Senior residents of a local retirement center are protesting against plans to construct a funeral home right across the street. Saying that the location of the proposed establishment would be a bit too much of a train, many older residents of the center signed a petition, showing the protest of about 100 residents of the Lake City Senior Center.

Beginning January 2, the city of Reeves, Louisiana will no longer carry the mark of the beast. After 40 years of carrying a stigma for having the number 666 as its area code, Reeves starts 2008 with a new code; 749. Mayor Scott Walker made changing the city's area code a personal crusade after he got tired of receiving admonitions from friends and strangers to drop the number linked to the Devil. He made representations with the local phone company CenturyTel and the state Public Service Commission to amend the city's area code.

A house fire that resulted in $50,000 worth of damages was started by the family dog, said firefighters. A woman who was frying fish was reported to have gone to take out the garbage, when the dog shut the door behind her. The fish was still frying in the pan, and eventually resulted in shooting flames and heavy smoke.

A councilman from Ann Arbor raised a proposal at a recent lawmakers' retreat, arguing that the local government should allow its residents to keep live chickens in their homes. Stephen Kunselman noted that citizens must be allowed to house live poultry, as it will provide fresh eggs, which are of far better quality than store-bought ones.

Hundreds of displaced monkeys from a demolished wildlife park have made an Indonesian village their new sanctuary burglarizing homes and demanding food from villagers. An Antara report quote a resident of Mangliawan village in East Java province as telling a local news website that the macaque invasion started three months ago when their sanctuary in the nearby Wendit recreational park was partly cleared to give way to new structures.