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Wacky weed growing
near sewage pond 

REXBURG, Idaho — Marijuana plants are flourishing at the sewage treatment plant in Rexburg. 

Officials say the pot seeds apparently were flushed down the toilet and took root on the banks of the city’s sewage treatment ponds. Police cut down 10 marijuana plants, some as high as 3 1/2 feet. 

Pot isn’t the only thing that grows in the fertile environment of human waste. Public Works Director John Millar says he’s seen everything from tomatoes to sunflowers. 

Not wanting to attract curious pot heads, officials aren’t saying exactly where they found the illegal weed growing. 

Corpse flower perfume
not in the works 

MADISON, Wis. — The stinky flower is in bloom again at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

School spokeswoman Liz Beyler says a rare titanarum, or “corpse flower,” stood about 5 1/2 feet tall in the university greenhouse when it began to bloom on Tuesday. 

The flower is one of the world’s rarest, biggest and smelliest plants. It produces a huge, brief bloom that gives off an offensive odor. 

“People say it smells like rotting flesh,” Beyler said. 

The endangered plant, native to Sumatra in Indonesia, blooms only two or three times during its 40-year life span. The blossom can measure up to 4 feet in diameter and lasts only a few days before collapsing under its own weight. 

The plant’s stench is designed to attract beetles, which pollinate the flower in the wild. 

Last June, another of the school’s corpse flowers let loose a bloom seen by 30,000 visitors. 

Caught in the act in Phoenix 

PHOENIX — Graffiti artists may soon have to be prepared to smile for the camera if Phoenix police have their way. 

Officials are looking for the best place to mount a $2,600 motion-detecting camera that snaps a picture of anyone near a graffiti-prone wall. Similar cameras are now used to catch speeders and red light runners. 

The “Q-Star Flash Cam” is not a foolproof police tool. Officers would have a hard time getting a positive identity from a photo alone, and even the Flash Cam’s manufacturer, Ken Anderson of Chatsworth, Calif., admits that the photo evidence may not stand up in court. The value of the device, he says, is more psychological. 

When the camera’s motion-detector is triggered, a bright flash goes off and a preprogrammed warning voice comes out of a speaker. 

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — About 200 people got together for a weekend rally to protest the what they consider a serious injustice — a law barring women from going topless. 

A city ordinance banning toplessness was approved by a 5-1 city council vote earlier this month, ending the city’s policy of allowing women to bare their breasts. 

The vote was the city’s response to a topless car wash opened by some Moscow roommates who claimed to be raising money to pay rent. None of the women involved in the car wash was seen at the gathering. 

Peg Hamlet, the city council member who voted against the ordinance, spoke to the crowd wearing a black Spandex tank top that pushed the limits of the city’s new ordinance. 

The ordinance limits women to displaying only the cleavage between their breasts. Any violation of the ordinance would be a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine up to $500 or up to six months in jail. 

“I think women are smart enough they don’t have to be told how to dress,” Hamlet said. “These laws are silly.”