Quick Takes: Smashing service

Call it a roadblock, a bump in the road, or an impasse. Delivery robots in Chicago are garnering bad press after rogue units crashed into the city’s bus shelters, shattering glass and causing locals to question the robots’ place on city streets. Surveillance footage captured the first crash as it happened March 22: A robot shaped like an ice chest on wheels apparently got confused and smashed through the glass panel of a Chicago Transit Authority bus shelter. On March 24, a different company’s robot smashed through another bus shelter’s glass wall. The two robot companies involved said they’ve never had this problem before and promised to pay for repairs. Anthony Spaulding heard the second incident from inside his barber shop and said he wasn’t surprised a robot caused the crash. “This is happening all the time,” he told CBS News. “Every time you look up, the robot comes through, bumping into people.” Robotics companies are working to persuade skeptical city residents to share sidewalk space with the robots, but Chicagoan Josh Robertson launched a petition last year to get the robots off the sidewalks. As of March 27, Robertson said, the petition had more than 4,000 signatories from more than 55 zip codes.

Whole new kettle of fish

For the first time in roughly 50 years, New York anglers can safely drop a line from the Chelsea Piers in Manhattan and then eat what they catch. Due to lower levels of industrial pollutant polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) in fish, officials with the State Department of Health released updated recommendations on April 1 and now New Yorkers can consume some fish caught from the lower Hudson River. But don’t go overboard, health officials warn: The fish are safe to eat so long as residents stick to striped bass and eat no more than four per month.

Crossing the line?

A proposal by a Republican Texas legislator to study annexing part of New Mexico has launched a war of words between state officials. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows directed a committee in March to study the feasibility and legality of annexing a few contiguous counties in southeastern New Mexico that he said weren’t being fairly represented by their state government. In response, New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martinez, a Democrat, said March 27 that his Texas counterpart should “get offline, touch some grass, and get his own House in order.” The Texas committee will present its findings in January 2027.

Diving in and going deep

Pothole or swimming hole? In Johannesburg, South Africa, the question is up for dispute. Hoping to garner attention for her mayoral campaign by shining a light on the city’s crumbling roadworks, politician Helen Zille donned a wetsuit March 28 and snorkeled in a sinkhole that had formed three years ago after broken water pipes caused a portion of land to cave in and fill with water. Zille said the pothole signified years of failure within Johannesburg’s government. City officials had the sinkhole filled the next day.

A clean sweep

Thanks to the efforts of an Arizona nonprofit, the river rafting season might necessitate fewer tetanus shots. Volunteers with Natural Restorations, a conservation group that removes trash from wilderness areas, organized a cleanup March 31 after receiving a tip that a shallow river section popular with tubers and rafters had become inundated with rusty nails. Magnet-wielding volunteers combed through a portion of the Salt River near Phoenix and removed thousands of nails weighing 27 pounds total. “We wanted to get out there and remove the nails before it went through the bottom of somebody’s foot, before it popped a paddle board or injured an animal,” organizer Nicole Corey told KTVK.

No one left behind

A week after rescuers plucked Jessica Johnston out of the New Zealand wilderness when she fell 180 feet from a waterfall, one helicopter pilot returned to finish the job properly. When first responders airlifted Johnston to a hospital March 24, urgency required them to leave behind her border collie Molly. Matt Newton, owner of Precision Helicopters, heard the story and vowed to return to look for the dog. After a few fruitless attempts—and a fundraising drive to pay for more flight time—Newton finally spotted the dog on thermal cameras not far from where her owner was rescued. According to Newton, Molly didn’t require much persuasion to get aboard the chopper: “She knew what we were up to, I think.”

Can’t catch a break

Gimme a break. Rather than just a piece of a KitKat bar, thieves broke off an entire European shipment of the candy in March, making off with around 13.2 tons of the chocolate wafer bars. Nestlé officials say thieves pilfered 413,793 individually wrapped candy bars in a cargo truck transporting the goods from a factory in Italy en route to Poland. In a statement, the company assured customers that supplies would not be affected and noted that each wrapper contained a batch number. Nestlé officials, who said the delivery truck also remains unaccounted for, asked customers and merchants to check ­wrappers and see if they find any of the bootlegged bars.