BRICKBATS

Anita Belle's granddaughter accused her spanking her, prompting an investigation by Michigan's Child Protective Services (CPS). The investigation cleared her of abuse. But CPS placed Belle on a state registry of child abusers anyway. A Detroit TV station reports the list includes the names of about 275,000 people. Those people haven't necessarily been charged with, much less convicted of any crimes. And many people aren't even aware their names are on the list, since all it takes is one CPS worker to decide they should be on there to end up on the list.

For 10 years the Durham, North Carolina, police department has been paying criminal informants for their testimony without revealing those payments to defense attorneys or, apparently, to prosecutors. According to documents uncovered by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, some of the “bonuses” were apparently tied to convictions. But Assistant Chief of Police Jon Peter denies the department paid informants based on whether the person they testified against was convicted. He says the officer who filled out those expenditure reports simply used the wrong term and meant only that the case had been disposed of.

Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, deputies pulled over Delbert Dewayne Galbreath for a broken brake light. After Galbreath admitted he also did not have a driver's license, they asked if they could search his car. They found a bag containing 16 pieces of a rock-like substance and a digital scale. They thought the rocks were cocaine. Galbreath insisted they were Scentsy, presumably the washer whiffs made by that company. Sure enough, a test revealed they were not cocaine. But that didn't help Galbreath. Deputies charged him with suspicion of possession with intent to distribute an imitation controlled dangerous substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving under a revoked license and defective equipment.

A St. Louis County, Missouri, woman says she has been charged with trespassing after responding to a call from her son's school to help calm the boy down. Niakea Williams says a teacher at Walnut Groves Elementary School called and said her son, who has Asperger's syndrome, was panicking. She rushed to the school, was buzzed in and went to her son's classroom. While she was consoling him, the principal came in to tell her she'd violated school policy by not signing in. She offered to sign in, but the principal said he'd already called the police. Williams said cops hauled her out of the school in handcuffs.

Ten San Diego police officers wearing bullet proof vests swarmed Cheetahs strip club. They weren't looking for armed robbers or searching for drugs. No, they were there for a card check, to make sure the strippers at the club were properly licensed. They also took photos of the women, lots of photos. 

Grayson Bruce, 9, says he has been bullied repeatedly because he brings a “My Little Pony” bag to school. Classmates tell him the show is for girls. After his family complained about the bullying, officials at North Carolina's Buncombe County Schools took action. They banned Bruce from bringing the bag to school, calling it a distraction and a “trigger for bullying.”

Officials at New York's Grand Island High School ordered sophomore Shane Kinney to turn his NRA T-shirt inside out or change shirts. When he refused, they gave him one day in in-school suspension. School officials refused to speak to a local TV station about the matter, but in a statement they denied any student had been suspended for wearing a T-shirt “expressing an opinion of the NRA or gun control.”

Grace Pritt, a student at West Virginia's Hurricane High School, earned a slot as a finalist in the Poetry Out Loud contest and an invitation to recite the poem she'd used in the contest at the Governor's Arts Awards ceremony. Then, state officials discovered that the poem she'd performed was “Black Diamonds,” a work by Charleston poet Crystal Good that honors the widows of the 29 men who died in the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. “I really hate to do this to you, but because your poem deals with coal and many state representatives will be there, our director wants you to choose a different poem,” Division of Culture and History grant coordinator Tabitha Walter told Pritt in a email. But after media picked up the story, officials said there had been some miscommunication and they'd love for Pritt to perform “Black Diamonds.”

The Staff, Faculty and Administrators of Color of South Puget Sound Community College not only did not invite any white colleagues to a scheduled happy hour meeting, they explicitly excluded them. “If you want to create space for white folks to meet and work on racism, white supremacy, and white privilege to better our campus community and yourselves, please feel free to do just that,” said an email sent by the group to college employees. After media picked up the story, the group canceled the meeting, and the school's dean of college relations called it a mistake. But Karama Blackhorn, program coordinator for the school's Diversity and Equity Center and co-author of the the invitation, says only that the email could have been worded better.

Officials in Warren, Michigan, have agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a claim by Charda Gregory. Gregory was arrested after she allegedly trashed a hotel room. Those charges were latter dropped. But while she was being held at the local jail, officers restrained Gregory and forcibly cut her hair.

DeKalb County, Georgia, police officer Demetrius A. Kendrick has been indicted on a charge of violating his oath of office after allegedly planting marijuana on a man. Kendrick claimed he saw Alphonso Eleby toss away some marijuana after he and another officer stopped him. But video later showed Kendrick was the one who tossed something at Eleby's feet. The charges against Eleby were later dropped, but not because of the video. The DeKalb County police department was unable to find the marijuana Eleby was accused of having.

A Tempe, Arizona, school resource officer accidentally shot a 14-year-old girl with her Taser. The officer, who wasn't named by media, was taking part in an eighth-grade show and tell at Gilliland Middle School. She mistakenly pressed the trigger, propelling one of the two prong's into the girl's arm.

Some teachers at Missouri's Farmington High School balked at taking part in an active shooter drill after they were handed safety goggles and told they might get shot with pellet guns. I would hope that if police did respond to a shooter at the school they would not shoot the teachers.

Chuck Winship, general manager of Florida's Tarpon Springs Golf Course, has had to crack down on those who play there. They can't make any bets on league play at the course. A former employee reported that members of some of the leagues that play there were wagering on the results, and cops are now investigating Winship for possible violations of state laws against keeping a gambling house and game promotion in connection with the sale of consumer products or services.

Michigan State University was briefly locked down after someone reported seeing a man with rifle at Bessey Hall. The man turned out to be an ROTC student with a ceremonial, replica rifle. Bessey Hall is where the ROTC program is located.

Two years ago, Paul Valin found a backpack while kayaking the Des Moines River. He threw it in the back of his truck, intending to try to find its owner. But when he got home and opened it, he found what he thought was a kit for making meth.  He called the Des Moines police department, who sent an officer to pick it up, and that was the last Valin thought of it. Then in January of this year, a reporter knocked on Valin's door and asked him if he knew his house was on a federal list of sited where meth labs had been found. He did not, and his repeated calls to local police to get his house off that list went unanswered. Only after IowaWatchdog.org got involved did the feds agree to remove Valin's home from the list.

After Austin, Texas, police pulled Larry Davis over for running a red light, they asked him to take a breathalyzer test. He agreed, knowing he hadn't had anything to drink. Sure enough, he blew 0. In fact, he even came up clean on a blood test that looks not only for alcohol but for seven types of drugs. The cops still arrested him for DWI. Prosecutors ultimately threw out his case. In fact, local prosecutors say they throw out about 30 percent of DWI cases because the Austin police have so little evidence.

Lakewood, Washington, police called Dan Neary and told him they were looking for Duane Samms. Neary told him Samms had been living with a woman he was renting a house to, but he said he'd evicted both of them. Still, he agreed to meet police at the house and let them search it. The cops, however, didn't keep their part of the agreement. The SWAT team showed up two hours early, tore the garage door off, broke all the windows and generally wrecked the place. They didn't find Samms.

Cody Lee Williams spent 35 days in a Clay County, Florida, jail after being arrested on sex assault charges. Williams knew he hadn't committed any crime and didn't know the girl who had accused him. While looking over documents in court, however, he discovered the person who was supposed to have been arrested was a boy who attended the same high school he did, Cody Raymond Williams. He alerted his mother, who convinced a deputy to show the girl a picture of her son. The girl said he wasn't the one who assaulted her. Three deputies involved in Cody Lee Williams' arrest and incarceration were given counseling. Deputy Johnny Hawkins was suspended for 10 days without pay and transferred from the investigative division.

A European Union report has recommended that the word “bankruptcy” be replaced with the phrase “debt adjustment.” The Directorate General for International Policies says the word carries too much stigma and makes it difficult for people to rebuild their financial reputations.

The Spanish government has proposed a new law that would require search engines to pay to display even brief fragments of copyrighted material. The government did not say how much will be charged.

A SWAT team from the Cedar Park, Texas, police department sealed off an automobile repair shop and tire store and searched it at gun point. Officials say a man complained that he may have received used parts instead of new when he had his vehicle repaired there.

The Eurasian Union – a trading bloc that includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus – has banned the import, sale and manufacture of underwear containing synthetic materials unless it meets a very strict absorption standard. Up to 90 percent of ladies underwear currently sold in those countries will be banned under the rule, which takes effect July 1.

Baptist preacher Jonathan Ayers had just got money from an ATM at a Toccoa, Georgia convenience store back in 2009 and gotten into his car when an SUV pulled up and men with guns drawn jumped out. Ayers tried to to pull away, but the men start firing at his car, killing him. The men, it turns out, were police officers, part of a multi-jurisdictional drug task force. They weren’t wearing uniforms. Their vehicle wasn’t marked. And Ayers only “crime” was visiting a woman they were keeping under surveillance. A federal jury has just awarded his widow $2.3 million in a civil rights suit.

An inspector general's report found that the state of Ohio has kept some $34 million in business tax refunds from businesses that have properly requested them. The report also found the state had a practice of not alerting taxpayers of any over payments.