Jockstrip: The world as we know it

TSA takes PB&J away from Rep.

MANCHESTER, N.H., May 22 (UPI) -- A U.S. congressman from Ohio endeavoring to make a point by living on $3 a day had his peanut butter and jelly confiscated at a Manchester, N.H., airport.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said a Transportation Security Administration agent found amounts of the foodstuffs in his bags that violate rules for liquids, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Ryan is attempting the "food stamp challenge," an initiative he started to show that the $21-a-week federal benefits are too low. He began the effort last week, but he has now hit his first major obstacle, the Post said.

"What am I going to do now?" Ryan wrote on his Web site. "I have 33 cents and a bag of cornmeal to last today and tomorrow."

Judge finds landlord liable for noise

NEW YORK, May 22 (UPI) -- A New York judge has ruled in favor of a resident who complained her landlord failed to stop loud music from being blared by neighbors.

The ruling, by State Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub, means landlord Archives Inc. will not receive $1,000 and a month's rent from Celine Armstrong when she breaks her lease and the landlord may be forced to pay Armstrong $80,000 in back rent and $200,000 in punitive damages, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Eric Sherman, an attorney for Armstrong, said his client's apartment was made unlivable by loud music blasted by her neighbor.

"It was happening at all hours of the day and night, 11, 12, 1 in the morning. Music so loud her bedroom wall vibrated. She couldn't think, she couldn't sleep, she couldn't work at her desk, and she couldn't even watch television," Sherman said.

Sherman said Armstrong's complaints to the landlord and doormen "were ignored for 20 months."

Landlord forced to live in own building

LAKEWOOD, Ohio, May 22 (UPI) -- A Lakewood, Ohio, landlord has been ordered by a judge to house arrest in one of his derelict buildings until he makes the proper repairs.

Lakewood Municipal Judge Patrick Carroll ordered Richard Naumann to live in his Lake Avenue apartment building -- which has no heat, hot water, operable stoves or ovens -- until proper repairs are made to the two buildings he owns, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Tuesday.

Naumann, who will only be allowed to leave the building between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. for work, will also be outfitted with an electronic monitoring device on his ankle to ensure he abides by the judge's command, the newspaper said.

All rent money collected by Naumann must also be turned over to the city of Lakewood beginning June 1 so that residents and the gas company can petition for reimbursement.

Naumann allegedly owes nearly $114,000 to gas company Dominion East Ohio but court records show service would be restored if a payment of $22,300 was made, the Plain Dealer report said.

Ga. dealer faces real suit for fake art

DULUTH, Ga., May 22 (UPI) -- A Georgia art dealer accused of trying to pass off a fake Picasso faces a very real multimillion lawsuit because he hasn't returned the money to the buyer.

Duluth, Ga., dealer Charles Locke, a one-time player in Atlanta's folk art scene, helped broker the deal in 2005 without meeting the seller, buyer, other middlemen or the actual drawing of "Sleeping Person and Squatting Woman," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.

The tangled Picasso transaction started with an e-mail image and its purported history from a California man and turned into a lawsuit from a New York dealer and statements by the artist's daughter that the etching was not a Picasso.

Most of the actions leading up to the lawsuit occurred over the Internet.

The Internet has made it much easier to scam dealers because "things are done on a handshake," Don Hrycyk, a Los Angeles Police Department art detective, told the Journal-Constitution.

"Now, somebody doesn't have to physically appear," he said.

Locke said he be selling his memoirs in a few years.

"I'm writing it about the high end of the art world," he told the newspaper, "where people make statements and they have nothing to base them on."