City's defense to a breach-of-contract claim: contracts aren't valid because the mayor was drunk when he signed them. "Them" being nine separate contracts worth about $1 million. "Again," the mayor said in a deposition, "this was after two or three hours of drinking … not exactly the best time to read over legal documents." Hey, speak for yourself.
In April, Marin County agreed to pay $1.9 million to a 66-year-old man who claimed sheriff's deputies tased him because he wouldn't go to the hospital. Peter McFarland's wife called 911 after he fell at his home, but he later decided he did not want medical assistance. Deputies insisted that he go with them to the hospital, but he told them to leave, whereupon he was repeatedly tased and arrested. Marin's counsel was quoted as saying that the law on the use of Tasers "is more restrictive today" than at the time of the tasing in 2009.
Just in case this might come in handy someday: "[E]xperiments [on pigs] have shown that a human body may be easily dismembered with a chainsaw, even a smaller electric-powered model. Despite popular beliefs fueled by … television and recent Chainsaw Massacre movies, postmortem dismemberment does not necessarily produce a large amount of blood spatter…." Brad Randall, "Blood and Tissue Spatter Associated with Chainsaw Dismemberment," Journal of Forensic Sciences, vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 1310-14 (2009).
Speaking of forensics, a lengthy police investigation has reportedly found evidence that improper activities may have taken place at the "Java Juggs" espresso-stand chain in Edmonds, Washington. Undercover officers reported that female baristas could easily be persuaded to expose themselves (or more). "It was really, from what I understand, quite simple," said one police sergeant. "It wasn't a great deal of effort in getting these girls to expose themselves." Despite its simplicity, the investigation lasted for a total of nine months, presumably in an effort to be comprehensive.
