The U.S. Air Force has admitted that it released military records of at least seven Republican Party congressional candidates to a Democratic Party-aligned research group without proper authorization during the 2022 campaign cycle. Among those candidates was Jennifer-Ruth Green, an Indiana congressional candidate whose files contained details of her sexual assault while serving in Iraq.
California's Bay Area Air Quality Management District has voted to phase out the sale of new natural gas furnaces and water heaters in the nine-county Bay Area. The new rules will ban the sale of residential natural gas water heaters after 2027 and large commercial natural gas water heaters after 2031. The rules would ban the sale of natural gas furnaces after 2029. "The 1.8 million water heaters and furnaces in the Bay Area significantly impact our air quality, resulting in dozens of early deaths and a wide range of health impacts, particularly in communities of color," said Philip Fine, the agency's executive officer.
For almost 20 years, stone benches have graced the sidewalks of San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood. They were first placed there by residents to make the place more attractive and to give them places to socialize. The sidewalks are very wide. One local TV station measured the distance from the curb to the benches and found it was nearly 14 feet. But after an anonymous complaint, city officials have told residents that no one ever got a permit to place the benches there. The people who own the homes near the benches will have to pay $1,400 for an encroachment permit or have them removed.
The body of Adam "A.J." Blackstock was found in the storage area of his SUV, which was parked at a
In England, the council for the London borough of Hackney has announced plans to ban through traffic from from motorized vehicles from 75 percent of city streets. Electric vehicles and bicycles would still be allowed to travel through, as will emergency vehicles and trash collection trucks. The plan will be rolled out over three years.
Michigan State Police troopers Ryan Fitzko, Cody Lukas, and Justin Simpson have been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery for their actions during the arrest of a man for riding a bicycle after dark without lights. Lukas has also been charged with felony misconduct in office. The man was taken to the ground and kicked and punched several times after he tried to ride away from the officers.
Dozens of businesses in San Francisco's Chinatown have been threatened with fines for gates and awnings that have been in place for decades. Why, after all these years, have city building inspectors taken notice of these alleged code violations? They say they have received a rash of anonymous reports about them. City awning permits can cost up to $3,000.
San Diego officials have cut hundreds of parking places at Balboa Park, one of the city's most popular destinations. As part of an effort to force people out of cars, city leaders cut the number of parking places on Park Boulevard to 67 from 300. The road cuts through Balboa Park and runs alongside tourist destinations such as the Natural History Museum, the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, the San Diego Zoo and the World Beat Cultural Center.
Quebec business leaders say a new law that requires many companies to use the French language will increase costs and could make it harder to serve clients. Bill 96 requires firms with more than 25 employees to conduct business primarily in French and to make sure other languages are spoken in the workplace as little as possible. The law also mandates that contracts be in French, even if both parties would prefer another language. Firms would have to justify to regulators if they recruit employees who speak a language other than French. Companies that violate the law face fines of up to $30,000 ($22,500 U.S.).
Hays, Kansas, Police Chief Don Scheibler says his officers did not "raid" the hospital room of Greg Bretz, 69, who is suffering from inoperable cancer, as media outlets reported in December. Rather, he said, they responded after a hospital worker reported Bretz for vaping marijuana to relieve his pain. Scheibler wants you to know cops didn't arrest Bretz for possession: They merely issued a citation. He further wants you to know that the officer later felt bad about the citation and requested that it be revoked. The citation wasn't revoked, though, until after local media reported on the incident.
Shots were fired into Michael Gill's Milwaukee home in two separate incidents in 2022. Both times, he reported the shootings to police. They haven't solved those crimes. But Gill did get a letter from the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office saying if it happened again, the house could be declared a nuisance and Gill fined. After a local TV station contacted the district attorney on Gill's behalf, the station was told the letter had been sent in error.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of March for Life U.K., has been charged with four counts of failing to comply with a "public space protection order" when she was found silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham. The city has banned all forms of protest outside abortion clinics. Vaughan-Spruce was carrying no signs or photos.
Agriculture accounts for about half of New Zealand's exports. The nation is the largest dairy exporter in the world. But farmers are warning that could change if the government adopts a planned tax on the "emissions" of their cattle: burps, farts, and excrement. Government officials said the tax is part of their plan to cut methane emissions 10 percent by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2050.
Makayla Crandall, a school health technician at Florida's Destin Middle School, was charged with three counts of grand theft of a controlled substance, five counts of child neglect, and one count of failure to maintain narcotics records. Crandall reportedly stole prescription medicines she was supposed to be holding for and administering to students. In some cases, she replaced the medicines with over-the-counter pain relievers.
The French government will ban flights between cities connected by trains if the train trip takes less than two and a half hours. Officials said the move is aimed at increasing train ridership and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The ban is slated to last three years, but it could be extended.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says his government will introduce legislation that will allow the Office of Communications to regulate streaming services such as Netflix and to fine them up to £250,000 ($308,000 U.S.) for violating a code of conduct. Sunak's announcement follows the airing on Netflix of a documentary on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry that was criticized for inaccuracies and allegedly misleading editing.
The Scottish government has proposed five bills it claims would fight "misogynistic behavior." The bills would bar men from watching porn where others might see it or shouting sexually abusive language towards women on the street. They would also ban men from making inflammatory remarks about women online or having "loud, graphic sexual conversations about women in a public place." Those found guilty of violating these laws would face up to seven years in prison.
Statues of "powerful, older, able-bodied white men" such as the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson may be "offensive" to Wales' more diverse modern population, according a government report. That report, which is expected to be approved later this month, recommends that statues, plaques and paintings honoring such historical figures be moved or covered or destroyed. It also recommends that streets and place names honoring such men be changed to avoid giving offense and better reflect the nation's current diversity.
Parents of students at Christopher Whitehead Language College, a secondary school in England, are upset that the school replaced the mirrors in the girls' restrooms with posters with messages such as "beauty is nothing without brains" and "make-up is a harmful drug." School officials insist the move is temporary and was done only because some girls were congregating in front of the mirrors and blocking access to the toilets.
A New York judge has vacated the conviction of Sheldon Thomas, who spent 18 years in prison for murder. Thomas was arrested after New York City police officers showed a witness a photo of another man with the same name and she identified him. They then arrested Thomas. An investigation found that the detectives knew there were two men with the same name but were intent on arresting Thomas and used the identification of the other man as a pretext. The same witness later identified Thomas in a lineup, meaning she identified two different men as the suspect.
Kary Jarvis spent more than a year behind bars after a traffic stop left two Daytona Beach, Florida, police officers injured and Jarvis facing multiple felony charges. But when a judge finally saw video of the stop and what followed she ruled that "Mr. Jarvis was unlawfully detained after his first denial of consent. Had officers allowed Mr. Jarvis to leave, as he was entitled to, no one would have gotten hurt. The injuries resulted from the officers' own illegal activity." Video showed officers initially gave Jarvis a warning but asked to search his vehicle. He refused. And he refused multiple times when they repeated the request. The officers ordered him out of his vehicle and prepared to search it. Jarvis asked if he could watch. When they said he could not, he got back in and drove off, injuring the officers as they tried to stop him. After the judge's ruling, prosecutors dropped all charges against Jarvis, who is now suing the police department.
The New York City Department of Transportation botched a sign for the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Queens. The sign spells the baseball player's name "Jakie Robinson." "This spelling mistake is absurd," City Councilman Robert Holden said. "You don't have a few eyes looking at these signs? DOT is a mess.
Two Clearwater, Florida, paramedics, who weren't named by media, have been suspended after pronouncing a man dead when he wasn't actually dead. Phebe Maxwell called for help when her father went into cardiac arrest. When the paramedics arrived, they took his pulse and pronounced him dead even as Phebe pointed out he was still breathing. The paramedics insisted that it was just gases escaping the body and left. A sheriff's deputy who arrived to investigate the death noticed the man was still breathing and called for EMTs. This time, EMTs from Largo responded and rushed the man to the hospital.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security inspector general's report has found the Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement
In Georgia, the Forsyth County school system has agreed to pay the legal fees of a group of mothers who sued to overturn a system policy that
Spanish Secretary of State for Transport Isabel Pardo de Vera and Isaías Táboas, head of the state-owned railroad company Renfe, have resigned after Renfe
In Florida, Orange County Public Schools has placed Howard Middle School teacher Ethan Hooper on leave while it looks into politically oriented videos he posted to TikTok that were shot in school and involved school students. One video indicated the school system was banning books including the dictionary. In another, white students bowed down to black students. Some of the students appeared to be amused by what was going on. "I am appalled at the behavior and judgment of the teacher who posted the inappropriate videos using his students as political props," said Superintendent Maria Vazquez in a statement. "This is not free speech — it is the exploitation of our students for political purposes and it will not be tolerated in our school district."
A judge has ordered the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) to return 13 birds it seized from falconer Holly Lamar. The agency seized the birds and confiscated some of her equipment, days after she filed a complaint against one of its agents for failing to respond to her requests for information for months and giving her conflicting information when the agent did respond. Three months later the agency charged her with 30 misdemeanors, mostly for failing to report the purchase or sale of a bird or to report the purchase or sale in a timely manner. "I feel that the defendant's Constitutional rights have been violated in (an) egregious manner,"the judge said. "For the state to come in…after a complaint has been rendered about an employee and ask for a search warrant is an overreach of the government. Going in and taking someone's property that's not justified and then holding it for two months and bringing criminal charges later is an abuse of the law. The state is further concerned about potential for malicious prosecution." After the judge's ruling, the district attorney dropped all charges against Lamar.
Less than two weeks after a driver rammed into one of the bedrooms of his Austin, Texas, home, Chris Newby got a letter from the city telling him his house was now in violation of city code and that he had 30 days to get it repaired or he faced $2,000 a day in fines. The letter was dated on the day the driver smashed into Newby's home. City officials said the building inspector was notified about the accident by the fire department and that it is city policy to send such letters after a house is damaged. "This was a catastrophic incident and they wanted to ensure that the homeowners were safe and the building was safe," said Matthew Noriega, a division manager with the Austin Code Department.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is looking into an incident in which a Paulding County sheriff's deputy threw a man to the ground. Officials said Deputy Michael McMaster was investigating a report of someone breaking into cars. He saw Tyler Canaris walking nearby and thought he matched the description of the suspect. Dashcam video showed that McMaster immediately told Canaris to take his hands out of his pockets even though his hands weren't in his pockets. Canaris, who said he was walking to work, asked what he had done wrong. McMaster responded by telling him to take off his backpack "before you go on the ground." Canaris pleads his innocence but does not appear to resist. Still, McMaster lifted him up and slammed him to the road. Canaris was not charged with breaking into cars but was charged with obstruction. The incident happened in March 2022, but the sheriff's office did not ask the GBI to investigate until the video was released recently.
After protests from students, the Milford, New Hampshire, school board has backed off a plan to ban students from using urinals in school restrooms. The ban was part of a compromise to allow trans students to use the restrooms of the gender they identify with and not their biological sex. Other parts of the compromise, such as limiting the occupancy of restrooms, will remain in place.
A production of Waiting for Godot at the University of Groningen, a public university in the Netherlands, has been canceled after university officials found out only men had been auditioned for the cast. All of the characters in the play are men. A university spokesperson acknowledged that author Samuel Beckett said the play should be performed only by men, a rule still enforced by Beckett's estate. But the spokesperson added that "times have changed. And that the idea that only men are suitable for this role is outdated and even discriminatory." The student group presenting the play said it is considering offers it has had from other venues in the city to stage the play.
The Anchorage, Alaska, school system has reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to stop placing students with disabilities in seclusion and to restrain them only if there is imminent danger of them causing harm to themselves or other persons. A federal investigation accused the school system of inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint of disabled students.
Indian tax officials raided the offices of the BBC in New Delhi and Mumbai. The raids came weeks after the Indian government declared a BBC documentary on deadly 2002 riots in the state of Gujarat to be propaganda and used emergency powers to ban it from YouTube, Twitter, and other social media. In the documentary, then-British foreign secretary Jack Straw and others accuse current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was chief minister of Gujarat in 2002, of condoning violence against Muslims. The riots left more than 1,000 dead.
The Welsh government has
Juniors at New York City's Edward R. Murrow High School told the New York Post they were told to read "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "The Tortoise and the Hare" for their American literature course. They were asked to answer basic questions and write a one-sentence summary of each work. A Department of Education spokesman declined to answer questions about it, but he tweeted that the assignment was preparing students for tougher work, to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and answer similar questions. Students in the class told the newspaper they didn't actually read The Scarlet Letter but a seven-page summary of the novel.
While attorney Matt Tucker was in a hospital bed recovering from a stroke, Clayton County, Georgia, Judge Shana Rooks Malone was attacking him on national TV on the Law & Crime network, saying she was going to hold him in contempt for missing court. Tucker was representing a woman in a murder case. He had a stroke two days before jury selection was supposed to begin. Tucker claims his office emailed the judge to let her know. His client told the judge in court about Tucker's medical emergency, and Tucker said he doesn't understand why Malone didn't believe the client.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed and other elected officials have criticized the city Elections Commission's decision not to renew the contract of Elections Director John Arntz. By their account, he took over a troubled department 20 years ago and turned it around, running smooth and fair elections. "Our decision wasn't about your performance, but after twenty years we wanted to take action on the City's racial equity plan and give people an opportunity to compete for a leadership position," said commission President Chris Jerdonek in an email to Arntz, who is white. The commission eventually changed course and is set to vote in January on a five-year renewal for Arntz.
A court in Fiji has found attorney Richard Naidu guilty of contempt of court for a Facebook post in which he pointed out a misspelling in a court decision. Naidu had been tapped by the National Federation Party, an opposition party, as a candidate for the December 14 election for the legislature. But the conviction barred him from running.
City officials in Des Moines, Iowa, have agreed to pay $125,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by Daniel Robbins, who was detained for filming police officers who were illegally parked. They did not arrest him, but they did seize his phone and camera and only returned them two weeks later after his lawyer demanded it.
A Nigerian court has sentenced Mubarak Isa Muhammed and Muhammed Bula to 20 lashes each, fined them $25 each, and ordered them to clean the court building for 30 days after they pleaded guilty to mocking a government official. The duo made a TikTok video making fun of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, governor of Kano State, for alleged corruption and sleeping on the job.
Christine Gauthier, a paraplegic former member of the Canadian Army, told members of the House of Commons in December that she contacted Veterans Affairs Canada trying to find out why it was taking so long to get a wheelchair ramp in her home. She said she got a letter back offering her assisted suicide instead. "I have a letter saying that if you're so desperate, madam, we can offer you MAID, medical assistance in dying," said Gauthier. Gauthier said she has been trying to get the ramp for five years.
The Simpson County, Mississippi, school district has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit brought by the family of a then-third-grader barred from wearing a face mask with the phrase "Jesus Loves Me" on it. There was actually no policy against wearing such a mask when her principal told Lydia Booth to take it off in 2020. But two days later, the school system adopted a policy banning messages on masks that were "political, religious, sexual or inappropriate symbols, gestures or statements that may be offensive, disruptive or deemed distractive to the school environment." Under the settlement, the school system agreed to remove that policy and no longer require students to wear masks.
Centennial Elementary School in Washington has backed off a plan to create a "safe space" club open only to "black, indigenous and people of color" students. After the club was announced, several white students expressed an interest in joining. Meanwhile, some parents said the idea of a racially segregated club promoted racial division.
During questioning by members of the British Parliament, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston apologized to Royal Air Force Group Capt. Lizzy Nicholl, who resigned as head of recruitment after
New York State Trooper Edward Longo has been charged with
Historical reenactors say new rules effectively ban reenactments of battles at state-owned historical sites in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission said it will no longer permit reenactments of "simulated warfare or violence between opposing forces" on sites it controls. Last year, the commission asked the organizers of the annual reenactment of the Battle of Bushy Run, which took place in the colonial era between British troops and American Indians, to cancel it because non-Indians are allowed to play Indians. The reenactment, which has taken place for 40 years, typically draws around 1,500 spectators.
The Chicago Police Department confirms two officers are back on the street after serving brief suspensions for beating a prisoner in his cell. Video appeared to show Jerold Williams striking the prisoner with his fists while Delgado Fernandez held the man down. Williams received a 15-day suspension and Fernandez got a 10-day suspension. The victim, Damien Stewart, filed a civil suit against the police department and received a $45,000 settlement.
Around 1.5 million English households use wood-burning heaters, stoves and fireplaces, and many of those homeowners could face fines and criminal charges under new rules adopted by the government. The government has reduced the amount of particulate matter wood-burning stoves and heaters are allowed to emit and given local governments the power to issue spot fines of up to £300 ($360 U.S.) to those whose chimneys emit too much. The new rules also allow local governments to pursue criminal charges against repeat offenders or those who do not pay their fines.
A group of students from a Catholic school in South Carolina and their chaperones were kicked out of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., in January because they were wearing hats that said "pro-life." The group had just attended a pro-life rally. When a South Carolina TV station asked about the incident, a museum spokesperson said, "Asking visitors to remove hats and clothing is not in keeping with our policy or protocols. We provided immediate training to prevent a re-occurrence of this kind of incident, and have determined steps to ensure this does not happen again."
New York City prosecutors had some 550 convictions in cases investigated by police officer Joseph Franco thrown out, most involving low-level drug offenses. Franco was charged with perjury and misconduct after investigators in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office found video they said showed several drug buys Franco claimed to witness did not happen, or he was not in a position to see them if they did. Now, a judge has dismissed the charges against Franco after finding prosecutors failed to turn over evidence to the defense as required on at least three occasions. The evidence includes surveillance videos, cellphones from people he arrested and recordings of interviews with a prosecution witness. The charges were dismissed with prejudice, meaning Franco cannot be charged for the same crimes again.
Vera Liddell, former director of food services at Harvey School District 152 in Illinois, has been charged with financial crimes and theft. The Cook County State's Attorney's office said Liddell embezzled some $1.5 million in chicken wings from the school system. Liddell placed orders for the food from July 2020 to February 2022 through the school's food vendor. And she picked it up in a school van. But the orders weren't authorized. The district doesn't even serve wings. The theft was discovered through a routine audit. Authorities said they still aren't sure what she did with the wings.
Hialeah, Florida, police officers Rafael Quinones Otano and Lorenzo Rafael Orfila have been fired and charged with armed kidnapping and battery. Orfila has also been charged with official misconduct. Prosecutors said that after a shopkeeper called police to complain about a homeless man bothering people, the two drove that vagrant to a wooded area almost seven miles away, then knocked him out and left him there. They later sent a private eye to find the man and give him $1,350 in exchange for signing an affidavit saying he wasn't beaten and that he did not want the officers punished.
Last year, New York City Mayor Eric Adams pledged to use $1 million in federal funds to transform vacant newsstands into places where bicycle delivery riders can rest, repair their bikes and recharge e-bikes. But one of the first newsstands targeted for the program is still currently in use. Ullah and Mostack Bhuiyan have owned and operated the Navila Newsstand in the Bronx since 2008. But the city Parks Department, which owns the site, said the duo's lease will expire at the end of March, and the lease will not be put back out to bid. "The mayor's office contacted me and said there was an empty, underused newsstand they wanted to use," said Rafael Moure-Punnett, district manager for Bronx Community Board 6. "I said, 'But it's not vacant!' It seems like they had this mission from the beginning, and they weren't going to let the facts get in the way."
The Indian government has declared a BBC documentary on deadly 2002 riots in the state of Gujarat to be propaganda and used emergency powers to ban it from YouTube, Twitter and other social media. Students at Jawaharlal Nehru University gathered for a screening of the documentary but someone cut the power. Current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat back in 2002, and many Muslims accused him of condoning violence against them. The riots left more than 1,000 dead.
For the past seven years, Brevard County, Florida, Sheriff Wayne Ivey has hosted a weekly Wheel of Fugitive "game show" on Facebook in which he picks a fugitive of the week and asks viewers to keep an eye out for that person. David Austin Gay, who was featured on four episodes of the show in 2021, has sued Ivey, claiming he was not a fugitive at the time and lost a job because Ivey identified him as one on the show. In fact, a local newspaper found that Gay was one of 60 "fugitives" featured in episodes that aired between February 2020 and February 2021 who were in jail at the time the episode aired, had no active warrant, or were already free.
Even as the National Health Service struggles with a shortage of doctors, the British government has ordered medical schools to hold to a previously announced cap and admit no more than 7,500 medical students this year. The cap was put in place to limit the cost of educating medical students. It costs the government £160,000 (about $200,000) to educate each new physician. Medical schools face financial penalties if they admit too many students.
Addis, Louisiana, police officer David Cauthron has been charged with two counts of negligent homicide and one count of negligent injuring for his role in a high-speed chase on New Year's Eve that left two teens dead. The chase started after a man stole a family member's car. Cauthron reportedly ran a red light and slammed into an unrelated vehicle in which the teens were riding.
It took Rich Martinez six years, $30,000, and an act of the Kansas Legislature, but he finally got his 1959 Corvette back from the Kansas Highway Patrol. His ordeal began in 2016, when he bought the vehicle for $50,000 and tried to register it. The firm that had restored the car had placed the vehicle identification number plate back on with rivets instead of the required Phillips screws, so the state seized it out of suspicion it might have been stolen. It sustained an estimated $28,000 in damages while in the government's care.
A federal jury has found Clayton County, Georgia, Sheriff Victor Hill guilty on six of seven charges of violating the rights of jail inmates. Hill ordered deputies to place inmates in restraint chairs for lengthy periods of time as a form of punishment, even though the inmates had complied with deputies' orders. The chairs are supposed to be used only to prevent violent inmates from hurting themselves or others, not for discipline.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided not to wait for Parliament to pass the gun control bill that lawmakers have been debating since May. In October he announced an immediate freeze on the sale, transfer, and import of handguns.
In November, Massachusetts implemented a ban on throwing away mattresses, bedding, clothing, shoes, curtains, and towels. Officials said it's part of an effort to reduce waste in landfills. The new regulations have an exception for material that has mold or has been contaminated with bodily fluids, oil, hazardous substances, or insects.
Two plainclothes Montreal police officers were patrolling a shopping center when, they say, they spotted a car that appeared to have a damaged lock. As they were investigating it, a man attempted to take the car. They handcuffed the man and detained him, suspecting he was trying to steal it. After they realized he owned the car, they tried to release him—and realized that neither of them had keys to the handcuffs. They had to call for nearby officers to come unlock the cuffs.
The city of Delray Beach, Florida, has fired firefighter Brandon Hagans for reporting an elderly man was dead when he actually wasn't and then lying about his actions. A report found Hagans looked at the man's body for six seconds from a doorway during a routine call before calling the scene in as a death. Workers who came to the home over an hour later to remove the body found the man was still alive.
Mooresville, North Carolina, officials have ordered Josh's Farmers Market out of its location on two acres at a local YMCA. The farmers market is open only at specific times of the year. City officials nevertheless say it is a "full-time retail establishment," not an "outdoor seasonal market," and therefore must be kept inside a building. The YMCA has accrued $1,500 in fines for allowing the farmers market to operate.
A former Louisville, Kentucky, police officer used department software to help him hack the Snapchat accounts of young women to obtain sexually explicit photos and videos. Bryan Wilson provided data he obtained on the women to a hacker, who then broke into their accounts. Wilson then used those photos and videos to attempt to extort more sexually explicit material from the women. He has pleaded guilty to cyberstalking.
Poulsbo, Washington, city prosecutor Alexis Foster resigned following a no confidence vote from the union representing the city's police officers as well as criticism from the city's police chief and mayor. Foster's sin? She informed a court that a protection order request to seize a gun from a woman that had been filed by a city police officer contained false information. County prosecutors agreed with Foster and added the officer to the county's Brady list, a record of officers who have been documented to have given false information. An investigation found the misinformation was added by a police department social worker. The report said the officer did not spot the mistake and did not actually intend to file false information. Foster actually agreed with that assessment, and the officer was not otherwise disciplined. But she said the law required that the false statement be reported regardless of the officer's intent.
The Waterbury, Connecticut, police department has fired officer James Hinkle for screaming at and berating a woman who drove through an intersection where he was directing traffic. Hinkle accused the woman of almost running him over, but in the video he appeared to be a few feet from her and actually ran towards the vehicle and slapped it when she entered the intersection. "I got two kids at home waiting for me to come home tonight," Hinkle shouted at her.