Only in America

Parents of elementaryschool pupils in affluent Darien, Conn., are protesting a new ban on their visiting their children at lunchtime. School officials say the number of parents descending on K-5 schools every lunchtime to check on their children’s welfare had become disruptive and undermined the pupils’ self-reliance. The new policy “feels like a punch in the gut,” said parent Jessica Xu.

A New Mexico couple who applied for a marriage license in Washington, D.C., were delayed because the clerk thought New Mexico was a foreign country. Gavin Clarkson says the clerk refused to accept his driver’s license as ID and asked instead for his “New Mexico passport.” The marriage bureau later apologized for the clerk’s failure to recognize “New Mexico’s 106year history as a state.”