A person with a gun and a government badge asked me to swear in writing that a lie was true today. And when I didn't do what she wanted she simply took my boat and asked me to leave.

"Why pay taxes?" asked Fred Phillips, who owes more than $2,600 on his home on an east-side block where five owners paid 2011 taxes. "Why should I send them taxes when they aren't supplying services? It is sickening. … Every time I see the tax bill come, I think about the times we called and nobody came."

Police arrested the mother who hired two strippers for her son's 16th birthday party. Judy H. Viger was charged with five counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Endangering the welfare of a child is a misdemeanor that can carry a prison sentence up to one year. According to the law, endangerment occurs when a person "knowingly acts in a manner likely to be injurious to the physical, mental or moral welfare of a child less than 17 years old.

The appeals court also found that restricting distribution of literature to jurors summoned for jury duty was legally permissible, and that Schmidter’s conviction for contempt on those grounds should be upheld. Schmidter was re-sentenced today to serve 145 days in the Orange County Jail, and was immediately taken into custody.

The federal government's mail transport and delivery agency this week said it will roll out a line of apparel and accessories it plans to sell in department and specialty stores. The "Rain Heat & Snow" brand of clothing, named after the Postal Service's motto trumpeting its carriers' determination to overcome whatever Mother Nature can throw at them, would put USPS in the "cutting edge of functional fashion," it said.