Lead Story
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In May, after reviewing previously classified reports and correspondence, the AP revealed the origins of an alert issued earlier this year by the Defense Department warning that coins rigged with tiny transmitters had been planted on U.S. military contractors traveling in Canada. Apparently the coins that had the contractors worried enough to file confidential espionage reports (calling them “anomalous” and suggesting they might contain nanotechnology) were just special-edition 25-cent pieces, commemorating Canadian war dead, that featured a bright red poppy against a silver background. Canada minted almost 30 million such quarters in 2004.
Town vs. Gown
Robert Theriault, formerly a courthouse security officer in Franklin, New Hampshire, was sentenced in April to community service following a conviction on prostitution charges. A couple testified that Franklin offered them $20 an hour to help him evaluate bedsheets and condoms for an insurance company by having sex while he watched.
Least Competent Criminals
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration by Shawn Belshwender.
