Homeland insecurity
People on the government’s terrorist watch list tried to buy guns 963 times last year, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. Federal authorities approved 865 of those purchases, including one case where a listee was able to buy more than 50 pounds of explosives. “This is a glaring omission, and it’s a security issue,” Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., told the New York Times. Lautenberg introduced legislation in 2007 to block gun sales to people on terror watch lists, but the measure stalled under pressure from the National Rifle Association, whose position is that showing up on a terrorist watch list is no reason to deny someone a gun.
Recycler of the year (so far)
A ship made with about 10,000 empty 2-liter plastic bottles is scheduled to sail the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia to highlight the magnitude of disposable containers. “Waste is fundamentally a design flaw,” expedition leader David de Rothschild said. “We wanted to design a vessel that would epitomize waste being used as a resource.” The 60-foot vessel is named the Plastiki in honor of Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 balsa raft Kon-Tiki, which the Norwegian explorer sailed to test the theory that voyagers from South America settled the Polynesian islands. His granddaughter, environmental scientist Josian Heyerdahl, said she plans to board the Plastiki for the last leg of its journey.
Only the Loanly
A Latvian loan company is helping people through hard times by lending them money with only their soul as collateral. Applicants need give only their first names and don’t have to show any documents, according to Viktor Mirosiichenko, 34, the public face of the Kontora loan company, who said his company is trusting borrowers to repay the high-interest, short-term loans and vowed not to use strong-arm collection tactics if any don’t. “If they don’t give it back, what can you do?” Mirosiichenko told Reuters. “They won’t have a soul, that’s all.”
Iowa’s Marshalltown Community School District is hiring a collection agency to recoup $25,900 in overdue lunch money. “I’m hoping that we see a little more response,” Food Service Director Ann Feilmann told the Times-Republican, explaining that Alabama-based PSD Receivables will use auto-dial and letters to persuade families whose children have racked up meal debts, including one that Feilmann said owes $1,700.
Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Submit items, citing date and source, to P.O. Box 8130, Alexandria VA 22306.
