The following stories are brought to you by the fine folks on the News4 assignment desk.
HOW MANY COPS CALL WHILE DRIVING?
Nearly four years after the District banned cell phone use while driving, D.C. Police have issued more than 42,000 tickets. But how many police officers have been caught breaking that law? It's a question D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier gets a lot. "We have records of no officers being disciplined through the internal affairs process," Lanier said Thursday on WTOP's Ask The Chief program. (WTOP)
A TIMELY CATCH
Hawaii resident Curt Carish boasts a timely fish tale: a 10-inch reef fish he caught by hand in shallow water coughed up a ticking gold watch. Carish says he was enjoying a picnic Wednesday on Port Allen beach when he saw the nenue fish awkwardly swimming close to shore. He says a friend gave him a bamboo stick and told him to get the fish. So he jumped into the waist-high water and hit the nenue until it went limp. (MSNBC)
A DEMOCRATIC PAGEANT
The recession is now hurting the Miss Virginia pageant, so organizers are turning to an established pay-for-skin platform to raise funds: the Internet. Sponsorship for scholarships is down due to the economy, pageant organizers said, so for a fee, the public can vote, the Roanoke Times reported. People can cast an unlimited number of votes online to choose a semi-finalist for Miss Virginia at a cost of 99 cents per vote. (NBC Washington)
HOLA DESDE LA OFICINA DEL CENSO
What could be a more fitting character to weave into the plot of a steamy Spanish-language soap opera than a … Census worker? Anything goes this year as companies such as the U.S. Spanish-language network Telemundo and groups across the nation work with the Census Bureau to cook up creative and quirky ways to get the word out about the 2010 Census. "It's one of the most important game-changing events in our history," says Don Browne, president of Telemundo, about the count of every person in the USA every 10 years. "There are enormous demographic shifts in our country … driven primarily by the growth in the Latino population." (USA Today)
