Illinois

Gigantic catfish dies en route to KCK

Tim Pruitt went fishing and pulled up a whopper of a beast.

No, seriously: It was roughly the size of a sixth-grade boy.

Pruitt, casting his line Sunday in the Mississippi River near Alton, hauled up a 58-inch-long, 44-inch-around blue catfish that weighed a whopping 124 pounds.

To get a sense of just how big that is, the state record holder was a mere 85 pounds and the official world record holder tipped the scales at 121 pounds, 8 ounces.

Now, Pruitt, whose fish has already been weighed in the presence of a conservation police officer and measured by a biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, is expected to submit documentation to the International Game Fish Assn. so that it can be certified a world record holder.

Once that’s done, the catch should be approved as the world’s largest blue catfish, replacing the current champion that was caught Jan. 16, 2004, in Lake Texoma, Texas, said Becky Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the association.

The Cabela’s Outfitter store in Kansas City, Kan., had planned to display the fish in a tank, but it died en route.

Houston

Identical quadruplets born to identical twin

A Houston woman has given birth to a set of rare identical quadruplets, conceived without fertility drugs or in vitro fertilization. They are among fewer than 50 such sets ever recorded.

Daphne, Chloe, Bonnie and Adele Breedlove were born two months ago, three months prematurely. Two of the four babies may get to go home this week, where their 15-month-old brother awaits them.

“I look at all four of them and I love them so much,” said mother Shelley Breedlove, herself an identical twin. “I can’t imagine not having them at this point.”

The mother, whose babies weighed between 2 and 2 1/2 pounds when they were born, said she would use homemade ankle bracelets to keep track of her daughters. “I look at them, and I can’t tell the difference to save my life,” she said.

New York City

‘Jeopardy!’ ace meets his match

Maybe Ken Jennings isn’t so tough after all.

The “Jeopardy!” brainiac met his match this week, losing a three-day tournament of champions from the game show and a $2 million prize to Brad Rutter of Lancaster, Pa.

Rutter was hardly intimidated by Jennings’ 74-game winning streak in the game show last year. He beat Jennings in all three individual games, and his final total of $62,000 easily eclipsed Jennings’ $34,599.

Rutter, a former record store clerk, won more than $1 million on “Jeopardy!” in 2002, and whipped several other former champions to earn the right to face Jennings. He is host of his own local quiz show.

Knowing he was about to lose, Jennings wrote “Go Brad” as part of his final answer in the game televised Wednesday.

He had more to lose than a game. The defeat could bruise the Utah resident’s mystique, especially since he is trying to turn his trivia prowess into a career – with his own board game, book and Comedy Central game show in the works.