Metro brief D.C. to enforce parking offenses with new technology
The D.C. Department of Public Works is currently testing new technology that would allow officers to quickly patrol downtown areas for overtime parking violations, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Public Works would equip personnel with camera-mounted sport utility vehicles that could record the size, color and license plate number of parked vehicles while driving around an area.
If the parked cars are in violation by the time the SUV makes a second pass, the system would recognize it and alert the officer, according to The Post.
The goal is to crack down on so-called "meter feeders" and "zone overtimers" who park in time-restricted spaces but do not leave once the allotted time limit is reached.
The city wants to free up these spaces for shoppers, which it claimed are scarce in D.C.'s downtown areas, The Post reported. -CHRISTOPHER COTTRELL
National brief Obama takes Wisconsin, Clinton on the offensive
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama triumphed over New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Wisconsin's Democratic primary and Hawaii's Democratic caucus Tuesday night, achieving his ninth and 10th straight victories and widening the delegate gap between the two, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Obama won 58-41 in Wisconsin and 76-23 in Hawaii. The wins left him with 1,336 delegates - 85 ahead of Clinton, according to the latest AP estimate.
Only a day after accusing Obama of plagiarizing parts of a speech from Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass., Clinton abstained from mentioning the primary loss at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, and claimed Obama offers little more than talk, the AP reported.
Exit polls in Wisconsin revealed that Obama cut into some of Clinton's main sources of support - namely undereducated constituents and white women, according to the AP. -C.C.
International brief German attempts extinguish girlfriend's bad habit
An annoyed non-smoker in Germany sprayed the contents of an entire fire extinguisher on his girlfriend when she lit up a cigarette in their apartment, Reuters reported Tuesday.
After she ignored his request to quit smoking, the 42-year-old German man responded by emptying the canister's contents on her and around the apartment. He also verbally berated her at the same time, according to Reuters.
"My colleagues said it looked like a bomb had gone off in there," a police spokesman in the town of Bielefeld told Reuters. "He managed to put the cigarette out, though." "He said he wasn't bothered by the damage it caused," the spokesman said. "And that he's done with his girlfriend." -C.C.
