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9-1-1 caller reports drunk driver: herself

BISMARCK, N.D. - Police get calls about drunken drivers all the time, but rarely do they come from the alleged offender.

A 17-year-old girl in Bismarck, N.D., called 9-1-1 on New Year's Eve to report herself driving under the influence.

Police Lieutenant Randy Ziegler says he has never heard of such a thing happening before.

The girl told authorities her location shortly before midnight Wednesday and officers found her in a parked car near downtown.

She failed a sobriety test and was arrested for failing to have control of her vehicle while intoxicated.

The girl, whose name wasn't released because of her age, was not cited for drunken driving.

"Her keys were in her purse and she was parked," Ziegler said.

"She did tell us that she had been driving around for hours."

The call probably was a plea for help, he said.

California residents get Alabama telephone calls

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - There used to be a time when people who called Linda Jahraus' home in Laguna Beach, Calif., were actually wanting to speak to her or her husband.

But, for the past several months, the majority of callers have been trying to reach an Alabama unemployment hotline.

The call confusion has added to the frustrations of the state's unemployed and has left at least two California households hoping for a little less ringing in the new year.

Jahraus says that on Boxing Day the family got 50 telephone calls, starting at 5 a.m.

The Alabama Department of Industrial Relations administers unemployment benefits and set up a toll-free number for jobless Alabama residents to apply for benefits.

Call centres in Montgomery or Birmingham are supposed to get the calls, but some have been going to California.

Great American Think-Off explores ethical question

NEW YORK MILLS, Minn. - A tricky question of morality is this year's brainteaser in the annual philosophy competition called the Great American Think-Off.

"Is it ever wrong to do the right thing?" is the theme of the 2009 Think-Off.

The event is organized by Minnesota's New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding the cultural and creative opportunities of rural Americans.

Anyone can enter by submitting an essay of 750 words or less.

Four finalists will be chosen to debate the question on June 13 before a live audience.

New York Mills is a farming town of some 1,200 people in central Minnesota, about 250 kilometres northwest of Minneapolis.

Last year's question was whether immigration strengthens or threatens the United States.

The audience decided Craig Allen, of West Linn, Ore., was most convincing with his argument that the system of immigration and immigration policy is broken, that it encourages illegal immigration and poses a threat to the United States.

Source: The Associated Press