This week proved rather gruesome for teachers and students alike. In Illinois, Linda Walker (shown here) decided not only to hang herself but to do it in her kindergarten class. In France, a high school math teacher set herself on fire in the playground during the recreation period full of children.
Continue reading “School Horrors: Teacher in France Lights Herself On Fire on Playground While A Teacher in Illinois Hangs Herself in Her Classroom”
Category: Bizarre
This video may be the ultimate chop shop. I ran across it on YouTube and was mesmerized by the sight of a 1985 Dodge Daytona being devoured by an industrial shredder.
Continue reading “Gone in 60 Seconds”
We may be watching civil liberties and federal programs fall like leaves in Montpelier, but Senator Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) is moving aggressively to address the need for yet another federal crime . . . the crime mislabeling products as containing maple syrup. That’s right, despite criticism of the over-criminalization of America (here and here and here), we need to add a federal law on maple syrup mobsters.
Continue reading “Ending Molasses Mayhem: Leahy Moves To Make False Labeling of Maple Syrup A Crime”
We have yet another grotesque pension story involving a city struggling with financial woes. This one is out of my home town of Chicago. Charles LoVerde III, a former trustee of the city laborers’ pension fund, will receive three pensions for the same time period totaling nearly $500,000 a year — that’s right, three pensions for the period. The triple crown of pensions was also won by union official, Liberato “Al” Naimoli, would will receive $438,000 a year. Since he is only 59 years old, he stands to rake in at least $9 million over his expected lifetime.
Continue reading “Pension Trifecta Winners: Chicago Labor Officials Set To Receive Pensions As High As $500,000 a Year in “Charitable Interpretation” of State Law”
We have been following the lawsuit against the FBI after an agent destroyed a $750,000 Ferrari on what was described as a joyride. FBI agent Fred Kingston was accused of taking out a stolen 1995 Ferrari F50 — one of only 50 such cars in the United States. Kingston was instructed to move the car from the FBI garage and so Kingston reportedly called Assistant US Attorney J. Hamilton Thompson to come along for the ride. The agent ended up crashing the car — causing $750,000 but now the Justice Department insists that it is not liable for the damage. This week the court agreed and dismissed the case — leaving the FBI with little deterrent for the negligent damage to private property. There has been no mention of any discipline for Kingston — beyond having to drive his own car. As for the prosecutor, his office prevailed in establishing a rule that even a joyride fits within the discretion of the government.
Police are searching for two men shown below after a shocking video was posted on the Internet showing an attack on a woman at a strip mall in Sacramento. The attackers wanted to show others how they attacked this woman — listing the credit first as “Dylan G The Kid” and later as “Rhekidd.” Here is the video.
Continue reading “Sacramento Police Search For Men Who Beat Disabled Woman on Video”
. Joseph Sun, the actor who played Random Task in the first Austin Powers film, Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, has outdone himself. Serving for life for one felony count of torture, Sun is now accused of murdering his prison cellmate, a sex offender at the Wasco State Prison.
Continue reading “Random Task: Austin Powers Actor Charged With Murder of Cellmate”
A Georgia teacher, Ashley Payne, has lost her lawsuit seeking damages after she said she was forced out due to a Facebook picture taken of her drinking in Europe. A teacher or parent had filed an anonymous complaint against Payne for photos showing her holding drinks in Europe — not normally a shocking image.
Continue reading “Georgia Court Rules Against Teacher Who Lost Job After Posting Facebook Pictures Drinking in Europe”
This is an amazing video that one of our regular readers sent to me. It shows a boy falling from a high escalator only to be caught by a passing man in what could have been a crippling or fatal fall.
Continue reading “Video: Man Catches Boy In Fall From Escalator”
As complaints rise over mass arrests by Boston police in the Occupy Boston protests, Mayor Thomas Menino decided to add a rather draconian note by announcing ” “Civil disobedience will not be tolerated.” It was a moment reminiscent of former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announcing in the 1968 Democratic Convention protests that “the policeman isn’t there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”
Continue reading “Boston Mayor: Civil Disobedience Will Not Be Tolerated”
You know the economy is in a free fall when repo men are taking away city property for failing to make their bills. That was the scene this week when DTE Energy officials ordered the repossession of street lights from the city of Highland Park due to overdue bills.
Continue reading “City Lights Repossessed For Failure To Pay Utility Bills”
I have seen a few angry lawyers in court, but Chicago Thomas Guadagno, 66, may take the cake. Guadagno has agreed to a month suspension of his license after calling opposing counsel “gay scum” and a “child molester,” among other bizarre statements.
Continue reading “Chicago Lawyer Faces Suspension Over Calling Other Attorney “Gay Scum” and “Child Molester””
For those who have complained about the growing “nanny state” laws in the European Union, it may not come as a surprise that your kid now needs a nanny to blow up your balloon or blow a whistle. Under new EU rules, balloons can no longer be blown up by unsupervised children under the age of eight as well as prohibitions on other party favorites for young children like whistle blowers.
Continue reading “EU Bans Unsupervised Children Blowing Up Balloons”
Chris White, 45, has become the latest victim in a trend in the United States (here) and England cracking down on citizens taking pictures in public. In White’s case, he was simply taking pictures of his daughter at a shopping center in Glasgow, Scotland when he was detained as a possible terrorist threat.
Continue reading “Toddler or Terrorist? Father Detained For Taking Picture of Daughter in Mall”
An assistant law professor Jason Huber of the Charlotte School of Law in North Carolina has filed an ethics complaint against four Crowell & Moring lawyers in a rather novel case. He accuses the lawyers of suggesting that inbreeding could be responsible for Appalachian birth defects found in a study of mountaintop mining.
Continue reading “Law Professor Files Ethics Complaint Against Crowell & Moring Lawyers For Inbreeding Remark”