On a hot summer the ice cream vendor is the modern Pied Piper of Hamelin and various states are not about to let sex offenders use the trade as their way to lure children. Several states are now working on bans against allowing sex offenders. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in California, as one example, is planning to draft an ordinance that would prohibit convicted sex predators from driving ice cream trucks after one was found last summer in Perris.

Several states are planning to kill two bird with one stone by releasing inmates ahead of schedule to cut costs and decongest jails. Leading the pack is California, which wants to set free 22,000 prisoners by 20 months ahead in an effort to reduce by $1. 1 billion over the next two years the state's penitentiary system budget and to ease the overcrowding in the U. S. most populated jail. The early liberty would apply only to inmates who are in for nonviolent and nonsexual crimes.

hat could be one of the world's oldest trees may have been found in the northern Swedish province of Dalecarlia. According to scientists, who sent samples of the tree to a laboratory in Miami, Florida, the Norwegian spruce dates back to nearly 8,000 years. It grows at a height of 950 meters above sea level, is more than two meters (6. 5 feet) tall and about 20 centimeters (8 inches) in width.

Local authorities reported that a bank in the town's shopping center was held up Thursday by an old man in a wheelchair. Reports say that the suspect was an elderly white male, between 65 and 70 years old, has grey hair and was sporting a beard. He was immobilized, police said, as he was seen with bandaged legs, with one in a cast.

Could a mid-twentieth century plaything be the cure for a modern epidemic of obesity among the young? Researchers are testing pogosticks as the newest exercise tool. Physical therapy researchers at Dalhousie University are using an updated version of the pogostick with middle school-age students. Already popular in the U. S. researcher Nichelle Hubley is testing a pogo stick workout among 11 10 to 13-year-olds. The kids take part in the six-week study assisted by Flybar, a Calif. -based pogo stick maker.