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! KICKERS !

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BUDWEISER CLYDESDALE

ST. LOUIS (AP) — One of the stars of the Super Bowl now has a name -- Hope. We're talking about the baby Clydesdale featured in Budweiser's Super Bowl ad. Anheuser-Busch says the contest to name the three-week-old foal generated more than 60,000 tweets, Facebook comments and other messages. Hope is a big baby. She now weighs 200 pounds and will hit about a ton when she's fully grown.

POSSUM DROP-BILL

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Keep the Possum Drop. That's the aim of a bill introduced by a bipartisan group of North Carolina state lawmakers. The measure allows the traditional New Year's Eve Possum Drop to use a live animal. The animal rights group PETA had sued. The lawsuit contends the state Wildlife Resources Commission didn't have the authority to grant a permit for trapping a wild opossum for the event. The possums are released after being gently lowered in a clear box. The annual Possum Drop draws thousands to tiny Brasstown, located in the far western tip of North Carolina.

OVERDUE BOOK RETURNED

NEW YORK (AP) — The book was long overdue -- but has finally been returned to a Manhattan public library. The New York Daily News reports the book was first checked out of the Fort Washington branch in 1958. The copy of "Fire of Francis Xavier," a biography of the 16th Century priest, arrived at the library in a plain brown envelope. There was $100 check too, for the late fees. Library manager Jennifer Zarr says their records don't go back that far, so there's no way to trace who borrowed the book. Zarr adds she's not revealing the name on that check.

CHICKEN SANDWICH BUST

BURLINGTON, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man is in a legal beef -- over a half-eaten chicken sandwich. Police charge Dustin Rockwell Davis sold an undercover officer a bag which supposedly contained an ounce of pot. But there was no weed inside. Just the chicken sandwich. Now, Davis has more than egg on his face. He's charged with sale and delivery of a counterfeit controlled substance and marijuana. The Times-News of Burlington reports both are felonies.

LEGAL POT-WHO GROWS?

DENVER (AP) — There's still a lot red tape over marijuana green thumbs in Colorado. Voters in the state approved a ballot measure to legalize pot. The state's marijuana regulators can't decide whether future pot sellers should be required to grow the weed, too. A task force looked at the liquor store model, where retailers don't produce their own product. They also studied Colorado's existing medical marijuana industry, which requires sellers to grow the majority of their stock. The task force decided punt on pot plants -- for now. But regulators say they'll make a decision by the end of the month.

HOT PEPPER GENETICS

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Better peppers -- that's the goal of researchers mapping the genetic code of chile peppers. It's a project of New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute and Seoul National University of South Korea. The researchers say they now have completed a high-resolution draft of the chile genome. The study could result in peppers that would use less water, resist pests and adapt to climate change.