postcards
Strangers with candy
During a January visit to the Abington, Mass., town hall, resident Joanne Harding broke her tooth on a Tootsie Roll that she took from a candy jar there, and now wants the town to fork over $4,000 to $5,000 to pay her dental bill, according to The Associated Press. Harding was at the town hall to get a dog license. The town’s insurance company has agreed to pay any costs up to $10,000 that are not covered by Harding’s insurance. Candy jars still abound at the town hall.
Taking a bite out of crime
The millions of dollars that a developer received from Miami-Dade County, Fla., in March should have been used for the construction of new offices for the county’s Housing Agency. However, Raul Masvidal, also a well-known political advisor, philanthropist and businessman in Miami, used $150,000 of the money to purchase a giant sculpture of a partially eaten watermelon slice for himself, according to AFP news. Masvidal, who was charged with organized fraud and grand theft, asked an art broker to produce a fake invoice for an additional sculpture that he said would be placed in the new facilities. “What a great disappointment,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle told AFP.
“He turned on his community. He turned on his friends.”