Michael Martin is used to getting compliments on the botanical bonanza he has cultivated, mulched and pampered along his leafy, residential lot on the Near West Side.

But one anonymous complaint set Madison's inspection apparatus in motion and kept Martin in thrall for two weeks, an experience that mustered supportive neighbors.

"I know the city has to respond, and all this is complaint-driven, but they don't have to act on it," she said. "Too many people can use that as a way to get back at their neighbor. One anonymous complaint can be very manipulative."

The man who chased down a suspected child abductor and saved a 6-year-old girl from what could have been a horrible fate was honored as a hero Friday. But he is also gaining a new kind of celebrity: as a poster child of sorts for immigration rights in state and national immigration debates.

In the North Carolina town of Tar Heel, residents won’t have to worry about Big Government. It’s looking like No Government. Nobody’s on the ballot for November elections, a county elections official told CNN Monday.

Until July 1, a low-income New Hampshire woman paid an average of $5 to fill a birth control pill prescription at any of the state's six Planned Parenthood clinics. She might have even gotten the birth control for free, depending on her poverty level.

But since the New Hampshire Executive Council voted to cancel the state's contract with Planned Parenthood, a woman now has to pay anywhere from $40 to over $100 for birth control pills at a regular pharmacy.

entire department must go through additional training.

Daily News @ RevolutionNews.US - Angry and exasperated by faulty foreclosure documents, judges throughout Florida are hitting back by increasingly dismissing cases and boldly accusing lawyers of "fraud upon the court."

A Palm Beach Post review of cases in state and appellate courts found judges are routinely dismissing cases for questionable paperwork. Although in most cases the bank is allowed to refile the case with the appropriate documents, in a growing number of cases judges are awarding homeowners their homes free and clear after finding fraud upon the court.

Fed up with what he views as crappy treatment from the TSA, the owner of a restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has decided to put all TSA agents on his No-Eat List.

Homeland security releases document telling officers to allow photography of government buildings. The document says, ""officers should not seize the camera or its contents, and must be cautious not to give such 'orders' to a photographer to erase the contents of a camera, as this constitutes a seizure or detention."

The backlash continues over those new TSA screening measures, and now one Central Florida airport has decided to go with a private security screening firm.

Orlando Sanford International Airport has decided to opt out from TSA screening.

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.
During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.