Weird News

Santa on caffeine-kick feelin' extra generous
Barnstable, Mass. --------------------- A generous mystery man has made the holiday season a little brighter for employees of two Massachusetts coffee shops.
                                                             A man wearing a cowboy hat walked into Marylou's in Hyannis and handed the worker behind the counter 15 envelopes, each containing a crisp $100 bill.
                                                             Manager Victoria Grandy tells the Cape Cod Times "Merry Christmas" was printed in red on the front of each envelope.
                                                             One employee said he resembled Santa Claus.
                                                             A man, believed to be the same person, but this time wearing a ball cap, handed over eight envelopes containing $100 bills to the workers at the Dunkin' Donuts at the Cape Cod Mall.

No snow in Alaska?  This blows
Anchorage, Alaska ------------------- A week before Christmas, Alaska's largest city should look like a postcard wonderland, and the last place you'd expect to see equipment making snow.
                                                            A picturesque northern winterscape is hardly the reality there as a spate of weird weather lingers in Anchorage, which is almost 2 feet behind the snowfall totals typical by this time.
                                                            For the most part, it's even been too warm to make snow for local ski haunts because the machines would churn out slush.  However, a slight dip in temperatures allowed the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage to manufacture powder late this week on trails at the city's kincaid Park.  That will have to do until nature provides its own supply.

Embalmed head turns up in woods
Pittsburgh -----------------------------  Police in western Pennsylvania are hoping that a sketch artist's rendering will help them identify the embalmed head of a woman found in the woods last week.
                                                            Economy Borough police Chief Michael O'Brien tells the Associated Press that the drawing isn't completed, but will be released to media outlets once it is.
                                                            The head appears to be that of woman in her late 60s or early 70s, but police have no idea where it's from.
                                                             Police are contacting medical schools to see if the head is from a cadaver, and are entering DNA into an FBI database for missing persons.

Running death trial to continue
Birmingham, Ala. --------------------- A state appeals court refused to dismiss a capital murder charge against an Alabama woman jailed in the running death of her 9-year-old granddaughter, potentially setting the stage for her trial early next year.
                                                            The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a challenge by Joyce Garrard, who is accused of forcing Savannah Hardin to run until she collapsed as punishment for a lie about eating candy.
                                                            Garrard, 49, of Boaz has been held since March 2012, but the court rejected defense claims that two trial delays violated her constitutional right to a speedy trial.
                                                             A;uthorities contend Garrard forced the girl to run for hours outside her home in rural northeast Alabama.  The child collapsed and died later in a hospital.