Nebraska on Friday threw out thousands of votes — online votes for its new license plate — after discovering that a minimalist approach initially won only because a humor website had urged people to choose the most boring design.
Department of Motor Vehicles director Beverly Neth announced Friday that a white, gold and black plate featuring the state bird and state flower — the Western Meadowlark and goldenrod — is the actual winner of online voting. The new plates go into use in 2011.
The winner announced Tuesday had been a black- and-white plate with the URL of Nebraska’s website in red. But those results were skewed by the prank instigated by .
Lincoln pitcher for only the well-heeled
$400,000High end of bids expected June 6 when a silver and gold Tiffany pitcher from Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration goes up for auction
’90s teacher now trading on notoriety
A teacher who became notorious in the 1990s for having an affair with a sixth-grader is hosting a “Hot for Teacher” night at a Seattle bar — along with the former student, now her husband.
Bar owner Mike Morris says Mary Kay Letourneau has served her sentence and it’s OK for the couple to have some fun.
The 47-year-old Letourneau served seven years in prison after pleading guilty in 1997 to raping Vili Fualaau, now 26. They met when Fualaau was in second grade and began their affair when he was 12 and she was a 34-year-old married mother of four. They were married in 2005 and have two daughters together.
Morris says tonight’s event will be their third “Hot for Teacher” night. She greets people, and he DJs.
New Zealand tot digs online auction
A New Zealand mom made some online bids on toys before napping. Then her 3-year-old daughter took over and bought a bigger plaything than expected — a huge earth-moving digger for a cool $12,300.
Pipi Quinlan made the winning 20,000 New Zealand dollar ($12,300) bid on the Kobelco digger with a few mouse clicks.
“The first I knew about it was when I came down and opened up the computer,” said Pipi’s mother, Sarah Quinlan.
The auction site reimbursed the seller’s costs, and the digger was relisted.
