TRENTON, Ohio - Two teenage girls posted a fake announcement on their school district's Web site that said school was closed for the day due to winter weather, police said.

The notice, posted Monday, confused many parents - snow was not in the forecast - and persuaded some students to stay home.

Edgewood City Schools Superintendent Tom York said he discovered the posting when he logged on to write his own announcement that school would be delayed for an hour because of an extreme cold snap.

"I didn't make that call, and I'm the guy who does, so I knew something was up," York said.

The two Edgewood High School students, whose names were not released, were charged in juvenile court on Friday and face expulsion. One of the girls, 16, was charged with delinquency by unauthorized use of a computer and by reason of records tampering. The other, 17, was charged with delinquency by reason of complicity, Sheriff's Sgt. Monte Mayer said.

The company that runs the Web site, RCH Networks Inc., said the system was not hacked into because no security breach was detected. Administrators say the girls must have somehow gotten the password.

RCH helped the district track down the girls by supplying the identification numbers from computers that accessed the system, which authorities could then track to the girls' homes.

Trenton is about 25 miles north of Cincinnati.

After brief morning sunshine, still more snow falls on already buried NY towns

PARISH, N.Y. (AP) - With more than 8 feet of snow already coating the ground, it wasn't good news for this winter-weary region when the blue sky turned gray Saturday, signaling another intense snow squall was about to dump some more.

"This is bad," said 67-year-old Dave DeGrau, who has operated an auto repair shop on Main Street for 45 years. "We had a very easy winter until now. Last fall during hunting season it rained every time I went out. I kept saying 'I'm glad this isn't snow.' Now, it's snow."

Persistent bands of lake-effect snow squalls fed by moisture from Lake Ontario have been swinging up and down this part of central New York along the lake's eastern shore since last Sunday.

The National Weather Service said Parish - about 25 miles northeast of Syracuse - reached a milestone early Saturday with 100 inches of snow during the past seven days. Late Saturday, the total had risen to 110 inches. Unofficial reports pegged totals at 123 inches in Orwell and 122 in Redfield, but those measurements include snow from another storm a couple of days before the current weather system. All three towns are in Oswego County.

A warning in effect until Monday morning said 2 to 4 more feet of snow was possible with wind gusting up to 24 mph.

"That's all we need," Mike Avery said as he took a brief break from loading dump trucks with snow to be hauled to a pile outside town. "It's getting monotonous."

The fluffy new snow was a magnet for snowmobilers, but stopping was out of the question.

"You can't stop or you're done," said Dan Hojnacki, 23, of Syracuse, after he ground to a halt in a field. "I never got stuck until today, and I've been snowmobiling for 10 years."

Residents of the nearby town of Mexico see 5- to 6-foot snowfalls every two or three years, but this time even hardened locals are amazed. The only sign of parked SUVs are their radio antennas or roof racks sticking up above the snow. Front doors are buried and footprints lead to second-story windows. Sidewalks that have been dug out look like miniature canyons.

The state transportation department said 125 workers from elsewhere in the state had been sent in with snow equipment to help.

The region is located along the Tug Hill Plateau, the snowiest region this side of the Rocky Mountains. It's a 50-mile wedge of land that rises 2,100 feet from the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. It usually gets about 300 inches - roughly 25 feet - of snow a year.

The hamlet of Hooker, near the boundaries of Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego counties, holds the state's one-year record with 466.9 inches, about 39 feet, in the winter of 1976-77.

Still, less than a month ago it seemed more like spring.

"Gosh, three weeks ago there was green on the ground. We got spoiled," Parish Mayor Leon Heagle said. "This just came fast. This is not normal. God, we can't catch a break. I feel like getting right in the car and driving south, but I'd probably get in trouble."

The intense blast of snow hasn't been blamed for any deaths in Oswego County. Elsewhere, however, more than a week of bitter cold and slippery roads have contributed to at least 20 deaths across the northeastern quarter of the nation - five in Ohio, four in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Kentucky, two in Michigan, and one each in Wisconsin, and Maryland and elsewhere in New York, authorities said.

Fans' response to Smith's death as uniquely modern as her fame

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) - Fans of Anna Nicole Smith aren't making a pilgrimage to the place she spent her final days. They're not leaving flowers. They're not gathering in masses expressing their grief.

Emotions are being expressed in a way as uniquely modern as Smith's fame - on blogs, Web pages and online message boards where true fans battle naysayers to get their voice heard.

"I loved her," fans beam. "I miss her," others write. "She was beautiful," they say.

On Facebook.com, hundreds of Anna Nicole pages are buzzing with gossip and outpourings of emotion. YouTube.com has logged hundreds of thousands of hits on Anna Nicole videos, including some fan-produced tributes. On Craigslist.org, a fan sought others touched by the starlet's death for a candlelight vigil in New York's Union Square.

Sian Richter, a 20-year-old office worker who has been posting messages and photos online from her London home, has been glued to E! coverage of her idol's death.

"I do almost feel like I've lost something. She was an inspiration to me," Richter said. "I truly believe she had a lot of love to give and just wanted to be loved back. Also I looked up to her because of the background she came from. Humble roots and making it big time gave me inspiration."

Richter said she has some handbags with pictures of Smith on them, a bobblehead doll in the former Playboy model's likeness and recordings of episodes of "The Anna Nicole Show." She remembers first finding a copy of her cousin's Playboy and thinking Smith was beautiful.

In New York, Brian Hewson, a 26-year-old who works in a theater box office, had followed Smith on-and-off for years and was shocked when a friend instant messaged him with the news Thursday that she had died in a hotel here.

"It doesn't even seem real," Hewson said. "If someone wrote this story of it was on television no one would think it had any realism to it. But these insane new developments just keep popping up."

There seemed no limit to the reach of the news. In Kuala Lumpur, a huge photo of Smith in a bright red dress was splashed across the front page of the Star newspaper on Saturday. In Helsinki, Finland, her image fronted the Iltalehti newspaper. Talk of her death was still filling cable airwaves Saturday, though it was slowing as new details seemed absent and authorities remained tight-lipped.

"I sympathize with her," said Catherine Toth, a 31-year-old resident of Hawaii Kai on the island of Oahu who pens "The Daily Dish" blog for The Honolulu Advertiser. "I saw so much tragedy in her life. I just kept hoping it would get better."

Billy Lowe, a hairstylist who frequently works with celebrities, said many people couldn't help but gasp when they heard news of Smith's death.

"We'll certainly miss her charm, her on-cam blunders and bloopers and we'll pray she's making the sandy shores in the hereafter very happy," he said.

Study: Men's perspiration boosts sexual arousal in women

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - A chemical in male sweat can boost mood, brain activity and sexual arousal in heterosexual women, according to a new study released just in time for Valentine's Day.

The study offers the first direct evidence that humans secrete a scent that can affect the physiology of the opposite sex, said researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Their findings were published this week in The Journal of Neuroscience.

"This is the first time anyone has demonstrated that a change in women's hormonal levels is induced by sniffing an identified compound of male sweat," said study leader Claire Wyart, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. "There is much more going on than we think when we are smelling body odor."

The study conducted last year involved 48 undergraduate women who took 20 sniffs from a bottle containing androstadienone, a compound found in male perspiration and other bodily secretions.

The researchers measured the women's levels of the stress hormone cortisol and compared them to the women's responses to a control odor. Cortisol levels in the women rose within about 15 minutes of inhaling the androstadienone scent and remained elevated for more than an hour, UC Berkeley researchers found.

They also discovered that blood pressure, heart rate and breathing increased, mood improved and sexual arousal was boosted.

While the compound can make women feel more positive and sexually aroused, it's still unclear how it affects their behavior, Wyart said.

"Humans are more complex," she said. "You cannot expect them to have stereotypical responses like rodents."

Hundreds of dogs may be killed due to Nev. shelter outbreak

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Hundred of dogs may be euthanized at an overcrowded southern Nevada animal shelter where a team of visiting veterinarians discovered a severe outbreak of contagious diseases, officials said.

The Lied Animal Shelter was closed to the public Friday while a team from The Humane Society of the United States began examining the 1,800 dogs and cats housed at the facility to determine how many carried deadly viruses that spread quickly in shelter settings.

Exact numbers were not available, but officials told the Las Vegas Review-Journal they may have to euthanize hundreds of dogs infected with parvovirus or distemper and more than a dozen cats with panleukopenia, often likened to a feline version of distemper.

Humans are not susceptible to the diseases, which attack animals' respiratory systems and intestinal tracts.

The Human Society team was invited to inspect the facility by shelter officials and noticed dogs and cats suffering from serious respiratory and intestinal diseases shortly after it arrived in Las Vegas on Monday.

"It is common for there to be problems in animal shelters. But we realized the disease situation was grave," said Kim Intino, director of animal sheltering issues for the Humane Society. "We have a situation of animals that have disease and are dying from that disease in large numbers."

Lied executive director Diane Orgill said the shelter's full-time veterinarian spends most work hours performing spay and neuter operations rather than evaluating the animals.

"We didn't realize this was happening," she said, adding that overcrowding likely contributed to the spread of the disease. "The number of animals we have increases the chances of this happening."

More than 7,000 dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, guinea pigs and other animals are adopted annually at Lied, which is run by a private nonprofit that contracts with Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas to house abandoned, neglected and stray animals.

Carnival cruise ship hit by barge in Mississippi River; no injuries

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A barge struck a cruise ship Saturday morning on the Mississippi River, leaving a 30-foot gash on the ship.

There were no injuries reported on Carnival Cruise Lines' Fantasy ship or the barge, authorities and company officials said.

The barge collided with the river bank, then struck the port side of the cruise ship as it waited to dock, according to a statement from the cruise line.

There was minor damage to the barge, which was one of six rice barges being pushed by the towing vessel Repentance.

Carnival said it was unlikely the ship would set sail again for Mexico on Saturday, although a preliminary assessment determined it was safe for passengers to remain aboard while repairs were made.

The cruise ship carries about 2,100 passengers and more than 900 crew members.

Man pleads guilty to smuggling women for prostitution in brothel ring

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A man accused of managing brothels in Texas and Oklahoma has pleaded guilty to smuggling women into the country to work as prostitutes.

The Austin and Oklahoma City operations run by Juan Balderas-Orosco, 34, were part of a larger ring that included brothels in 13 cities in Texas and across the nation, including New York City, Las Vegas and Atlanta, according to documents filed with his plea on Friday.

The ringleaders sneaked hundreds of women into the United States, most of them from Latin American countries, and forced them to have sex with as many as 40 men a day, according to the court documents. They moved the women from brothel to brothel and kept the earnings.

"The prostitutes reported they were not free to leave the brothels on their own, and the brothel operators were usually armed with firearms," according to the filing.

Balderas-Orosco, 34, pleaded guilty to federal charges of transportation for prostitution, importation of illegal aliens, importation of illegal aliens and conspiracy to smuggle, transport and harbor illegal aliens. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

Balderas' lawyer, Kristin Etter, said case was a symptom of a broken immigration system. With limited opportunities for immigrants to come to the U.S., some "are pushed into this underground economy and forced into these kinds of jobs," she said.

He was captured last year and is the lead defendant in an indictment that charges 12 people with smuggling and prostitution crimes. Seven have pleaded guilty in the case and three defendants are at large.

2 young lawyers face challenges in defending man accused of abducting boys

ST. LOUIS (AP) - The two young lawyers who have taken on the defense of alleged child abductor Michael Devlin are eager but they're being seen as underdogs in a costly and complex case.

Ethan Corlija, 32, and his 33-year-old law partner, Michael Kielty, are relatively unknown even within the clubby world of St. Louis lawyers.

"If you had said 'do I know these guys?' I'd have said 'I have no clue,"' said Chet Pleban, who's practiced criminal law in St. Louis for 33 years.

Some of the city's leading criminal lawyers wonder if they have sufficient experience and resources to mount a proper defense in a case where every legal step will be scrutinized.

Corlija and Kielty are undeterred.

"We're young. We're very intelligent. We have stamina and we'll be aggressive and zealous in the defense of our client's rights," Corlija said.

Devlin is the 41-year-old pizzeria manager charged with kidnapping 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck in 2002 and 13-year-old Ben Ownby Jan. 8, both from rural areas of eastern Missouri. Both boys were found in Devlin's apartment in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood Jan. 12.

The case figures to be costly and complex to defend in light of two empathetic victims. It doesn't help that authorities claim Devlin admitted abducting Ben.

"The evidence is going to be overwhelming," said Arthur Margulis, a criminal lawyer here for 35 years. "This is not a whodunit. … The odds of achieving a satisfactory result are very remote."

The pair face cases that will be tried separately in two counties. Federal charges also are possible, and a special task force is looking at six other cases of missing or murdered children to see if Devlin could have been involved.

Corlija and Kielty won't say who is paying them or how much. Some lawyers have estimated Devin's defense will cost at least $250,000.

Corlija, practicing law since 2001, has represented licensing boards for the Missouri attorney general, and prosecuted some felony cases for St. Louis County.

Kielty interned with the St. Charles County prosecutor's office before graduating from law school in 1999. He clerked, worked for a private attorney, then got his own shingle in 2000. He said he's had 18 felony jury trials.

The two met at Saint Louis University School of Law and have been law partners only since 2005. They work from a stylish but understated Art Deco building in suburban Clayton. Corlija came from St. Louis, Kielty from suburban St. Charles.

Kielty is an extrovert who talks easily. Corlija is reflective, deliberate and meticulous.

"I'm an in-your-face lawyer," Kielty said. He said his partner "won't let a single theory go uncontemplated. … I can't believe how well he's done. The kid's a rainmaker."

Their connection with Devlin began the night of his arrest, when Corlija got a call.

"It was the family, and they said 'Our brother is in a lot of trouble,"' he recalled. A lawyer friend of the Devlin family had recommended him.

Corlija met with Devlin for two hours that night in the Franklin County Jail. Kielty cut short a trout fishing trip in Arkansas and headed back to St. Louis at daybreak in a snowstorm.

By Jan. 15, they were on "Larry King Live," followed the next day by "Anderson Cooper 360." By week's end, following a barrage of media calls, they retained a publicist. They have been putting in 16-hour days, seven days a week.

The attorneys were upset that images of Devlin in an orange jumpsuit during his video arraignment from jail were shared with the national media. The court had honored their request that no cameras be allowed in the courtroom, but Franklin County authorities allowed the media to get images from the court video linkup.

They also were caught off guard by The New York Post's publication of a freelance reporter's jailhouse interviews with Devlin last month, and accused the jail of poor security.

Asked how they would compensate for their youth and relative lack of experience, Kielty said they have learned lessons from other local defense lawyers.

Chief among those lessons, "preparation and a masterful knowledge of the facts and the law," Corlija said. "There's no substitute for that."

MN college investigates "politically incorrect" party; students wore blackface, KKK costumes

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - An off-campus party that asked students to come dressed "politically incorrect" has prompted an investigation by Macalester College officials who learned one student was costumed as a Ku Klux Klan member and another wore blackface with a noose around his neck.

Students at the private school told administrators about the Jan. 16 party on campus.

"My initial reaction was shock," said Paul Maitland-McKinley, a member of the Black Liberation Affairs Committee, a student group. "I thought, this can't really happen on my campus."

A campus-wide discussion is planned for Tuesday.

"We hope we can start a deeper dialogue on … why these types of activities hurt people and why they get the kind of response they do," said Jim Hoppe, the school's associate dean of students.

The student newspaper, The Mac Weekly, quoted senior David Nifoussi, who attended the party, as saying it was meant to be a satiric comment on "things that would be considered taboo in most situations" at the liberal school.

Macalester is the latest in a series of colleges to investigate student parties and incidents that have involved racial overtones.

Earlier this school year, Trinity College and Whitman College had parties where students showed up in racially offensive costumes or blackface. At Texas A&M University, students made a racist video that apparently was intended as satire, and a fraternity at Johns Hopkins University was suspended after a "Halloween in the Hood" party displayed a fake skeleton hanging from a noose.

The Macalester party was held a week before spring classes started and did not draw a large crowd, Hoppe said.

Macalester President Brian Rosenberg sent a statement to students, faculty and staff members condemning the offensive costumes and party theme.

"It is important to understand that the college condemns and will not tolerate activities of this type," he wrote. "It is deeply disappointing that Macalester students would be so insensitive and demonstrate such a lack of understanding of the college's values and mission."

On the Net:

Macalester: http://www.macalester.edu/

Mac Weekly: http://www.themacweekly.com/

About 40 tons of cow intestines and bones spilled onto a major highway

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) - About 40 tons of cow intestines and bones spilled onto a major highway after a truck driver became distracted by his digital music player and his semitrailer tipped over, officials said.

Authorities closed parts of Interstate 43 for about two hours Thursday while the beef byproduct was cleaned up, said sheriff's Sgt. Blaine Spicer.

The accident happened in the town of Mosel when 25-year-old Ryan Engle's truck veered off the road as he adjusted his MP3 player, Spicer said.

Engle, of Kenosha, was cited for inattentive driving and taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Spicer said.

The truck had to be towed from the scene. It is owned by Birchwood Transport of Kenosha.

19th-century Gambling equipment seized from antique store

WHITEFISH, Mont. (AP) - A 19th-century roulette wheel and other old gambling equipment were seized by state agents from an antique store under a law prohibiting the possession of unlicensed gambling equipment, authorities said.

"Some of these things are over 100 years old," said Ron Turner, owner of the Cowboy Cabin. "These are not gambling devices. These are antiques. It's a historical collection."

Those arguments failed to persuade three agents with the state Department of Justice Gambling Control Division who showed up at the store on Jan. 31.

The agents seized two roulette wheels, two early 20th century punchboards and a chuck-a-luck - a small, hourglass-shaped cage that spins with three dice inside.

The agents marked as evidence and said they would return for a craps table, a blackjack table, a roulette table and a smaller craps table top - all 19th century items. Turner said the items are worth an estimated $77,000.

The state has not filed charges against Ron or Eila Turner, who recently moved to Whitefish from California, where they also sold antiques. The couple opened the Cowboy Cabin in December.

Gene Huntington, administrator of the state's Gambling Control Division, said the most likely charge would be misdemeanor possession of illegal gambling equipment.

Huntington said the state could destroy the equipment, use it for training or give it to a museum.

Manager accused of stealing $15,000 worth of lingerie from warehouse

HEBRON, Ky. (AP) - A warehouse worker has been accused of pilfering high-end lingerie worth nearly $15,000 after his ex-girlfriend snitched on him, a newspaper reported.

Investigators say a manager stole Victoria's Secret lingerie from a warehouse where he worked near Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, the Kentucky Enquirer reported.

Christopher L. Perry, 24, of Villa Hills, Ky., has not been seen since he was charged with one count of receiving stolen property, authorities said. He did not return to work and his phone has been disconnected.

His estranged girlfriend, Elizabeth Gibbs, called police Jan. 31 to report that Perry was lifting lingerie from Advanced Distributions Services in Hebron, court records show.

She led detectives to a hotel room where the lingerie was stashed, the records show. The merchandise, now sitting in a police evidence locker, was of almost every style and size carried by the store.

"We believe he was just approaching people on the street" to sell the items, Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders said. "These are the kind of cases that keep this job amusing."

Woman wants town hall to help pay dental bill

ABINGTON, Mass. (AP) - Trying to get something done at town hall can be a pain, one local woman says for her it was literally.

Joanne Harding broke a tooth on a Tootsie Roll she took from a candy jar in the town clerk's office in Abington Town Hall last month during a visit to get a license for her dog.

Now, Harding wants the town to help pay her $4,000-$5,000 dental bill.

"I took the candy, so it's partially my fault," the 40-year-old Harding told the Patriot Ledger of Quincy. "I wouldn't have taken it if it wasn't there."

Town Manager Phillip Warren Jr. forwarded Harding's request for financial assistance to the town's insurance carrier.

"We'll wait to see what the insurance company says," he said.

Meanwhile, the candy jars are still there at the clerk's office.