Watercooler news from The Associated Press

Odd News

Jury convicts New York-Paris flight stowaway who slipped past gate agents

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury on Thursday convicted a woman who sneaked onto a flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass by slipping past security and airline gate agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport last year. The short trial of Svetlana Dali concluded with a guilty finding on a stowaway […]
1 year ago

An ex-Harvard Medical School morgue manager admits his role in the theft of human remains

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has admitted his role in the theft and sale of human body parts — including hands, feet and heads. Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Pennsylvania to interstate transport of stolen human remains, federal prosecutors said. He could face […]
1 year ago
FILE - The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News building in Philadelphia is shown in a file photo f...

Fictional fiction: A newspaper’s summer book list recommends nonexistent books. Blame AI

NEW YORK (AP) — The recommended reading list contained some works of fiction. It also contained some works that were, in fact, actually fictional. The content distributor King Features says it has fired a writer who used artificial intelligence to produce a story on summer reading suggestions that contained books that didn’t exist. The list […]
1 year ago

Loose pet kangaroo keeps police hopping — again — in a Colorado town

Chasing a loose kangaroo is getting to be part of the job for police in a southwestern Colorado town. Irwin, the pet kangaroo, wasn’t difficult to nab when he got loose last fall in Durango, Colorado. Still quite young at the time, he leapt into a bag similar to a mother kangaroo’s pouch. On Monday, […]
1 year ago
Hundreds of chicks mill around a stall at First State Animal Center and SPCA on Friday, May 16, 202...

Shipment of thousands of chicks found abandoned in USPS truck now overwhelming an animal shelter

CAMDEN, Delaware (AP) — A Delaware animal shelter is trying to care for and rehome thousands of chicks that survived being left in a postal service truck for three days. Trapped in a warm enclosure, without food and water, thousands died before they were discovered. Involved parties are still awaiting answers as to how 12,000 […]
1 year ago
Raphael Quenard, left, and Hugo David, right, pose with a person dressed in bird costume upon arriv...

Bird man on red carpet leaves Cannes squawking

CANNES, France (AP) — Stars in glamorous gowns often peacock on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet, but one attendee Saturday night literally came as a bird. Ahead of the the premiere of Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” with Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence, a man came fully dressed as bird, complete with a beak […]
1 year ago
Heather Donahue, the star of the The Blair Witch Project, pauses on a walk to watch a songbird,Tues...

Still finding trouble in the woods: ‘Blair Witch Project’ star at center of Maine road dispute

FREEDOM, Maine (AP) — Heather Donahue is walking through the woods once again. The star of the successful low-budget horror movie “The Blair Witch Project” has an on-screen history of getting into scary situations in a forest. But this time she is merely picking up an old soda can someone carelessly left on a trail. […]
1 year ago

California man who used underwater scooter in lake to try to evade arrest pleads guilty to fraud

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California man who tried to evade arrest by jumping into a lake with an underwater scooter pleaded guilty Thursday to fraud, money laundering and witness tampering in connection with a $35 million investment fraud scheme, federal prosecutors announced. Prosecutors say that between 2015 and 2020, Matthew Piercey, 48, of Shasta […]
1 year ago
Musk oxen are shown Saturday, May 10, 2025, at the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, Alaska. (AP Photo/Mark T...

An Alaska Mother’s Day tradition: Mingling with ice age survivors on a farm

PALMER, Alaska (AP) — It is one of Alaska’s favorite Mother’s Day traditions, getting up close and personal with animals that have survived the ice age. All moms get a daisy and free admission Sunday at the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, about an hour’s drive north of Anchorage. Once inside they will have the […]
1 year ago
Elizabeth Mahon, owner of the baby store Three Littles, prepared to install a new car seat for a cu...

Liam and Olivia dominate — again — with top baby names for a sixth year in a row

WASHINGTON (AP) — Liam and Olivia dominate. Still. The two names have, for a sixth year together, topped the list of names for babies born in the U.S. in 2024. The Social Security Administration annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state, with names dating back to 1880. In time for […]
1 year ago

‘DA POPE!’ Leo XIV’s Chicago roots unleash spate of holy humor

A Chicago-born cardinal walks into a conclave. The rest of the joke tells itself. In the breathless day since Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first American pontiff, the memes, doctored images and tongue-in-cheek references have piled up deeper than Chicago’s pizza and more loaded than its hot dog, seemingly irresistible to comics and commoners […]
1 year ago
Snohomish County's Animal Control is looking for the owner of a Nigerian dwarf goat. (Photo: Snohom...
Bill Kaczaraba

Are you missing a male Nigerian Dwarf goat in Snohomish County?

Snohomish County Animal Control Officers are trying to find the owner of a male Nigerian Dwarf goat.
1 year ago
A Seattle man tells police someone keeps sending him packages of pot and he wants it to stop. (AP f...
Josh Kerns

Seattle man: Stop mailing me marijuana

A Seattle man doesn't know why someone keeps mailing him marijuana. But he wants it to stop.
12 years ago
Sure, they look cute, but a mouse inside a car managed to cause a minor traffic delay during the mo...
Alyssa Kleven

Mouse stops I-5 driver right in her tracks

It wasn't the safest place to pull over, but two women felt they needed to get out of their car immediately during the Tuesday morning commute.
12 years ago