Either the Department of Veterans Affairs has again demonstrated some shady record keeping or it has a zombie problem on its hands. According to VA records, former Marine Jordan Buisman rescheduled his medical appointment four days after he died. He died of seizure disorder, the condition for which he sought treatment 24 days before the appointment. “I’m extremely troubled to hear reports that [VA] records may have been doctored. This is an unacceptable tragedy,” said Senator Al Franken.   read more

Officer Chris Poncia has 461 people in his case file, all the sex offenders in Providence. His beat includes 175 Level 2 and 3 offenders, who are classified this way because they’re considered likely to commit sex crimes again. Poncia is unique among his peers in Rhode Island, which has about 1,600 sex offenders. He is the only cop in the state who does nothing but patrol the sex offender beat.   read more

“With some team members dressed in ballistic vests and masks, and with guns drawn, the deputies rushed into their target destinations, handcuffed the stunned occupants—and demanded to see their barbers’ licenses,” the court wrote. The raid was one of several deputies carried out against minority-owned barbershops and salons in 2010.   read more

The Burlington Electric Department gets its power from three sources, according to Ari Phillips at ThinkProgress: One-third comes from wind energy operators, another third from the Winooski One and Hydro-Québec hydroelectric stations, and a final third from the Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station, which is a biomass installation that uses logging residue wood chips in its processing.   read more

Being a singles-majority nation marks quite a change from what the U.S. looked like during its bicentennial year, 1976, when only 37.4% were single. Those states with the highest percentages of single adults are Louisiana and Rhode Island (both 55.7%), New York (55.4%), Mississippi (54.9%), and New Mexico (53.6%).   read more

Cotton responded with his own misleading commercial that warned that Pryor wanted to give undocumented workers Social Security benefits for their employment while working under “forged identities.” The claim was based on a 2006 vote Pryor cast in the Senate “that has been repeatedly debunked by fact checkers,” The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler wrote, noting that FactCheck.org made the lie one of the “Whoppers of 2006.”   read more

45 Minnesota players have been arrested since January 2000. Arrests of NFL players are actually significantly down this year. The peak was in 2006, when 67 players were arrested. Only 38 players have been arrested so far this year. But as they say, it’s early in the season and anything can happen in the National Football League.   read more

Milton-Edwards testified during the civil case, which was brought by the families of 300 victims of suicide attacks in the West Bank, that she found no evidence while researching her book of Hamas being involved in regional charities. But prosecutors discovered that she couldn’t read Arabic. After being asked to read the printed text on a Hamas-sponsored image, Milton-Edwards admitted she could not.   read more

Scientists determined that the United States saves about $6.8 billion a year in healthcare costs by having trees in cities. In 2010 alone, the country avoided 850 deaths and 670,000 cases of acute respiratory symptoms, the researchers led by forester Dave Nowak found, thanks to 17 tons of air pollution being removed from the atmosphere by trees.   read more

The ruling (pdf) comes in the case of the twin cities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah. The Colorado City Marshal’s Office and the Hildale City Police Department were found to have taken orders from the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a Mormon sect practicing polygamy.   read more

Despite the growing popularity of pre-game toking, the Broncos organization is not yet ready to endorse this newer side of Sunday ritual. “Any form of marijuana consumption is prohibited on Sports Authority Field at Mile High property during public events, including in stadium parking lots,” the team’s website states, according to Powell. Colorado law specifies that recreational marijuana use is legal only in locations not open or accessible to the public.   read more

Last year, the seven-person police force for a community of 1,000 residents produced 11,603 traffic citations, according to the Gainesville Sun. About half the town’s $1 million budget comes from court fines. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says it will investigate charges by Waldo officers that Police Chief Mike Szabo and City Manager Kim Worley ordered them each to write 12 tickets during each 12-hour shift.   read more

A self-appointed border militia from Colorado has been criticized by law enforcement in Arizona, where the group tried to detain scientists studying bats in the desert. Sheriff Tony Estrada expressed serious concern about the actions of the militiamen driving around the desert in ATVs with firearms and wearing camouflage. “These people . . . are completely out of their environment. They really don’t know the area. They don’t know the terrain."   read more

After refusing to supply a DNA sample through a mouth swab, Raynor inadvertently did so anyway, providing officers with the opportunity to collect his DNA samples when he continually rubbed his arms on the chair he sat in while being interrogated.   read more

After Roach failed to comply with an order to lie down on the ground, Sanguino fired nine times at Roach, who had allegedly discharged his handgun inside the bar. Roach’s gun, however, was not loaded, police later determined. Five of Sanguino’s shots hit Roach, who was hospitalized and is expected to survive. But one of the officer’s bullets struck bystander Maria Fernanda Godinez Castillo, killing the 22-year-old university student.   read more

The remains were discovered in 1976 at the Chancellor’s House at the University of California, San Diego by a university excavation team. UC San Diego had dragged its feet on giving up the remains, questioning which Native American group was the rightful owner. However, the university in 2012 agreed to return the remains to the Kumeyaay. But a lawsuit filed against the university by three scientists who wished to study the skeletons halted the repatriation.   read more