RUSSIA: It was a Pussy Riot! The Russian Supreme Court ordered a review of the case of two women from the band Pussy Riot, holding that the lower courts had failed to provide full evidence of their guilt and had overlooked mitigating factors in sentencing them to two years in prison. The ruling may have meant shorter sentences for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. Subsequently, during Christmas week 2013, Vladimir Putin granted them clemency, commuted their sentences and had them released from prison.
OKLAHOMA: Their worshipers are called “Pastafarians.” After the state authorized construction of a privately funded Ten Commandments statue at the Oklahoma Capitol, officials were flooded with requests for new displays, including one from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. However, the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission has banned handling requests until a court dispute over the commandments monument is settled.
FLORIDA: No good deed goes unpunished! A group of church people were kicked out of a Lake Worth park for trying to help the homeless on Thanksgiving
Day, 2013. The church folks had started giving away turkey and stuffing when police ordered them to stop the handouts. The church people were very surprised and, one of the, said “We were there to feed people that just don’t get a nice warm meal like the rest of us.”
CANADA: Police say they believe the charges will stick. They have arrested three “saps” for stealing so much maple syrup from a Quebec warehouse in the summer of 2013, that it led to a worldwide shortage of maple syrup.
