Country singer charged with battery, resisting arrest

Fort Myers, Fla. – Country singer Mindy McCready has been charged with battery and resisting arrest in Florida, authorities said.

McCready, 31, was arrested early Saturday morning and charged with the two misdemeanors, according to booking information. On Sunday, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office declined to provide details of the incident that led to her arrest.

McCready was released on $1,000 bail Saturday and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 14.

McCready, who had a No. 1 hit in 1996 with “Guys Do It All the Time,” has struggled in recent years, beginning with a 2004 conviction for fraudulently obtaining prescription painkillers. She was on probation for that offense when she was charged with driving under the influence in 2005.

She was found not guilty of the DUI charge, but guilty of driving on a suspended license.

McCready is a native of North Fort Myers, but her last known address was in Nashville, Tenn., according to police records.

Reserve to be named for ‘Crocodile Hunter’

Brisbane, Australia – The late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, killed in a stingray attack last year, will be honored with a new wildlife reserve in Outback Australia, the government announced Sunday.

A 333,585 acre chunk of land near Weipa in the far north of Irwin’s home state of Queensland will be named after the popular television host and managed by his family, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.

The area includes habitats for the endangered northern quoll, a carnivorous marsupial, and the speartooth shark, as well as an important gallery of dry vine forests, Turnbull said.

Irwin, who spent part of the money he earned from his TV show on animal conservation projects, was killed when a stingray barb pierced his chest as he swam off the Great Barrier Reef last September.

‘Simpsons’ creator reveals inspiration for Marge’s hairdo

New York – Marge Simpson’s gravity-defying blue beehive is a hybrid creation, Matt Groening has revealed.

The “Simpsons” matriarch’s impressive hair was inspired by “The Bride of Frankenstein” and by his own mother’s hairdo from the 1960s, the series’ creator told The New York Times Magazine in an interview published Sunday.

Marge, Homer and the rest of the Springfield gang will make the leap from TV to the big screen when “The Simpsons Movie” opens Friday.

In the film, the Oval Office is occupied by President Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“We needed a president that would make people laugh,” Groening told the magazine. “And Schwarzenegger was the obvious choice.”