Colorado justices face a large decision

For information on submitting an obituary, please contact Reading Eagle by phone at 610-371-5018, or email at or fax at 610-371-5193.

Most obituaries published in the Reading Eagle are submitted through funeral homes and cremation services, but we will accept submissions from families. Obituaries can be emailed to .

In addition to the text of the obituary, any photographs that you wish to include can be attached to this email. Please put the text of the obituary in a Word document, a Google document or in the body of the email. The Reading Eagle also requires a way to verify the death, so please include either the phone number of the funeral home or cremation service that is in charge of the deceased's care or a photo of his/her death certificate. We also request that your full name, phone number and address are all included in this email.

All payments by families must be made with a credit card. We will send a proof of the completed obituary before we require payment. The obituary cannot run, however, until we receive payment in full.

Obituaries can be submitted for any future date, but they must be received no later than 3:00 p.m. the day prior to its running for it to be published.

Please call the obituary desk, at 610-371-5018, for information on pricing.

The Colorado Supreme Court in Boulder was the setting on Oct. 24 for a showdown between justices and five elephants, the Associated Press reported. The elephants — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo — live at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. But the NonHuman Rights Project believes the pachyderms should be able to dispute their detention there because they were born in the wild in Africa and are now showing signs of brain damage, such as rocking, which signals distress. The organization wants them to be moved to an accredited elephant sanctuary.

The justices were moved by the story but skeptical: "How do I know when it stops?" asked Justice Melissa Hart, who was worried about pet emancipation.

The zoo's attorney wasn't having it: "This court, no court is the proper venue for what they're trying to accomplish," he said.

The continuing crisis

There's a metaphor for our times in here somewhere ... In the wee hours of Oct. 21, 39-year-old Adam Sotzen showed up at his mother's house in North Liberty, Iowa, The Smoking Gun reported. Sotzen, whose rap sheet is lengthy, was allegedly intoxicated and yelled at his mother while destroying property inside the house, police said, then shoved her to the ground. She was able to move to a recliner chair, where Sotzen approached her with a 3-by-5-foot American flag that he had stolen from a nearby home. Twisting the flag into a rope, Sotzen began choking her while threatening to kill her; she fell to the floor, and Sotzen continued strangling her until her boyfriend tried to intervene. The mother said her 6-foot-3, 230-pound son was "capable of killing her" and used a lot of force while strangling her. Sotzen was charged with assault with intent to inflict serious injury and harassment and held on $30,000.

Spooky!

When Joshua Dairen and his wife, Keema Miller, bought a coffee shop in Opelika, Ala., in early 2023, they might not have expected to experience paranormal phenomena — but the soldier ghost who frequents the place didn't know that. Metro News reported that Dairen hears "rustling" noises from the back office when he's in the shop alone, and on Sept. 24, the barista saw a "soldier" walking toward them before disappearing. Dairen believes the shop is haunted by someone who died in the Civil War.

"I have seen unexplained boot prints on the floor," he said. "Nobody in our shop has ever worn combat boots."

Dairen looked back into the town's history and found that many soldiers lost their lives in a raid on Confederate supply depots there.

"Luckily, nothing has presented itself as threatening toward us," Dairen said.

Latest religious message

Attendees of the Lucca Comics and Games conference in Italy this week are getting a first look at the new mascot for the Vatican's 2025 jubilee, the Catholic News Agency reported. The church declares a jubilee, or a year of grace and pilgrimage, every 10 to 50 years. This year's new addition is Luce, a cartoon figure a la Olympics mascots, who the church hopes will help engage with "the pop culture so beloved by our young people."

Luce (which means "light" in Italian) and her "pilgrim friends" are promoting "the theme of hope, which is more central than ever to the evangelical message," said Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to