News & Blues 6/30

When Allen Nguyen, 22, tried to cash a winning $50 lottery ticket at
a convenience store in Winter Haven, Fla., the clerk recognized him as
the person who stole $70 worth of tickets the day before. The clerk
asked for Nguyen’s driver’s license and gave the information to Polk
County sheriff’s deputies, who arrested Nguyen. (Orlando Sentinel)

Police said Eugene Edward Palmer, 40, tried to rob a bank in
Brunswick, Fla., but gave up after yanking futilely on the locked door,
failing to realize the branch was drive-through only. Police Lt. Leon
Tucker said Palmer was armed and wore a ski mask during the attempted
robbery but took off the mask in frustration when leaving, giving
witnesses a good look at his face. (Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union)

Monkey with a Monkey On Its Back 

After spotting a rhesus macaque that has been loose in Florida’s
Hillsborough and Pinellas counties for more than a year, authorities
shot the monkey twice with tranquilizer darts, but it escaped again.
“The drugs just don’t seem to affect him for whatever reason. We’ve
increased the dosage every time that we’ve shot him,” wildlife
rehabilitator Vernon Yates said. “What we’re really doing is turning
him into a drug addict.” (The Tampa Tribune)

Slick Solutions

A scientist proposed protecting the Louisiana wetlands from British
Petroleum’s Gulf of Mexico oil slick by having the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers open existing dams to divert more water toward the mouth of
the Mississippi River. Calling the river “the biggest tool in the
toolbox,” marine scientist G. Paul Kemp, vice president of the National
Audubon Society’s Louisiana Coastal Initiative, explained upstream
flooding to increase the river’s flow into the Gulf could not only
block the inland flow of oil, but also help flush oil that has already
collected on the fringes of the marshes. (Popular Mechanics)

After Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., urged BP America President Lamar
McKay to resign, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-La., suggested a harsher
course of action. “In the Asian culture, we do things differently,” the
Vietnamese-American lawmaker told McKay. “During the Samurai days, we
just give you a knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri.” (CBS News)

Big Brother

After Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School District gave 1,800
high-school students laptop computers to “ensure that all students have
24/7 access to school-based resources,” the parents of Harriton High
student Blake J. Robbins filed a federal class-action lawsuit accusing
school authorities of secretly monitoring webcams embedded in the
laptops to spy on teens and their families at home. The family said
they learned of the webcams when Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko
reprimanded their son for “improper behavior in his home.” Robbins, 15,
said Matsko accused him of taking drugs after mistaking a piece of
candy in a webcam photo for a pill.

Because the webcam can capture anything happening in the room where
the laptop is turned on, district personnel could illicitly observe
more than a student’s online activity, according to the suit, which
charges, “Many of the images captured and intercepted may consist of
images of minors and their parents or friends in compromising or
embarrassing positions, including, but not limited to, in various
stages of dress or undress.”

The school district acknowledged remotely activating webcams 42
times but insisted it was merely trying to find missing, lost or stolen
computers. As soon as the lawsuit was filed, school district officials
promised the spycams had been “completely disabled.” (Philadelphia Daily News)

News and Blues is compiled from the nation’s press. To
contribute, submit original clippings, citing date and source, to
Roland Sweet in care of The New Times.