Assorted Stupidity #50

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  • Winner, Least Necessary Sentence in Article Linked Above Item (tie): "Witnesses said the man might be under the influence of drugs" and "He was the only occupant of the trailer."
  • "Tell the people their underwear must come down," said Myra Taylor, the mayor of Opa-locka, Florida. Unfortunately, she was talking about the underwear some residents have been hanging out to dry on a city guard rail, despite having been told to stop. "I could say 'the drawers must come down,'" she continued, in case anyone missed the joke the first time.
  • If you read the article at that link and noted that the residents live on "Ali Baba Avenue," you may also be interested to know that Opa-locka was specifically designed to have a "One Thousand and One Nights" theme. Its city hall resembles a mosque and it has other streets named Sultan Avenue, Caliph Street, Sinbad Avenue, Harem Avenue, and (sort of consistently) Sesame Street.
  • There is some room for debate as to what attorneys can recover under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, the provision of federal civil rights law that awards fees to a prevailing party. Probably outside the scope of that debate: health insurance, mini-blinds, and dry-cleaning bills. See Binta v. Gordon, slip op. at 1 (6th Cir. Mar. 20, 2013); see also id. at 22 (citing Alliance to End Repression v. City of Chicago, 356 F.3d 767, 773 (7th Cir. 2004) ("The class action device is not intended to be a lawyers' gravy train.")).