• Police identified Cody Wilkins, 25, as their suspect in a house burglary in Silver Spring, Md., because he left his cell phone at the scene, charging in an electrical outlet. Police learned that Wilkins, who lives nearby, had lost power during a snowstorm, prompting him to charge his phone while looting the house. He had to flee abruptly, however, when the homeowner interrupted him. (The Washington Post)

Rogue Cocks
Jose Luis Ochoa, 35, died shortly after being stabbed in the leg by a razor-sharp blade attached to the leg of a rooster that attacked him at a cockfight in Lamont, Calif. Noting roosters are drugged, mutilated and have knives and razor blades attached to their legs to make them better fighters, Kern County Public Health Director Matt Constantine said that for rescued birds, rehabilitation is “a real challenge.” (The Bakersfield Californian)

• A fighting rooster with razor blades attached to its legs slashed its owner’s throat in India after owner Singrai Soren tried to force it back into the ring too soon. Roosters are usually given at least an hour’s break between fights, “but Soren wanted the rooster to go to the ring within a few minutes of its first fight,” said a witness, identified as Dasai. “The rooster tried to get away from the ring several times, but Soren pushed it into the ring repeatedly. This upset it, and it attacked Soren.” (Britain’s Daily Mail)

Overseas Homeland Insecurity
U.S. service members and their families stationed at Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa are accepting money from local companies to bring tourists onto the base, despite warnings that this activity is against the rules and poses a security threat. Companies such as American Pro and Friends Abroad International Cultural Exchange sell trips that offer American cultural experiences to students on mainland Japan, Kadena military officials said. The companies recruit mostly military spouses to host the visiting students for a day and sponsor tours of military facilities. “When sponsors sign somebody onto the installation without knowing their intentions or motivations, it puts the whole of Kadena at risk,” Air Force official Ed Gulick said. (Stars and Stripes)

Snow Daze
Police investigating a disturbance at a housing project in Norwalk, Conn., reported that Clara Nelson, 53, and her daughter, Cristalle Nelson, 31, had just finished digging out their car, when Sheryl Rogers, 35, and her 16-year-old son, began shoveling and tossing snow where the Nelsons already cleared. As the two families argued, Cristalle Nelson hit Rogers over the head with her shovel. Rogers’s son tried to hit Cristalle but missed and struck Clara Nelson instead. Police charged Cristalle Nelson and the son with assault. (Stamford Advocate)

• Authorities accused Leo J. Powers, 23, of making bombs at his former residence in Abington, Mass., and using them to clear snow so he wouldn’t have to shovel. Noting that Powers had been blowing up snow banks for some time, Police Chief David Majenski said investigators who searched the home discovered a container filled with “military-grade ammunition and other stuff, including powders of some sort.” (Quincy’s The Patriot Ledger)

• Veteran alpine skier Roland Fleck, 78, was arrested for skiing uphill at Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. After informing Fleck that skiing uphill was against Wyoming law and repeatedly ordering him to “ski properly,” seven ski patrollers and two deputies spent 3.5 hours trying to stop Fleck before finally handcuffing him and tobogganing him off the slopes. (The Jackson Hole News & Guide)

Odd Ending
Alexander Lawrence Jay, 40, committed suicide while alone in his cell at Oregon’s Washington County Jail, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Vance Stimler, by using a jail-issued pencil to stab himself in the arm and hit an artery. (Portland’s The Oregonian)

Compiled from the press reports by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.