Odds and Ends

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - It was a simple case of mistaken identity, and it nearly cost a casino $25,000.

New Jersey casino regulators, who had fined the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa for letting a banned gambler stay overnight, rescinded the penalty Wednesday, admitting that it was the son of reputed mobster Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, not Casso himself, who checked in and played table games at the casino one night in 2003.

It couldn't have been Casso, regulators learned after imposing the fine two months ago: He's doing life in a federal prison.

"We all make mistakes," said Casino Control Commission member Michael Fedorko.

The incident stemmed from Casso's status on the commission's "exclusion list," a blacklist of 171 people deemed to be bad influences on Atlantic City casinos and banned from entering them.

Casso, 64, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was a suspected street boss in the Lucchese family organization who was added to the list in 1990. He was captured in 1993 and pleaded guilty to murder and racketeering charges in 1994 after turning government witness. He is serving a life sentence at the Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colo.

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WEST COVINA, Calif. (AP) - As Paul Moghadan puts it, a good toilette is good for the bottom line.

A chandelier, silver columns and a marble counter adorn the bathroom at his Chevron gas station in West Covina, some 20 miles east of Los Angeles. The walls are decorated in rich earth tones and blue stone tiles, giving the 10-foot-wide room a slight Tuscan ambiance - or maybe a touch of Vegas.

"I wanted to give the restroom the greatest look I could. I wanted to show how much I respect my customers," said Moghadan, 55. "I started with Chevron in 1966, and they trained us back then that the No. 1 priority was the station bathroom."

Moghadan started remodeling the indoor, unisex bathroom 13 years ago, spending $5,000 more than he would have for a standard bathroom. He asked his brother, an architectural designer, to concoct something motorists wouldn't forget.

"It's the best restroom I've ever seen," said Jose Montes of West Covina. "You feel like you're rich when you're in there."

In the last dozen years, Moghadan said he has an average of 20 compliments a day about the bathroom.

"I have customers from Palm Springs and Las Vegas who make a point of stopping here," he said. "Some even bring in relatives to show them the bathroom."

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WILSONVILLE, Ore. (AP) - Sally Miller might have been grateful if her 8-year-old son had come home from school with a nice-looking haircut.

But when he showed up with "next to nothing" on his head, Miller threatened to sue.

The West Linn-Wilsonville School District recently agreed to pay Miller $10,000 because a school employee cut the boy's hair without permission.

The case was settled last month, but its documents were not released until The Oregonian newspaper filed a public records request.

"First I was shocked," Miller told the newspaper. "Then I was embarrassed that I didn't have the money to get him a haircut. And then I was mad... I thought, 'What nerve. How invasive.'"

The single mother said she tried to keep her son's hair looking neat.

"There was one stinking day, and I'm not lying, that I didn't brush his hair," Miller said.

Superintendent Roger Woehl said Wednesday the employee was wrong to play barber. "If someone needs a haircut, we'd be more than happy to go into our wallets to give them 20 bucks," he said.

The school district's insurance company paid the $10,000 settlement but admits no liability, said Peter Merserau, an attorney for the school district.

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Prosecutors summoned parents of repeatedly truant children to attend a meeting about the law concerning excessive absences. About 40 percent of the adults didn't show up.

Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols mailed letters about the Tuesday evening meeting to 582 parents, but 241 were absent.

State law allows prosecutors to hold parents accountable for their children's school absences. Knox County in February arrested 19 parents whose children had 10 or more unexcited absences from school. Parents found guilty can be punished by a year in jail.

"We have only just begun," Nichols said. "We mean this. I don't know how else to say it. You're going to send your child to school."

Cecelia Donaldson, who received a letter about her 5-year-old grandson's absences, went to the school where the meeting was held but refused to enter the auditorium.

She said her grandson has asthma and other medical problems.

"I don't want to hear what Randy Nichols has to say," she said. "He needs to call my house when (my grandson is) up at 3 in the morning throwing up everything he ate."