"That type of behavior - deputies stripping - is not going to be tolerated," says Washington County Sheriff Larry Maggi, "especially in our uniforms." Or, out of them. Especially while said deputy is on disability leave from the department. Such is the case of a sheriff's deputy who has not only lost his badge, he's been charged with worker's compensation fraud. Dep. Andreas Veneris was arrested March 20. He'd been fired in February 1999 when Maggi learned he stripped the previous summer at Gloria's Hindquarter Room near Pittsburgh while on unpaid medical leave for a bad back. Veneris claimed he sustained a back injury chasing a suspect two years earlier and filed for worker's comp two months afterward, staying on unpaid medical leave after his claim was turned down. But Maggi says Veneris actually injured himself in an off-duty motorcycle accident. After his firing, he filed a grievance against the county which he dropped after getting $5,000 in return for dismissing the claim and promising never to apply for a county job again. Veneris is free on $10,000 bond.
AUSTIN, Texas - The White House campaign might make you forget George W. Bush is still governor of Texas. But that he is - and he's just signed a health products tax cut that has him in hot latex with social conservatives - who might normally support him - because the bill exempts condoms from state sales taxes. Bush signed the bill as written by state lawmakers, but groups like the Texas Eagle Forum say the clause promotes promiscuity and not premarital abstinence in the young. "At home, they're learning one thing and our tax code is teaching them something different," says group president Cathie Adams. A Bush spokeswoman says he didn't want condoms in the bill but signed it as the legislature wrote it to bring about another tax cut.
JACKSON, Miss. - The state that wanted to criminalize public male sexual arousal (and they're still not saying whether losing your erection between arrest and booking equals destroying evidence) also wants a crack at banning gay couples from adopting children. The proposal passed the lower House by a whopping 107-8 figure and goes to the state Senate next. If the proposal is signed into law, Mississippi would join Florida as the only states to ban gay adoption. The American Civil Liberties Union has threatened a lawsuit to block or overturn the measure. Republican lawmaker Bobby Howell, who proposed the measure, says it makes a statement for "the strong, traditional family."
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
