Call 911!—Rudolph Giuliani, ex-mayor of New York, became a media personality when the Twin Towers got hit. He now heads a “consulting” company and recently dished up advice to the Mexican government on reducing crime: Give the cops more money and require them to submit to drug and lie detector tests. His tab was $4.3 million. No, he was not arrested.

Maybe lawyers will pay fine—Joseph Gannon, recent mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, is facing nine years in the slammer plus a $150,000 fine for corruption. His lawyers asked the judge to scratch the fine because he had to borrow $2 million from his parents to pay his lawyers.

Eh, a double standard?—In the working-class town of Lawrence, Massachusetts, 24 teachers are on no-pay administrative leave for flunking an English proficiency test. Now it’s revealed that Wilfredo Laboy, superintendent of schools, flunked a similar test three times. He leaked the fact of his difficulty with English as a second language. He didn’t say how many teachers—and children—have the same problem.

A few bad schools?—“DALLAS—Texas schools that serve large numbers of poor and minority students are the least likely to have highly qualified, experienced teachers, a statewide analysis by The Dallas Morning News shows. The analysis also found that those schools also have fewer teachers certified in the subjects they teach.”—News item.

That’s for openers—“U.S.-style pledge of allegiance awaits new British citizens” —Headline, The Times, London.

The global civilizer—“TALLAHASSEE, Florida—An autopsy report said that Ruth Hubbs, who died May16 at the Leon County Jail, was killed by an overdose of prescription drugs likely administered by the jail’s infirmary. She’s one of three people to die in the Leon County Jail since March. Prison Health Services, which has been under scrutiny since the deaths, has more than 1,000 lawsuits pending against it.” —News item.

Sniff, sniff?—Recently, the Ohio supreme court scrapped a law which held that workers injured on the job were to be presumed drunk or spaced out if they refused to take a drug or alcohol test. Now the business lobby is pushing that such tests are mandatory if requested by an employer, doctor, or cop.  
 
 
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