Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2008 August 15-31

Tulsa resident Micheal Thomas and Lawton, Oklahoma, resident Tiffany Dickson say they've never even met each other. But Dickson told officials that the father of her child was named Michael and his last name might be Thomas. That apparently was enough for them to go after Micheal Thomas. The state Department of Human Resources hounded him and his mother for almost three years, taking money from his paychecks and seizing his tax refunds, even though two different DNA tests showed he wasn't the father.

For five years, the University of Florida posted names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information of more than 11,300 current and former students online. The school noticed the problem earlier this year and notified most of the individuals whose information they posted.

Shirley Preiss has voted in 19 straight presidential elections. But she may not be able to vote in this year's election because of Arizona's voter ID law. Preiss was born in 1910 in Kentucky and never got a birth certificate. She hasn’t had a driver's license in ages and never had a passport. She tried to get her school records to prove her citizenship but found the school no longer exists. Officials suggested she get a delayed birth certificate but that requires witnesses, and everyone who can attest to her birth is dead.

As Vanessa Kimery was driving down the road one night, she saw flashing lights in her rear view mirror. She put on her emergency lights and drove another half mile until she pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store. She says she wasn't sure if it was actually a police officer, so she wanted to make sure she was in a lighted, public place before stopping. That turns out to have been a bad idea. When she failed to stop, the Green County, Kentucky, deputy who was trying to stop her called for backup. When she did stop, deputies pulled her out of her car at gunpoint, handcuffed her, searched her car, and cited her for speeding—the original offense—and failing to yield. After viewing the dashboard video of the arrest, Greene County Sheriff Jack Merritt threw out the failing to yield charge, but he insists deputies acted properly.

Monica Castro says her common law husband was abusive, so she called immigration officials to report him as an illegal immigrant. Border Patrol agents admit they told her she would retain custody of her U.S.-born daughter. But when they arrested the husband, they let him take the infant, and when Castro went to the detention center to pick up the girl, they told her she needed a court order. But that same day, the infant and her father were put on a bus to Mexico. It took Castro three years to find the girl and bring her home. Now, she is suing the Border Patrol.