Chuck Shepherd
The Transportation Security Administration announced in May that it had collected $765,000 in loose change left behind in airport scanner trays during 2015 — an average "haul" for the agency of $2,100 a day (numbers assuming, of course, that TSA personnel turn in all of the money they find). Los Angeles and Miami airports contributed $106,000 of the total.
Power of prayer
A 28-year-old woman, unnamed in news reports, veered off the road and into a house in the Florida Panhandle town of Mary Esther on July 7. She apparently was free of drug or alcohol influence, but readily explained to police that she must have gone through a stop sign and left the road when she closed her eyes to pray as she drove. The house was damaged, but no one was injured.
Neck and back support
The Japanese branch of the intimate apparel maker Genie is currently advertising, in Japanese and English, a handy guide for bras that emphasizes the hardship women bear by having to lug around breasts of certain sizes in ill-fitting garments. The Genie chart reveals weight in ounces of typical A-cup chests (11.5 ounces) through F-cup (41.6 ounces, or 2.6 pounds). To assist any innumerate Japanese shoppers, the chart also shows practical comparisons, such as A-cup pairs weighing as much as "two chipmunks," C-cups as "one newborn polar bear cub," and F-cups as "one 3-month-old Persian kitten."
Repeat offender
Mark Herron, 49, of Sunderland, England, was arrested again in May — his 448th arrest on alcohol-related charges. The year started "well" for Herron, with only 14 collars through March, and he cleaned up briefly before a "family bereavement" sent him spiraling downward again. His current lawyer admitted that his client has been in court more often than he himself has.
Costly calls
In a June verdict still reverberating through the telemarketing industry, a jury in Utah found that three companies run by Forrest Baker III had illegally made 99 million phone calls to consumers on the Do Not Call Registry and an additional 18 million calls telling people they were merely doing surveys when the purpose was hawking their family-friendly movies. Both charges are violations of the Federal Trade Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule. Although the total fine and damages have not been decided, the law provides that the most serious offenders could be assessed $16,000 per phone call (for a maximum of almost $1.9 trillion).
Government in action
A recent study by a Harvard University data scientist estimated that the government of China funds the creation of at least 488 million bogus social media posts a year. The report refers to a rumored government-sponsored arrangement that pays people the equivalent of 8 U.S. cents per post of "news" for the purpose of distracting social media users and channeling them to subjects preferred by the government — such as successes of the Communist Party.
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