Pentagon Gifts Cops French Horns, Personal TVs

Just what Los Angeles County police need: 500 snowshoes and 1,600 parkas. Need aside, that's what they were handed by the Defense Department in March, according to a breakdown of $4.3 billion in surplus military supplies sent to police departments across the country since 1997. Think that's bizarre? Some other strange deliveries, per the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post: 86 M14 rifles to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife; grenade launchers to small California communities; French horns for Ohio's North Kingsville Police Department and Michigan's Clayton Township Police Department; a $4.4 million boat to Alameda County police; and 372 TVs, designated "for personal/home use." (More Department of Defense stories.)