Official’s Forgetfulness Drives Him Into a Fine Mess

--Jon Crews had few excuses when he was ticketed for having expired license tags on his car. Crews operates the office that issues them. Waterloo, Iowa, police stopped him for having an overdue vehicle registration as well as for driving without corrective lenses as required on his driver’s license. Crews, as Black Hawk County treasurer, operates the motor vehicle office responsible for issuing yearly vehicle registrations. The two tickets amount to $66 in fines, court costs and surcharges. Crews was elected mayor of Cedar Falls earlier this month and has since announced he will resign as treasurer.

--Thor, a 450-pound bear sleeping in the back yard of a Bloomington, Minn., home, can stay put until spring. The Bloomington City Council voted to give Thor “until April 14, 1988, to get out of town.” Earlier, the city had ordered Charles and Deborah Crosby to remove Thor within 90 days under a new “non-domestic animal ordinance.” But, the Crosbys said, they were not told about the ordinance until Thor had gone into hibernation. Crosby was happy with the new decision but said he never planned to wake the animal. “I would let City Council members come and wake him up,” Crosby said. “He’d be angry. He doesn’t have any food in his stomach.” Once the 3-year-old bruin completes his hibernation in a concrete-block den in their fenced back yard, the Crosbys intend to move Thor to a farm.

--U.S. Postal Service managers, facing an outcry over actions of a supervisor, withdrew a reprimand against a carrier who tried to stop a car rolling toward some gas pumps. Mail carrier Gary Craycroft, 37, injured his left leg, tore ligaments in his ribs and hurt his elbow when he tried to stop the car as it rolled backward toward the pumps at a convenience store. The car missed the pumps and the customers. Jim Danahy, branch manager for the Satellite Beach, Fla., post office, issued a letter of reprimand, citing Craycroft for taking actions that resulted in personal injury. But a public outcry prompted a review “at a higher level” and the reprimand was pulled, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service said.