• In Lawrence County, Tennessee, law enforcement officials are confronting the fallout from a new drug known as "Wasp" (crystallized wasp repellant mixed with methamphetamine). To wit: On Dec. 18, as the Johnson family baked Christmas cookies in their Lawrenceburg kitchen, Danny Hollis, 35, walked into their home and asked for help. NewsChannel 5 in Nashville reported Hollis poured himself a glass of water from the sink before grabbing a knife and cutting across his throat. Teenage son Canaan Johnson said Hollis then ran up to the second floor, heaved an oak dresser down the stairs, and jumped out a window onto a gazebo below, seriously injuring his neck. The Johnsons, meanwhile, had retreated to their car, where they called 911. Hollis chased the car down the street, but got hung up on a barbed wire fence, then stripped naked to free himself and climbed a nearby tree, where officers found him, according to police reports. Hollis fought them off by allegedly throwing his own feces at them, as they tased him out of the tree. Hollis was booked into the county jail on numerous charges. [NewsChannel 5, 1/4/2018]
• Khaled A. Shabani, 46, a hairstylist in Madison, Wisconsin, was arrested on a tentative charge of mayhem and disorderly conduct while armed after an altercation with a customer on Dec. 22. Shabani scolded the 22-year-old customer for fidgeting, then taught him a lesson by using the "shortest possible attachment" to "run down the middle of the customer's head," reported the Wisconsin State Journal, and "leaving him looking a bit like Larry from 'The Three Stooges,'" police spokesman Joel DeSpain said. Shabani also clipped the customer's ear with scissors. "While it is not a crime to give someone a bad haircut," DeSpain noted, "you will get arrested for intentionally snipping their ear with a scissors." Shabani said the snip was an accident, and his charge was later reduced to a ticket for disorderly conduct. [Wisconsin State Journal, 12/28/17]