Lead Story
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In the last week of March: (1) The U.S. General Accounting Office released the results of a test in which enough radioactive materials to build a “dirty bomb” had been easily smuggled into the country via car over both the Mexican and Canadian borders. (2) A U.S. official said that a third of the world’s 130 civilian-run nuclear research reactors weren’t sufficiently secure to prevent the theft of such bomb materials. (3) ABC News reported that after years of hearings and studies the U.S. still hadn’t adopted a program to protect commercial planes from shoulder-fired missiles, an estimated 20,000 of which are available on the black market. And (4) the Los Angeles Times reported that the fishing village of Dillingham, Alaska, had used a $200,000 Homeland Security grant to put up 60 surveillance cameras at city hall, the fire station, and other locations, with 20 more cameras to come. Dillingham (population 2,400) is connected by road only to towns in its vicinity; Anchorage is a 90-minute ride away by propeller plane.
Compelling Explanations
Driving While Nude
Maxcy Dean Filer, a 1966 law school graduate, made News of the Weird in 1989, after he failed the California bar exam for the 46th time, and again in 1991, when he passed on his 48th try. Now 75, Filer’s been practicing in Compton ever since, but the Los Angeles Times reported in February that because he didn’t file a certain document in a case last year, the state bar put him on probation, requiring him to pass an ethics and professional conduct test, before he could be reinstated. The test was scheduled for March; no word yet on how he did.
