School newspaper drops a V-bomb

Grover Cleveland High School Principal Bob Marks has his limits. On Thursday, it was the labeled diagram of a vagina splashed across the front page of the student newspaper’s Valentine’s Day issue. Flustered teachers rushed to confiscate the publication, but with some copies already in circulation and the Reseda campus in an uproar, it quickly became a hot read for the school’s roughly 3,700 students.

The drawing in question ran under the hot-pink headline “Have a happy Vagina Day!” and the four-page edition included stories titled “Ending shame for nature’s gift” and “Rejected!!!!!!!”

The paper’s editor-in-chief, 15-year-old Richard Edmond, said he was trying to raise awareness of violence against women with a lead story about playwright Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues.”

“I didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal,” Edmond said. “But they are really upset.”
[…]
Edmond said some students reported that security guards snatched papers out of their hands. Marks said he had heard similar reports, but did not witness any such incidents.

Those wacky kids just love to jerk around the adults. <snicker>

Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., used his position in Congress to influence a federal land-exchange deal, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs…

The 35-count indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Tucson, Ariz., also accuses Renzi of separately embezzling corporate funds to bankroll his first House campaign.

The indictment makes Renzi the fourth sitting lawmaker to face federal charges since 2005 in the Justice Department’s continuing crackdown on public corruption, and it represents a fresh blow to Congressional Republicans struggling with numerous allegations of ethical wrongdoing in their ranks.

Renzi joins convicted GOP Reps. Randy “Duke” Cunningham of California and Robert Ney of Ohio, as well as Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, who is awaiting trial on bribery charges, as targets of Justice Department prosecution.

A carousel of political thugs. Step right up! Who’s next?

Passengers travelling between EU countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their mobile phone numbers and credit card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to “profile” suspects.

Brussels officials are already considering controversial anti-terror plans that would collect up to 19 pieces of information on every air passenger entering or leaving the EU. Under a controversial agreement reached last summer with the US department of homeland security, the EU already supplies the same information to Washington for all passengers flying between Europe and the US.

But Britain wants the system extended to sea and rail travel, to be applied to domestic flights and those between EU countries. According to a questionnaire circulated to all EU capitals by the European commission, the UK is the only country of 27 EU member states that wants the system used for “more general public policy purposes” besides fighting terrorism and organised crime…

The scheme would work through national agencies collecting and processing the passenger data and then sharing it with other EU states. Britain also wants to be able to exchange the information with third parties outside the EU.

Golly gee. Do you think that might mean the United States?

Who picks best of breed?

A Moroccan computer engineer is due in court in connection with a fake Facebook profile set up in the name of a member of the royal family.

Fouad Mourtada, 26, was arrested on 5 February on suspicion of stealing the identity of Prince Moulay Rachid, younger brother of King Mohammed VI.

He has been in custody ever since his arrest in Casablanca…

He is accused of “villainous practices linked to the alleged theft of the [prince’s] identity”…

Look around and see where you are – before you decide to be a smartass.

Update: Mourtada was sentenced to 3 years in jail, today. (Feb. 23)