WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Krispy Kreme is offering to reward students with a doughnut for every A on their report card, but the plan seems a little flaky to some officials trying to fight childhood obesity.

Under one promotion, Krispy Kreme stores will give Palm Beach County students in kindergarten through sixth grade a free doughnut for good grades. Another program has students decorate posters of doughnuts with “success sprinkles” when children meet goals. The posters can be turned in for doughnuts.

“Krispy Kreme doughnuts are very good, especially when the ‘hot’ lights are on, but I can’t say that there’s anything healthy about them,” school board member Debra Robinson said Tuesday. “Can’t we find something else? I mean, a doughnut?”

Krispy Kreme doesn’t track how many schools are participating.

Principals decide whether to allow the doughnut posters or any other business partnership, a school district spokeswoman said.

Jackie Zepeda, Krispy Kreme spokeswoman, said she was unaware of any concern about the doughnut giveaway in light of child obesity, which has been declared an epidemic by the National Institutes of Health.

The promotion comes as 50 Palm Beach County schools start a $1.4 million program to promote healthier lifestyles with nutrition and exercise programs. The district is also offering healthier school lunch menus.

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CEDARVILLE, N.J. (AP) – In this case, police say a dead snake was more dangerous than a live one.

Michael File received several small lacerations on his back Sunday as the result of being whipped with a dead six-foot-long black snake, state police said. File, 26, wasn’t wearing a shirt during the assault by Kenneth Davis, 42, authorities said.

Davis later was assaulted by File with a baseball bat, authorities said.

Police said they learned that Davis had been attempting to let the snake, which was alive when the incident began, crawl into File’s residence. File’s father, whose name was not available, saw the snake approaching, stepped on it and beat it to death with a piece of wood.

Police said Davis, who had been drinking, then became angry and pushed the elder File. Michael File told Davis to leave the property, whereupon Davis picked up the snake, twirled it over his head and assaulted Michael File with it, police said.

File then grabbed a baseball bat and took aim at Davis’ head, police said. Davis was treated for head lacerations.

Davis was charged with simple assault. Police Sgt. Sean Day said charges against File are likely.

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TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – Lt. Col. Martha McSally, the first female head of an Air Force fighter squadron, may have her head in the clouds – but it’s her hat that has gotten her in trouble.

McSally, 38, wore a men’s flight cap during her installation ceremony as head of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base’s 354th Fighter Squadron in July. Wearing the men’s cap, which runs straight across the forehead rather than angling down toward the eyebrows, is forbidden for women under U.S. Air Force rules.

McSally has tangled with military commanders over gender dress differences before. She previously sued the Pentagon for forcing female troops to wear Muslim garb overseas.

She won the case accusing the Defense Department of discrimination for forcing her to wear the long, black cloak worn by Muslim women when traveling off-base in Saudi Arabia. The policy was reversed.

Senior Master Sgt. Jacqueline Dean, chief of the board which oversees the dress code, said the regulations updated in early July specifically ban women from wearing the men’s flight cap.

But dress code violations are rarely punished unless they are chronic, officials said.

On Tuesday, when asked for a response from McSally, Davis-Monthan spokesman Capt. DeJon Redd said McSally was focused on leading her squadron and didn’t want to address peripheral issues like the cap.

Rancher steers in for freebie

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) – Rancher Skip Hougland figured it was an offer he couldn’t refuse: Bring in a cow, get a free frozen blended coffee beverage.

So he took Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a Scottish Highland steer who generally goes by “Charlie,” to a local Dairy Queen on Tuesday and got a free “Moolatte” as part of a corporate promotion.

Hougland brought Charlie to town from his Willow Creek ranch after reading that people who brought a living cow to any participating business would be rewarded with a free coffee-flavored Dairy Queen version of a latte.

Charlie, who is 10, was the only animal that made an appearance at any of the area outlets of the Minneapolis-based chain.

Store manager Minde Erickson said she was surprised Hougland showed up with Charlie. “It seems like a lot of work,” she said.

After numerous children finished marveling at Charlie, who has short legs, shaggy red hair and long horns, Hougland put the steer back in the trailer and collected his reward.

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