Brickbats
While Shane Boor was driving to work, he saw a Colorado State Trooper who had pulled another driver over. Boor, who says he has had some "issues in the past" with the Colorado State Patrol, flipped the trooper off. So the officer had a State Patrol aircraft that was helping with traffic enforcement follow Boor to work. That's where another trooper showed up and ticketed Boor for an obscene gesture. After the American Civil Liberties Union got involved and local media reported the incident, the State Patrol dropped the charge.
India's information ministry has told broadcasters not to air sexy deodorant ads. Officials say that the ads, which depict women being aroused by a man's deodorant, offend "good taste and decency."
Zimbabwean police Sgt. Alois Mabhunu has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for using a toilet reserved for President Robert Mugabe at the International Trade Fair. Mabhunu was also demoted and transferred to a new police station.
Before he deployed to Iraq with his National Guard unit, Mark Grapin promised to build his children a tree house in their back yard. After he got back, Grapin spent six weeks building it. But Fairfax County, Virginia, zoning officials have ordered him to take it down. An appeals board has already turned down his request for a variance.
The Illinois fire marshal has ordered four stores in the Chicago area to remove novelty cigarette lighters. State law enacted in 2010 bans lighters that look like a "cartoon character, toy, gun, watch, musical instrument, animal, food, beverage or similar articles," as well as lighters that have "entertaining features."
Marshall Junior High School in Texas bars students from having "designs shaved into their hair." So when Sheldon Williams showed up for classes sporting a coif with shaved lines, officials took a permanent marker and filled in those lines.
In Arizona, Gilbert High School Principal J. Charles Santa Cruz has barred cheerleaders from wearing T-shirts they bought to help raise money to fight breast cancer. Santa Cruz said the message on the shirts, "Feel for lumps, save your bumps," is inappropriate.
Pennsylvania's child abuse registry contains more than 112,000 names. Some of them have been convicted of serious crimes. But many have never been charged with a crime. Under state law, child protective services can place anyone they believe has abused a child on the list, permanently, without even a court hearing. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that 88 percent of the names on the list were placed there by social service agencies.
Some teachers at Evergreen Park High School in Illinois have decided to limit students to just three visits to the restroom per semester. If a student has to go more often than that, he will have to stay after school.
Charles Oliver