Compelling Explanations

- Though a university study released in June linked birth defects to the controversial mining industry practice of mountaintop removal, lawyers for the National Mining Association offered a quick, industry-friendly rebuttal: Since the area covered by the study was in West Virginia, any birth defects could well be explained merely as inbreeding. (A week later, the lawyers thought better and edited out that insinuation.)

- Inmate Kyle Richards filed a federal lawsuit in July against Michigan's prison system because of the no-pornography policy in effect for the Macomb County jail (a violation of Richards' "constitutional rights"). Other states permit such possession, claimed Richards, who further supported his case by reference to his own condition of "chronic masturbation syndrome," exacerbated by conditions behind bars. Additionally, Richards claimed to be indigent and therefore entitled to pornography at the government's expense - to avoid a "poor standard of living" and "sexual and sensory deprivation."

Ironies

- When Laura Diprimo, 43, and Thomas Lee, 28, were arrested for child endangerment in Louisville, Ky., in June, it appeared to be yet another instance of a mother leaving an infant locked in a hot car (91-degree heat index outside) while frolicking elsewhere (drinking with Lee at the Deja Vu club). According to a report on WDRB-TV, while the two were in the police car en route to jail, Lee complained that the back seat of the cruiser was uncomfortably warm.

The Continuing Crisis

- Save the Environment: Germany's Green Party temporarily transcended mainstream environmental goals in June and specially demanded that the government begin regulating sex toys such as dildos and vibrators. Those devices, it said, contain "dangerously high levels of phthalates" and other plastics that can cause infertility and hormone imbalances. The party called for sex-toy regulation that is at least as strong as the regulation of children's toys.

Update

When News of the Weird wrote about the twin singers Lamb and Lynx Gaede ("Prussian Blue"), age 13, in 2005, they were singing Aryan-heritage songs at white-supremacist venues, under the guidance of their Hitler-admiring mother, April. Nowadays, the girls are off the road, according to a July report on The Daily, and have almost completely renounced their political fervor (to April's disappointment). Said Lamb, "I was just spouting a lot of knowledge that I had no idea what I was saying. My sister and I are pretty liberal now." Added Lynx, "Personally, I love diversity. I'm stoked that we have so many different cultures." Both girls have struggled with illnesses since their fame and credit a new treatment that they praise for easing their conditions: medical marijuana.

Visit Chuck Sehpherd daily at NewsoftheWeird.blogspot.com or www.NewsoftheWeird.com. Send your Weird News to WeirdNewsTips@yahoo.com.