In an attempt to help overweight officers get back in shape, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has hired a full-time diet coach to chalk out special diet plans for them. Rana Parker, who joined the force in July, was working as a diet coach at Head Start, the federal aid program for children. Now she will target recruits and help instill in them good eating habits and finding time for balanced meals.

For two Las Vegas brokers, discounts are not enough to close deals. They give prospective buyers free tours of properties aboard their "foreclosure bus. "The 40-seater luxury coach of Ruth and John Ahlbrand, owner and manager of RE/MAX Central, takes clients to bank-owned foreclosed properties and builder-discounted new homes in the Las Vegas area.

Florida football coach Urban Meyer went out searching for the fastest student on campus and if one of those finalists can beat one of his Gators in the 40-yard dash on Saturday then a full scholarship is waiting. Approximately 225 students took Meyer up on the offer. The numbers have been whittled down to the fastest 15 finalists.

Basketball coach Ron Hunter of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) went barefoot during a game and he did not expect the overwhelming support he obtained for an advocacy that intends to give pairs of shoes to thousands of African children. "When we started this I thought 40,000 was going to be tough," Hunter told the Indianapolis Star. "When they told me before the game we already had 100,000, honestly, I almost broke down in tears. "

Travelers using long-distance buses are being warned to take extra caution after Swedish police said cases of thieves using midgets in robbing long-distance coaches is on the rise. Police said the thieves are able to steal from the unsuspecting bus passengers by sneaking the dwarves into the luggage holds in sports bags and once they are inside, the midgets out from the bags and sift through the luggage of the train passengers.