Activists Muzzled as Town Spurns Mutiny on Bounty

--In the brouhaha over woodchuck bounties in Hopkinton, R.I., animal-rights activists lost by more than a nose. Residents at the annual town meeting voted to retain the $25 outlay in the budget for a 15-cent bounty on each woodchuck nose by a vote of 87 to 61. “The outcome was not surprising to me, but the margin of defeat was,� said Steven Ruggeri, a spokesman for Friends of Animals, which had led the fight to abolish the bounty. Under the system, youngsters are paid for each woodchuck nose they bring to Town Hall. The Town Council last month had refused to end the 200-year-old bounty, saying it was a good tradition that helped rid the town of the lawn and garden pests. Others likened the bounty to a rite of passage, akin to a child getting his first fishing rod.

--For better or for worse, “Top Gun� star Tom Cruise married his longtime girlfriend, actress Mimi Rogers, in a quiet weekend ceremony in Upstate New York. Emilio Estevez was best man. Rogers, 31, will soon be seen in “Someone to Watch Over Me,� to be released this fall. Cruise, 24, is set to co-star with Dustin Hoffman in “Rainman.�

--Allen Peterson and Sheryl Packett of Omaha also got married this weekend, and while they are not household names, their wedding was marked by a series of events that usually occur only in the movies. To begin with, vandals ransacked the reception hall and a 30-inch wedding cake that took Packett’s sister 30 hours to make was splattered all over the room. On the Big Day, the wedding party was locked out of the church for 30 minutes, forcing the women to begin fixing their hair and makeup in the parking lot. After the ceremony, the newlyweds were locked out of their limousine and had to catch a ride to the reception in her parents’ van. Finally, the champagne arrived 30 minutes late. “Yesterday when I was crying, people kept telling me that someday I would look back and laugh at this,� the 24-year-old bride said. “I didn’t believe it, but we’re laughing about it today.�

--Lori Miles made publishing history when she was named editor of the recently resurrected London Evening News--the first female editor ever on Fleet Street, London’s newspaper row. Miles, 30, will take over as soon as she is released from her current job as editor of Chat, a women’s magazine she started two years ago, according to Evening News Publisher Lord Rothermere.