Brickbats: November 2025

Belgium’s Permanent Commission for Linguistic Control upheld a complaint against train conductor Ilyass Alba for violating the country’s strict language laws. In 2024, a passenger objected when Alba used the French word bonjour alongside the Dutch goeiemorgen in a bilingual greeting on a train in Dutch-speaking Flanders, as the train approached Vilvoorde, near Brussels. The commission ruled that conductors should use only Dutch in Flanders, but they should use both Dutch and French in bilingual Brussels.

Officials shut down 15-year-old Max McKinney’s bait stand in Spooner, Wisconsin, after deeming it a zoning violation. McKinney sold worms, sodas, candy, and T-shirts from a stand on his family’s farm. After only its second weekend in operation, the county’s zoning land use specialist sent out a cease-and-desist letter that ordered the stand’s closure and removal within 14 days and threatened daily fines for noncompliance.

Tobias Otieno, a former auditor with the Office of the New York State Comptroller, was indicted for grand larceny as a public corruption crime. Prosecutors say from June 2022 to September 2024, Otieno was assigned to audit the town of Wallkill’s finances, during which time he used his access to the town’s banks accounts to transfer $405,843.25 to his own accounts.

A federal judge ruled Salvatore and Jane Mattiaccio, owners of a construction company in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, can proceed with their lawsuit against former Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor William Scharfenberg, claiming malicious prosecution and defamation. Scharfenberg operated a competing construction business, and the Mattiaccios say he misused his prosecutorial authority to target them in criminal investigations and prosecutions. U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner dismissed most claims in the lawsuit, citing prosecutorial immunity, but claims against Scharfenberg’s company and four people affiliated with the prosecutor’s office remain.

A Detroit police officer was arrested for stealing approximately $600 from a woman’s purse during a traffic stop. According to the department, the theft was captured on the officer’s own body camera.

According to the New Jersey state comptroller, Irvington Township misspent $632,000 in opioid settlement funds on two “Opioid Awareness” concerts in 2023 and 2024. The township held the events without consulting residents or health experts, and it did not use a competitive bidding process before awarding contracts. It also provided no evidence of substantive opioid education despite claiming Narcan was distributed at the events. At the same time, officials rented luxury trailers and cotton candy machines, and awarded $368,500 to businesses owned by the family of a township employee who was tasked with securing musical talent.

Residents of San Francisco’s Dolores Heights neighborhood have long parked in their driveways with part of their cars poking out into the sidewalk, with no issues. But then complaints began to surge, often reported by the city’s 311 system, leading to citations. Residents say the sidewalks still have room for multiple people or wheelchairs to pass, and they argue the enforcement feels like a crackdown on car use. Some residents suspect a single complainant is storing images and using them to make repeated complaints.

Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority has blocked access to Grok, social media platform X’s AI chatbot. The order followed a court ruling prompted by public complaints about Grok’s responses, which allegedly included derogatory remarks when asked about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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