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SINCE 1994 and reaching more than 107,000 subscribers in over 200 countries, this is the 784th weekly issue of... THIS is TRUE: 21 June 2009 Copyright http://www.thisistrue.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- INFORMATION, PLEASE: The City of Bozeman, Mont., wants to know about people who apply for jobs with the city. Included on the application is this: "Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc." That's not all: it also requires the applicant's user names and password information for all those sites. "We have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions, all the way down to the lifeguards and the folks that work in city hall here," said city attorney Greg Sullivan, defending the intrusive questions. "So we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City." (KBZK-TV Bozeman) ..."The right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest." --Article 2, Section 10 of the Montana State Constitution. THOUGHT POLICE: Max Yarmolinsky, 25, a physics teacher at South Shore Public Charter School in Norwell, Mass., doodled on a sheet of paper to pass the time while he was showing his students a video. One of the students stole the paper and gave it to his parents, who in turn gave it to school administrators, who in turn called police. The content of the paper was not disclosed, but it was described by the school and police as "a violent doodle." School officials and police both declared there was nothing threatening about the doodle, and no danger to students or staff. Still, Yarmolinsky was summoned to principal James Connolly's office, fired, escorted off school grounds by police, and warned he would be arrested for trespassing if he returns. He also faces misdemeanor charges of disturbing a school assembly and disorderly conduct. (Norwell Mariner) ...They were suspicious of him from the start: science teachers are taught to think logically. ----------==========**********O**********==========---------- GET WINDOWS 7 THE FIRST DAY - AT HALF PRICE It's coming soon: what Windows Vista should have been. Home, Professional, or Ultimate -- and Save 50% or more. Limit 3 per customer, for a limited time from Amazon. http://ThisIsTrue.com/d-win7 ----------==========**********O**********==========---------- FAIR SHARE: JoAnn Watson, a Councilwoman in Detroit, Mich., only paid $68 in property taxes on her west side home this year, and the bill has been in that range since the year 2000. Neighbors in comparable homes pay $2,000 to $6,500 per year. When a newspaper discovered the shockingly low assessment, it called her for comment. "All I know is I had a big drop when my house got hit hard by a tornado," she said. A tornado? When was that? In 2002, she said -- or maybe it was 1993. Watson admits she noticed when the tax bill dropped dramatically, and said she "was kind of insulted" by the city's valuation of her house at $1,658, but "came to the natural conclusion my house isn't worth much any more." Still, in 2002, she managed to get a $60,000 mortgage on the property, and still didn't question the assessment. The city blames a "clerical error," and according to state law can only recover three years' worth of underpayments. (Detroit Free Press) ...Hopefully that will still be enough to fund a recall election. PARTY TIME: Police in Syracuse, N.Y., watched as a drug deal went down: the buyer got a $50 bag of crack cocaine, and paid for it with $10 in cash and half of a slaughtered pig. When confronted, Angelo Colon, 45, admitted that he had paid for drugs before with pig meat, and that the current buy was to help celebrate since a relative had just been released from jail. He was charged with misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. (Syracuse Post-Standard) ...The pig. DA GETTING ON THIS ASAP: "Woman Allegedly on Way to AA Charged with DUI" -- Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette headline DID YOU FIND an error? See http://www.thisistrue.com/errata.html ON MONDAY (read: *after* I wrote the first story) came word that the Bozeman City Commission thought better of asking job applicants for their personal passwords, what with the worldwide uproar that the story caused. The Commission voted unanimously to drop the requirement. "We're not suspending this requirement, we're completely eliminating it," said Commissioner Eric Bryson. The Commissioners said the ruckus caught them off guard, and they wanted to be more in the loop on such issues in the future. "We apologize for wandering down a road that violated basic rights of our citizens," said Commissioner Jeff Krauss, "and we will do all we can to restore that public trust." Commissioner Jeff Rupp agreed, calling the policy an "egregious violation of privacy" that went around the city's "checks and balances." Chris Kukulski, the City Manager, and Pattie Berg, the city's Human Resources Director, each apologized to the Commission. Now THAT's quick and proactive action, and kudos to the Bozeman commissioners for getting it so right, and taking care of it so fast. THERE'S ANOTHER UPDATE this week, but it wasn't all that fast. In October 2003, a 13-year-old girl was strip searched at her school in Arizona because of one student's unsubstantiated report that she had "drugs". The school knew exactly what kind of "drugs", too: ibuprofen. Yet despite that innocuous contraband, and despite the fact that the honor student had never been in trouble before, the school stripped her to search for the supposed drugs -- and found no contraband whatever. The resulting lawsuit by Savana Redding's family made it to the Supreme Court, which yesterday ruled 8-1 that the search violated Savana's Constitutional rights (remember: public school employees are government employees, who should really know what their responsibilities are). For a brief history of the case, updated with highlights of the Supreme Court decision (and the thinking of the one justice to vote against it): http://thisistrue.com/blog-zt_v_savana_redding_a_court_decision THE NOMINATIONS for the "Weirdest" stories for May are posted in the usual spot: http://www.thisistrue.com/weirdest.html THE SPECIAL on plastic GOOHF cards continues through the 4th of July: https://secure.thisistrue.com/plastic.html MENSA: If you're going to Mensa's "Annual Gathering" in Pittsburg next week, please keep an eye out for me and say hi. I'll be there through Thursday, and am speaking late Wednesday night. http://ag.us.mensa.org -- the schedule is under the "Playlist" tab. I'll also be speaking at Mensa's Reno Regional Gathering, October 2-4. This is only their second annual RG, but Ken (a long-time TRUE fan) put on a GREAT show last year, and is in charge again this year. It's a highly recommended show, especially if you live in the western U.S. http://northernnevada.us.mensa.org/index_Page1186.html o o o IN LAST WEEK'S edition, I commented that the top story on Groxx that day was "PETA Protests Obama Swatting a Fly". Says he should have live- captured it and set it free outside. Yeah, well, I said, "here's my reply:" http://www.thisistrue.com/peta.html Those who have been around awhile and tend to follow my links have read that already: it's about how PETA doesn't just kill flies, it kills the animals that it takes into its care -- adoptable, wanted dogs, for instance, killing them before even attempting to find a home for them. PETA's president even shrugged off the practice. A number of free edition readers couldn't quite grasp what I meant by that being "my reply" to the PETA protest. Several wrote to say they read that entire page carefully, but didn't see any mention of Obama. *sigh* It's not REALLY too much to ask people to make a *tiny* intellectual leap, is it? I know: MOST of you perfectly understood what I was saying, and I *do* refuse to explain everything in minute detail. Still, it's amazing what happens when I don't.... I "TWEETED" THIS, but this fabulous essay from the L.A. Times needs wider distribution: http://ow.ly/fAU1 (Title: "My Dad Saved Me, and I Killed Him". Not exactly, but....) It's a fabulous piece of writing by Richard Farrell. Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ThisIsTrue Get Out of Hell Free on Twitter: http://twitter.com/GOOHF What's Twitter? http://thisistrue.com/d-twitter TRUE on Facebook: http://Facebook.com/ThisIsTrue Get Out of Hell Free on Facebook: http://facebook.com/GOOHF AND AMONG THE LATEST postings to Jumbo Joke: I can't believe I didn't post this one years ago: "The Armless Bellringers" (WARNING: bad pun alert!) http://www.JumboJoke.com ----------==========**********O**********==========---------- YOU'VE LOST YOUR EXCUSE NOT TO DO BACKUPS! 1,000 gigabytes of storage that plugs into your USB port. Are your important files backed up? Tax returns, videos, photos? A terabyte of extra storage for *under* $125 -- and free shipping! http://www.ThisIsTrue.com/d-terabyte ----------==========**********O**********==========---------- TO SUBMIT STORIES and vote on what submissions are best, register for free at http://Groxx.com PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS got MORE stories on Monday: Burglar hits dentist's office, gets cash, dental crowns, and.... State officials seek to close budget deficit -- by selling (a lot!) more booze. Burglar tries to escape police by jumping head-first through window -- from the second floor.... Upgraded subscriptions start at just $10 (cheap!) http://thisistrue.com/upgrade.html TEN YEARS AGO IN TRUE: University promises to return $11,000 in grant money to the National Institutes of Health awarded to a researcher to study cocaine use -- after he uses the money to buy enough cocaine for himself that he overdosed. http://thisistrue.com/6533 And don't forget http://i.thisistrue.com for a new story every day on your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, or other web-enabled phone! BONZER WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: http://www.scirus.com -- Scirus. Scirus is "for scientific information only" -- a search engine that focuses on science-specific information. It lets you zero in on a specific discipline, author, or even conference. Scirus indexes not just web sites, but also PDF documents, preprint servers, digital archives, and patent and journal databases. This ever-evolving search engine constantly adds new institutions to the fold and was voted "Best Specialty Search Engine" four times in a row by the Web Marketing Association. (VF) THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to John Houghtaling -- a salesman who invented an iconic product of the 1960s and 70s. The full story is at http://www.BonzerSites.com AND SPEAKING OF 1970s icons, so long to actress Farrah Fawcett, dead June 25 from cancer at 62. -- Honorary Unsubscribe archive: http://www.HonoraryUnsubscribe.com YOU CAN REALLY HELP TRUE: Send this issue (in its entirety, please) to a friend with your personal recommendation. A friend told YOU about this newsletter, right? Pass the favor on! Thanks. TIRED OF BEING TOLD WHERE TO GO? "Get Out of Hell Free" with our popular and (in?)famous cards, created in response to a reader telling Randy he was doomed. http://www.GOOHF.com SUBSCRIPTIONS to "This is True" are free at http://www.thisistrue.com Published weekly by ThisIsTrue.Inc, PO Box 666, Ridgway CO 81432 USA (ISSN 1521-1932). TRUE is available to newspapers as a regular feature column. "This is True" is a registered trademark of ThisIsTrue.Inc COPYRIGHT 2009 by Randy Cassingham, All Rights Reserved. All stories are completely rewritten by Randy Cassingham using facts from the noted sources. ALL broadcast, publication, retransmission to e-mail lists, WWW or any other copying or storage, in any medium, online or not, is STRICTLY PROHIBITED without PRIOR written permission from the author. MANUAL FORWARDING by e-mail to friends is allowed IF 1) the text is forwarded IN ITS ENTIRETY, from the "Since 1994" line on top through the end of this paragraph and 2) NO FEE is charged. 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