College student lives in Wal-Mart for 41 hours

He ate at in-store restaurant, napped in restroom or on lawn chairs

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- For spring break, some college students set out for sun-drenched beaches or cheap European cities. Skyler Bartels headed for the local Wal-Mart.

Bartels, 20, an aspiring writer and Drake University sophomore, thought he'd spend a week in a Wal-Mart as a test of endurance, using it as the premise for a magazine article. His college adviser liked the idea.

"I just intuitively thought, 'This is brilliant!"' said Carol Spaulding-Kruse, an associate professor of English. "I wasn't quite sure why, but it just sounded like a really good idea."

For 41 hours, Bartels wandered the aisles of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Windsor Heights that's open 24 hours a day. He checked out shoppers, read magazines, watched movies on the DVD display and played video games.

He bought meals at the in-store Subway sandwich shop, but was able to catch only brief naps in a restroom stall or on lawn chairs in the garden department.

Other shoppers and employees didn't pay much attention until the end of his stay, he said, when it appeared some store greeters began to take notice -- pointing at him and whispering.

A shift manager approached him and asked him if he was finding everything he needed.

"He said, 'Didn't I see you over by the magazines, like, five hours ago?' I told him, 'Maybe,"' Bartels said.

Tiring to the point of hallucinating, Bartels said he decided to go home before he was thrown out.

He considered the project a failure.

Then, The Des Moines Register, which had been contacted by Spaulding-Kruse, called to ask him about the experience. Once the story ran, TV networks began calling.

He also talked with a book agent, has been contacted by New Line Cinema about a movie concept and did a radio interview with National Public Radio.

Bartels told The Associated Press he has decided the stunt wasn't such a failure after all.

"I'm incredibly happy with the press coverage," he said. "It would be kind of silly not to accept it with open arms."

Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Thornton said Bartels neither violated store policy nor broke the law.

"We were unaware of his presence and if we were aware of it we certainly wouldn't have condoned it," Thornton said. "We're a retailer, not a hotel."

Starkville Aldermen Ban Smoking

Board adopts smoke-free ordinance

By BRIAN HAWKINS/Starkville Daily News

Cheers erupted from the standing-room-only crowd in the City Hall courtroom Tuesday night after members of the Starkville Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places and in places of employment.

The ordinance, adopted after a brief public hearing during Tuesday night's Board of Aldermen meeting, takes effect 60 days from Tuesday and specifically defines where smoking is prohibited in the city, requirements for posting “no smoking” signs, responsibilities of business owners, enforcement and violations.

The ordinance was developed by an appointed committee that included three members of the Board of Aldermen, two local restaurateurs, a representative from the Mississippi State University Student Association and two community health advocates working with the Citizens for a Breathe-Free Starkville group.

“We put together a group of stakeholders who had different opinions on the issue and developed an ordinance from scratch for Starkville,” said Ward 5 Alderman Matt Cox, one of the three aldermen on the committee. “We came together with a job to do and we got it done well.”

Robert McMillen, a researcher at MSU and one of the two leaders of Citizens for a Breathe-Free Starkville on the ordinance committee, said the board's adoption of the ordinance makes Starkville the first major municipality in Mississippi to go smoke-free.

“We're very happy with the final ordinance. It showed leadership and that Starkville is a leader in the state in demonstrating that we as a community deem the health of our people as important,” McMillen said.

Members of Mississippi State fraternities expressed concern Tuesday night over a provision within the ordinance prohibiting smoking in common areas of the Greek houses, the majority of which on Fraternity Row and Sorority Row are located within the city limits.

Presidents of at least three fraternities - Kappa Alpha Order, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Lambda Chi Alpha - requested that the board not act on the ordinance to allow MSU Greek organizations to determine their position on the issue, especially since most had only learned of plans to regulate fraternity and sorority houses in the last several days.

Ultimately, the provision regarding Greek organization houses was removed after it was determined that a later clause in the ordinance eliminated the need for their inclusion since the clause in question stated that rules of other governmental jurisdictions regarding smoking - including those at the University, would supercede the ordinance regulations.

Multiple residents smoke in favor of implementing the ordinance.

Among the indoor public places where smoking will be prohibited when the ordinance takes effect are:

€ Childccare facilities.

€ City buildings.

€ Common areas in bed and breakfast establishments, hotels and motels.

€ Elevators and enclosed stairwells.

€ Health care facilities.

€ Indoor shopping malls.

€ Places of employment.

€ Polling places.

€ Public forms of transportation, including but not limited to motor buses, taxicabs, or other public passenger vehicles.

€ Public bus and transfer point shelters.

€ Retail stores.

€ Enclosed, indoor areas of restaurants and bars.

€ Self-service laundry facilities.

€ Service lobbies, waiting areas, and the common areas open to the public of financial institutions, businesses and professional offices, and multi-unit commercial facilities.

€ Indoor sports arenas and venues.

€ Waiting rooms, hallways, rooms in offices of any physician, dentist, psychologist, chiropractor, optometrist or optician, or other medical services provider.

Exemptions to the ordinance include allowing smoking include:

€ Bed and breakfast, hotel and motel rooms that are rented to guests and are designated as smoking rooms.

€ Private clubs.

The ordinance also includes regulations prohibiting smoking in certain outdoor areas, including:

€ Areas immediately preceding or blocking the entrance and/or exit of an area where smoking is prohibited.

€ Attached areas of restaurants that are covered or partially covered with more than 50 percent of the perimeter of the outside area walled or otherwise closed to the outside.

€ Seating areas of outdoor sports arenas and venues.

Penalties for violations of the ordinance include a fine of no more than $50 for the first offense and no more than t$250 for the second and subsequent offenses.

Another provision within the ordinance allows the Board of Aldermen to suspend or revoke any business license or permit issued by the city for three or more violations of the ordinance by a specific business within a 12-month period.

The ordinance also contains a clause allowing for its repeal in the summer of 2008 if city officials evaluate its effectiveness and deem it necessary to repeal the law.

Yard of the Month?

Neighbor charged with killing teen who walked on his grass

BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) -- A man who neighbors say was devoted to his meticulously kept lawn was charged with murder in the shooting of a 15-year-old boy who apparently walked across his yard.

Charles Martin called 911 on Sunday afternoon, saying calmly: "I just killed a kid."

Police, who released the call's contents, said Martin also told the dispatcher: "I've been harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up."

Larry Mugrage, whose family lived next door, was shot in the chest with a shotgun. The high school freshman was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Martin, 66, allegedly told police he had several times had problems with neighbors walking on his lawn. He remained jailed without bond Monday. His jailers said no attorney was listed for him.

Neighbors said Martin lived alone quietly, often sitting in front of his one-story home with its neat lawn, well-trimmed shrubbery and flag pole with U.S. and Navy flags flying.

Joanne Ritchie, 46, said Mugrage was known as "a good kid." She said she always also considered Martin to be friendly.

Union Township is near Batavia, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Andy Rooney's tips for telemarketers

Three Little Words That Work---

(1)The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..."

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer !!!

(3) Junk Mail Help:

When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right?

It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before! the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes

Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!

If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 37 cents.

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea !

If enough people follow these tips, it will work----

I have been doing this for years, and I get very littlejunk mail anymore.

Barbour: 'Katrina Cottages' could be answer to post-hurricane housing woes

Here are additional pictures of the Cottage.

Check out this informative website about Katrina Cottages.

WASHINGTON — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour today asked congressional leaders to consider investing in a pilot program to install modular housing
on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

His remarks were among those of four Gulf Coast governors testifying during a Senate hearing today. The governors said rebuilding damaged levees and providing housing for thousands of displaced Hurricane Katrina survivors are among their top concerns.

Congress is considering how to divvy up $19.8 billion in emergency disaster aid proposed by President Bush, but not yet allocated.

"For many Mississippians permanent housing is far away because the new supply will not meet demand for several years," Barbour told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"Modular housing designed like the 'Katrina Cottages' developed in the Mississippi Renewal
Forum provides a much better living environment for disaster victims," Barbour testified. "Occupants of a Katrina Cottage can use the cottage as a base from which to
build their new permanent home.

"I propose the Congress invest in a pilot program to install modular housing
on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Such a project would prepare the federal
government for the temporary housing demands of the next disaster and can
get 20,000 to 25,000 Mississippi families out of FEMA-trailers," he said.

Barbour said housing is one of the greatest needs in his state six months after the powerful storm slammed into the coast Aug. 29. More than 100,000 Mississippians are in 36,000 travel trailers and mobile homes, he said.

"We have installed temporary housing quicker than it has ever been done on
such a large scale, with more than 36,000 travel trailers and mobile homes
occupied by more than 100,000 Mississippians. But as many as 6000 units of
temporary housing are still needed," Barbour testified.

"In addition to the CDBG funds, we are dedicating
almost all of our Hazard Mitigation Grant Program allocation to rebuilding
homes in such a way that they will be better protected from future
hurricanes," Barbour said. "To better support this effort, I ask Congress to increase the
funding cap for this program from 7.5% of total FEMA project costs to 15%,
which had been the cap in the past."

He said under current law, "too many Mississippians will be trapped in FEMA-trailers, the government's
current default solution for temporary housing. These trailers are designed
and built to be used recreationally a few weeks a year; they are not
designed to be used as housing for a family for several years.

"The trailers do not provide even the most basic protection from high winds
or severe thunderstorms, much less tornadoes or hurricanes," he said. "In addition,
they are highly vulnerable to electrical and propane fires."

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said her state still needs $1.5 billion for repairing and improving levees that protect New Orleans and other areas from floodwaters.