ICE CREAM CONES-FIRE

HERMITAGE, Pa. (AP) -- Ice cream cones are usually cool. But some got too hot. A fire shut down the Joy Cone Company in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, this week. Company president David George says the plant was closed from Monday morning until Tuesday afternoon. The fire started in a dust collector that holds small cone scraps. The cause of the ice cream cone fire is still under investigation.

LOW-SPEED CHASE

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- As police chases go -- this wasn't a very high-speed one. Police in Fort Worth, Texas, charge Timothy Raines swiped a forklift from a construction site. The chase reached 16 miles per hour and ended on I-30. Officers say when Raines finally climbed off the forklift, he put it in reverse and sent it rolling toward patrol cars. Officers jumped on to stop it. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports Raines now faces a number of charges, including drinking while driving and evading police.

FISHERMAN HOOKED

BETHEL, Vt. (AP) -- A Vermont fisherman has hooked more than a nine and a-half pound salmon. Authorities say he also caught the tracking transmitter which had been used to tag the fish. According to officials, the fish had been illegally caught. Ryan McCullough says he thought the fish was a legal brown trout, not a rare Atlantic salmon. A picture of McCullough and his fish had been published in a local paper. The tracking device led game wardens to his freezer. Officials say it was probably an innocent mistake. But the fisherman now faces a possible $1,500 fine and suspension of his hunting and fishing license.

DRUGS IN BIBLE

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) -- Authorities charge there was more than salvation in a Bible. Guards say a man and woman tried to smuggle drugs to a Virginia jail inmate. Media reports in Lynchburg, Virginia, say investigators seized the Bible and found the drugs last week. Amherst County authorities are charging Milton Ray "Scooter" Branham and Tamisha Nicole Hart. Branham is being held without bond, because he was already in jail when charged. Hart has been released on bond.

WEDDING PLANT

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- After 43 years, the marriage of "Ink" and Mae Bowers is thriving. And so is a plant given to them as a wedding gift. Mae says says after all these years, the plant is like part of their Maryland family. Mae may not have a green thumb. But she does have a special watering technique. She tells a local paper (The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown), every Friday she puts about a dozen ice cubes in with the plant. She says that way the water is released slowly into the soil.

EMU ESCAPE

COLFAX, Ill. (AP) -- An emu is on the lam in Illinois. The big bird escaped from its pen at Central Illinois Small Animal Rescue. Caretakers at the center hope the public can help find the missing ostrich-like bird. Garrie Burr works with the animal rescue group. Burr says the bird is friendly, but is likely frightened now. Emus don't fly, but can run fast. Officials say the bird escaped after fighting with another emu and a dog.

by Jamie Friar

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.