A Utah boy has earned widespread social media attention for his neighborhood soda stand thanks to a sign he holds that reads, "Ice Cold Beer" with "root" above the word beer in tiny print.
Several residents in the northern Utah city called police earlier this week concerned about a young boy selling alcohol in front of a church, said Brigham City Police Lt. Tony Ferderber on Thursday.
Officers that went to check it out realized that it was just a clever marketing ploy and posted pictures of 11-year-old Seth Parker on Facebook with the comment, "a twist on a lemonade stand."
Sen. Mitt Romney, of Utah, tweeted a picture of Seth with the comment, "A lesson in reading the fine print! The future is bright for this young Utah entrepreneur."
Seth's mother Alexis Parker said Thursday that the family is dumbfounded and excited by all the attention. She estimated that some 60 people a day come to the stand.
Seth started the stand because his parents urged him to get out more after they noticed he had struggled to make new friends since the family moved from Georgia last year, Alexis Parker said.
Seth thought about a yard sale or lemonade stand but settled on selling the soda because he is a root beer "fanatic," she said. He chose the sign with the tiny print as a little "wise crack."
The first day brought some scoffs and scowls, especially for people without good vision, she said.
But people soon caught on to the joke.
"We're loving people stopping by and just having a good laugh," said Alexis Parker. "It is a joy all the way around."
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
