An Arkansas man awaiting trial on murder charges has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the small portion size of prison meals has caused him to lose weight. Broderick Laswell claims that in the eight months he has been incarcerated, his weight has dropped from 413 pounds to a mere 308 pounds, and that “about an hour after each meal, my stomach starts to hurt and growl.” Prison officials say Laswell, like all inmates, gets 3,000 calories a day, more than sufficient for a healthy adult male.
Several students at one Oregon high school have been ordered to go home and shave off their eyebrows. Officials at Centennial High School in Portland say the students had vertical lines shaved into their eyebrows, a trend apparently inspired by rap star Soulja Boy, and police had warned the school that the style had been adopted by street gangs as a badge of membership. “This is a way for them to identify each other,” said gang-enforcement officer David Schmidt. “In a school setting, it intimidates other kids.”
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