Postcards
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Does he need AAA or AA? With 250 outstanding parking tickets totaling $16,375, Thomas Wehrer is angry at San Francisco for having changed its rules for ticketing. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city has begun filing tickets by owner rather than by vehicle, so his previous practice of getting parking tickets for junk cars and abandoning them no longer gets him off the hook. Because he must continue to register his cars, he claims the city is “enabling” his ticket-accumulation habit.
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Holy moolah. Palos Heights, Ill., faces a $6.2 million federal lawsuit filed in August by the Al Salam Mosque Foundation. The foundation was considering buying a building in the town and converting it to a place of worship when the city council offered it $200,000 to change its mind. The foundation accepted the offer, but the mayor vetoed it, saying that it was an insult to the Muslims.
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A sticky situation. Bill Lucado and Alan Schomber purchased most of Toomsboro, Ga., for $265,000 from property owners Edwin and Margaret Lavender in a November auction, according to the Associated Press. The men now own the Swampland Opera building and a small store called the Syrup Pitcher. Although they do not have specific plans for the town of 600, residents fear that the men will abolish the opera’s free Saturday night bluegrass and gospel shows and the annual Syrup Festival. “We want to continue to keep it going the way it was,” says Maggie Loyd, one of the staffers at the Swampland Snackbar.