Brickbats: June 2026

Federal officials arrested and indicted Christopher Southerland for stealing government-issued cellphones worth more than $150,000 while he worked as a system administrator for the U.S. House of Representatives. Prosecutors say Southerland ordered 240 extra phones shipped to his home and sold most of them to a pawn shop. The theft was uncovered when he sold a phone on eBay and the buyer called a number preloaded in the phone, which rang House I.T. support.

Carl McCain won $800 on a lottery ticket—but when he went to claim his prize, North Carolina officials told him the money was being taken to pay debts he owed to Lenoir County and Wayne County. McCain said the debts weren’t his, and when he called those counties, he found the debt belonged to someone else with a similar name. Still, officials didn’t correct the error or issue his winnings until McCain reached out to a TV reporter.

In Indonesia’s Aceh province, which strictly enforces Islamic sharia law, a woman and her partner were each publicly caned 140 times in a town square for having sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol—100 lashes for the premarital sex and 40 for the alcohol. The woman collapsed during the flogging and had to be carried to an ambulance afterward. They were among six people punished that day, including a sharia police officer and his female partner, who were each caned 23 times for being close to each other in a private place.

Authorities in California say a family that moved to Florida in 2021 may still owe state income taxes. Hari Raghavan and Mitali Gala received a letter in January 2026 asking for proof they had actually moved, including receipts, canceled checks, and a “narrative of the circumstances.” The couple said even though their California house didn’t sell until 2022, Florida became their home in 2021.

Pariss Brown keeps getting surprise visits from law enforcement because her Missouri home was the last known address of a wanted felon, Munir Hirkic. Every time cops come by, Brown explains that the man lived there years ago. She has called the local police department to get the record updated. But so far, her address is still connected to the fugitive in police databases and officers keep showing up looking for him.

A bill in California would let the inspector general for the state’s troubled high-speed rail project keep records secret from the public if officials think they could reveal weaknesses, such as security risks or pending lawsuits. Opponents say taxpayers deserve transparency about how their money is being spent: The rail system was originally supposed to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles, cost $52 billion (in today’s dollars), and be completed by 2020. The project is still far from complete, with a new timeline stretching past 2030 and costing as much as $126 billion.

Georgia state Rep. Joseph Gullett (R–Dallas) sponsored a bill that would limit police body camera and dashcam videos from open records laws when they capture someone’s death. Gullett says the bill would protect people’s dignity and stop others from using videos for web traffic or social media views, but critics worry it could reduce public transparency by keeping important evidence from the public.

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