Brickbats.

• Position: Brief article

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One morning in January, in Medford, Massachusetts, an automated telephone system made some 2,100 calls telling parents, inaccurately, that their children were not in school.

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Surveillance video shows Shreveport police officer Ryan Robinson looking around to make sure other officers aren't watching before walking up behind Carnado Brown, who is talking on a cell phone outside a night club. Robinson then tases Brown. Robinson was suspended for 45 days, but there are no plans for a criminal investigation.

Two students at Pennsylvania's Waynesburg Central High School were suspended for 10 days after they madean anti-drug commercial for a TV workshop. The students crushed candy and used it to represent cocaine. That violated a school policy that bans not only drugs but things that look like drugs. At least one student also was told to undergo drug counseling.

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For the third time in 13 months, the state of Wisconsin has sent out letters in which the recipients' Social Security numbers were visible from the outside of the envelope. In the latest incident, the state sent 1099-G tax forms to people who received a state income tax refund or other payment in 2007. Because of the way the forms were folded, Social Security numbers were visible in the windows of some of the envelopes. The state has offered to pay for one year of credit monitoring for all of the recipients.

Boston attorney Simon Glik used his cell phone to record police in the Boston Common arresting a 16-year-old boy on drug charges. Police claim he distracted them, allowing the boy to temporarily...