Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2009 December 15-31

Sweden's Life Regiment Hussars are an elite military unit. During a recent training exercise, they were supposed to capture a house. But they hit the wrong target, blowing the doors and window frames out of someone's home before realizing they were in the wrong place.

Royce Williams killed himself after federal prosecutors charged him with growing marijuana he used to deal with chronic pain. Now, his widow, Maria Lynn Williams, is fighting efforts by the federal government to seize their Alabama home and 40 acres. Federal Asset Forfeiture Coordinator Tommie Brown Hardwick says they don't want anyone to profit from illegal activity. Maria Lynn Williams has never been charged with a crime.

The Clayton County, Georgia, school system mandated uniforms for all high school students this year, but many of the students don't want to wear the khaki pants and polo shirts the policy calls for. More than 1,500 students showed up one Friday out of uniform, as part of an organized protest of the rules. They now face suspension and detention, and school officials say all of them will be punished.

The Willows Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously to expel Gary Tudesko for having two unloaded shotguns in his truck during the school day. Tudesko, 16, left the guns in his truck after going bird hunting. But he said he didn't think he was violating school rules because he wasn't parked on school property. Officials at the California school system said that didn't matter.

Spanish police responded to a call at the Siguenza Jazz Festival after someone complained that saxophonist Larry Ochs and his band weren't jazzy enough. The fan insisted that his doctor had warned him it was "psychologically inadvisable" for him to listen to contemporary music and he said that was what Ochs was playing. After listening to Ochs, the police decided the fan might have a case against the organizers, who refused to refund his money. They referred the dispute to a judge.