Loosely Related Things

Just a few things that are only loosely related:
First, a municipal building in Pennsylvania burned down, courtesy of the township supervisors. File this one under, "It could never happen to me."
A new life for old cigarette machines, which is good, I think. It's nice that they can be useful again, and possibly even beneficial, not to mention, flame-free.
A man in Washington state has his wages garnished because he buys his cigarettes online. To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of this. I don't like cigarettes, but I think the state's tactics in this case were draconian. On the other hand, they mailed him several notices, and even had a tax collection agent leave a business card at his door; he ignored them all.
Two border patrol officers have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, ostensibly for shooting a drug smuggler (more here). That seems even more draconian than Washington state, until you read the fine print. It seems that they shot him in the back as he ran away, and then tried to cover it up when they realized that he wasn't armed. Even with that understanding, though, the prison sentences they received do seem harsh. A lot of people are upset that the drug smuggler was granted immunity from prosecution to testify against the border patrol officers, but, let's face it, once Ramos and Compean tampered with the evidence to cover up the fact that they shot Aldrete, they pretty much flushed the case against him, anyway.