The U.S. Feeds One Quarter of its Grain to Cars While Hunger is on the Rise!

The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels. More than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year. With 200 ethanol distilleries in the country set up to transform food into fuel, the amount of grain processed has tripled since 2004.

When the growing demand for corn for ethanol helped to push world grain prices to record highs between late 2006 and 2008, people in low-income grain-importing countries were hit the hardest. The unprecedented spike in food prices drove up the number of hungry people in the world to over 1 billion for the first time in 2009.

Full Report

• View Comments

A police officer accidentally used pepper spray instead of a fire extinguisher on a man who set himself on fire Wednesday in downtown Portland, police said.

The officer happened to be nearby when she saw the man go up in flames near Southwest 12th Avenue and Yamhill Street. She scrambled out of her patrol car and grabbed what she believed to be the extinguisher, according to Police Chief Rosie Sizer.

It wasn’t until after the incident that the officer realized she grabbed a large pepper spray canister used for crowd control, Sizer said.

Investigators said the pepper spray did not contribute to the intensity of the fire.

Read more

• View Comments

Police in Missouri say a man accused of stealing a ring coughed up the evidence while officers were questioning him.

Pictures of the two-carat diamond ring worth about $20,000 were sent to jewelers in the Joplin area after it was reported stolen when someone took the owner’s purse from her car on Thursday.

The Joplin Globe reported that the owner of Newton’s Jewelry recognized the ring when a man and woman came to his store a few hours after the theft and said they wanted to sell it. L.T. Newton and his staff stalled them and called police.

Police said the man swallowed the ring when officers arrived. While being questioned, he began to cough uncontrollably and eventually coughed up the ring.

Read more

• View Comments

A MAN had to have his penis cut free by SEVEN firefighters after he got it stuck in a steel PIPE.

The crew used a METAL GRINDER for the delicate 30-minute operation, after doctors at Southampton General Hospital tried to release him without success.

The medics failed because the restricted blood flow had caused the man to become aroused.

Read more

• View Comments

Police say a driver passed out in his car at a Tennessee gas station while a batch of methamphetamine was cooking in the back seat.

An employee at the gas station in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, called police because the car was sitting at the pump for about an hour on New Year’s Day.

Police say a chemical process to make the drug was in progress. Some meth-making ingredients can be explosive. (did anyone reading this not know that?)

Murfreesboro Assistant Fire Chief Allen Swader told The Daily News Journal that gas pumps were shut off as a precaution.

Read more

• View Comments