DES MOINES, Iowa – Sarah Pratt is a wiz with butter. Just ask her next subject, Harry Potter.

The character will get his likeness carved in the stuff and be placed in a refrigerated glass case next month at the Iowa State Fair, next to the traditional butter cow.

“The marketing department at the fair and I were looking for something that would be a timely pop-culture thing to do, and with the new movie and new book coming out, it seemed appropriate,” said Pratt, 30, a special education teacher.

She expects her dairy Potter to look more like the character depicted on the book covers than Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the boy wizard in the movies.

Visitors can expect to see Harry’s trademark glasses and scar, but Pratt said she is still deciding on a pose. The butter cow is a state fair tradition, and it’s typically accompanied by a more topical, pop-culture-themed sculpture. Last year, Pratt crafted a butter Superman, when Iowan Brandon Routh starred in the newest version of the film.

The fifth installment in the “Harry Potter” film series, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” opened last week.

This year’s Iowa State Fair runs from Aug. 9-19

Indiana waitress gets $10,000 tip for college from family of regulars

ANGOLA, Ind. – The personal touch earned a waitress a $10,000 tip.

Jessica Osborne, 20, received the gift from a family of regulars at the Pizza Hut where she works in this Indiana town.

The family – a mother and two sons – stopped in recently for their usual: two Mountain Dews, a cup of hot water for tea and a large Meat Lover’s Stuffed Crust pizza. They requested Osborne as usual and chatted about their lives.

“They make your day better when they come in,” Osborne said.

She said she told them how she had started college twice but had to drop out because she didn’t have enough money. She asked them to say goodbye before moving out of town. They returned last week and handed Osborne a check, folded in half, with money from an education fund they had set up after a death in the family.

“I didn’t want to look at it because I thought I was going to cry,” Osborne said. She did just that when she looked inside.

Osborne said she is now considering her options for where to study photography and journalism. “I haven’t had time to figure it out,” she said.

Woman sings praises of rock that looks like an image of Elvis Presley

ESTES PARK, Colo.- You can’t think about rock without thinking of Elvis. Not this rock, anyway.

Rock collector LaDell Alexander, 60, has found a stone she swears has the face of Elvis Presley on it. You don’t have to think Elvis is everywhere to see it: A pattern on the rock resembles a human head with dark hair and the king of rock’s trademark muttonchop sideburns.

Alexander, who splits her time between Estes Park and Texas, said the rock was one of many she bought in various places last summer. She didn’t notice the pattern until she took the rocks to Texas and cleaned them before using them to decorate her yard.

“I was about 20 feet away and the first thing I said was, ‘That is Elvis,'” said her husband, Lynn Alexander, 63.

The Alexanders plan to sell the rock on eBay in August and donate the proceeds to one of Presley’s foundations. The singer died on Aug. 17, 1977.

“People are calling me the Elvis Rock Lady,” LaDell Alexander told The (Fort Collins) Coloradoan. “Seven out of 10 people see Elvis” on the rock, she said.

Nashville night court to broadcast proceedings on Internet

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It’s JailTV!

Nashville’s night court, a place to see some of the city’s most famous characters at their worst, is expected to go online.

Davidson County officials are planning an Internet site that will show live video of proceedings in night court as defendants are booked into the city jail. Faces of undercover police officers will not be broadcast, and defendants whose identities need to be protected for lineups will have their faces covered.

Night court commissioners are responsible for reviewing criminal charges and setting bond amounts within hours of a suspect’s arrest.

For years, night court drew gawkers interested in curious cases and the chance to see someone famous. Entertainer Kid Rock, former Titans quarterback Steve McNair and Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones have made appearances in recent years.

“Frankly, we are proud of what we do, and we want the public to know what we do,” said Deputy Police Chief Steve Anderson.

Not everyone is excited about the prospect of tuning in, however. Davidson County Public Defender Ross Alderman said he worries the public broadcasts will affect potential jurors. He also worries that falsely accused defendants will have their names smeared.

“I don’t think they’ll like it. Would you?” Alderman said.

China further revises plans for students to waltz following parents’ puppy love concerns

SHANGHAI, China – Chinese educators are toning down plans to teach students to waltz after parents said they worried about puppy love and falling grades, local media reported Monday.

The revised dance steps allow students to dance by themselves or in large groups, the Xinhua News Agency said, without explaining exactly how that would work.

“They don’t have to dance with specific partners, which will be more easily accepted by both students and their parents,” Yin Guochen, an official with the State General Administration of Sports, was quoted as saying.

Xinhua also quoted an Education Ministry official as saying another version would see students organized into groups of four and changing partners with each song.

“This way, the risk of young love would be lowered,” a ministry official, Yang Guiren, was quoted as saying.

Concerns that students would “fall in love and lose track of exam results” already have pushed back plans to introduce dancing from September to the end of the year, the report said.

Although Chinese schools are mixed, parental disapproval and academic pressure mean relationships between students are unusual before the university level.

Ballroom dancing has long been considered a form of healthy exercise in China, with large groups gathering in parks or sports grounds to whirl away to piped-in music.

The idea of introducing it in schools was inspired primarily by worries over poor health and rising obesity among students.

Thief trashes neighborhood in stolen garbage truck

GRANDVIEW, Ill. – Lisa Seger was watching late-night TV when she heard what sounded like a semi rumbling down her residential street early Sunday morning.

She looked out the window to see a bright orange garbage truck moving so quickly that it nearly tipped over on a tight curve, Seger said. The driver avoided that, but crashed into a large tree in her yard, shoved a parked car into the roadway and then continued down the block.

Before the rampage was over, the truck – stolen from a disposal company in nearby Springfield – was used to demolish fences and smash three cars. It hit a utility pole, knocking out electricity to a few homes. It uprooted a large tree and dragged it for about a block, scattering branches and parts of the trunk along the road.

The truck was found abandoned about 9 p.m. Sunday.

Police said they have no suspects

From Associated Press reports