In brief: Ex-MLB player makes diplomatic history
WASHINGTON – A former outfielder for the Chicago White Sox is lined up for the diplomatic field.
Mark Gilbert, who played seven games in July 1985, has become the first major leaguer to be confirmed as a U.S. ambassador. The Senate approved his nomination to New Zealand and Samoa by voice vote Friday.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the agency could not find any other record of a former Major League player having served as an ambassador.
Gilbert hit .273, scored three runs and drove in three, and started alongside future Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Carlton Fisk with the White Sox. Gilbert has worked as a banking executive and was on the Obama for America national finance team.
Greenpeace protesters avoid jail in P&G case
CINCINNATI – Eight Greenpeace activists who staged an eye-catching protest at Procter & Gamble Co. headquarters pleaded guilty Friday to trespassing in an agreement offered at the consumer products maker’s request.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Winkler ordered them each to complete 80 hours of community service on the misdemeanor charge. They are on probation for up to a year and will avoid jail time by completing the service and paying court costs.
P&G has said it’s working with Greenpeace to eliminate deforestation in its palm oil supply chain, the subject of the March 4 protest.
The plea agreement allowed the activists to avoid trial on felony counts of burglary and vandalism that carried potential sentences of nine years in prison. Mark Piepmeier, lead prosecutor on the case, said authorities were told Greenpeace and P&G have been working together “more collaboratively.”
The activists, all from out of state, unfurled large, colorful banners from P&G’s two towers after slipping past company security. They used zip lines and one wore a tiger suit as the protest was filmed for Greenpeace from a helicopter. They all spent a night in jail.
‘Layaway angel’ erases $20,000 in toy bills
BELLINGHAM, Mass. – Shoppers at an eastern Massachusetts toy store are getting an early Christmas present: All their layaway bills totaling $20,000 have been paid off by an anonymous woman dubbed “layaway angel.”
Employees at the Toys R Us in Bellingham, about 40 miles southwest of Boston, told the Milford Daily News that the woman paid off all 150 of the store’s layaway accounts Wednesday.
Workers say the bubbly, older woman gave the store manager a hug and said: “If you have it, give it.” She also told an employee that paying all the bills would help her sleep better at night.