A.M. Links: AP Sues For NYPD Spy-Related Records, Town Sets Up Swear Jar, North Dakota May Abolish Property Taxes

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  • Commerce Secretary John Bryson is taking a medical leave of absence after being involved in two hit and run accidents and suffering a seizure over the weekend.

  • The Associated Press is suing the New Brunswick Police Department for records related to an incident where police and FBI responded to a 911 call from a building superintendent who found surveillance equipment and terrorist literature in an apartment that was being used by NYPD intelligence officers (and a CIA agent!) as some sort of command center.
  • The Afghan government condemned a U.S. airstrike last week it says killed 18 civilians. A spokesman for Hamid Karzai said it was a "one-sided decision, and not coordinated with Afghan security forces."
  • Residents of Middleborough, Massachusetts voted 183-50 to approve a proposal by the police chief to issue fines of $20 for public swearing. Public swearing was actually a crime in the town since 1968, but wasn't prosecuted.
  • Meanwhile, North Dakota votes today on a proposal to abolish all property taxes. It would be the first state to abolish a major tax since Alaska did away with the income tax in 1980.
  • The dingo did, indeed, take her baby.  A fourth inquest into the 1980 disappearance of an Australian girl that captivated that country found that a dingo took 9-week-old Azaria from a campsite, as the mother, who spent three years in jail before being cleared, had maintained.
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