truTV: Not Reality. Actuality.

In a September story, the local Spokesman Review reported that putting a stop sign at the Spokane, Wash., junction of Havana Street and Eighth Avenue is tricky because the intersection is subject to the jurisdiction of three different entities. West of the center line of Havana is regulated by the city of Spokane, and east of it by Spokane County, and to stop Eighth Avenue traffic heading west, permission is also needed from incorporated Spokane Valley, which controls land up to the edge of Eighth Avenue. Said resident Ed Weilep, "You get a real thrill going through that intersection."

Alternate Universe: About 40 percent of U.S. elementary schools have eliminated recess over the last 20 years (according to a September story in New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Fla.), so that schools could squeeze in more classroom time. In addition to the problem of overweight students, Florida school psychologist Marvin Silverman referred to children's "chemical need" for recess, pointing out that even psychiatric institutions give recess to help with "mood and movement." A complicating factor is that in some schools, playground equipment has already been removed because of safety concerns and fear of lawsuits.

The Perpetual Campaign to Make Everyone Perfect: The Moscow State Circus, touring Britain in July, told reporters its insurance companies had instructed trapeze artists to wear hard hats during their performances, to comply with European Union safety rules. And Beaufort County, S.C., adopted a policy in August that, for two-semester high school courses, a student who fails the first semester would automatically receive an encouraging "62," no matter how low his actual score.

In June, Milwaukee police officer Robert Henry, 34, was awarded lifetime disability benefits because of work-related stress, which he said was caused by the department's decision to fire him for roughing up a misdemeanor suspect in a 2002 incident caught on videotape. (He was reinstated on appeal, but shortly after that filed for disability.) Henry, who had a total of four years' service, will receive $23,000 immediately, then $39,000 a year for 29 years, and then collect his standard pension.

The Florida legislature, faced with a mounting traffic accident rate caused by its increasingly older population but habitually unable to address the problem because of resistance by senior voters and their lobbyists, finally passed a law in May to improve highway safety. From now on, seniors' eyesight will be tested at every license renewal, but not until the driver is at least age 80.

Family Values: According to a wrongful firing lawsuit filed in June by a former media relations assistant for the Sacramento Kings pro basketball team, star player Doug Christie is not permitted to speak to any female other than his wife, for any reason. The assistant said she was fired because she innocently passed along a telephone message to Christie in the course of her work but that when Mrs. Christie found out, she pressured the organization to fire her and reaffirm the Christie family policy.