Voters on Tuesday in Ketchum, Idaho stood by a traditional mock shootout held during the annual Wagon Days festival, which supporters viewed as good fun and detractors wanted scrapped for glorifying violence, especially in the wake of the slayings at Columbine High School in Colorado. More than three-quarters of those voting sided with the annual Labor Day event, or 562 to 173, reported The Associated Press in the Idaho Statesman. "We're so happy, because it's been a tradition since 1964," said Donna Cochran who has played a pioneer woman in the show since the start. "It wouldn't seem like Wagon Days without the shootout."Wedding Bells
Wisconsin's new two-year state budget earmarks $210,000 to hire what may be the nation's first government-paid Mr. or Ms. Marriage Saver, reports Tom Heinen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. With divorces in Wisconsin hovering above 17,000 a year legislators are hoping that one yet-to-be-hired state employee can use the combined weight of church and state to pull the numbers down. The employee would help members of the clergy develop voluntary marriage policies in communities that want them. The effort is expected to be modeled after the private Marriage Savers movement that was started nationally by author and columnist Michael McManus.
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
Don't try relocating to Columbia, S.C. with your pet bear, wolf or python because the city council on Wednesday banned snakes and exotic pets within city limits. The process of tailoring the ban was long, and involved weeks of public meeting, puns and protests, reported Jeff Wilkinson of The State in Columbia. Several speakers said the ban was based on prejudice against reptiles, and that the ban on constrictors, venomous snakes and large reptiles should be canned because there has never been a death in the state from a constricting snake or an exotic pet. "There is no evidence to back up this biased legislation," herpetologist Herrick Brown said. But, city council member E.W. Cromartie said the ban is "in the best interests of the city."
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