Death row inmate receives Sacrament of Confirmation

One of Oregon's most infamous prisoners Tuesday received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Archbishop Alexander Sample in a heavily-guarded private ceremony in the maximum security prison here.

Gary Haugen was convicted in November, 2011 of murdering a fellow inmate while serving a life sentence for the murder of his former girlfriend's mother. Haugen has gained notoriety for dropping his appeals and asking to be executed. A second death row prisoner, Jason Van Brumwell, who was an accomplice with Haugen in the prison killing, wants to die too, arguing that pursuing appeals is pointless.

Haugen was sentenced to die for his second murder on December, 2011, but his execution was put on hold by Gov. John Kitzhaber, despite Haugen's pleas to end his life.

The Democratic governor has halted all executions for the duration of his time in office.

Accused Father And Son Urinal Thieves Flushed Out By Cops

After a rash of urinal thefts in Birmingham, Alabama, things finally came to a head.

Investigators said the culprits were a father-son team who stole flush valves and supply lines from fast-food restaurants.

The alleged toilet thieves are suspected in more than a half-dozen theft throughout Birmingham and Jefferson County in recent days.

The suspected commode crooks have not been publicly named, but Birmingham police took the them into custody on Thursday.

Woman Threatens To 'Shoot Everyone' Over Stale Cinnabon

She's got a Cinna-bone to pick with Burger King.

A South Carolina woman was arrested in a Charleston Burger King on Tuesday after police say she threatened to "shoot down the place" because she was served a stale Cinnabon roll, according to documents obtained by The Smoking Gun.

Andrea Ann McCullough, 33, began arguing with employees at around 7 p.m., after she ordered a Cinnabon roll, then allegedly started yelling that what she got wasn't too fresh, the Charleston Post-Courier reports.

A witness told WYFF4 that the employee shouted back to McCullough that there was only one cinnamon roll left, and the argument escalated until McCullough announced she was going to "shoot everyone."

Florida teen + Gun = Squirrel tissue in buttock

You may be relieved to hear that until now "gross contamination of an open wound with squirrel flesh [was] an unreported event," as Porter W. Maerz, MD, of the University of Florida, and colleagues write in a recent case study appearing in Case Reports in Emergency Medicine.

But no more, thanks to a Florida teenager.

When EMTs arrived on the scene of the boy's injury, they reported visible "squirrel parts" in the margin of a buckshot wound. Such wounds are not unusual, but how did the squirrel get in there?

Turns out that that the young man was attempting to dislodge a dead squirrel from an overhead branch with the butt of a loaded 12-gauge shotgun.

Blind player makes college football team

Aaron Golub is living proof that you don't need sight to have vision.

The 17-year-old Newton, Mass., high schooler has been blind since birth, unable to see out of his right eye and has only a small amount of vision in his left. Despite this, Golub just achieved a lifelong dream: He has been offered a preferred walk-on spot to play football at Tulane University, a Division 1 program.

As you'd expect, the journey hasn't always been an easy one for Golub, who has become an ace long snapper, a position which requires a high degree of speed and accuracy. In the last several years, his private coach, Chris Rubio, says he's come a long way, thanks to countless hours of hard work.

Homeless student to graduate as valedictorian

Griffin Furlong overcame a lot of obstacles to become the valedictorian at a Jacksonville, Florida, high school. As he studied for finals and AP tests, he found himself homeless - again.

"At some point I wanted to quit. It was horrible. A kid should not have to go through that," Furlong said. He spent two years in a homeless shelter in Louisville, Kentucky, before his family moved to Jacksonville. Furlong said his father and brother often had to rely on family for help. His mother died of leukemia when he was just 6 years old.

While studying for high school finals and AP tests, he was once again without a home. Furlong, 18, stayed with his aunt and uncle and his girlfriend's family. Despite all this, he will graduate with a 4.65 GPA on June 4 as valedictorian of his class.

"Positive mindset. I try to accomplish everything I need to do. I know that I have everything to lose. So I just push myself. School is all I have, family is all I have. I am doing it all for me and what I have been through. I am doing it for my mom," Furlong said.

Man steals bread truck, makes deliveries in his underwear

A man stole a New York City bread truck and began delivering loaves of savory baked goods to random businesses, the bakery's owner said Thursday.

David Bastar hopped into the Grimaldi's Home of Bread truck on Manhattan's Upper East Side early Monday while the real driver was making a delivery at a pizzeria, according to police.

Reportedly wearing only his underwear, Bastar then allegedly began dropping off baguettes, whole-wheat rolls and sourdough bread — but not to the bakery's customers, said Joe Grimaldi, the owner of the baker in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens.

"The bread was left somewhere. Where I don't know," he said. "He dropped a lot of bread."

Brazilian Catholic bishop backs legal gay unions

One of Brazil's top Catholic bishops has spoken out in favor of legal unions for homosexual couples, an apparent shift in the Church's stance on the country's existing gay-marriage policy.

"There needs to be a dialog on the rights attached to shared life between people of the same sex who decide to live together. They need legal support from society," Leonardo Steiner, the secretary general of the National Confederation of Brazilian Bishops, said in an interview with O Globo newspaper published on its website Thursday.

...

"The Church isn't the same through the ages. It seeks answers for the present time, using the Gospel as the illuminating force of its action," the bishop said.

"The Church is always seeking to read the signs of the times, to see what must or must not change. The truths of faith don't change."

Okay children, what sounds did we hear on the farm?

Picture of Ellen DeGeneres on invites forces Catholic school principal to apologize, because lesbian

A principal at a Pennsylvania Catholic school has apologized to parents after an invitation to an Oscars-themed graduation dance featured a photo of Ellen DeGeneres.

Nancy Matteo, the principal at St. Andrew Elementary School, is demanding students return the invitations in order for them to be destroyed, Philly.com reports.

Matteo said in an email to parents that it was “completely wrong” to use DeGeneres’ image because the lesbian entertainer “lives her life outside the teachings of the Catholic Church.” She did not mention DeGeneres’ sexual orientation.

The principal for the Newtown, Penn., school added that she was “obviously NOT thinking” when she used the photo for the June 8 dance invitation.