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A Dollar Short

From an article in the Nebraska newspaper Grand Island Independent on a woman named Sherri LeGrand: "LeGrand was fined $169 in May after her guilty plea to a reduced count of disturbing the peace. But when she sent her daughter to deliver the check on the June 29 deadline, the amount was a dollar short.... LeGrand said she spent more than two-hours in a holding cell until a staff member realized the warrant was for $1. Jailers then took up a collection to pay LeGrand's fine, and she was released."

Impersonating an Actor

From a wire service article in The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin, on a New York man who allegedly made and sold fake police badges: "Elliot Sash, forty-four, was charged with eleven counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, one count of criminal sale of a police uniform, and one count of unlawful use of a police uniform.... Sash did have another career--he has appeared as an extra in the television show Law and Order. His role? A police officer."

Singing Cowboy Saga

From Pioneer Planet out of the Twin Cities: "Fritz Herring, a seventy-three-year-old barbershop-quartet member and independent singing-telegram deliverer, spent twelve hours in jail Monday after Hennepin County sheriff's deputies caught him going into the Government Center dressed as a cowboy with a fake metal revolver strapped into a holster filled with dummy bullets. He was supposed to deliver a birthday song to a supervisor.... `They thought I was deranged, and that I was coming in to kill a,judge,' Herring said. `I said the gun was a dummy. And they kept asking questions about my mental health, if I'd ever been in an insane asylum, if I was on medication, or if I had thoughts about suicide.'"

A Terrible Thing to Waste

From a New Scientist blurb published in the New Internationalise. "The U.S. is developing land mines that move around to avoid the crews that clear mine-fields. The self-righting mines will detect the distance to their neighbors using ultrasonic sensors and communicate with each other via radio. If some mines are removed or destroyed, the remaining mines will sense that they are missing and move around until they form a regular pattern."

Militia Tax Blast

From an Associated Press story that appeared in The Stevens Point Journal datelined Bancroft, Michigan, on a Michigan Militia "Tax Blast" event: "Dr. Carmen Steigman resented the $50,000 in taxes she paid this year so much she took a five-inch bullet to an IRS form. She was among seventy-five people who paid $2 per bullet to fire a .50-caliber Browning rifle--a weapon used to stop military tanks--into tax forms pinned up as targets for the recent `Tax Blast.' `Yes, it was kind of gratifying,' said Steigman, a pathologist. `It was like, "Here, Uncle Sam, this is for you."' ... Since 1995, the Militia and other groups have used the event to recruit members."

War Games, I

From a Philadelphia Inquirer TV listing for the TBS program called War Games: "Four types of exercises will be shown in this entertainment special that promises a realistic look at how U.S. forces maintain readiness. The host is football guy Howie Long."

War Games, II

From Labor Notes: "The Executive Enterprise Institute is calling its anti-union seminars `Union Avoidance "War Games."' EEI's brochure for the $1,295 two-day program pictures a falling bomb and the warning: `Don't be lulled into a false sense of security--this is war.'"

Phantom Classes

From the on-line edition of the Miami Herald on five former and current Southwest High School coaches who allegedly created phony courses that netted them $25,000 in overtime pay: "The coaches are accused of creating phantom classes and awarding grades--mostly As--to athletes who never attended."

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