Published: November 03, 2009 06:45 pm      

Charles Oliver: It couldn't happen here?

For 10 years, Boulder, Colo., residents have staged the “pumpkin run” in which dozens of people wearing only tennis shoes and pumpkins on their heads run through downtown. Boulder police apparently didn’t approve of the tradition. They not only staged 40 patrol officers along the route, they placed two SWAT teams there as well. In addition, police chief Mark Beckner threatened that away caught streaking would be placed on the state’s sex offender list.

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In California, Linda Vista Elementary School recently held a jog-a-thon to raise money. As part of the advertising for the event, school officials had T-shirts made with a slogan in the form of 1-800 number with letters instead of numbers. But someone apparently dialed the telephone number corresponding to those letters and found it was an adult chat line. The school has since recalled the T-shirts.

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A Fordham University study has found that states collect far more information than is necessary on public school students, fail to properly safeguard that information and fail to purge the information after students leave or graduate from school.

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Speaking of intrusive school officials, in England, the Poole Borough Council suspected that Jenny Paton had falsified her address to get her children into a school in a different zone. So they began a covert surveillance operation, secretly trailing her and her family for weeks seizing her phone records. They found nothing wrong. Paton was outraged when she found out about the surveillance. But the council did nothing wrong. Nine years ago, the British Parliament gave local governments and other agencies they power to secretly spy on people without a warrant. The move was supposed to help fight terrorism and pedophilia, but governments routinely use the powers to try to find people who don’t recycle or fail to clean up their dogs’ waste or commit other minor offenses.

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Also in Great Britain, the Independent, a left-wing newspaper, reports that the National Health Service has spent millions of pounds to pay off silence whistleblowers to prevent them from revealing dishonest or dangerous conditions. The paper reports that those whistleblowers who do speak out face “trumped up” charges of misconduct, improper behavior or mental illness.

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Starting Nov. 3, the California state government increased the amount it withholds from workers’ paychecks 10 percent. In effect, it has forced residents to give it an interest-free loan to help cover its budget deficit.

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Houston police arrested George Vera and took him to a Houston, Texas, city jail. He spent a day there before being transferred to the Harris County jail. He’d been there about 14 hours in intake when he was taken to the showers, the final step before being placed in a cell. That’s when he told guards he had a 9 mm handgun on him and two clips of ammunition. Authorities say Vera, who weighs nearly 600 pounds, had hidden the guns and clips between folds of fat.

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In Philadelphia, Pa., officials say a police officer whose name has not been released is under investigation for using his patrol car’s computer terminal to search for information on President Barack Obama.

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The Harrisburg, Pa., City Council has passed a law requiring gun owners to report a lost or stolen firearm within 48 hours. Those who fail to do so face up to 90 days and jail or a fine of up to $1,000.

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The British government has refused to release a list of locations where officers may detain and search photographers. The British Journal of Photography had filed a Freedom of Information request for the list after readers complained they had been barred from taking photographs at numerous locations around the country. The government denied the request citing national security.