Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Girls' school bans skirts for modesty POOLE, England, June 23 (UPI) -- In a throwback to Victorian times, a British girls' middle school has banned students from wearing skirts to protect their modesty. Advertisement Head teacher Marilyn Warden said governors made the decision to "give girls the same opportunities as boys for a safe, active and healthy lifestyle, while maintaining their modesty." As of Wednesday, all 673 girls between the ages of nine and 13 at the school in Poole were told to show up wearing full-length pants, Sky News said. Some parents were upset with the ban, and claimed it was the school's awkward way of dealing with skirts that had been creeping higher above the knee. In response, Warden said there had been few complaints when many British schools did away with boys wearing shorts to class. Red-light cameras spy in Cincinnati Advertisement CINCINNATI, June 23 (UPI) -- Cincinnati police have secretly installed cameras at a half dozen city intersections to catch drivers who blow through red lights. The unannounced test of equipment from Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems began May 30. The Cincinnati Enquirer says police have photographs of hundreds of motorists running red lights and making illegal turns -- but for now they won't get tickets. The cameras operated for about 24 hours during the test. The City Council's Law & Public Safety Committee plans to permanently install cameras at 10 intersections after the full council approves a contract with Redflex. The red-light cameras could be operating for real within two weeks. Chicago firm faces rat infestation fines CHICAGO, June 23 (UPI) -- Taste of Chicago participants will be using refrigerated trailers from a company facing millions of dollars in fines for operating a rat-infested warehouse. Taste of Chicago, the city's huge celebration of food, begins this weekend, and trailers supplied by LaGrou Distribution System Inc. will be used to keep food and drinks cold, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. LaGrou's participation comes the same week it is facing some $15 million in fines and $8 million in compensation for food ruined by rat infestations at the LaGrou warehouse. Advertisement A city official defended LaGrou's part of Taste of Chicago, saying the company doesn't provide food, just refrigerated trucks, the Sun-Times said. A LaGrou official said people have nothing to fear from his trucks and claimed rat infestation allegations at his warehouse were exaggerated. Federal prosecutors during the trial showed pictures of rat feces in the warehouse, which the company has since sold, the Sun-Times said. Some groups lost millions of pounds of meat stored in the facility when it was seized in 2002 because of the evidence of rats. LaGrou also donated refrigerated trucks to the city to store the victims of a killer heat wave in 1993 when the city morgue ran out of space. Condo evicts couple over tobacco smoke BOSTON, June 23 (UPI) -- A Boston couple has been successfully evicted from their condominium because of secondhand tobacco smoke entering the ventilation system. In one of the first cases of its kind in the United States, a Boston housing court jury upheld the eviction, even though Erin Carey's and Ted Baar's lease did not prohibit smoking. At the hearing, the couple said they had repeatedly told their landlord the converted warehouse's old ventilation system and structural problems were the reasons neighbors could smell their smoke, but the landlord never inspected the apartment. Advertisement But Peter Brooks, who represented the landlord, told the Christian Science Monitor the couple didn't mention structural issues until the trial. "We're looking at a potential nationwide impact," said Edward Sweda, senior attorney at the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University School of Law. "If you engage in an activity that adversely affects your neighbors, then that's grounds for legal action."
