Newsworthy?

January 25, 2002 8:18 AM

Newsworthy? In Silicon Valley, a sex survey. In Des Moines, a man complaining about his car being taken away for a $35.81 crime. Interesting news?
posted by jacobw (6 comments total)

umm no
posted by fritx at 8:41 AM on January 25, 2002

Not newsworthy. The Iowa story is well-written and clearly outlines good reasons for the decisions involved. But they should have stated how much the car sold for, and whether or not the defendant received the difference. If, for example, the car sold for $5,000, and the defendant got a check for $4,964.19, then it would seem to be even less "gestapo"-like. (If they did reimburse the difference, then the guy was an idiot for not being the highest bidder himself, regardless of price).
posted by yesster at 8:53 AM on January 25, 2002

I think the Iowa story is pretty egregious, though fairly on-par for some of the more awful seizure stories. It's not that they seized the car to pay his $35 fine, it's that they seized it because they felt he used it during the commision of the crime.

Basically a sentencing judge decided his crimes merited a $35 restitution payment and that's all, but the police used forfeiture laws to then seize the car.

Not sure why these two links appeared in the same article, though. I would have a hard time caring any less about a Silicon Valley sex survey, personally.
posted by mragreeable at 10:47 AM on January 25, 2002

As an avid reader of the Des Moines Register, let me say that these journalists do a tremendous job of writing interesting stories in an area where little happens. If you think that's bad, there have been front page stories about a $14,000 dog bought at an auction.
posted by Homeskillet Freshy Fresh at 11:33 AM on January 25, 2002

I wonder why you expect anything news worthy from the Metro. I mean really, it's just a free weekly that's mostly used as a source for club information. While they occasionaly try to delve into local politics, most of the paper is just fluff entertainment articles like the one you mention.
posted by BenNewman at 12:36 PM on January 25, 2002

To be honest, I've never heard of the Metro (I go to school outside of Boston)...but I came across the site, and it looked semi-legit. As for the Des Moines Register, I was actually looking for a news article that was anti-sex, and I thought I could find one out of a newspaper in the midwest or a similarly conservative area. Then I realized that would take too long and I'd just pick an article that I thought was ridiculous and not interesting to the general public. Of course, I can't speak for the general public, and the more I think about it, that Register article is interesting. I also don't know whether the Register is typically liberal or conservative for that area. Basically, I wanted to post the Metro link, but I didn't want to put it by itself.
posted by jacobw at 1:39 PM on January 25, 2002