Cry him a river: Justin Timberlake won’t be honored by his home state of Tennessee any time soon. A resolution honoring the pop singer couldn’t get past Step 1 in the state Senate because Republican lawmakers say Timberlake’s racy ways aren’t in sync with their values, the Nashville bureau of The Associated Press reports. The one-time Mouseketeer introduced the world to the term “wardrobe malfunction” after the 2004 Super Bowl and has vowed to “bring sexy back” in a recent chart-topper.
The cocksure words of a former Maryland state senator, who now faces federal racketeering charges, are coming back to haunt him, the Baltimore Sun reports. In recorded conversations with an undercover FBI agent, Thomas L. Bromwell Sr. proclaimed himself a “rainmaker” and boasted he was a “whore in Maryland, in the Senate side” for a top horseracing executive.
Ninety-nine red balloons in the summer sky could soon lead to sky-high fines in New Hampshire, according to The (Manchester) Union Leader . The state House voted 215-111 to treat balloon launches as littering offenses, punishable with a $250 fine for a first offense. A sponsor said the measure was needed to protect wildlife. A balloon “doesn’t just go to heaven and disappear. It comes back down again,” he said.
When Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) wants to bag new business in his state, he packs a shotgun. Every year, the governor invites 100 corporate executives to accompany him on a turkey hunt, The Birmingham News writes. Officials there say it’s an effective way of recruiting more business to the state. “It allows people to see Alabama in a way they would never see in a boardroom,” Riley said.
Wyoming’s bucking mad at a Minnesota high school for using its trademark cowboy-and-kicking-bronco logo without permission, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The Cowboy State demanded that the high school in Breckenridge, a town of 4,000 near North Dakota, stop using its cowboy logo because of the similarities. The school started using its logo in 1972 and based it on a student drawing. Wyoming officials say they’re trying to protect their design’s federal trademark, which was issued in 1996.
The driver of a dark-red Mercedes in Utah can no longer sport a license plate bearing the word “merlot,” the Salt Lake Tribune writes. State regulators finally caught up with Glenn Eurick, who had the tags for 10 years. The regulators said the text violates a ban on license-plate lingo that promotes intoxicating beverages. Eurick said he chose the word because it described the color of his car, but, yes, he admits to enjoying the wine, too.
A new campaign urges University of Wisconsin students to “vote naked” by using absentee ballots, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. This April’s elections, which include contests for Madison’s mayor and the state Supreme Court, occur while UW students are on spring break. The senior who organized the head-turning effort said his fellow students often ignore get-out-the-vote efforts. “By making it a little sexy, maybe people will be shaken out of their apathy,” he said.
Looking forward: The race to the front of the presidential primary pack could become even more heated as the Florida Senate decides whether to move its 2008 contest to Jan. 29 – a week before the new Super Tuesday kick-off, writes the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel … The April 1 deadline for New York lawmakers to craft a budget is fast approaching, but top lawmakers can’t even agree to sit down to negotiate, the Albany Times Union reports.
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