Odds and Ends

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - The folks who play bingo at the Klamath Basin Senior Citizen Center are no longer outlaws.

Five months ago, the Department of Justice contacted officials at the senior center after getting a complaint that bingo games were being played for cash.

Nickels, to be exact.

The senior center has a gambling license for the higher-stakes bingo program. But the Golden Age Club, which has about 200 members, is separate from the senior center and has never had a gaming license for its nickel-bingo operation.

The Klamath County Board of Commissioners last week amended the county's social gaming ordinance to include bingo, to the relief of the seniors who learned they've been playing an illegal game for the last two decades.

"Have fun with your bingo without the bureaucracy," Commissioner Bill Brown told an audience of about 20 seniors who came to support changing the rule.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - Some University of Michigan students are cleaning up - in more ways than one.

They're getting cash payments for keeping their dormitory rooms presentable and available for tours by prospective students and their parents.

Eighteen students in nine residence halls are participating in the Michigan Campus Day tour program, according to Randi Johnson, the university's housing outreach coordinator.

The rules for Campus Day participants technically don't require a clean room. Participants do, however, have to be dressed and out of bed if they are home, and must let tour groups see their room from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. Displays of anything illegal, offensive or banned - like hot plates - are forbidden.

Sophomores Aaron Bennick and Eric Romain are receiving $100 each this semester to participate.

Their room impressed Clark Iverson, 44, of Royal Oak, who was on the Friday tour with his 18-year-old son, Geoffrey, a high school senior who has been admitted to Michigan.

"It's cleaner than a 15-year-old's room," Clark Iverson said.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The monarch butterfly, Alabama's official state insect since 1989, could be dethroned.

A bill, sponsored by Rep. Sue Schmitz, would end the monarch butterfly's reign as a symbol of Alabama and substitute the queen honey bee as the official state insect.

Schmitz said a beekeeper in her Madison County district suggested the change. She said it would bring attention to the bee industry in Alabama and the help that bees provide in pollinating plants in the agricultural state.

So what about the monarch butterfly?

"It doesn't bring any money in," she said.

Her bill was approved last week by the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee and is awaiting action by the House. If approved by the House, it would have to be passed by the Senate and signed by the governor.

If the queen honey bee becomes the official state insect, it would join a long list of official state plants and animals. For instance, the largemouth bass is the official freshwater fish, the blackberry is the state fruit, and the pecan is the state nut.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The fur has been flying at John Eaton Elementary School ever since parents discovered that a cat spay and neutering clinic was held there without their knowledge.

The cafeteria and some classrooms and hallways at the school were turned into feline operating rooms where about 500 cats were fixed. Organizers said most were strays.

After hearing concerns about student health, the school system canceled classes and scheduled a meeting for parents to "determine our course of action," principal Willie McElroy said in a statement.

Parents said McElroy never told them about the weekend event.

"Why didn't he go and do some research in how many kids in this school have asthma and allergies?" demanded Dianna Waters, one of several angry parents.

Crews spent two days thoroughly cleaning the cafeteria where the cat surgeries took place on Saturday and Sunday. The city's top health official didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

"These aren't diseased cats that are here, and I don't see any public health threat whatsoever," said Dr. Gregg A. Pane, D.C. Health Director.