. And prior to this week, Chicago cab drivers were powerless to charge the passengers for the cleanup.

But now that’s changed.

Chicago’s city council signed off on a regulation that allows cab drivers to charge a $50 cleanup fee to passengers who puke in a cab, reports the Chicago Tribune. The regulation went into effect Sunday. (Cab drivers had originally lobbied for a $75 fee, but $50 should be enough to clean up a cab.)

Chicago was one of the first U.S. cities to consider a cab vomit fee, but it took the city council some time to act. Meantime, similar fines were enacted in other cities known for partying like Austin, Texas, and Savannah, Ga., according to the Tribune. (Reuters)

Gronkowski Body Issue

Gronkowski Body Issue, Rob Gronkowski, Maurice Jones-Drew, Tyson Chandler and Abby Wambach are among the athletes who will strip down to pose in ESPN The Magazine’s fourth annual “Body Issue.”

Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, New York Rangers forward Brad Richards and WNBA star Candace Parker will also appear in the July 13 edition.

With the London Games this summer, the list announced Wednesday is heavy with Olympians, including gymnast Danell Leyva, sprinter Carmelita Jeter, decathlete Ashton Eaton and members of the U.S. women’s volleyball team.

The magazine’s editor in chief, Chad Millman, says they try to pick athletes who “just recently popped.”

Gronkowski is a classic example of that. The New England Patriots tight end emerged as one of the NFL’s biggest offensive stars this past season — and it doesn’t hurt that he has a penchant for appearing shirtless in photos. The magazine had a commitment from him way back last fall. (AP)

Bob Bashara Arraign

Bob Bashara Arraign, Bob Bashara, the husband of a Detroit-area woman who was strangled in January, has been charged with soliciting the murder of the man accused of killing his wife.

Bond has been set at $15 million for Bashara, charged with solicitation of murder after he allegedly offered to pay more then one person to kill handyman Joe Gentz while he awaits trial in Wayne County Jail, reports CBS Detroit.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Bashara wanted Gentz – a handyman who had done odd jobs for Bashara – dead prior to a planned July 23 court appearance. Gentz is charged with killing Jane Bashara in her Grosse Pointe Park home in January. Gentz has said he did it at Bob Bashara’s behest.

Bashara is not accused in the death of his wife but police have described Robert Bashara as a person of interest in the killing. Bashara denies any role in his wife’s death.

However, Bashara’s lawyer David Griem has said he believes his client was set up. According to the Detroit Free Press, Bashara is now being held on $15 million bond.

CBS Detroit reports that the body of Jane Bashara, a marketing executive and mother of two, was found in the back of her Mercedes-Benz SUV parked in an alley at Pinewood and Annott in Detroit on Jan. 25. Her husband reported her missing the night before. An autopsy showed that she had extensive bruising to her upper body, a crushed windpipe and missing fingernails. (CBS News)

Dog Saves Drowning Boy

Dog Saves Drowning Boy, Move over, Lassie, there is another heroic pup in town.Bear, a four-year-old black Labrador Retriever, saved a two-year-old Michigan boy from drowning in the family’s swimming pool over the weekend.Patricia Drauch told the Cass County Sheriff’s Department that she was walking to the garage in her backyard on Sunday to get a shovel for digging out “prickly” plants when she realized her youngest son, Stanley, who had been walking behind her, was gone.

Drauch began to search for the boy in the backyard and found him face down in the family swimming pool, according to Wood TV.

“It was scary. His lips were blue. His eyes were rolled back,” Drauch told 24 Hour News 8. “It was the scariest feeling and the image stays in your head for a long time.”

Initially, Drauch thought that her young son was floating, but soon she realized that the boy was not even under the water. The family dog, Bear, was in the swimming pool holding up Stanley from underneath.

“[Bear] wouldn’t move in the pool,” she said. “He didn’t bark. He didn’t move. It was like he was afraid to move at all until I got Stanley up out of the pool and that’s when [Bear] came up out of the pool with me.”

Stanley was unresponsive when Drauch first pulled him from the water. She tried to call 911 for help, but heard a “beep” on the line and the call did not go through. So she quickly grabbed the boy, put him in the car and rushed to the hospital. On the way, she was finally able to reach the emergency operator and Stanley finally regained consciousness.

“On the way, he barfed up a lot of water and then he started to respond, but she kept going and she was just a little over the speed limit,” said Kyle Drauch, Patricia’s older son, who was there when his mother found his brother drowning.

Drauch got Stanley to the fire department where he was examined by emergency first responders. He was then taken to Three Rivers hospital where he was deemed in good condition. On Monday, the boy was even well enough to play with the dog in the backyard again. (International Business Times)

Mollie Judith Olgin

Mollie Judith Olgin, Details remain vague in a violent double shooting at a Texas park that left one l***ian teen dead and another hospitalized in serious condition. As The Corpus Christi Caller originally reported, Mollie Judith Olgin, 19, and Mary Christine Chapa, 18, were found in knee-deep grass in Violet Andrews Park in Portland, Texas on Saturday.

Olgin was pronounced dead at the scene, while Chapa was rushed to a nearby hospital where she had surgery. She remained in the hospital on Monday, Portland Police Chief Randy Wright confirmed to MSNBC.

Wright could not confirm the nature of the girls’ relationship, but friends say they had been a couple for about five months. When MSNBC asked if authorities believed the girls’ S-EX-uality had provided any motive for the shootings, Wright noted: “That’s always something that we’re looking for, but as of this point, we have not been able to establish that that had anything to do with the attack.”

Investigators told KRIS-TV.com they believe Olgin and Chapa were shot with a large-caliber gun some time around midnight on Friday after being led down a trail and into a grassy area. They were found about 9 hours later. Wright noted that the case already had “some of the earmarks of a targeted attack,” but said no arrests have yet been made, nor had any suspects been identified. (Huffington Post)

Flying W Ranch Colorado Springs

Flying W Ranch Colorado Springs, More than 2,100 residents were being evacuated from the Air Force Academy’s grounds Tuesday night as heavy smoke billowed from a wildfire that has burned an unknown number of homes near Colorado Springs.

The academy was telling families to leave two main housing areas, but an area of the 28-square-mile campus that houses cadets wasn’t immediately evacuated. A new class of cadets is still scheduled to report on Thursday.

Fire officials had issued a pre-evacuation notice for the academy earlier Tuesday. El Paso County sheriff’s officials have ordered an estimated 32,000 people to leave.

Fire information officer Greg Heule said earlier Tuesday that the fire was less than five miles from the southwest corner of the Air Force Academy’s campus.

Television images showed homes burning and the Flying W Ranch southwest of the academy said on its website that the ranch had burned to the ground. Colorado Springs Fire Chief Richard Brown said “many, many homes” also have been saved.

Meanwhile, authorities in central Utah found one woman dead Tuesday when they returned to an evacuated area, marking the first casualty in a blaze that consumed at least two dozen homes and appears to be taking a turn for the worst.

Throughout the interior West, firefighters toiled in searing, record-setting heat that refused to relinquish its grip, as they struggled to contain blazes in Colorado, Utah and other Rocky Mountain states Tuesday.

Colorado has endured nearly a week of 100-plus-degree days and low humidity, sapping moisture from timber and grass, creating a devastating formula for volatile wildfires across the state and punishing conditions for firefighters.

“When it’s that hot, it just dries the fuels even more. That can make the fuels explosive,” said Steve Segin, a fire spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

All of Utah and much of Wyoming, Colorado and Montana were under a red flag warning, meaning conditions were hot, dry and ripe for fires. (AP)

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