KYIV, Ukraine — A chemistry student has been killed by exploding bubble gum that tore off half of his face, police said Thursday.

Vladimir Likhonos, a student at a regional branch of the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute, is thought to have accidentally dipped his chewing gum into explosives he was using for his studies, police spokeswoman Elvira Biganova told The Associated Press.

She said the 25-year-old mistook the powder for citric acid, which he often added to prolong the gum’s taste.

He was working on his home computer Saturday night in the town of Konotop when his mother heard the sound of the explosion, according to authorities.

She turned around to find Vladimir, 25, on the floor bleeding.

Likhonos blew off his entire jaw and most of the lower part of his face in Saturday’s accident.

Medical workers who arrived on the scene attempted to treat his injuries but were unable to save him.

“Even some of our seasoned officers, who have seen a thing or two, even they were pretty badly shaken up by what they found,” Biganova said.

On the table where Likhonos had been working police found about 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of the suspected explosive – a powder that resembles citric acid but has yet to be identified, she said.

“Anybody could have mixed them up,” Biganova said.

A bomb squad was dispatched to determine the nature of the substance, which was deemed too volatile to transport, Biganova said.

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BROOKLYN — Two female teachers from James Madison High School in Brooklyn are being charged with misconduct after allegedly being caught naked together in a classroom.

French teacher Cindy Mauro, 34, and Spanish teacher, Alini Brito, 30, were discovered by a school janitor who caught the “undressed” instructors allegedly sharing a kiss in the empty classroom at James Madison High School during a Nov. 20 assembly.

Officials say the women, both tenured teachers, were immediately removed from the classroom following the incident and sent to Department of Education disciplinary chambers.

Outraged students created a Facebook page to sound off on the incident involving the two popular teachers.

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AP – In this Thursday, March 11, 2010 photo, Norm Labbe, water district superintendent, sits by Branch Brook, …

PORTLAND, Maine – The grim economy is hitting some consumers in the wallet in yet another way: their water bills.

Many water utilities are raising rates because water use is down, in part because manufacturers have closed or are cutting back, tourism has fallen and the real estate market is in the doldrums.

Water sales for the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport & Wells Water District in southern Maine fell 11 percent last year, to 1995 levels. The No. 1 reason is the sour economy, said superintendent Norm Labbe.

One of the utility’s largest customers, a catalog printer, shut its doors last year, putting 374 people out of work. Tourism also has been down — meaning fewer tourists are taking showers and flushing toilets in the motels in the region’s beachside communities.

“This is happening most everywhere. It’s a regional thing, it’s a national thing,” Labbe said. “Many, many (water utilities) around the country are seeing decreases in revenues. Because if industry goes down, revenues go down.”

A recent study by the Water Research Foundation, a Denver-based nonprofit, on the recession’s impact on water utilities found that home foreclosures and business contractions have reduced water demand in many areas. Cities with high unemployment also have seen reduced water consumption as people move away in search of jobs, said Rob Renner, the foundation’s executive director.

“It depends on where you are in the country. Regionally, the economy is better in some places than in others,” he said.

Water companies for the most part get their money from customers. When water consumption goes up, revenues go up — but when consumption falls, so do revenues.

Water companies often raise rates to pay for high-priced capital expenditures, such as new water lines or treatment plant expansions. But they also have to hike rates when water use goes down to bring in enough money to pay their basic operating costs.

Water rates are based on a wide range of factors, such as infrastructure and water treatment costs as well as revenues from water use. When water use falls, that would be a reason to seek a rate increase, Renner said.

Water consumption can be influenced by the weather. In the Northeast, usage declined last summer in part because homeowners watered their lawns less with the rainy weather. The epic drought that gripped the Southeast in recent years also resulted in falling consumption as people were ordered to conserve water.

Nowadays, the bad economy is taking a toll.

Even after cutting costs 10 percent and laying off nine employees, the water utility in Mount Pleasant, S.C., recently raised rates 9 percent after its customer base and water sales tumbled. That amounts to about $50 a year for the average homeowner.

“We attribute our revenue decline to unoccupied homes due to foreclosures, and commercial businesses just going out of business,” said Clay Duffie, Mount Pleasant Waterworks’ general manager. “When you have fewer customers, you have less revenue.”

At the same time, impact fees the utility collects from developers have dried up, from as much as $6 million a few years ago to $500,000 this fiscal year, Duffie said.

Mount Pleasant, outside of Charleston, has been one of the state’s fastest-growing communities in the past 20 years, growing from about 30,000 to 65,000 residents. But development has come nearly to a halt with the down economy.

In New Jersey, the Sayreville water department recently raised rates 13 percent. One big reason was the department’s biggest customer, a steel mill, suspended operations for several months because of lower demand for its products.

As a result, the water department’s revenues fell $350,000 to $400,000, said Jeff Bertrand, the town’s business administrator.

“That was because of the economy,” Bertrand said. “Nobody was buying the rebar because nobody was doing construction.”

And in California, water and sewer rates in tiny Davenport outside of Santa Cruz are going up because the economy has forced a shutdown of the local cement plant, built in 1906. Sewer rates will increase especially fast — up 74 percent to nearly $2,500 a year — because of the plant shutting down, said Rachel Lather of the Santa Cruz County Sanitation District.

When water rates go up, customers’ bills might increase anywhere from a buck or two to $20 or more a month. That doesn’t sound like it’ll break the bank, but collectively the higher rates could amount to tens of millions of dollars.

And when jobs are scarce, every extra dollar hurts.

In the eastern Maine town of Baileyville along the Canadian border, residents faced the prospect of both lost jobs and higher water bills when the local pulp mill announced it was closing.

Baileyville’s water utility proposed raising rates 80 percent after the Domtar Corp. mill, the utility’s largest customer by far, said it would close because of the poor global economy. Domtar accounted for 52 percent of the utility’s total sales, and residents would have seen their minimum quarterly bills go from $55 to nearly $97.

Domtar shut down last May, putting 300 employees out of work, but unexpectedly reopened two months later after business conditions improved. Even so, the Baileyville Utilities District had to raise rates 9 percent.

But the prospect of nearly doubled water rates when residents were losing their jobs was too much for Baileyville, a small town of about 1,500 people where employment largely revolves around the pulp mill.

“You’ve got to charge more when revenues go down,” said water utility manager Gardner Ross. “But people don’t have incomes coming in, so it’s a double-whammy.”

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Someone sent this elementary school production of Scarface. I have no idea what district would allow such explicit material to be portrayed by children, or why they used popcorn instead of cocaine. My guess is some drama teacher got his pink slip and said, “F*ck it, I’m puttin’ on Scarface.” Then before the administrators knew it, Tony Montana was dead face-down in a hot tub and parents were clapping from sheer confusion.

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Digging bullets out of pregnant women? Thats BS!

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Dean spotted that bowdlerization is afoot in the iPad’s bookstore’s selection of classic literature! This includes obvious candidates such as a certain Joseph Conrad classic.

But … sperm?

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“I could see that this was not getting any results so I pulled out the cartridge and went for a drive stun to Osborn’s left thigh. This did have some affect and she screamed a little bit and went down on her buttocks, in the shrub area, next to the store at which time the Taser slipped off her thigh… Before Osborn could get up I was able to apply a second drive stun to her right thigh. This again kept her down and she began to scream. I advised her to roll over and place her hands behind her back, which she did and the Taser came off her leg losing contact again. Now Osborn was still screaming without the Taser being on her, and would still not put her hands behind her back. I again applied the drive stun to the back of her left thigh. Osborn finally complied, put her hands behind her back at which time I was able to get the handcuffs on her and take her into custody.”

(Thats BS!!!)

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“When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out.” Bibi Aisha, 19, of Afghanistan, who was punished by the Taliban for “shaming” her in-laws when she ran away to escape torturous domestic abuse. Her father sold her to her abusive husband when she was 10.

Atia Awabi, a CNN International correspondent based in Kabul, says “If you are moved by [this] story you can help by donating to womenforafghanwomen.org.” CNN interviewed this young woman in January, and ABC News followed recently.

Women for Afghan Women has posted an update on her story here (some people may find the full image of her brutally disfigured face disturbing).

Her husband “kept her in the stable with the animals until she was 12 (when she got her first menstrual period).”

Aisha has been recovering these past months from the unimaginable trauma she has suffered. She has brought criminal charges against her father for giving her away in the illegal practice of “baad.” She would like to also bring charges against her husband, but since he is a Talib in Uruzgan, he is unreachable. Aisha has decided after weighing all the options before her that she would like to come to the United States for her surgery and post-operative care. Just as important as her surgery, will be the support system we organize for her recuperation. We are currently engaged in setting up that support system for Aisha.

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