Odds 'n' ends: Nowthen, I think we have a name

NOWTHEN, Minn. - Residents of Nowthen know it's a funny name, but they're proud to officially become a city.

The community north of the Twin Cities changed its name Monday from Burnsville Township to Nowthen, which was the name the first local post office was given by mistake.

During the 1890s, a community leader created a list of possible names for the post office and wrote, "Nowthen, one of these ought to do."

Historians say the post office came to be known as Nowthen.

Voters took the final step in the process by electing a mayor and four-member City Council.

Alleged Fla. sausage assault brings battery charge

DELAND, Fla. - A man was charged with battery after he hit his mother in the head with a three-pound package of Polish sausage, police said.

Gregory Allen Praeger, 46, was in the kitchen cooking and talking on the phone when officers arrived Saturday night. His mother told police he had been drinking and arguing with her, then picked up the package of sausage and hurled it, grazing her head. She was not badly hurt and did not have to go to the hospital.