The law and the jungle

Indiana's curfew law has been declared invalid and reworked so many times that most people probably don't know whether we even have one or not. We do (so far). Fishers is working to bring its curfew law in line with the state's, and Plymouth is working to make its even stricter than the state's.

Do we have to forgive juvenile misdeeds because the juveniles in question haven't been taught any better, or is it all right to call this kid a monster?

Police have arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the January shooting death of a horse in Franklin Township.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a post about The News-Sentinel's Jeff Wiehe getting grief from the bareheaded brigade when he noted in a story about two motorcycle fatalities that the victims were not wearing helmets. Now, Jeff has done a story about the terrible hit-and-run accident that claimed the life of a nurse on her way to work at Parkview Hospital. In that story, he observes:

It's been a few years since the General Assembly voted against a pilot program for red-light cameras in 10 Indiana cities, but the idea just won't die. Lafayette is the latest city to consider the cameras:

The Lafayette Police Department wants to have cameras installed at as many as ten intersections throughout the city.  Sergeant Max Smith said after seeing the results from a 24 hour test camera at Kossuth and Main Streets, a "camera cop" is needed.

I continue my impressive record of seeing buzzworthy movies on cable months after everyone else has stopped even talking about them. This gives me the advantage of being able to read a lot of informed comment immediately after seeing the movie, to see if there's anything I missed. And there's little need to worry about issuing a SPOILER alert for anything I might write. 

Scum of the earth:

The weekend when America commemorates its war dead is a horrible time for a cemetery to be vandalized, but that's what happened at the Leo Cemetery late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

Thirty-five headstones were overturned, and Rich Lengacher, president of the cemetery's board of trustees, said repairing them will cost thousands of dollars. Most of those that were cracked are about 100 years old.

Here's at least one good effect of high gas prices:

With gasoline climbing toward $4 a gallon, police officers around the country are losing the right to take their patrol cars home and are being forced to double up in cruisers and walk the beat more.

The gas crunch could also put an end to the time-honored way cops leave their engines running when they get out to investigate something.

Why isn't this a big scandal resulting in a call for heads to roll and jail time to be served?

The federal government's long-term financial obligations grew by $2.5 trillion last year, a reflection of the mushrooming cost of Medicare and Social Security benefits as more baby boomers reach retirement.

That's double the red ink of a year earlier.

Give thanks that freedom of speech is still valued on this side of the pond (at least outside college campuses):

A teenager is facing prosecution for using the word "cult" to describe the Church of Scientology.

The unnamed 15-year-old was served the summons by City of London police when he took part in a peaceful demonstration opposite the London headquarters of the controversial religion.

[. . .]

I know the mark of a civilized society is how much the majority is willing to slow down to help those who have trouble keeping up, but this is just silly::

The U.S. discriminates against blind people by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish among the bills' varying values, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.