Unusual News
Reviving the Language of Jesus in Israel, Palestine and…Sweden
The language spoken by Jesus Christ is making a modest comeback in the Middle East, with a little help from friends in Scandinavia.
Christian children in the Palestinian village of Beit Jala, located next to the city of Bethlehem, are learni... read more
Gunshot Detection Systems: The Latest Tool against Violent Crime
Using the latest in acoustic and computer technology, city police departments can now be alerted to shootings in their communities within minutes, thanks to a service provided by a company located thousands of miles away.
Based in Mountain Vie... read more
Federal Lawsuit Targets Bike Path as Anti-Environment
A proposed bike path in Los Angeles has provoked a lawsuit against federal and state agencies by a group of homeowners complaining the project will violate environmental laws.
Attorney S. Zachary Samuels sued on behalf of himself and a dozen n... read more
The Long History of Predicting Medicare Will Run out of Money
Warnings of Medicare running out of money have been around almost as long as the program itself.
Founded in 1965, the first projection that Medicare would become insolvent was issued only five years later by its board of trustees. Then, the wo... read more
House Ethics Committee Holds First Public Meeting in more than a Year…but without the Public
With very little warning, the House Ethics Committee met late last week for the first time in a year to amend its rules regarding the filing of financial disclosure statements and when it can take testimony.
The result was a “public” hearing w... read more
In Economic Boom Times, Why Do More Elderly Women Die in Nursing Homes?
It may seem counterintuitive, but a healthy economy is bad for human health, at least when it comes to elderly women in nursing homes.
A paper produced by researchers at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College concluded that morta... read more
North Carolina House Committee Votes to Ban TV for Death Row Prisoners
Lawmakers in North Carolina want to prohibit inmates on death row from watching television.
The legislation, which cleared the state’s House Rules committee this week, was introduced after a convicted murderer described his “life of leisure” w... read more
Why Did Some News Sources Fall for Egyptian Necrophilia Hoax?
Taking news sources at their word resulted in a highly controversial, but false, story being spread all over the Internet three weeks ago about Egyptian lawmakers legalizing necrophilia.
The rumor apparently began with columnist Amr Abdel Sami... read more
Billion-Dollar City without Residents to be Built to Test New Technology
A bricks-and-mortar version of Sim City is going up in New Mexico, where a technology development firm will spend $1 billion to build a full-scale city just for scientists and engineers to tinker with.
Construction of The Center for Innovation... read more
6 California Legislators have Recent Arrest Records
It’s been 20 years since California politics witnessed so many lawmakers getting arrested.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was Shrimpscam that got so many legislators into trouble, after federal agents conducted a sting operation to root... read more
Can Murder Viewed on iPad Video Chat be Introduced as Evidence?
A gruesome murder case in Burlington, Massachusetts, may open the way for online video to serve as evidence in convicting a man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death while a young boy watched from his home computer.
Christopher Piante... read more
13-Year-Old Boy Kicked Off High School Field Hockey Team for being Too Much Better than Girls
At 4 feet, 8 inches tall and 82 pounds, Keeling Pilaro is by no means the biggest player on Southampton High School’s field hockey team. But the Long Island, New York, 13-year-old is the only boy on the all-girls squad, and quite good. Too good, a... read more
Repeal of Emergency Manager Law Kept off Michigan Ballot because of Wrong Font Size
The partisan battle over Michigan’s year-old law that empowers the Governor to appoint emergency “czars” with sweeping authority to overrule elected officials in financially troubled cities or school districts, including the ability to overturn lo... read more
Dull Scotland and Boring Oregon Seek Partnership
Local leaders in Scotland and the state of Oregon are genuinely excited about the pairing of Dull and Boring.
Dull refers to the small village (population: 84) in the Highland part of Scotland’s Perth and Kinross county, while Boring is an uni... read more
Scottish Police Arrest Woman for Running Mannequin for City Council
Police in Scotland have arrested a 63-year-old woman for entering a mannequin as a city council candidate in Aberdeen.
Renee Slater was charged under a 1983 law, the Representation of the People Act, for trying to pass off the dummy, named Hel... read more
California Gov. Brown Proposes Eliminating 718 Useless Reports
In an attempt to show California voters he’s committed to cutting government waste, Governor Jerry Brown announced this week a plan to eliminate more than 700 bureaucratic reports.
Brown did not say how much money would be saved by cutting the... read more