Quantum Leap, blue tail lights, Medley Times, and hat poems

There was a black guy, traveling times through bodies such as Andrew K's (kind of like Quantum Leap)... During the plot of this, we discovered there were light blue orbs attaching into people (oh my) from some unknown source, but eventually decided it was no big deal.

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I was stopped by cop on the road. He explained that some of my tail lights kept turning blue; I saw what he meant and was confused. [Hem, this was before the proliferation of LED tail lights.]

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Historical newspaper of some sort - Medley Times?

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In Mrs. Montanari's English class. We were learning about "hat poems", among other things - short poems, one rhyme, seemed to give some short advice or experience. There was a longer poem at the end: "Color brought us to the brink of chaos"?