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The Latest Breaking News from Brickbat

The Houston Police Department halted more than 260,000 investigations between 2016 and 2023 because of a lack of personnel. Now, department leaders say they will try to catch up on those investigations, especially the 4,017 rape cases that were put on hold. Police officials said they did not realize just…

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Brickbat: What a Nice Idea!

In the United Kingdom, a National Health Service survey found that 26 percent of people in Cheshire and Merseyside who tried to book a dental appointment in the last two years were unsuccessful, and 20 percent of Cheshire and Merseyside residents who did get to see a dentist rated the…

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Brickbat: Worth Every Penny

In California, Cajon Valley Union Superintendent David Miyashiro ran up nearly $400,000 in charges on his school district credit card between May 2022 and March 2024. Miyashiro spent thousands of dollars for professional conferences and memberships in education associations, while also spending $76,000 on hotels, $30,000 on airfare, $10,000 on…

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Brickbat: Driving Me Crazy

David O'Connor is a Navy veteran who spent many years as a commercial truck driver. He's had standard and commercial driver's licenses in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and for the past eight years, in Tennessee. But when he went to renew his license and get a REAL ID, Tennessee…

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Brickbat: Turning Over a New Leaf

The New York legislature is looking at a bill that would ban the sale of gasoline-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers in the state. If passed, the bill would require rules to enforce the ban by Jan. 1, 2025.

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Brickbat: Are You Sure That's You?

A federal judge has awarded $1.5 million to a family after their two children, a boy and a girl who are U.S. citizens, were wrongly detained at the U.S.-Mexico in 2019. The family lives in Mexico, but the children attend school in the United States. As they attempted to cross…

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Brickbat: You Don't Want To See This

For almost eight years, California law enforcement officials kept a death in police custody secret, labeling the case an "accident" and refusing to disclose basic information to journalists and the family of the victim, according to an investigation by Open Vallejo. Darryl Mefferd had seemed disoriented and dehydrated and was…

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Brickbat: Close Enough for the Feds

Federal agents arrested Penny McCarthy at gunpoint outside her home in Phoenix. They insisted that she was Carole Anne Rozak, a fugitive wanted on a 1999 warrant for probation violation in Oklahoma. At first, the U.S. Marshals Service said McCarthy's fingerprints matched Rozak's, but they later admitted the prints did…

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Brickbat: Baby, You Can't Drive Your Car

German Transport Minister Volker Wissing has warned lawmakers he will ban driving on weekends if they cannot agree to a planned amendment to the nation's Climate Protection Act. Wissing said that is the only way to meet the emissions goals called for in the law. Negotiations over the amendment have…

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Brickbat: Keeping Drugs Off the Street

Tressa Beltran, former police chief of Hartford, Michigan, has been charged with multiple felonies, including delivery of narcotics, larceny, extortion, using a computer to commit a crime, embezzlement over $50 by a public official, and three counts of drug possession. Beltran reportedly admitted stealing from the drug disposal box at…

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Brickbat: Missed It by That Much

In May 2023, the St. Louis County SWAT team used a battering ram to knock down the door to Brittany Shamily's home in Ferguson, Missouri. Cops detained her and her family while they ransacked the place, searching for evidence related to a carjacking that had happened earlier that day. One…

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Brickbat: Fighting Fire

Sherri Chance's son called 911 when he noticed flames shooting out of the clothes dryer at their home in DeKalb County, Georgia. He expected a quick response since there was a fire station just two miles away, but he was put on hold—for 41 minutes. Family members and neighbors tried…

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Brickbat: Paint It Black

Victor Silva Sr. says he used to paint over graffiti on the fence of his home in Oakland, California. But the 102-year-old adds that since he has been confined to a wheelchair that has been difficult. City officials don't seem to have any sympathy for Silva's plight: They sent him…

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Brickbat: Science Doesn't Lie, but Scientists Do

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says it has found that former CBI forensic scientist Yvonne "Missy" Woods manipulated data in the DNA testing process or posted incomplete test results in hundreds of cases. The CBI says it has found 652 cases affected by Woods' work between 2008 and 2023,…

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Brickbat: Unsafe at Home

Mayor Earl Johnson of Andalusia, Alabama, has apologized to Twyla Stallworth after an officer entered her home and arrested her for not showing her identification. Under Alabama law, police officers can only demand ID from someone who is in a public place and has committed a crime or whom they…

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Brickbat: Pint-Sized Prison

A girl in the United Kingdom's Wetherby Young Offender Institution twice had her clothes removed while being restrained by an all-male team of prison officers, according to a report by the Inspectorate of Prisons. The girl was reportedly trying to use her clothes to harm herself. Wetherby is a correctional…

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Brickbat: Swift Justice

King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion said she won't file felony charges against Officer Kevin Dave of the Seattle Police Department, who fatally struck Jaahnavi Kandula with his patrol car in January 2023. "Our legal analysis reveals that the PAO (Prosecuting Attorney's Office) lacks sufficient evidence to prove beyond a…

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Brickbat: Taking the Piss

A man says he was threatened with arrest after his dog urinated on a public street in Bournemouth, England. Steve Schuurman said an "aggressive" female Dorset police officer shouted at him to "clear your fucking dog piss." Schuurman said he would have cleaned up if his dog had defecated but…

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Brickbat: Watch What You Say

In Canada, Charlie Angus, a New Democratic Party member of Parliament, has introduced a bill that would make it illegal "to promote a fossil fuel, a fossil fuel-related brand element or the production of a fossil fuel." Regular citizens who violate the act would face a fine of up to…

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Brickbat: Royal Trouble

An appeals court in Thailand has sentenced democracy activist Mongkol Thirakot to 50 years in prison for Facebook posts he made that were critical of the country's monarchy. A trial court had sentenced him to 28 years, but the appellate court found him guilty on 11 more counts during his…

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Brickbat: Taking Their Word for It

Canadian officials said that, on second thought, they aren't going to block Maria Kartasheva from becoming a citizen. Just before she was due to take her oath of citizenship, an official informed her she'd been tried in absentia in Russia, her home country, and found guilty of "public dissemination of…

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Brickbat: Filed Away and Forgotten

Officials in Jackson County, Indiana, have agreed to pay $7.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a mentally ill man who starved to death over 20 days while being held in solitary confinement at a local jail. Joshua McLemore was found lying naked and confused on…

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Brickbat: Making It Up As We Go Along

A report by the New Brunswick, Canada, auditor general's office found that the provincial Department of Public Health could not provide documentation to support any of a sample of 33 policy recommendations it made during the COVID-19 pandemic. "The department was unable to provide requested documentation, acknowledging that they 'did…

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Brickbat: Sorry, I'm Late for an Appointment

In Putnam County, West Virginia, a former U.S. Postal Service carrier faces up to one year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine after pleading guilty to desertion of mail. Michael Burdette reportedly tossed a total of more than 200 pieces of mail into a service station dumpster on two…

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Brickbat: The (Artificial) Grass Is Greener

In 2015, in the midst of a drought, California lawmakers banned cities and counties from prohibiting synthetic grass. The logic behind the law was that artificial turf was better for the environment because it saved water. But state lawmakers now argue artificial turf is bad for the environment because it…

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