Lead Story
The city of Portland, Oregon, announced in February that the highest-paid municipal worker last year was a 911 operator who made $64,869 in overtime on top of a $30,000 salary. The mayor makes $72,592.
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Arizona state representative Bobby Raymond, videotaped in a sting operation, pleaded guilty to five felony counts in February. Among his words on the tape: “My favorite line is ‘What’s in it for me?’” “I feel better now [after having just been handed $1,000]. We’ve all committed felonies,” and “I’ll do anything for [the briber] short of sticking ice picks up people’s noses or things like that.”
The Louisiana legislature recently rewrote its antinarcotics law but somehow failed to include a criminal penalty for portions of it, including the part governing the possession of cocaine. Hundreds of potential convictions were in jeopardy.
In February Darrel Teel, a homeless man in Orlando, Florida, found $29,200 in several envelopes and, he said later, began having thoughts of buying a new suit and other things. Then he decided it would be wrong to keep the money. He turned it in to the local sheriff, who returned it to the elderly woman who had lost it. It was her life’s savings.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Shawn Belschwender.
