Balance sheet

Reason, March, 2003 by Jeff A. Taylor

Kidnap Care

The Illinois Supreme Court fixes a glitch state lawmakers created in their frenzied show of opposition to underage drinking. State law required people to commit felony kidnapping--by forcibly stopping any drinker under 21 from leaving a residence--or be charged with a misdemeanor.

Pub Crawl

Britain finally changes its laws forcing pubs to close at 11 p.m., a rule that encouraged binge drinking and drunk driving. Now if only something can be done about spotted dick and bangers and mash.

How Now

Scientists in New Zealand are at work on "green cows," whose digestive tracts will produce less methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas, so in theory the green cows wouldn't contribute to any global warming now afoot.

Allergic Action

After years of legal wrangling, Claritin makes its over-the-counter debut to the delight of allergy sufferers in America. The price of the drug is expected to fall by 75 percent.

Digi-Roh

Roh Moo-hyun's winning campaign for president of South Korea shows wired politics can work. Roh, a political unknown, raised tons of campaign cash from 180,000 donors and sent text messages to some 800,000 cell phones to bring out the voters.

Foreign Assets

A report by the Center for Labor Market Studies finds that 80 percent of new male workers who entered the American workforce in the 19905 were immigrants. Without them the labor force would have been caught short and the massive economic expansion stalled.

Duck, Duck...

The FBI goes on nationwide alert searching for five Arab men. The bureau admits it doesn't really know their names or what they look like. Then it turns out the feds were following a bum tip. The men don't even exist.

Smart, Not Popular

A so-called smart traffic system that D.C.-area governments pumped $8 million into goes belly-up. Nobody wanted to dial into a service for "personal" traffic reports.

Papers Please

The White House's "Leave No Child Behind" education law will push out teachers who lack make-work "certificates" to teach. States find out that hiring, say, retired computer experts will be much harder under new federal mandates. Kids lose; teachers unions win.

Tip Sheet

Police in Montgomery County, Maryland, use the estimated 100,000 tips they received during the D.C. sniper manhunt to track down local firearms violators. With hyper-strict gun laws, technical violations will abound.

Can Spam

Ferris Research estimates that spam costs U.S. corporations almost $9 billion per year and European businesses another $2.5 billion. Among the biggest financial drains are lost productivity while workers delete unwanted ads and server upgrades to handle the added traffic.

Abuse Tax

Taxachusetts finds a way to tax out-of-state merchandise bought by locals by establishing a 5 percent use tax for residents. It affects all purchases of personal property, no matter where the stuff is bought--or even used. If goods are brought into the state within six months of purchase, the state says it gets a bite.