Daily Brickbats

The Right to Bear Arms

2012-02-10T06:00:00-05:00

A jury has convicted former Citronelle, Alabama, police officer Bill Eugene Newburn of two counts of possessing a stolen firearm. Newburn took the firearms from two motorists he stopped and kept them.

I'd Like to Play Poker with Them

2012-02-09T06:00:00-05:00

The California state government has given the California Correctional Peace Officers Association a 16-year interest-free loan to repay $4.5 million it owes taxpayers for wages and benefits paid to corrections officers doing union work.

A Touchy Situation

2012-02-08T06:00:00-05:00

Officials at California's Lupine Hills Elementary School placed a sexual battery claim on the permanent record of a 6-year-old boy who accidentally touched another boy on the groin or leg during a game of tag. The boy wasn't identified by local media. Only after his family got a lawyer did the school agree to remove the claim from the boy's record.

Close to Water

2012-02-07T06:00:00-05:00

More than 3,000 people turned out for the second Tops of the Hops Beer Festival in Biloxi, Mississippi. But organizers say it could have been even more successful if the state didn't ban 90 of the nation's top 100 beers. Mississippi bans the sale of beer with more than 5 percent alcohol content, and organizers say that keeps them from providing many craft beers.

Say Cheese

2012-02-06T06:00:00-05:00

Chris White took two photos of his four-year-old daughter eating ice cream at a shopping center in Glasgow, Scotland, and just a few minutes later a security guard approached him and demanded he delete the photos from his cell phone. When he refused, the guard called police, who threatened to confiscate his phone and demanded his personal information before allowing him to leave.

The Chicago Way

2012-02-03T06:00:00-05:00

Chicago officials have agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit by a man who spent 12 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit. Harold Hill says police officers led by Jon Burge beat and tortured him into confessing to the crime. A special prosecutor's report found that Burge and others tortured suspects for two decades.

Is That a Gun in Your Pocket or Are You Diabetic?

2012-02-02T06:00:00-05:00

Transportation Security Administration agents at Los Angeles International Airport detained one woman, who wasn't named in press reports, and delayed some passengers from boarding their planes for about an hour after mistaking the woman's insulin pump for a weapon.

A Doll's House

2012-02-01T06:00:00-05:00

Police in Barnaul, Siberia, have asked prosecutors to look into a protest composed of dolls, stuffed animals, and Lego figures. Activists placed the figures in the snow, holding signs demanding clean government, after local officials repeatedly denied them permits to hold a protest march.

Sleeping on the Job

2012-01-31T06:00:00-05:00

A student at Oklahoma's Mustang Mid-High School, who wasn't named by local media, was suspended after snapping a photo of a sleeping substitute teacher on his cell phone. School officials refused to discuss the suspension, but they did say that students aren't permitted to use their cell phones during the school day.

That's Freedom Fries

2012-01-30T06:00:00-05:00

The French government has banned school cafeterias from serving ketchup. Government officials say the ban will promote healthy eating and preserve French cuisine. The one exception to the ban on ketchup?: French fries.

It's Good to be the King

2012-01-27T06:00:00-05:00

The company that runs the Marlborough Airport in Massachusetts has sued he federal government after it refused to pay for $676,048 in damages caused to the airport when President Barack Obama landed there in 2010.

Religious Education

2012-01-26T06:00:00-05:00

When Ginger Strivelli's 12-year-old son came home from school with a Gideon's Bible, she called the Weaverville, North Carolina, school he attended to ask whether that didn't violate the Constitution. The principal assured her it didn't because the school distributes books donated by any religious group. So she showed up with some pagan books, and the school turned her away. Now, the Buncombe County Board of Education says it will reevaluate its policy on religious texts.

Hasn't Anyone Heard of Knocking?

2012-01-25T06:00:00-05:00

A DeKalb County, Georgia, police officer went to a home to investigate a possible domestic dispute and shot the family's dog. The officer claimed the dog, which was chained, lunged at him. Homeowners Anthony and Bobbie Currie ran out when they heard the shot, and Anthony says the officer, who wasn't named by local media, pointed his gun at him and threatened to “blow your brains out.” It turns out the officer had gone to the wrong house. Officials say the officer faces no disciplinary actions.

Biblical Injunction

2012-01-24T06:00:00-05:00

Shawano, Wisconsin, schools superintendent Todd Carlson has apologized and vowed stricter oversight of a student newspaper after the paper ran opposing columns on whether gay couples should adopt children. A gay couple complained the column that opposed gay adoption, which cited Biblical passages calling homosexuality a sin, was hateful.

Pre-Enforcement

2012-01-23T06:00:00-05:00

Police in Kissimmee, Florida, have been forced to throw out a dozen parking tickets issued by one enforcement agent and will likely throw out many more. The agent has ticketed people for parking violations on streets where there are no marked parking restrictions as well as for “violations” in a privately owned parking lot, where city parking laws don't apply. The dates on the tickets are often several days ahead of when they were actually issued. “She obviously doesn't know her numbers, doesn't know math or anything,” said Osceola County resident Michelle Cintron.

Traffic Enforcement

2012-01-20T09:15:00-05:00

Georgia State Trooper Donald Crozier was involved in a collision that left one woman dead. Authorities are still investigating that accident, but Atlanta media report that Crozier has piled up a lengthy record of on-duty traffic accidents. Since he joined the State Patrol in 2002, he's had 20 accidents. Seven of them were ruled to be his fault.

Your Bad

2012-01-19T06:00:00-05:00

Someone at Tec-An accidentally entered $9,200 instead of $92 when sending the state of Oklahoma funds that had been garnished from an employee's paycheck for child support. State officials say that's tough luck for Tec-An because they gave that money to the family and won't be able to refund it. But officials have promised to double check payments in the future to make sure they are for the right amount.

Bombing Big Time

2012-01-18T06:00:00-05:00

Phoenix police say that someone stole a container full of explosives from them during a training exercise at Sky Harbor International Airport. They assure us that these explosives are stable and can't be detonated by someone who doesn't know what he is doing.

We'll Show You

2012-01-16T06:00:00-05:00

Just weeks after she testified against the Tulsa police department in a corruption trial, five Tulsa police officers arrested Kelie Barnes on several misdemeanor traffic citations dating back to 2007. One of the officers accidentally fired his weapon during the arrest.

Bend Over

2012-01-13T06:00:00-05:00

A woman, who wasn't named by local media, has sued the Las Cruces, New Mexico, police department for $1,222. That's how much she was charged by an area hospital for a forcible body cavity search ordered by the police. The search found no narcotics.

Down the Drain

2012-01-12T06:00:00-05:00

A new Illinois law requires people to present a photo ID and sign their names and addresses when buying drain cleaner. Legislators say they hope to keep people from using caustic drain cleaners as a weapon and to keep drain cleaners from being used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Unskilled Workers

2012-01-11T06:00:00-05:00

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has posted a letter on its website warning employers that requiring a high school diploma for workers may violate the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The agency says requiring a diploma might discriminate with those with learning disabilities.

Pushing Them Out the Door

2012-01-10T06:00:00-05:00

Jakadrien Turner, 14, ran away from home two years ago, and her family has been looking for her ever since. They finally found that she had arrested in Houston for theft. Unfortunately, the fake name she gave police was shared with an illegal immigrant, so they turned her over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which deported her to Colombia. The Colombian government now has the girl, who doesn't speak Spanish, in a detention center and refuses to release her.

It's Not Easy Being Green

2012-01-09T06:00:00-05:00

Dinah and Stig Mason took four acres of neglected and overgrown land in Devon, England, and turned it into a small farm and orchard. They also took a small horse barn on the property and turned it into a home, and local officials say that is too much. The land is zoned for agriculture, not a residence. So they evicted the Masons from their home.

A Thoughtless Experiment

2012-01-06T06:00:00-05:00

Officials in Gilbert, Arizona, have paid $37,500 to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Kelly Shea. Shea was a student at Gilbert High School in 2008, where a police officer pulled her out of class and accused her of stealing an iPod. The officer then searched her backpack without permission. When Shea began to cry, the officer finally told her it was all just a part of an experiment designed by one of the teachers to see if boys and girls react differently to false accusations.

Banned in Iran

2012-01-05T06:00:00-05:00

Iranian officials have shut down the website of former president Akbar Hasemi Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani has been criticized by conservatives in the government after urging that people arrested during anti-government protests in 2009 be freed from prison.

Right Name, Wrong Face

2012-01-04T06:00:00-05:00

More than 1,480 people have been wrongly incarcerated in the Los Angeles County jail over the past five years. Some have been the victims of identity theft. Others have just had the misfortune to have the same name as someone who was wanted by police. The Los Angeles Times reports some of these people were jailed for days and even weeks before officials could be convinced they had the wrong person. And at least one person was arrested twice on a warrant for someone else.

You Can't Say That Here

2012-01-03T06:00:00-05:00

An Indian court has ordered several Internet companies, including Facebook, Google, and Yahoo, to remove "anti-religious" and "anti-social content."

See Something, Say Something

2012-01-02T06:00:00-05:00

Folk singer Vance Gilbert says he was pulled off a flight from Boston to Washington by Transportation Security Administration agents and officers from the Massachusetts State Police and questioned about his reading habits. They apparently found it suspicious that he was reading a book about vintage aircraft while flying.

DIY Healthcare

2011-12-30T06:00:00-05:00

When David Evans was diagnosed with a hernia, British National Health Service guidelines said he should receive surgery within 18 weeks. Instead, it took almost a year, repeated calls from his doctor, and the intervention of a member of Parliament to get him into surgery. In the meantime, Evans, who is a farmer, used an ultrasound machine intended for use on pregnant sheep to keep an eye on his hernia.