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China has just been declared the world’s second biggest economy, and now it has a monster traffic jam to match.

Triggered by road construction, the snarl-up began 10 days ago and was 60 miles long at one point. Reaching almost to the outskirts of Beijing, traffic still creeps along in fits and starts, and the crisis could last for another three weeks, authorities say.
It’s a metaphor for a nation that sometimes chokes on its own breakneck growth.

In the worst-hit stretches of the road in northern China, drivers pass the time sitting in the shade of their immobilized trucks, playing cards, sleeping on the asphalt or bargaining with price-gouging food vendors. Many of the trucks that carry fruit and vegetables are unrefrigerated, and the cargoes are assumed to be rotting.

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A wacky loaded billionaire Alki David has promised to pay out the cash — providing the streaker writes the name of his website “Battlecam” across their chest.

The prank must be broadcast live on Battlecam, a video-sharing community linked to Alki’s TV on demand website FilmOn.

He initially offered $100,000, but raised it to $1m, to include any legal fees which may be incurred as a result of the streak.
Alki said: “Most people in the community thought the 100,000 wasn’t enough for the audacity of the dare.
“One million is a nice, round number and that gets people’s attention a lot more.”

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A Wisconsin priest’s Volkswagen Beetle bearing a “God Squad” logo is the subject of a cease-and-desist order from Best Buy’s corporate offices.

Best Buy officials said the logo on the vehicle owned by the Rev. Luke Strand of the Holy Family Community parish in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin is too similar to the “Geek Squad” logos on the Beetles used by the company’s computer technicians.

Paula Baldwin, senior manager for public relations for Minnesota-based Best Buy, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the cease-and-desist order was a “really difficult thing for us to do.”

“But at the end of the day, it’s bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others,” Baldwin said. “We’re confident that together we’ll come up with a good solution for everyone.”

UPI

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Taking a break from all the peril in politics and government…here is a good one for the Odd news file…

While visiting Epcot Center in Florida, a Pennsylvania woman alleges that a Disney employee dressed as Donald Duck grabbed her breast and molested her after she sought an autograph.

After the alleged groping, Donald Duck made gestures–apparently with his snowy white hands—“indicating he had done something wrong,” according to a lawsuit filed last month by April Magolon.

The Upper Darby woman, 27, was visiting Epcot with her children and fiancé in May 2008 when the incident reportedly occurred.

Complaint charge

Full report –  The Smoking Gun

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Two fishermen in Cape Girardeau, Missouri recently reeled in a 115 pound catfish which “may be some kind of record.” ‘Morning Express‘ host Robin Meade covers the monster catch, pulled out of the Mississippi River on Sunday night.

One of the fishermen Rick Hastings;  ”He says that they fought for at least 30 minutes.”

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