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AP IMPACT: Scant oversight as small-town police departments gobble up discarded military gear
• MORVEN, Ga. (AP) -- Small-town police departments across the country have been gobbling up tons of equipment discarded by a downsizing military -- bicycles, bed sheets, bowling pins, French horns, dog collars, even a colonoscopy machine -- regardless of whether the items are needed or will ever be used.
• In the tiny farming community of Morven, Ga., the police chief has grabbed three boats, scuba gear, rescue rafts and a couple of dozen life preservers. The town's deepest body of water: an ankle-deep creek.
• An Associated Press investigation of the Defense Department program, originally aimed at helping local law enforcement fight terrorism and drug trafficking, found that a disproportionate share of the $4.2 billion worth of property distributed since 1990 has been obtained by police departments and sheriff's offices in rural areas with few officers and little crime.
• The national giveaway program operates with scant oversight, and the surplus military gear often sits in storage, the AP found.
• Using a series of public records requests, the AP obtained thousands of pages of emails and other documents related to the program locally and nationally. The documents, along with interviews with participants and regulators, reveal that staffing shortages and budget constraints have made it difficult for federal and state program officials to keep track of all of the property and to prevent police forces from obtaining excessive amounts of used military equipment and other Defense Department-transferred property.
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Thousands of pro-Morsi protesters dig in their heels as Egypt signals crackdown is imminent
• CAIRO (AP) -- Protesters holding sticks and wearing helmets and makeshift body armor stand behind mounds of sandbags, tires and brick walls. They change guards every two hours to ensure they stay alert.
• With Egypt's military-backed government signaling a crackdown is imminent, supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi are taking no chances with security at their two protest camps in Cairo.
• On Wednesday, the Cabinet ordered the police to break up the sit-ins, saying they pose an "unacceptable threat" to national security.
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