Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...
Suspended in Time
Talk about a waste of time.
Hawaii's education department has a million dollars in brand new time clocks sitting in a break room gathering dust.
Back in 2010, the timeclocks were ordered to keep better tabs on employee work hours.
But apparently no one considered that getting those clocks up and running would cost an additional $6 million by the time software, wires, and labor were factored in.
Expenses that new leadership believes are not worth it.
A spokeswoman says the department is still hoping to put some of the clocks to use and that it has learned from this mistake.
No Laughing Matter
Now it's time to get serious.
China's TV and media watchdog is banning puns. That's right.
In Chinese culture wordplay abounds since many words sound very similar.
But the Guardian reports the State Administration governing the media in China is not amused.
It warns word jokes confuse and mislead the public -- especially young children -- and could lead to quote-- "cultural and linguistic chaos."
Therefore, ads, TV shows, and other media must stick to literal uses of words and standard spellings.
So jokesters in China -- consider yourself warned.
You have nowhere to pun.
Revisionist Lawmaking
And finally, a Long Island town is trying to remedy a typo printed on hundreds of signs by changing the law to correspond with the mistake.
The signs threaten a $250 fine for not cleaning up after your dog.
The punishment though is actually $25.
But, town officials tell a local TV station it would be cheaper to change the law to a $250 fine than to replace the signs.
They also say, this law is rarely enforced because police have to catch a dog in the act to issue a ticket.
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