Murderers and rapists can get financial aid, but drug offenders—forget it

On Friday, July 22, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) rescinded his support of "The Second Chance Act" (on the last working day, before the 108^th Congress adjourned for August recess), and now the bill must be put on hold until at least September.

Darren, what were you thinking? Ah summer! Your mind goes numb in the blazing heat, your body gets even lazier than usual and the average news day is just plain slow.

Another sorry chapter in the Albuquerque Convention Center debacle

If you're a high-ranking city official in the midst of hiring an employee to oversee a couple of multi-million dollar a year contracts the city has with private companies, do you:

Scott Rickson

If poor gas mileage hurts the U.S. economy and harms public health and the environment, why don't lawmakers call for greater efficiency?

Do you know what CAFE is? No, not your local croissant and cappuccino outlet, this acronym stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy, a spate of vehicle fuel economy requirements mandated by Congress in 1975 in response to the Middle East oil crisis. CAFE rules demanded that automakers increase fuel economy for light-duty vehicles from an average of 13.1 miles per gallon (mpg) to 27.5 mpg for cars and 20.7 mpg for light-duty trucks. They were given until 1985 to come into compliance. What happened? The world did not end! We got cars with better gas mileage.

Dateline: Sweden—Teenagers at a three-day music festival got their mouths washed out with soap—but it was entirely voluntary. It didn't take long for revelers at the Baltic Sea Music Festival in Karlshamn to figure out that the liquid soap used in the portable toilets contained 62 percent alcohol. Carbonated beverages spiked with the detergent soon became the drink of choice over the long weekend. “I suspected something was wrong because the soap went like hot cakes,” Anders Persson, whose company Bajamaja was hired to provide 65 portable latrines, told the Associated Press. Most of the soap dispensers had been smashed open and emptied by the end of the festival. One 14-year-old girl was briefly hospitalized with a minor stomach ache after pouring too much soap into her soda. Access to alcohol is strictly regulated in Sweden, with the state monopoly selling spirits only through a national chain of retail outlets.

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