Brickbats: November 2024

When Kelly Titchenell of Greene County, Pennsylvania, called 911 to report that her mother was unresponsive and turning yellow, dispatcher Leon Price at first agreed to send an ambulance but then repeatedly said he needed her mother’s consent, even though she could not speak. He never sent an ambulance, and Titchenell’s mother died the next day from internal bleeding.

A Georgia grand jury indicted Hall County Solicitor General Stephanie Woodard on 24 felony counts amid allegations that she spent nearly $4,200 of taxpayer money on herself and family members, which included using the funds to have her dog cremated. Woodard remained in office nearly two more months before resigning.

Myanmar’s military government has arrested at least 62 people for selling rice above the maximum mandated price. One of the people arrested—supermarket executive Hiroshi Kasamatsu—was sentenced to a year in prison.

Saying the link between height and success is significant, Vietnam National University, Hanoi’s School of Management and Business said it would not allow female students under 1.58 meters tall (5’2″) and male students under 1.65 meters (5’5″) to enroll. Following a public outcry, the school removed height requirements for all degree programs except management and security.

Memphis, Tennessee, lost $773,000 in a phishing scam, but city officials did not disclose the loss until a local media outlet asked about it two years later. Officials say they received and paid an invoice from someone claiming to be a regular vendor, and by the time they discovered the error, the time period to reclaim the money had expired.

An Italian court ordered journalist Giulia Cortese to pay Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni 5,000 euros ($5,500) after she posted a fake photo of Meloni with late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on social media. The court also handed Cortese a suspended fine of 1,200 euros ($1,312) for another post it deemed “body shaming,” in which she told Meloni, “you’re only 1.2 metres [4 feet] tall.”

An audit found that Warren Tyler Agner, who oversaw business development programs at Utah State University Eastern, did not show up to work for two years but still received $157,470 in salary and benefits. The audit also found that administrators knew about his absences but did nothing: Agner was friends with his supervisor, as well as the two administrators further up the chain of command. He even lived with his supervisor’s supervisor, though neither disclosed this to the school.

When David O’Connor went to renew his Tennessee driver’s license, officials not only refused to renew it but canceled his existing driver’s license, citing a state law prohibiting licenses for noncitizens. O’Connor was born in Canada, where his parents—both U.S. citizens—were living temporarily, but he has been a U.S. citizen since birth: His Navy discharge papers say so, and he receives Social Security benefits. But since he was born in Canada, officials assumed he was Canadian and refused to believe otherwise; their only recommendation was that he apply for U.S. citizenship.

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