Greetings, and thanks for joining me for another week. Starting us off are a few news stories you may have missed. First, it was a very good year. As if 2015 weren’t bad enough for the Department of Homeland Security (e.g., in June, internal DHS tests revealed that its Transportation Security Administration failed to stop 67 of 70 guns passing through airport screeners), a U.S. congressman revealed this month that, based on a congressional staff investigation, 72 DHS employees currently appear on the FBI’s terrorist watch list. He admitted to Boston Public Radio that DHS’s record makes him squeamish about our ability to vet Syrian refugees. (Being on the FBI list is not a prohibited category for buying guns, either, and in fact, the Government Accountability Office reported that 91 percent of listees’ attempts to purchase guns in the last 10 years succeeded.) [WGBH Radio, Washington Post]
Next, Murica! Backyard firing ranges are legal in Florida, and back in March a Florida House committee voted to keep it that way, shooting down legislation to outlaw them even in urban and residential areas. (Firing on private property is legal except if shooting over a public right-of-way or an occupied dwelling, and “negligent” gunfire, though illegal, is only a misdemeanor.) [BayNews9.com]
Finally, a swarm of police cars descended on an apartment building in Sydney, NSW, Australia, at 2:00 a.m. after multiple neighbors called to report a murder in progress. “I’m going to kill you, you’re dead! Die! Die!” a man in an apartment yelled, and then a woman screamed again and again as furniture was thrown around. But a spokesman from the department’s Harbourside Local Area Command reported it wasn’t a murder: when police knocked, the man who answered the door said he was alone, and denied having a girlfriend or wife — there was no screaming woman. “Yeah sorry that was me,” he said. “It was a spider” that sent him into fits, “a really big one!!” Officers reported that “After a very long pause, some laughter and a quick look in the unit to make sure there was no injured party (apart from the spider), we left.” [Sydney Morning Herald]
Joanne and Billy Murphy of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England, ordered a 24-piece dinner set from a Tesco department store for 60 pounds (US$90). When the delivery arrived, “The driver asked if I was expecting a big delivery,” said Joanne, 39. “I said, ‘not really, just some kitchen stuff,’ but his entire van was full of it.” The 24 pieces had been shipped in 48 boxes. “The driver was carrying them three at a time and piling them up at the front door,” Joanne said. After unpacking, Joanne and Billy, 38, had a room full of boxes and packing paper — and still had five broken items. “I rang them again to complain and ask for someone to collect all the rubbish but they were more concerned about the broken items,” Joanne said. “We aim to use the minimum packaging possible while ensuring our products are properly protected from damage,” a Tesco spokesman said. “We have identified and corrected the error to stop this happening again.” [London Telegraph]
Liquid Stupid Pills! Police in Western Australia are looking for the nine criminals behind the “most Australian crime of all time,” local media report. Traffic cameras in the Perth suburbs of Stirling and Scarborough caught the men seated at two picnic tables — motorized picnic tables, which they’re driving on the streets and highways. Police say they are “concerned for the safety of those riding on the tables with no protective clothing, especially when on roads alongside motor vehicles.” It appears the men are drinking, which could lead to drinking and driving charges, as well as driving an unlicensed vehicle, and driving an unroadworthy vehicle. Last year, Perth police arrested a man for drunk driving a motorized beer cooler. [News.co.au]
An hour into last night’s’ final Democratic presidential debate of the year, it was time for a commercial break. The candidates left the stage and returned fresh a few minutes later. ABC News journalist David Muir, one of the night’s moderators, jumped right back in and starting asking about boosting the economy. But there was no Hillary Clinton on the stage! “We believe Secretary Clinton will be coming around the corner any minute,” Muir said. The middle lectern between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) was indeed empty, with no explanation. In the middle of Muir’s question, Clinton walked onto the stage to applause. “Sorry,” she said, smiling sheepishly. Her campaign did not immediately return a request for why she was late (but my daughter suggested Hillary was stuck waiting in line at the ladies’ room…. [Huffington Post]
It’s twue! It’s twue! A medical document shows that Adolf Hitler only had one testicle, German media said, suggesting there is some truth after all to a popular British song that says the dictator had “only got one ball.” There has long been speculation that Hitler was missing one testicle, with rumors circulating that he lost the other one during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War. But a medical record from the time when Hitler was put in prison after the failed Munich beer hall putsch in 1923 shows he suffered from “right-side cryptorchidism” — a condition where a testicle fails to descend into the scrotum – media reports said. The doctor’s notes were thought to have been missing for years but reappeared at an auction in 2010, at which point they were seized by authorities. “The experienced medical officer immediately recognized the condition!” top-selling newspaper Bild quoted historian Peter Fleischmann, who has studied the record, as saying. Fleischmann could not immediately be reached for comment. [Reuters]
Finally, I am not quite sure why this is news (or included here), but a College of Marin (CA) student who was prosecuted after allegedly passing out drunk in class has settled the case with a plea bargain. Michael Trump, 25, admitted to a misdemeanor count of bringing alcohol on school grounds. The prosecution agreed to drop a charge of public intoxication and seek no jail sentence. Trump will be eligible to get the case dismissed if he stays out of trouble during his one-year probation period, said his defense attorney, Charles Dresow. “Mr. Trump looks forward to maintaining his sobriety and continuing his education,” Dresow said. “He appreciates being able to reach a resolution that allows him to continue forward with his goals.” Trump was arrested a few months ago on the college’s campus in Kentfield. Authorities ha received an anonymous tip about a student who was apparently passed out drunk in class at the Science, Math, Nursing Building. The instructor tried to rouse the student and could not. Campus police arrived and identified the student as Trump, a former student member of the Board of Trustees and elected officer of the Associated Students of College of Marin. Campus police removed Trump from class, detained him and searched his backpack. The backpack contained a bottle of Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. Police conducted a breath test on Trump and got a blood-alcohol reading of .23 percent, which, had he been driving, would be nearly three times the legal limit of .08 percent Police booked him into Marin County Jail on suspicion of public intoxication and possessing an alcoholic beverage on school grounds. The Marin County District Attorney’s Office filed related charges, both misdemeanors. Dresow, the defense attorney, filed a motion to suppress the evidence, arguing that police did not have sufficient cause — based on the sight of a slumbering student and an anonymous tip — to conduct a warrantless search of the backpack. Trump consented to the search, but if he was as intoxicated as police alleged, his consent should not have been regarded as legitimate, Dresow said. The defense also argued that it is not illegal fall asleep in class, and that the matter should have been handled through school discipline rather than criminal prosecution. [The Marin Independent Journal]
Later.