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Driver blames bird, dropped cellphone; Bugatti Veyron is world's priciest car

LA MARQUE, Texas - A man blamed a low-flying pelican and a dropped cell phone for his veering his million-dollar sports car off a road and into a salt marsh near Galveston.

The accident happened about 3 p.m. Wednesday on the frontage road of Interstate 45 northbound in La Marque, about 35 miles southeast of Houston.

The Lufkin, Texas, man told of driving his luxury, French-built Bugatti Veyronwhen the bird distracted him, said La Marque police Lt. Greg Gilchrist.

The motorist dropped his cell phone, reached to pick it up and veered off the road and into the salt marsh. The car was half-submerged in the brine about 20 feet from the road when police arrived.

Gilchrist said he doesn't know if the car was salvageable, but in his words, "Salt water isn't good for anything." He says the man, whose identity hasn't been released, was not injured.

Celebrity driver
The police declined to release the driver's name, although the incident has drawn a great deal of attention on his vehicle.

The Houston Chronicle reported the Texan has become something of a celebrity. He reportedly told the Texas City wrecker driver who towed his car that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggercalled him Wednesday, along with several other celebrities.

“He said he was getting so many calls that he finally stopped answering his phone,” said wrecker driver Gilbert Harrison of MCH Truck and Auto, which is storing the car.

But Harrison said the driver seemed to take his very expensive mistake in stride.

“He was calm,” Harrison told the Chronicle. “If it had been me, I'd have been cussing, but he was calm. I imagine inside he was probably pretty upset.”

The Bugatti Veyron is the fastest and most expensive production car in the world.

Pubs ban UK treasury chief after tax hike

Increase in taxes on a pint of beer draws ban on him in British waterholes

The Associated Press

updated 1:41 p.m. PT, Thurs., March. 27, 2008

EDINBURGH, Scotland - An Internet campaign to ban Britain's treasury chief from the nation's pubs has struck a chord with the country's harried drinkers.

Earlier this month, treasury chief Alistair Darling raised taxes on cars and cigarettes, but it is his new alcohol duties — which raised the price of a pint of beer — that have gotten Britons' backs up.

So when a pub landlord in Darling's home town of Edinburgh barred the chancellor from his establishment, drinking holes across the country followed suit, posting pictures of the white-haired, bespectacled treasurer above the big red word "barred."

Bar manger Andrew Little at the Utopia pub, which kicked off the campaign, told The Associated Press the poster was put up "tongue-in-cheek," but the sentiment snowballed.

"It looks like we've touched a nerve," Little said.

Hundreds have joined Internet groups devoted to running Darling out of every pub in the country, and establishments from the Tap And Spile in the north England town of Lincoln to the Plough Inn in Finstock, near Oxford, said Darling would not allowed to partake of their booze.

Taxes go beyond inflation
The government has raised taxes on alcohol by 6 percent above the rate of inflation — which translates to an extra 4 pence (around 8 U.S. cents) for a pint of beer, 13 pence (around 26 cents) for a bottle of wine and 55 pence (around $1.10) a bottle for spirits such as whisky.

The duties are scheduled to rise by another 2 percent above inflation in each of the next four years.

Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron said the movement to bar Darling showed that Britons were angry at the government's tax hike.

"Everybody knows that taxes have just gone up," Cameron said Wednesday at the prime minister's weekly question session in parliament. "Every time you fill up the car, taxes have gone up; every time you buy a car, taxes have gone up; every time the family goes shopping, and so on. No wonder every pub in Britain is trying to ban the chancellor (Darling) from having a pint."

Joe McCrorry, who manages the Plough Inn, said the increased taxes would do nothing to control binge drinking and suggested they could force the closure of more pubs — institutions he said were "at the very heart of British society."

'The price he has to pay'
The treasury said it was taking the campaign in stride, explaining that Darling wanted to raise money to fight child poverty and help families and the aged.

"If this is the price he has to pay than so be it," a treasury spokesman said Thursday, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

And at least one drinker seemed unfazed by the controversy.

"It is inevitable that the government increases taxes on drink and cigarettes each year," said 52-year-old Neil Wilson, who was nursing a pint of dark beer at an Edinburgh pub. "They tax us for the simple pleasures in life," he said.

Man accused of drunken lawnmower flight

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A man accused of drunken driving reportedly tried to outrun the police, but his vehicle wasn't up to the task.

Michael Ginevan of Bunker Hill was driving a riding lawnmower on Runnymeade Road about a mile from his home when a Berkeley County sheriff's deputy attempted to pull him over. Ginevan, 39, allegedly sped away, and Deputy J.H. Jenkins stopped his cruiser and gave chase on foot, according to magistrate court records.

Jenkins caught up to the lawnmower after a short chase, but Ginevan allegedly wouldn't stop, so the deputy pulled him off the machine. Ginevan refused to take a field sobriety test and was arrested. Jenkins then found a case of beer strapped to the lawnmower's front, court records show.

Ginevan was charged with fleeing while driving under the influence and obstructing an officer. He was being held Tuesday at the Eastern Regional Jail on $7,500 bond.

A person who answered the phone at the jail did not know whether Ginevan had hired an attorney. There was no telephone listing for Ginevan in the Bunker Hill area.