Powdery with a 100% chance of death

Sooooooey! You just can't make this stuff up.

I guess this just isn't a good stretch for broadcast personalities. Or, for that matter, their "friends," as we learn from all manner of Little Rock, Ark., media. Well, not so much from weatherman Brett Cummins' employer, KARK television, but from pretty much everybody else.

Like Arkansas Business, for example:

Authorities have interviewed Brett Cummins of Little Rock television station KARK-TV, Channel 4, multiple times since he was found asleep in a hot tub Monday morning with a dead man next to him, Maumelle Police told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Police have also spoken to Christopher Barbour, who owns the home where the body was found.

No charges have been filed against Cummins or Barbour, and police told The AP they are not treating the case as a criminal investigation.

Maumelle Police spokesman Lt. Jim Hansard says police have received preliminary results of an autopsy of 24-year-old Dexter Williams, who was found dead. He declined to release those findings, citing the ongoing investigation. A full autopsy report could be released later.

BUT WHY WOULD the cops want to interview the weather guesser "multiple times," you ask?

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has the criminological data for Monday, Sept. 5:

According to a police report, officers responded to 16 Village Way around 8 a.m. Monday and found the naked body of 24-year-old Dexter Williams lying on the floor of what was described as a Jacuzzi hot tub. Williams reportedly had what appeared to be a dog collar around his neck. It was connected to a silver chain.

The homeowner, identified as 36-year-old Christopher Barbour, told police Cummins had come over the night before with Williams. He said Cummins and Williams then began drinking and using illegal drugs, the report said.

Barbour reportedly told investigators all three men went into the hot tub, but that he left around 11 p.m. The next morning, Barbour heard Cummins snoring and then saw both he and Williams were still in the tub, which had no water in it, according to the report.

"After Brett awoke they discovered that Dexter was unconscious and his face was a different color," police wrote in the report. "He then explained that Brett screamed and became ill and left the bathroom and vomited on the carpet in the living room."

Cummins was not at the home when police arrived Monday morning, but he later returned and provided a statement, police said.

The station did cover the incident on its website and on its newscast, noting that Cummins was in the house, that no charges had been filed and that police were investigating whether drugs and alcohol played a role in the death.

(snip)

"Our Meteorologist Brett Cummins was at the home at the time of the death and we felt we should share this with our viewers," a posting on the station's website, arkansasmatters.com, said. "Brett will not be on the air as he is mourning the loss of his friend."

KARK anchor Bob Clausen read a similar report on the station's 5 p.m. newscast.

"Our thoughts naturally are with Brett and with the family and friends of Dexter Williams," he said.

I'LL JUST bet they are. So are the thoughts, at least, of newspapers around the world.

Because . . . one more time . . . you just can't make this stuff up.


P.S.: The most relieved town in America this week is Baton Rouge, La. Channel 33 there -- the city's longtime Island of Misfit Broadcasters -- was Cummins' last professional layover before making his way back to Little Rock and those lucky, lucky no-commenters at KARK.