Postcards
Zero tolerance
After arresting a 10-year-old girl in December for bringing 8-inch scissors to school, the Philadelphia police chief and the school district chief executive apologized to the girl’s mother. According to the Associated Press, the scissors — potential weapons under the school’s rules — were discovered during a search of students’ belongings after something disappeared from a teacher’s desk. Police eventually decided the girl did not commit a crime and let her go, but not before taking her to the police station. Police Chief Sylvester Johnson said discretion would be used in future cases involving young children.
Carted away
When homeless people abandoned their shopping carts in Berkeley, Calif., the city used to hold the carts for 90 days in an outdoor storage yard. Last year, the city began storing them in a 40-foot-long, $8,200 refrigerated container, according to a November report in the San Francisco Chronicle. The city faces a $7.5 million deficit but signed a five-year, $61,500 lease with Caltrans for the land the container sits on and also spends an estimated $3,000 annually to power the storage unit. Public works officials claim the structure could serve as a temporary morgue if needed.