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Two students at Pennsylvania's Waynesburg Central High School were suspended for 10 days after they made an anti-drug commercial for a TV workshop. The students crushed candy and used it to represent cocaine. That violated a school policy that not only bans drugs but things that look like drugs. At least one of the students was also told to undergo drug counseling.
Surveillance video shows Shreveport police officer Ryan Robinson looking around to make sure officers aren't watching before walking up behind Carnado Brown, who was talking on a cell phone outside a night club. Robinson then Tased Brown. Robinson was suspended for 45 days, but no criminal charges were filed against him. And police chief Henry Whitehorn says he has no plans to do a criminal investigation of the case, which happened before he took office.
Malaysian authorities have seized copies of Christian children's books. Officials say the books contain illustrations of prophets such as Abraham and Moses, and that this violates Islamic law.
Chicago police officer William J. Cozzi pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery. He was caught on videotape in 2005 striking a man who had been shackled in a wheelchair. Cozzi was given 18 months probation, but he was not fired by the department. Instead, he was given a two-year unpaid suspension. He is scheduled to return to work in April.
For the third time in 13 months, the state of Wisconsin has sent out letters in which the recipients' Social Security numbers are visible. In this latest incident, the state sent 1099-G tax forms to people who received a state income tax refund or other payment in 2007. Because of the way the forms were folded, Social Security numbers were visible in some of the windows of the envelopes. The state has offered to pay for one year of credit monitoring for all of the recipients.
A man passed out in a car just outside the entrance to England's Altrincham General Hospital. A traffic warden spotted the car and reacted immediately by writing a ticket. Fortunately, the driver of the car had rushed into the hospital seeking help, and nurses ran out to help. Paramedics also rushed to help. But the meter maid continued to write a ticket, even after they explained the man had gone into a diabetic seizure. She finally relented after two paramedics pressed the matter and did not issue the ticket.
Yvonne Todd says her Saint Bernard Shelby was barking because a Muskogee, Oklahoma, police officer had grabbed her arm. She tried to calm the dog, but before she could, an officer shot the dog in the head, killing it. Now, she's suing. The police say they were responding to reports of gunshots. But witnesses say the only shot they heard was the one that killed Shelby. They also say the officer that shot the dog was defending himself, another statement denied by Todd and at least one witness. Todd was never charged with a crime.
Brian Nelson got a notice from city officials in St. Paul, Minnesota, telling him he was delinquent in paying a $50 parking fine issued in December. Just one problem: The ticket was issued against a 1941 Ford that Nelson says is inoperable and has been parked in his garage for a decade at his home in Fargo, North Dakota. When Nelson explained this to city officials, they said he'd have to travel the 250 miles to St. Paul to try to clear the matter up or pay the fine. But after he went to a Minneapolis TV station with his story, an official admitted someone had made a mistake and said the matter could be cleared up over the phone.
European Union officials insist it's not a criminal offense to sell goods in pounds and ounces. They should tell that to the people prosecuting 63-year-old Janet Devers, who runs a fruit and vegetable stand in East London. Police seized metric scales from her stand in September, and just before Christmas, authorities informed her they were charging her with 13 counts of violating laws requiring British merchants to sell in metric units. She faces a fine of up to £5,000 on each charge and she will have to reimburse the costs of making the case against her if she loses, which could total thousands of pounds.
Ulrich Kring, 70, is a German national, but he has lived in Switzerland his entire life. He finally decided to apply for Swiss citizenship. He applied in Dielsdorf, where authorities require all foreigners applying for citizenship to take classes in German. Kring found that the bureaucrats didn't care that he's been speaking German his entire life. He has appealed to a higher local authority. If he doesn't win that appeal, the German course will cost him 250 Swiss francs.
The Ocoee, Florida, Police Department was supposed to take Anthony Johnson's driver's license. Instead, they took the license of Andrew Johnson. Not only do the two men have different first names, Andrew is white and Anthony is black. Officials say the license numbers of the two men were mixed up. They also say Andrew Johnson will to prove he isn't Anthony before he can get his license back.
The Murfreesboro, Tennessee, City Council has banned people from placing sofas or other indoor furniture on their front porches. They also banned people from parking on their lawns. Resident Shari Hinton told a local TV station she sometimes parks on her grass to keep from blocking another car in her driveway. "If someone else is trying to get out, it's just a bother, so it's convenient to park on the lawn," she said, according to WSMV.
The call them sugar gliders, and they are small possums from Australia. Owners say they are cute and fun. But members of the St. Paul, Minnesota, City Council voted 6-1 to ban to ban them. Are the sugar gliders dangerous? No, but council members say they are high maintenance and smelly. They aren't sure that everyone who gets one if up to properly caring for it. That's why they banned them.
South Yorkshire, England, police sent Ayesha Khan a ticket for driving 65 mph in a 40 mph zone. They warned her to pay up or face a court date. Ayesha is just two years old, and her mother says the girl's feet can't even reach the pedals of a car. A police spokesman blamed "an ambiguity in the information supplied to us" for Ayesha getting a ticket.
Officials at Illinois' Mascoutah Elementary School say they warned Megan Coulter about her behavior, but she refused to shape up. So they gave her detention, twice, for hugging a classmate. The Mascoutah Public School District banned displays of affection last year.
Police knocked at Lakshmana Kailash K's door in Bangalore one morning, waking him up. They said he'd uploaded an insulting picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji, founder of the Maratha empire, on an Internet networking site. They arrested him for insulting Shivaji and put him in jail. Fifty days later, police released him. They say they'd found the real criminals, three weeks earlier.
Lancashire, England, police fined Ken Hardman £30 for to warm up his car on a cold day. Police say leaving your car running invites thieves to take it. But Hardman says he's able to lock the doors of his Mercedes even when the engine is running, making it more difficult to steal.
Bob Munley says a healthy diet and drinking Kombucha tea helps him cope with epilepsy. And when he saw that no one was making the stuff commercially in Columbus, Ohio, he saw an opportunity. He now makes about 10 gallons of the stuff a day and sells it to local health-food stores and cafes as well as at a local community market. But the Ohio Department of Agriculture says he must stop selling the tea since he brews it at home. Officials say he must move his production to a commercial kitchen, but Munley says he can't afford that.
A Frederick County, Maryland, sheriff's deputy had an unusual reason for stopping a car driven by Mauricio Arellano. The car, say officials, had too many air fresheners hanging from the mirror. Arellano says he believes he was stopped because he and the other occupants of the car are Hispanic. The deputy asked each for ID. The passengers produced Marylan driver's licenses. Arellano, who is in the United States on a temporary visa, showed the deputy a Mexican driver's license and an international drivers license, which, according to The Frederick News-Post, allows him legally to operate a vehicle in the state. But the deputy still arrested Arellano for not having proper ID.
Videotape from Williamson County, Tennessee's Fairview High School shows part of the story. It shows a girl grabbing junior Rachel Davis from behind. Davis walks away and the girl follows and confronts her again. Davis walks away once more, out of camera range, and the other girl follows. That's when the other girl struck Davis on the face with a bag or purse, lacerating her jaw, according to Davis father. The two girls ended up on the ground wrestling before a teacher broke it up. The other girl was charged with simple assault. And she received a five-day suspension from school. The school also suspended Davis for five days under its zero-tolerance policy. That policy bans fighting, even in self defense.
Steve Kahn lives and works in Massachusetts. He also keeps a private plane there that he sometime flies to Maine to pick up patients in rural areas and bring them to Boston, free of charge, as part of the Angel Flight program. He also sometimes flies the plane to a vacation home in Maine. And those flights, say Maine officials, make the plane subject to that state's use tax. They've sent Kahn a $26,000 tax bill. The Associated Press reports there's a growing effort by several states to collect sales and use taxes on planes that fly into those states, even when the planes are bought and based in other states.