Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2009 January 1-31

Troy Garcia's neighbors thought it was just great that he plowed the snow off the streets of their Spokane Valley, Washington, neighborhood. Well, all of them except the one who is a county roads supervisor. He reported Garcia, and police warned him he'd be fined if he plows again.

Iranian authorities have banned the Kargozaran newspaper after it published an article critical of the Palestinian group Hamas. A government spokesman said the article "portrays the Palestinian resistance as terrorists who cause the deaths of children and civilians by taking up positions in kindergartens and hospitals."

A federal judge barred Pythias Brown from going to the Dominican Republic for his honeymoon. Brown, a Transportation Security Administration at Newark Liberty International Airport, has been charged with stealing laptops, cameras, and other electronic equipment from travelers. The judge noted that Brown's drivers' license has been suspended numerous times because he failed to appear in court on various traffic violations.

Henry Marshall says several Orlando, Florida, police officers kicked in the doors of his house, pointed guns at him and ransacked his home. They were looking for his grandson Quinton, who had allegedly bought a stolen cell phone. Quinton Marshall doesn't live with his grandfather, but when he heard the police were looking for him, he came and gave them the cell phone and they left.

When William G. Clarke's vehicle knocked down a bicyclist, he didn't stop to help. He just kept driving. And he couldn't say he didn't realize he'd hit the man. Clarke was driving a Miami-Dade County, Florida, bus, and his passengers started screaming at him to stop. Instead, he just told them to be quiet. Police arrested Clarke, and he has been relieved of duty with pay pending an investigation.