Insight Readers Spot Tomorrow's News Today

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 28, 2000 | by John Elvin

One reason there is great appreciation here in the Briefs Bunker for news tips and tidbits arriving from readers around the country is that those items serve as an early-warning system. Some of the issues "run up the flag pole" at the local or state levels eventually make their way to Washington to emerge as hot legislative considerations. On the other hand, some simply are novelties that break the boredom of what the elite media call "news." With a tip of the hat to the Briefs Bunker Irregulars for their contributions, here are a few gleanings from the last week.

* Boynton Beach, near Palm Beach, Fla., has initiated fines for funerals that take too long. According to a clip from an Insight reader, the measure brought protests from many citizens, among them blacks who say lengthy services are traditional. A local columnist predicts Boynton soon will be known nationally for its "bury-in-a-hurry" policy.

* Some 25 localities/sites in Maine will have the word "squaw" stricken from their names under proposed legislation. Lawmakers heard testimony that the word implies that American Indian women are easy or promiscuous. Referring to one geographical entity, a protester said, "If it was called `White Woman's Crotch Mountain,' it would be changed."

* Wolf No. 9, the female who produced the most pups in the Yellowstone pack released by the Department of the Interor in 1995, has been kicked out by the pack due to her advanced age and probably will die alone. President Clinton and daughter Chelsea fed her road kill prior to her release; for years she was considered "the poster child of the Yellowstone wolves."

* Mississippi may join Louisiana with a law requiring students to address teachers as "Ma'am" or "Sir," or the appropriate Mr., Mrs., Ms. or Miss. A previous effort to pass a law mandating the teaching of honesty, kindness, creativity and patriotism failed.

* Vermonters older than 18 who do not own a gun would be required to register with the Vermont secretary of state and pay a $500 penalty under a law proposed by Republican state Rep. Fred Maslack, who sees citizenship as involving a military obligation.

* Legislators in Missouri are out to correct a fault in the state's reformed legal code that resulted in having no penalties against bestiality. The problem came to light last fall when the international spotlight focused on George Willard of Carl Junction, Mo., who claimed a live-in pony named Pixel as his wife.

Keep those e-mails and letters coming, folks!