Postcards

We can’t resist that ‘Hot Doughnuts Now’ sign, either, guys. Last month, an Albuquerque police officer and his civilian pilot were investigated on charges of possible misuse of city funds after they landed a police helicopter next to a Krispy Kreme doughnut store around 1 a.m., ran in to buy a dozen doughnuts and took off. Keith Turner, who saw the incident, told the Albuquerque Journal, “That’s my tax dollars, your tax dollars. You’ve got no business flying in to get doughnuts.” A Krispy Kreme employee told Reuters he didn’t understand all the fuss. “Cops got to eat, too,” he said.

When asking politely doesn’t work. In July, the Putnam, Mass., Board of Selectmen passed a Land Use Ordinance that prohibits the sale of goods and/or services on any town property. A hot dog vendor, who has worked in a municipal parking lot since 1995, claims the ordinance is the town’s latest attempt to put him out of business. Earlier this year, the town installed a bicycle rack and, later, public restrooms where Ford Fay usually parked his hot dog cart. According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Fay is the only regular vendor to use town property and has been forced to move his cart to private property, where he claims he serves fewer customers.

Religious freedom. In response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the Ringgold, Ga., City Council unanimously approved a measure to display the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer in three government buildings. Next to the framed copies of the religious documents will be an empty frame “for those who believe in nothing,” Councilman Bill McMillon told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “If they don’t believe in [the other two], they can go stand in front of [the blank frame] and believe anything they want to.”