etc.

OH, THAT'S OFFAL

Police in St. Louis were so certain they'd cornered a sadistic serial killer that they called in the medical examiner to inspect the scene. But, boy, did they all end up looking foolish. As we pick up the story, the cops were tipped off to a bloody corpse in a dumpster behind Eric Stanze's house. What's more, inside the dwelling were more body parts, some of them mutilated. So, was Stanze arrested? No. Apologized to, is more likely. It turns out that the 20-something is an independent maker of horror videos, and the gruesome evidence was all papier-maché props used in his work.

Perhaps the thieves who have been swiping gnome figurines from lawns in the US and Europe have stepped up in class. In Beloit, Wis., someone stole a statue from outside the city's famous Angel Museum. And it couldn't have been an easy task. The 100-pound concrete item - an angel, naturally - had been glued in place to prevent pranks.

For the fifth straight year, Florida was picked as the top state in which Americans ideally would like to live, according to a Harris Interactive survey. Pollsters asked more than 1,000 people nationwide where they'd choose to be if they could call any state home but the one in which they currently reside. Also popular: California and Hawaii. Warm weather was a key factor in many choices, with New York and Colorado the only two states in the top 10 that have cold winters. States where people said they'd most like to live (apart from their own) according to Harris Interactive:

1. Florida

2. California

3. Hawaii

4. Colorado

5. Washington

6. Arizona

7. North Carolina

8. New York

9. Oregon

10. Tennessee

- PR Newswire