Brickbats
A Tempe, Arizona, school resource officer accidentally shot a 14-year-old girl with her Taser. The officer, who wasn't named by media, was taking part in an eighth-grade show-and-tell at Gilliland Middle School. She mistakenly pressed the trigger, propelling one of the two prongs into the girl's arm.
Some teachers at Missouri's Farmington High School balked at taking part in an active shooter drill after they were handed safety goggles and told they might get shot with pellet guns.
A European Union report has recommended that the word bankruptcy be replaced with the phrase debt adjustment. The Directorate General for International Policies says the word carries too much stigma and makes it difficult for people to rebuild their financial reputations.
Chuck Winship, general manager of Florida's Tarpon Springs Golf Course, has been forced to crack down on his customers. After a former employee reported that members of some of the leagues that play there were wagering on the results, the cops began investigating Winship for possible violations of state laws against keeping a gambling house and game promotion in connection with the sale of consumer products or services.
DeKalb County, Georgia, police officer Demetrius A. Kendrick has been indicted on a charge of violating his oath of office after allegedly planting marijuana on a man. Kendrick claimed he saw Alphonso Eleby toss away some marijuana after he and another officer stopped him. But video later showed Kendrick was the one who tossed something at Eleby's feet. The charges against Eleby were dropped, but not because of the video. The DeKalb County police department was unable to locate the marijuana Eleby was accused of having.
Michigan State University was briefly locked down after someone reported seeing a man with a rifle at Bessey Hall. The man turned out to be a Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) student with a ceremonial replica rifle. Bessey Hall is where the ROTC program is located.
The Spanish government has proposed a new law that would require search engines to pay to display even brief fragments of copyrighted material. The government did not say how much they will be charged.
After police in Austin, Texas, pulled Larry Davis over for running a red light, they asked him to take a breathalyzer test. He agreed, knowing he hadn't had anything to drink. Sure enough, he blew a zero. In fact, he even came up clean on a blood test that looks not only for alcohol but seven types of drugs. The cops arrested him for DWI anyway. Prosecutors ultimately threw out his case. In fact, local prosecutors say they throw out about 30 percent of DWI cases due to lack of evidence.
Charles Oliver