News In Brief

TRUE TO THEIR CONVICTIONS

Unfortunately, a group of gold-medal winners at London's world-famous Chelsea Flower Show last week could not be present to accept their prize. Their garden of plants and bushes was built around an abandoned mine shaft to show how nature can heal the ravages of industry on landscapes. But while the men with the green thumbs were free to tend to their project, they weren't free to attend the show. They're prison inmates.

UH-OH, TIME TO RUN FOR IT

A homeowner and his gardener were assaulted in Johannesburg, South Africa, by three armed men, who proceeded inside to search for anything worth stealing. And they were having success when something menacing attracted their attention and caused them to flee in such haste that they left the loot and even their weapons behind. So what was it that they saw? A pair of stuffed leopards. The bad guys probably didn't know it in advance, but their target was the home of a taxidermist.

Parents find little comfort in steadily dropping crime rate

Despite a record eight straight years of falling crime rates, 40 percent of American parents rate crime and violence as a major worry. That's according to a new survey of 650 adults conducted by Charney Research for the National Parenting Association and Offspring magazine. Selected findings from the poll:

69 percent say a school shooting could happen near them.

53 percent blame school violence mostly on "parents' failure to teach and watch their kids."

20 percent blame school violence mostly on violent TV, movies, and computers.

84 percent favor registration and licensing of all guns.

53 percent favor banning handguns.

64 percent believe public officials "do not care about what parents like me think."

51 percent regard raising their children to become regular voters as "very important."

58 percent are swing voters, describing themselves as weak Democrats or weak Republicans.

- PRNewswire

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