Restraining Devices

Police and prosecutors have a new way to prevent domestic violence: Offenders now must wear an ankle bracelet that sets off an alarm when they get too close to their victims. The device uses cellphone triangulation and global positioning to alert authorities and battered women or other domestic violence victims if the wearer enters an "exclusion zone," usually the area around a victim's home, school or job.

After a series of violent incidents on school campuses, public school officials here are considering the use of flexible plastic handcuffs on out-of-control students -- from kindergarteners on up. The Milwaukee School Board voted Thursday to begin training security staff members to use the plastic handcuffs, but the issue has provoked a heated debate between parents and administrators over how to provide a safe learning environment.

Lindsay Lohan and her handlers had hoped to keep her sobriety going with a special ankle bracelet that monitored her alcohol intake through her perspiration. Instead the technology -- sometimes imposed by Los Angeles County authorities and used by other celebrities trying to go straight -- just helped chronicle her fall off the wagon. The 21-year-old actress was arrested Tuesday after the mother of one of Lohan's assistants dialed 911 to report that she was being chased by Lohan in her SUV.

In these dog days of August, lawmakers, hunters, animal advocates and the occasional celebrity are battling over whether to ban the tethering of canines in California. A measure that would generally bar tethering, on track to clear the Legislature as soon as next week, has set off a fierce debate about whether dogs chained for long periods of time are more likely to turn aggressive.