BRICKBATS.

• Author: Oliver, Charles
• Position: Sale of balloons; posting of air soft gun in social media; women's haircut and discrimination

The New Shoreham, Rhode Island, town council has banned the sale and use of balloons. Officials say the move will reduce pollution and protect wildlife. The council previously banned plastic bags for the same reasons. Violators face fines of up to $200.

Senior Zach Cassidento was yanked out of class, arrested, and suspended by Connecticut's Amity Regional High School for "disrupting the educational process" after he posted a photo of the airsoft air gun he got as a birthday present to Snapchat. His post contained no threat, but it still upset another student, who reported him.

A woman has hauled Sydney, Australia, barber Sam Rahim before the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The woman, an attorney, claims Rahim violated anti-discrimination law by refusing to cut her daughter's hair. Rahim says he politely told her that he wasn't trained to cut women's hair, that he has no experience cutting women's hair, and that there were three women's hair salons just a short distance away.

A driver stopped for tailgating in Southampton, New Jersey, ended up getting his genitals and buttocks groped by a cop. Police body camera footage shows State Trooper Joseph Drew claiming to smell marijuana to justify a search. The man protested that he had no drugs, but Drew nevertheless put on gloves and reached inside the man's underwear as they stood on the side of the road. Drew found no drugs on the man or in his car.

The Patriarch Craft Beer House and Lawn in Edmond, Oklahoma, promised free beer to striking teachers. But after an official with the state's Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission saw a Facebook post on the offer, investigators raided the bar, seized two kegs of Respect Party beer, and issued the owner a citation for not having the beverage brand properly registered in...