GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Rolling Stone magazine declined to run an advertisement for a new translation of the Bible aimed at young people, the nation's largest Bible publisher said Wednesday.

Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, bought space in the magazine months ago as part of an ad campaign for Today's New International Version, said Doug Lockhart, Zondervan's executive vice president of marketing.

"Last week, we were surprised and certainly disappointed that Rolling Stone had changed their mind and rejected our ad," he said.

A telephone message seeking comment was left Wednesday at the New York headquarters of Wenner Media LLC, publisher of Rolling Stone.

Lockhart said Zondervan, based in Grand Rapids, paid Wenner Media last July to run the ad in February, when the Bible is due on bookshelves.

On Tuesday, USA Today quoted Kent Brownridge, general manager of Wenner Media, as saying his staff first saw the ad copy last week, and "we are not in the business of publishing advertising for religious messages."

Lockhart said the ad features the face of a contemplative-looking young man and includes this copy:

"In a world of almost endless media noise and political spin, you wonder where you can find real truth. Well, now there's a source that's accurate, clear and reliable. It's the TNIV — Today's New International Version of the Bible. It's written in today's language, for today's times — and it makes more sense than ever."

Media outlets that agreed to carry the ad include Modern Bride, The Onion, MTV.com and AOL, Lockhart said.

Hawaii's Big Island mayor asks for $2 million to control shrieking frogs

Associated Press

HONOLULU — A tiny frog with a huge shriek has invaded the Big Island and won't shut up. Big Island Mayor Harry Kim is looking for $2 million to begin controlling the spread of the nocturnal coqui frog, a beloved native in Puerto Rico but considered an annoying pest in Hawaii since hitching a ride over in shipments of tropical plants around 1990.

The frogs have been mating easily — and shattering quiet island nights — ever since.

Aside from the noise, the frogs have a voracious appetite for spiders and insects, competing with native birds and fauna. And coqui frogs are adaptable to many ecosystems and breed heavily in Hawaii, experts said.

Kim said the Big Island, the local name for the island of Hawaii, will once again ask Gov. Linda Lingle to declare the coqui frog infestation a state emergency to help clear the way for state financial assistance. The $2 million is needed to launch a combined state, federal and county program to combat the frogs, Kim said. He made his plea Tuesday before state lawmakers, who will consider the request later this year.

Kim said he declared a county emergency in April over the frogs, but the state waited to see if the federal government would offer assistance, which it did not.

Spraying of a citric acid solution on the islands of Oahu and Kauai have curtailed coqui populations there, but limited spraying on Kim's island has done little.

"I think the response from all of us has not been timely enough," he said, noting that experts suggest he focus on controlling the coqui's spread, rather than eradicating it completely.

"I kick myself in the back every day for not getting started more aggressively," Kim said.

More than 150 communities on the Big Island are now infested with the coin-sized frogs, named after their high-decibel "ko-KEE, ko-KEE" chirp.

O.J. Simpson's daughter charged with disorderly conduct; allegedly yelled at officers

Associated Press

MIAMI — O.J. Simpson's 19-year-old daughter was arrested after she refused to stop yelling at officers who had been summoned because of a fight outside a basketball game involving her old prep school, police said.

Sydney Simpson was charged Saturday with resisting arrest without violence, punishable by up to a year in jail, and disorderly conduct, which carries a possible 60-day jail sentence.

Simpson yelled profanities at the officers called to Ransom Everglades School after a boys' varsity basketball game against Gulliver Prep, according to a Miami police report. Sydney Simpson graduated from Gulliver last June, and her brother, Justin, 16, attends the school.

Officers asked Simpson to quiet down three times as a crowd of more than 15 people gathered, police said.

"Because of the defendant's disorderly conduct, it prevented this officer from conducting an investigation," according to the report by Officer Francisco Villarreal.

While she was being taken into custody, she slapped another officer's hand, leading to the resisting arrest charge, the report said.

Two teenage girls told police that Simpson hit them in the face, but they declined to press charges, authorities said.

Yale Galanter, a Simpson family attorney, said the dispute outside the game was a "cat fight" that Sydney Simpson had resolved by the time police arrived, but officers escalated the situation. He did not say what instigated the conflict, but said he believed Simpson acted appropriately.

"After the police were told that nobody wants to press charges … Sydney is arrested for disorderly conduct?" Galanter said. "It doesn't take a legal genius or a great legal mind to figure out that the event was over and that it was the police who caused the charge to be had."

Asked to respond to Galanter's comment, police Lt. Bill Schwartz said: "For her safety and the safety of all concerned, the officers decided to remove her from the situation. Clearly this upset her even more, and she slapped one of the cops in the hand. Not a good idea."

Simpson is attending college in Boston. She signed a notice to appear at a date to be set later by court, Schwartz said.

O.J. Simpson, the former football star, broadcaster and actor, moved to Florida after he was acquitted of murder in the slayings of the children's mother, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a companion, Ron Goldman, in California in 1994.

Villanova professor who killed her baby to be honored in campus library

Associated Press

VILLANOVA, Pa. — Mine Ener's colleagues and former students at Villanova University are dedicating a memorial student lounge in her name, an honor critics at the Roman Catholic school call inappropriate for a professor who killed her baby daughter while in the throes of postpartum depression.

Ener, who committed suicide in a Minnesota jail less than a month after killing her baby, taught at the suburban Philadelphia university's Center for Arab and Islamic Studies. The deaths shocked faculty and students preparing to return for the fall 2003 semester.

Villanova spokeswoman Barbara K. Clement said Ener's friends simply want to honor her work as a dedicated scholar and enthusiastic mentor, and hope to raise awareness about postpartum depression.

"She loved that baby very, very, very much. It was a disease. We have to focus on the fact that she was a wonderful teacher and researcher," Clement said.

But some students say such a memorial is out of place at a university whose mission statement upholds "the sacredness of each person."

In response to an e-mail invitation sent to students about the memorial, 21-year-old Villanova senior Jeanne Marie Hoffman circulated a statement to friends and local media voicing her opposition.

Hoffman, editor of the university's conservative student paper, said no formal protest has been organized for the dedication, though some students plan to gather and pray together in separate locations.

"It was a sad and tragic situation. She was depressed, but she did murder her daughter," Hoffman said Wednesday. "It isn't the kind of thing you want to remember on a Catholic campus."

Ener was taking medication for postpartum depression when she visited her parents in St. Paul, Minn., in August 2003. She brought along her 6-month-old daughter, Raya, who was born with Down syndrome and at one point needed to be fed through a tube.

Ener, 38, told police she fatally slit the infant's throat because she wanted to give the baby relief. Less than a month later, Ener put a trash bag over her head and committed suicide in prison.

The memorial was funded by donations from Ener's friends, family and colleagues.

New tables, lamps and an oriental rug — a nod to Ener's area of study — will be dedicated to her memory Thursday in a corner of the student lounge. A plaque already hanging on the wall lists Ener's department, her years at Villanova and an epitaph: "Scholar, Teacher, Mentor, Friend."

Michael Nataro, president of the campus anti-abortion group, is among the students Ener mentored, and among those who will be there for the dedication of the lounge.

"Those who oppose it, oppose it out of ignorance," said Nataro, 21. "People who thought that way soon changed their mind when they found out just how sick of a woman she was at the end. This woman is being honored for her life and not her tragic ending."

Wyoming House recognizes 'jackalope' as official state mythical creature

Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Meadowlark, bison, cutthroat trout, horned toad — all official symbols of Wyoming, in one category or another. The jackalope, most elusive of the state's critters, may soon join the list.

The Wyoming House voted 45-12 Wednesday to declare the part-antelope, part-jackrabbit as the state's official mythical creature. The legislation now goes to the state Senate.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Dave Edwards, R-Douglas, sees his measure as a boon to retail sales of stuffed jackalopes.

"It's highly possible it will certainly boost the tourism industry, which has a lot of gift shops and sells all kinds of different jackalopes," he said.

Taxidermist Doug Herrick of Douglas, inspired by his grandfather's tales, is credited with creating the first jackalope in 1939 by screwing antelope horns to a mounted jackrabbit. It's been a staple of Wyoming postcards and gift shops ever since.

Herrick's nephew, Jim, is continuing the tradition, churning out about 2,500 mounted jackalopes each year.

In Douglas, the self-proclaimed "Jackalope Capital of the World," the creature has been promoted in Chamber of Commerce brochures since the late 1940s. An 8-foot fiberglass jackalope statue sits in a city park. Pictures of the animal appear on billboards, benches and fire trucks.

The city holds an annual Jackalope Days festival, and the chamber receives about five requests a week for jackalope "hunting licenses," interim director Christa Shepherd said.

Stan Mullinnix, owner of a Douglas jewelry store that sells jackalope statuettes, applauded the state House for its vote. He likened the jackalope to the famed Pennsylvania prognosticating groundhog.

"Punxsutawney Phil is something that united not only a community but an entire state behind an absolutely wonderful mythological creature, and I think our own native jackalope is a creature of equal standing," he said.

Woman suing surgeon for allegedly leaving 4-inch metal instrument in her uterus

Associated Press

DANVILLE, Pa. — A woman is suing a doctor who operated on her, accusing him of leaving a 4-inch metal instrument inside her uterus. In her lawsuit, Lori Klinger, 35, said she experienced severe pain after Dr. Samuel Owusu performed a diagnostic laparoscopy on her in November 2002 to check for endometriosis, a condition where some of the uterus lining is found outside the uterus.

She said when she called Owusu later complaining of pain, he said it was normal and told her to take pain medication.

"(Klinger) had called him and said this really hurts," said Klinger's lawyer, Jane Sebelin. "He just kept saying, 'Deal with it.' "

Two days later, she went to the bathroom and an instrument emerged from her vagina, the lawsuit said. Klinger said it was sharp on one end with a rubber bulb on the other. She said she took it to the doctor's office.

"We felt there was a lack of procedures in place, that they should be checking these things," said Sebelin. The lawsuit said Owusu did apologize.

Klinger is seeking $350,000 for counts including negligence.

Owusu referred questions to Bloomsburg-based Geisinger Medical Group when reached Wednesday. Alison Delsite Everett, spokeswoman for Geisinger, declined to comment on the case, but said: "we have very stringent policies to ensure the safety of our patients."

This mistake happens at least once a year at hospitals that perform 8,000 to 18,000 surgeries a year, despite the regular use of checklists to account for instruments used during operations, said Ramona Conner of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses.

Homeless graduate blended in at Apple Valley High School

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — A homeless man with nowhere else to go says he went back to his old high school and posed as a student for three weeks, sitting in on classes, showering in the locker room and sleeping in the theater.

"Anywhere I could hide," Francisco Serrano said from jail Wednesday after he was arrested twice at Apple Valley High.

Serrano had attended the school as a 19-year-old sophomore during the 2002-03 school year and was a very good student, Principal Stephen Degenaar said. He is 21 but looks 16 or 17 and would have easily blended in with the student body of 2,300, the principal said.

"It's a sad story," Degenaar said. "I hope the young man gets his life in order."

The principal said there were no adults who could verify that Serrano was in the building during classroom hours. But he said it would have been easy for Serrano to slip in during events over the Christmas break such as sports practices or games, when lots of people were coming and going and there was just a skeleton staff.

A physical education teacher saw Serrano taking a shower at one point but did not realize he did not belong there, Degenaar said.

Serrano denied eating in the cafeteria, as some students claimed. He said he would slip out for meals to a nearby buffet restaurant where he knew the manager.

He said he and his family moved to Connecticut after his sophomore year here. He said he returned to Minnesota on Christmas Eve with only $200 in his pocket.

According to police, a janitor found Serrano sleeping in a classroom Jan. 7 but let him go after Serrano provided his old student ID card and said he was a student.

During the day, though, school officials determined that Serrano was not a student. Serrano was found back at the school that night, and he was thrown in jail on trespassing charges, then released three days later. He was arrested again Friday night, this time claiming that he had returned to get his things.

The principal said Serrano was not a danger to students or staff. But he also said: "Obviously this raises the issue of security in the school. We're reviewing all of our systems to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Alyssa Luftman, 18, a senior, said she saw Serrano several times in study hall.

"We came back from Christmas break and there was this new kid sitting at our table," she said. "We just assumed he was a new student. … He never said anything to anyone."

Serrano faces a court appearance Friday. If he is allowed to go free, he said, he can stay with a friend in the apartment building where he used to live, in the suburb of Eagan, and find a job.

Ex-U.S. champion skater Bowman sentenced to probation, counseling for having gun while drunk

Associated Press

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. — Former U.S. skating champion Christopher Bowman was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months probation for a misdemeanor involving having a gun while drunk.

Bowman also was ordered by District Judge Nancy Carniak to perform community service and undergo substance abuse and mental health counseling.

Fighting back tears, Bowman apologized Wednesday for the Oct. 27 incident, in which a friend found him in his apartment with a loaded gun and bottle of vodka.

"I came to this state to make a difference in this community, and I made a mistake," he said.

The 37-year-old known as "Bowman the Showman" had pleaded no contest in November to possessing a gun while intoxicated and to misdemeanor assault and battery.

Initially, police said they believed Bowman pointed a handgun at April Freeman, a friend and business partner, in his apartment. Later, Freeman said she was under the influence of prescription painkillers when she gave her first statement and falsely accused Bowman of threatening her.

A count of felonious assault and a count of aiming a firearm with malice were dismissed after Freeman changed her story.

Freeman told Carniak on Wednesday that the incident has been misunderstood, and said she doesn't believe Bowman is violent or ever would hurt her.

Bowman was U.S. champion in 1989 and 1992. He finished seventh at the 1988 Olympics and fourth at the 1992 Olympics.

Murder trial begins in case of man found stuffed in suitcase

Associated Press

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. — A man charged with killing a gay man and stuffing his body into a suitcase was defending himself against a "perverted sexual advance," a defense attorney said Wednesday as the murder trial opened.

Kentucky law allows someone to use deadly force to protect himself from being raped or sodomized. But if convicted of the slaying, Joshua Cottrell, 23, could face the death penalty.

Fishermen found the body of 36-year-old Richie Phillips stuffed in the suitcase floating in a lake in Breckinridge County in June 2003, eight days after his family reported him missing.

In opening arguments, defense attorney Scott Drabenstadt described Phillips as a "sexual predator who attempted to prey" on Cottrell, whom he described as a "scared and panicked 21-year-old kid" who had recently moved to Elizabethtown.

Prosecutor Susan Marie Streible, however, alleged Cottrell invited the older man to a motel room and killed him "because he didn't like gay people."

That day, Phillips spent the afternoon driving Cottrell around as he searched for a job, Drabenstadt said. When they returned to the motel where Cottrell was staying, Phillips entered the room, told the younger man he found him attractive and said he wanted to perform oral sex on him, the lawyer said.

Cottrell said no, but Phillips persisted and a fight broke out, Drabenstadt said.

"Josh Cottrell did what he had to do to survive in that motel room," the lawyer said.

Phillips' mother testified that her 125-pound son, who lived with his parents, was not physically strong and was not aggressive. "Richie was a very easygoing person, very caring and very considerate of others," Margie Phillips said.

During questioning from Drabenstadt, Phillips' mother said she didn't know how her son behaved when he was at gay bars or alone with other men.

Cottrell also is charged with first-degree robbery, tampering with physical evidence and being a persistent felony offender.

Elegant and obese, dancers break stereotypes in Cuba

Associated Press

HAVANA — Cuban ballet dancers in white glide across the floor, executing an airy blend of pirouettes and back stretches. Within seconds, spectators are captivated, quickly forgetting what at first they couldn't overlook — most of the dancers weigh more than 200 pounds.

Six dancers between the ages of 23 and 41 make up the island's Voluminous Dance group, which has presented about 20 works and is preparing its current show, "Una muerte dulce," or "A Sweet Death," for the spring.

"It's incredible how they utilize their roundness," Mirta Castro, a tourist from Costa Rica, said as she watched the dancers rehearsing in Havana. "It breaks free of the belief that dance is only for slender people."

That is exactly the taboo Juan Miguel Mas, the group's director, wanted to shatter when he created Voluminous Dance in 1996. He called together dozens of overweight people in Havana to a formal dance audition where he looked for inner spark, eagerness and motivation.

"We obese people also need to express ourselves with our bodies," said Mas, who is also a dancer in the group. "We feel (our bodies), we command them and we enjoy them just like any other human being."

While obesity is not a major problem in Cuba, where fast-food restaurants are almost nonexistent, the country is beginning to face some of the same health challenges confronting most of the world.

In the late 1990s, the government began urging Cubans to get more exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables in addition to their typical diet of rice, beans and meat. Last year, the island's sports institute, which manages Cuba's elite athletes, launched a campaign to encourage exercise and sports among the general population.

Mas, who weighs more than 300 pounds, first appeared on stage with Cuba's Contemporary Dance troupe as a giant baby in the lead role of a 1989 production called "Absurdo," or "Absurd." He is the only member of Voluminous Dance, or Danza Voluminosa, who danced professionally before the group's creation.

Dancers in the group have come and gone over the years, Mas said. Money is scarce, and as an independent project, the group often scrambles to find rehearsal space and generate interest in their performances.

The group is not officially recognized by Cuba's cultural ministry, so none of the dancers receive full salaries from the socialist state; instead, they earn some money for each contract. Mas said he thinks the reason there's been no formal endorsement for the group is that most of the dancers have not received dance training from the state.

"We desperately need support," said Mas, who added the group is the only one of its kind in Cuba and, he believes, in the region. "Ours is a project that could reach thousands of people all over the country."

In a studio in Havana's Teatro Nacional, the dancers move with grace and sensitivity, surprising onlookers with their elasticity. Their leaps are limited, but arm motions are expansive and elegant.

The room becomes electric when the dancers suddenly drop to the floor and begin to roll over each other, as if part of a wave. The task appears effortless despite intense, passion-filled expressions on their faces.

"Our work is not just art, it also has a social aspect," Mas said. "We approach obese people to help them find a physical and emotional equilibrium and rescue their self-esteem."

Barbara Paula Valdes, 27, said she feels transformed after two years with Voluminous Dance.

"I changed how I walk, how I talk, the way I relate to people," said Valdes, who weighs 275 pounds. "I had an artist hidden inside me and didn't realize it."