Oddly enough

oddly enough

Offenders in Ala. town can choose jail or church

BAY MINETTE, Ala.

Authorities say nonviolent offenders in southern Alabama will have a new choice: Go to jail, or go to church every Sunday for a year.

WKRG-TV reports that Operation Restore Our Community begins next week.

The city judge in Bay Minette will let misdemeanor offenders choose to work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine; or go to church every Sunday for a year.

If offenders select church, they’ll be allowed to pick the place of worship but must check in weekly with the pastor and police.

If the one-year church attendance program is completed, the offender’s case will be dismissed.

Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland says the program could change the lives of people heading down the wrong path. So far, 56 churches are participating.

Mass. library undoes century-old Twain book ban

CHARLTON, Mass.

A Massachusetts library has put the Mark Twain work “Eve’s Diary” back on the shelf more than a century after it was banned.

The Charlton Public Library’s trustees this week unanimously voted to return the book to circulation, reversing the board’s 1906 decision to ban the 1905 short story.

Trustee Richard Whitehead said the move was made to coincide with the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week.

The book was written from the perspective of the biblical Eve. It was banned because trustee Frank Wakefield objected to nude illustrations of Eve.

The 1906 decision drew attention from The New York Times, which reported that Twain was not particularly concerned.

Associated Press