The federal government has been flying unmanned drones over ranchers’ property in the Midwest since 2010 to snoop on whether there were violations of the Clean Water Act. Ranchers didn’t even know about the spying until a few months ago, and they’re now protesting it, along with some area lawmakers.

  • The U.S. government says there are no medicinal uses for marijuana. That’s the claim of the Drug Enforcement Administration, but a new study — which the federal government paid for — destroys that claim. It politely calls the government position “not accurate.”
  • A store clerk in New Hampshire has lost her job after she refused to sell a man a pack of cigarettes using food stamp money. State rules allow money from the EBT card to be used for cigarettes, but the clerk said it wasn’t right. Her company disagreed.

  • Some stupid people seem determined to get themselves out of the gene pool. That was the case for a 17-year-old boy in Florida who shot himself playing Russian roulette with his friends. He was the first person to shoot the gun — and he died.
  • New statistics about young girls’ self-image are disturbing. A new study claims that 80 percent of 10-year-old girls have been on a diet at least once. A staggering 53 percent of girls are unhappy with their bodies at the age of 13, and that figure rises to 78 percent by age 17.
  • The U.S. government has announced — using your tax money — that mermaids don’t exist. Seriously.