The last time parking wars made national news there were three dead Muslim students in Princeton, New Jersey.

Everyone, regardless of parking permit or not, has to do better. Where do the babysitters park? They are very important people.

June 3, 2016

By John Woodrow Cox

The mystery (click here) that for weeks unnerved this quiet Capitol Hill neighborhood began with a warning placed on a nanny's windshield.

"I know you are misusing this visitor pass to park here daily," the April 4 note read. "If you do not stop I will report it, have your car towed and the resident who provided this to you will have his privileges taken away."

Baffled, the young couple the nanny worked for sent out a message on the community email group asking for the note's anonymous author to contact them. No one came forward.

Instead, two days later, the nanny's license plates were stolen from her SUV, according to charging documents. Two days after that, another plate was stolen. Then, in late April, the thief struck once more - but this time the couple caught him on a video camera they had mounted inside their home's front window.

And the alleged culprit? In an only-in-Washington story, police identified him as Bryan Whitman, a top Pentagon official who has worked at the Defense Department for more than two decades....

A New Zealander explores "What's in your neighborhood?" I swear Americans have lost the "civil" in civilization.

May 31, 2016
By Richard Moore

Neighbours are like family - you can't pick them. (click here)

Seemingly they are chosen by The Fates and you can either be lucky, or terribly unlucky.

In the lucky stakes are people who have great folk next door who they get on with really well. There are regular barbecues, or dinners, between families and everyone is mindful of each other and makes sure their lifestyle does not impinge on the houses around them.

But you don't have to be in each others' pockets to be good neighbours. Sometimes that is just a greeting, or a wave, but again it does involve thinking about how your actions affect others.

Then we have those neighbours who don't give a rat's about anyone else and will basically become the unpleasant next-doors from hell.

They would include types like an American chap who reportedly chases people with a chainsaw and is said to have once slapped a quadriplegic man in the face with a fish!...