Unusual News
Tax Dollars at Work: U.S. Marshals Give Ride to Fox Sportscasters
At the 2008 Super Bowl in Phoenix, Joseph Band, a longtime attorney for the United States Marshals Service who moonlighted as a sports statistician for Fox Sports, arranged, with permission from superiors, to use a Marshals Service vehicle to brin... read more
Senate Protects 2 Million Acres (and Bill Clinton’s Childhood Home)
A collection of 160 bills making its way through the Senate may possibly bestow the nation’s highest level of environmental protection on over 2 million acres of public land, the largest act of wilderness preservation in 25 years. The bill will al... read more
Colombian Coffee Growers to Sue Cartoonist
Derogatory insinuations about Juan Valdez, the Colombian coffee industry’s mythical icon, have been a call to arms for the Colombia Coffee Growers Federation, which threatened to sue cartoonist Mike Peters for $20 million. The Valdez character was... read more
Blagojevich’s 19th Century Role Model
The controversy surrounding embattled Governor Rod Blagojevich is nothing new for Illinois politics. Five of the last 10 Illinois governors, including Blagojevich, faced criminal charges, but the tradition of paying for a Senate seat actually str... read more
There’s a Bug in Your Yogurt
Eleven years after scientists determined that carmine and cochineal extracts from the female cochineal bug can cause severe allergic reactions, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a rule (PDF) requiring food companies to list the ext... read more
New Congress is Oldest in History
When Barack Obama takes office on January 20th, he will be the fifth youngest president, and he will be working with the oldest Congress ever. The average age of 57 in the House and 63 in the Senate both represent historical highs. The age increas... read more
Fattening the Army
Struggling to meet its recruitment goals, the U.S. Army began a program in 2007 to admit enlistees whose lifestyle has previously prohibited them from joining the military. The controversial lifestyle? Eating toom much. Obesity is the number one ... read more
Minnesota Election Judge Has Own Ballot Rejected
Shirley Graham, one of the election judges working on the still disputed Minnesota senatorial contest between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman, was surprised to learn that her own absentee ballot had been rejected. The Coleman camp ... read more
Do Jews Run Hollywood?
Do Jews Run Hollywood?
In reaction to an Anti-Defamation league poll which showed last month that only 22% of people now believe that Jews run the movie and television industries, compared with 47% in 1964, Joel Stein (who is Jewish) protested in... read more
Barack the Magic Negro
Jason Deparle of The New York Times writes, “In his campaign for chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chip Saltsman, a Tennessee political operative [who was Mike Huckabee’s 2008 campaign manager], distributed a song to potential support... read more
Out-Bidding the Oil Companies
University of Utah economics student Tim DeCristopher has single-handedly delayed an oil and gas auction by the Bureau of Land Management in Utah. DeCristopher outwitted and outbid the assorted oil companies by registering as a bidder and offering... read more
Winning Hearts and XXX in Afghanistan
Numerous retired CIA operatives have confirmed (on the condition of anonymity) that they used some creative alternative methods to win over Afghanistan’s tribal leaders. Agents have found Viagra to be a effective tool in remote areas, particularly... read more
Fish and Wildlife Twists Photo of Rare Wolf
Conservationists are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop exploiting a photo of a rare Mexican Gray wolf stepping out of a pen and into freedom because the female wolf depicted in the award-winning photograph by George Andrejko actual... read more
EPA Most Wanted List
In an attempt to redeem itself after almost eight years of relative inactivity, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an FBI-style most wanted fugitives list for people charged with environmental crimes. The fugitives are wanted for... read more
Gay Marriage is Good for the Economy
During a break in a youth soccer tournament a few years ago, one of the other fathers on my son’s team surprised me when he told me that he was a strong supporter of gay marriage. He explained that it was good for his business.
“What do you do... read more
Disputed Ballots in Minnesota: You Be the Judge
The recount in the Senatorial election in Minnesota between Norm Coleman and Al Franken may come down to decisions made about several hundred challenged ballots. Minnesota Public Radio has put together 10 examples of disputed ballots. You be the j... read more