COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The animal rights group PETA is offering to help the cash-strapped city of Colorado Springs by paying to put trash cans back in parks – on one condition. The cans have to carry an anti-meat slogan and a picture of a woman in a lettuce bikini.

The city stopped picking up trash in parks to save money, and all the trash cans have been removed.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals told city officials Wednesday they’d pay for new trash cans saying “Meat Trashes the Planet” and “Go Vegan.” The cans also have PETA’s logo and the lettuce-clad model.

Mayor Lionel Rivera says he’ll consider the offer if it PETA also pays to have the trash picked up and hauled to the dump.

But he joked that the Colorado Beef Council might demand equal time.

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Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police said a man did more than take a pickup for a spin during a test drive this week. Red Star Auto of Lincoln reported a pickup had been stolen Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. The dealership’s owner said a 39-year-old man had taken the truck for a test drive earlier Tuesday.

Police believe the man stopped during the test drive to have a copy made of the truck’s key. He returned the truck to the lot, but police believe he stole it overnight using the duplicate key.

The dealership owner drove to the man’s address and found the truck parked about 10 blocks away.

Police arrested the man, and he was still in the Lancaster County jail Thursday morning. Charges had not been filed by early Thursday morning.

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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (AP) — Kingsport Police have filed a 10th DUI charge against a driver who was going about 20 miles per hour on Interstate 26 and weaving. The Kingsport Times -News reported that the 57-year-old man told the officer on Tuesday, “I’m drunk. Do what you gotta do.” The police report stated that when asked to take sobriety, breath or alcohol tests, the man kept repeating that he was drunk.

Police charged him with DUI, violation of the implied consent law and being a habitual motor offender.

The man has no driver’s license. Police said it had earlier been revoked for repeated offenses.

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Information from: Kingsport Times-News, http://www.timesnews.net

MIAMI (AP) — Devotees of a man claiming to practice a traditional African religion said they had to ingest the mucus of a Giant African Snail that sickened them. Federal authorities in January raided the Miami man’s home after receiving complaints. The man has not been criminally charged, but prosecutors and state and federal wildlife agencies are investigating. The Giant African Snail is prohibited in the U.S. without special approval.

Experts said it devastates new ecosystems. The snail grows up to 10 inches long, can reproduce on its own and even can even eat plaster.

The man said he meant no harm, and his religion uses the snails in healing ceremonies.

Followers said they got violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their stomachs.

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Information from: The Miami Herald, http://www.herald.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Repressive regimes have stepped up efforts to censor the Internet and jail dissidents, Reporters Without Borders said in a study out Thursday.

China, Iran and Tunisia, which are on the group’s “Enemies of the Internet” list, got more sophisticated at censorship and overcoming dissidents’ attempts to communicate online, said Reporters Without Borders’ Washington director, Clothilde Le Coz.

Meanwhile, Turkey and Russia found themselves on the group’s “Under Surveillance” list of nations in danger of making the main enemies list.

Although Zimbabwe and Yemen dropped from the surveillance list, that was primarily because the Internet isn’t used much in either country, rather than because of changes by the governments, Le Coz said.

Reporters Without Borders issued the third annual report ahead of Friday’s World Day Against Cyber Censorship, an awareness campaign organized by the Paris-based group.

Le Coz said repressive regimes seemed to be winning a technological tussle with dissidents who try to circumvent online restrictions. She said some U.S. technology companies have been aiding the regimes by selling equipment and filtering software that could be used for such censorship.

One sign of hope: Google Inc.’s public threats to leave China if the Silicon Valley powerhouse cannot reach a deal that lets the company offer search results there free of censorship.

“A year from now, I would be happy to tell you that Google opened the path,” Le Coz said. “That’s a bit idealistic.”

In fact, she worries that more democratic nations would be joining the list.

Australia is among the countries under the group’s surveillance for its efforts to require Internet service providers to block sites that the government deems inappropriate, including child pornography and instructions in crime or drug use. Critics are worried that the list of sites to be blocked and the reasons for doing so would be kept secret, opening the possibility that legitimate sites might be censored.

NEW YORK (AP) — A stage adaptation of John Grisham’s first novel, “A Time to Kill,” will have its world premiere next year in Washington in what is being billed as a “pre-Broadway” production.

Arena Stage’s artistic director Molly Smith said Thursday the play will run May 6, 2011, through June 19, 2011, at Arena’s Kreeger Theater. The best-selling novel will be adapted by Rupert Holmes, who wrote the musical “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

“A Time to Kill” concerns the murder trial of a father who takes the law into his own hands after his daughter is raped. A 1996 film version starred Matthew McConaughey (mih-KAH’-nih-hay), Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson.

The play is being presented in Washington by arrangement with Daryl Roth, a New York producer.

By
Nicole Papageorge

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Pro Football Hall of Famer and former television actor Merlin Olsen has died. He was 69.

Utah State University assistant athletic media relations director Zach Fisher says Olsen died Wednesday night at a Los Angeles hospital.

He was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year.

Olsen was an All-American at Utah State and a first-round draft pick of the Los Angles Rams in 1962.

The burley giant from northern Utah joined Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy and Rosey Grier on the Rams’ storied “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line known for either stopping or knocking backward whatever offenses it faced. The Rams set an NFL record for the fewest yards allowed during a 14-game season in 1968.

Olsen was rookie of the year for the Rams in 1962 and is still the Rams’ all-time leader in career tackles with 915. He was named to 14 consecutive Pro Bowls, a string that started his rookie year.

Olsen was also an established television actor with a role on “Little House on the Prairie,” then starring in his own series, “Father Murphy,” from 1981 to 1983 and the short-lived “Aaron’s Way” in 1988.

Olsen was a consensus All-American at Utah State and won the 1961 Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman. The Rams drafted Olsen third overall in 1962 and he spent the next 15 years with the team before retiring in 1976.

Utah State honored Olsen in December by naming the football field at Romney Stadium “Merlin Olsen Field.” Because of his illness, Olsen’s alma mater didn’t want to wait until football season and made the announcement during halftime of a basketball game.

Olsen was well enough to attend, but did not speak at the event. He stood and smiled as he waved to fans during a standing ovation and chants of “Merlin Olsen!” and “Aggie Legend!”

Utah State is also planning a statue of Olsen at the southeast corner of the stadium.

The Rams also honored Olsen during a game Dec. 20, with a video tribute narrated by Dick Enberg, Olsen’s longtime broadcast partner. Olsen did not attend because of his health. His name was already part of the Ring of Fame inside the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis along with other franchise standouts.

He was voted NFC defensive lineman of the year in 1973 and the NFL MVP in 1974, and was voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.

NEW YORK (AP) — Without a TV show to do every night, Conan O’Brien is taking his act on the road.

The former host of “The Tonight Show” announced a 30-city theater tour on Thursday. Sidekick Andy Richter and the former “Tonight Show” band will join O’Brien for what he promises to be “a night of music, comedy, hugging and the occasional awkward silence.”

The “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour” begins April 12 in Eugene, Ore., and concludes June 14 in Atlanta. It will visit theaters in at least 20 states and two Canadian provinces. Additional dates may be added.

O’Brien quipped: “It was either a massive 30-city tour or start helping out around the house.”

On the itinerary is New York’s Radio City Music Hall, just steps from where O’Brien first gained fame hosting “Late Night,” and the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City, Calif., near the studio where he presided over “The Tonight Show” for eight months.

The tour also will make a stop at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, the annual festival that takes place June 10-13 in Tennessee. Aside from performing in the comedy tent, O’Brien will emcee the festival’s largest music stage on June 11 and 12, the festival said.

O’Brien quit “The Tonight Show” in January instead of taking NBC’s offer to move his start time back by a half-hour to make room for “Tonight Show” veteran Jay Leno’s return to late night from a failed prime-time show. He hasn’t announced any future television plans.

Leno now is back in his old “Tonight” slot, which he had bequeathed to O’Brien last June.

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On the Net:

http://www.teamcoco.com

(This version CORRECTS length of “Tonight Show” stint to eight months.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Elizabeth Dole are joining 250 veterans at the World War II memorial in Washington to honor their service.

HBO brought the veterans to the memorial Thursday to coincide with the network’s premiere of a 10-part series called “The Pacific.” Hanks and Spielberg are part of the production team, following their “Band of Brothers” miniseries in 2001.

The series begins Sunday. It focuses on the lives of U.S. Marines fighting the Japanese after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The veterans will include a 100-year-old man. Veterans from Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and Orlando, Fla., will make the trip.