Senate Bill 855 begins with the statement that optometrists "shall be free from any influences that would interfere with their exercise of professional judgment," and that "optometrists shall not be associated with any person or persons in any manner which might degrade or reduce the quality of visual care received by the citizens of this state."

The next section then states: "A manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer of ophthalmic materials who leases space to an optometrist shall not, directly or indirectly, control or attempt to control the professional judgment, manner of practice, or practice of an optometrist."

* * *

These restrictions would apply to all manufacturers or sellers of ophthalmic materials who lease space to optometrists, thus limiting the relations between optometrists and the optical store in which some may choose to practice.

Restraints on competition from optical chains may make consumers better off if such restrictions improve the quality of eye care or lead to other consumer benefits that would not be produced by firms operating in a competitive marketplace. Senate Bill 855 would create net benefits for consumers if the value to consumers of any improvement in the quality of eye care attributable to the Bill is greater than the harm imposed on consumers by the reduction in competition. We respectfully urge the Tennessee legislature to weigh the impact on competition of the prohibitions in Senate Bill 855 against any benefits that the Bill's restrictions might create for consumers.

In January 2002, the coach was at an early-morning fraternity party in Manhattan, Kan., hours after his team lost a game to Kansas State, students told the Register. On that occasion, a fraternity member said he wound up in an argument with Eustachy because he found the coach's arm around his 19-year-old sister.

The woman told the Register that Eustachy walked into the house and complimented her on her appearance, saying that she should be attending the University of Kansas, where the girls are "much hotter."

"For the rest of my life I will seek counseling for this illness,'' [Eustachy] said. "I have no excuses for my behavior. ... We'll see what happens in the future, but I am looking forward to the future as a sober person.''

Because the Plaintiffs have now graduated from VMI, their claims for declaratory and injunctive relief are moot, and we vacate the district court’s judgment insofar as it awarded such relief. In assessing the Plaintiffs’ claim for damages, we agree with the district court that the supper prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, but that General Bunting is nevertheless entitled to qualified immunity.

General Bunting first suggests that we should view the prayer as a uniquely historical practice, in an approach similar to that employed by the Supreme Court in Marsh. In Marsh, though, the Court was specifically influenced by the fact that, in September of 1789, members of the first Congress voted to submit the First Amendment to the states in the same week that they voted" to appoint and to pay a Chaplain for each House" of Congress. In upholding the Nevada practice, Chief Justice Burger reasoned:"[t] his unique history leads us to accept the interpretation of the First Amendment draftsmen who saw no real threat to the Establishment Clause arising from a practice of prayer similar to that now challenged."

Put simply, the supper prayer does not share Marsh’s "unique history." In fact, public universities and military colleges, such as VMI, did not exist when the Bill of Rights was adopted.

Rambus Inc. heads to trial on Wednesday (April 30) before a Federal Trade Commission judge as the company digs in to defend itself against antitrust charges brought by the agency last June.

FTC lawyers will argue that Rambus (Los Altos, Calif.) violated U.S. antitrust laws “by deliberately engaging in a pattern of anticompetitive acts and practices that served to deceive an industry-wide standard-setting organization,” the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (Jedec).

The group was developing an industry SDRAM standard. The U.S. alleges that during the four years Rambus participated in Jedec's deliberations it concealed patents and pending patent applications involving specific technologies that eventually become part of Jedec's SDRAM spec. The alleged non-disclosure violated the group's rules, and FTC attorneys charged Rambus with violating U.S. antitrust laws.

Rambus has denied it deceived the Jedec group. It has also continued to appeal an adverse 2001 ruling in a federal court brought by other Infineon Technologies AG and has steadfastly refused to settle the FTC complaint prior to this week's trial before Chief Administrative Law Judge James Timony.

“The fact that Rambus's founders believed they had conceived the inventions in question was public information,” the company said in a pre-trial statement. “The inventions were described in detail in publicly available patent documents that were discussed at Jedec and that were closely scrutinized by engineers and lawyers employed by Jedec members.”

In January, a federal appeals panel here reversed a lower-court ruling that Rambus had committed fraud. The decision also reversed a trial court ruling that Infineon hadn't infringed Rambus patents, sending the patent infringement issue back to the lower court.

Shareholders have also rallied on behalf of Rambus, accusing the FTC of harassing the company and urging lawmakers to call off the agency. Those efforts have so far attracted little congressional support.

The FTC trial could last from five to eight weeks.

"People who work with Rick day in, day out understand he's a man of caring, compassion and tolerance," Frist said. "Strongly religious, a man of great faith, an effective and strong leader. In terms of questioning his leadership ability or position, it's a non-issue."

A spokesman said the agency is not barring all e-mail — only e-mail that goes through an outside server such as a business or environmental Web site. The agency is also barring other "duplicative materials" such as form letters, printed post cards and lists that include spaces for respondents to check off statements they agree with.

Such comments, whether electronic or on paper, can be overwhelming and provide little useful information, said Forest Service spokesman Joseph Walsh. The Forest Service has counted such comments in the past, he said, adding that the new policy is subject to review.

Joey doesn't know much about history; he was born in 1983 and was only 6 when the Berlin Wall fell. He really has no firm idea of what labels like liberal and conservative mean. But now he is in college, and he's been glued to the cable coverage of the war and is ready to form some opinions. Over the past months, certain facts and characters have entered his consciousness, like characters in a play he is seeing for the first time.

The first character is America itself. He sees that his country is an incredibly effective colossus that can drop bombs onto pinpoints, destroy enemies that aren't even aware they are under attack. He sees a ruling establishment that can conduct wars with incredible competence and skill. He sees a federal government that can perform its primary task--protecting the American people--magnificently. . .

. . .The American system of government, moreover, is clearly the best system. In Joey's eyes, the United Nations is a fractious debating society. The European Union is split. The French are insufferable, the Germans both hostile and pacifist. The Arab ruling class is treacherous. Billions of people around the world seem to hate us, and while Joey is aware that there are some reasons to be suspicious of the United States, he resents the way so many people are over the top in their resentment, fury, and dislike. In short, Joey does not look around and assume that the world is moving toward some world government or global unity. When the chips are down, there are very few nations you can trust. Joey is both more trusting of America, and more suspicious of the world, than he would have been if he had formed his worldview in the 1990s.

The second great character on Joey's mind is the American soldier. When Joey thinks of youthful idealism, he doesn't think of college students protesting in the streets, he thinks of young soldiers risking their lives to liberate a people. These are the men and women Joey saw interviewed by the dozen on TV. They seemed to enjoy being in the military. They seemed to believe in their mission. They seemed to be involved in something large and noble even at a young age.

In Joey's eyes, the people who get to do the most exciting things are not members of the meritocratic elite--Harvard and Stanford alums who start software companies. They are the regular men and women of the armed forces, or, as he remembers from the days after 9/11, they are firemen and cops. They are people without prestigious degrees and high income prospects.

Joey naturally feels that while those soldiers are liberating a country and talking about duty and honor, all he is doing is preparing for business school. That doesn't mean he necessarily wants to enlist, but he is aware that there is something lacking in his pampered private life. He also sees, in the example the soldiers set, that discipline, neatness, professionalism, and openly expressed patriotism are kind of cool.

The third character Joey sees is the terrorist. He sees the people who blew up the World Trade Center. In Iraq, people like that piled into pickups and suicidally attacked tanks. They wore those black fedayeen gowns. In Israel, they strap bombs to their waists and blow up buses. Joey is aware that there are a lot of people, especially in the Arab world, who are just batshit crazy. There is no reasoning with these people. They understand only force, and they must be crushed.

Joey sees that some regimes around the world are sadistic and evil. They torture and mutilate their own people. They ignore the basic rules of warfare and civilization. Conflict with these people is inevitable. They lurk in the dark corners of the globe, and for some reason they think they should take out their problems on us. You always have to be on guard, because there really is evil about. . .

. . .[N]ew categories are crystallizing in his mind. These categories--who is progressive, who is conservative, who is reactionary--do not comport with the categories in the minds of people who came of age during the civil rights era, or even the Cold War.

Joey isn't one of a kind. There are millions of Joeys, and variations on Joey. Inevitably, then, in ways subtle and profound, the events of the past month will shape our politics for the rest of our lives.

A senior member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee said yesterday that she plans to ask for the resignation of the city party's chairman, Norman C. Neverson, because he made a provocative statement in a newspaper article that does not represent the philosophy of Democrats.

Barbara Lett Simmons, the party's national committeewoman and a longtime Neverson detractor, said she is appalled that the head of the city's Democratic Party was quoted in the Washington City Paper as saying he would have voted for the three-fifths compromise, in which slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person for taxation and apportionment purposes when the U.S. Constitution was adopted.

"He has expressed a philosophical position contrary to the Democratic Party," Simmons said. "This is 2003. I don't think we can afford in this upcoming year of trying to reclaim the White House and Congress to have 17th-century-mentality leadership."

Simmons, who has been critical of Neverson since he took over the party three years ago, said Neverson has every right "to think, feel and believe exactly what he expressed." But she said he "can't be my leader, and he can't appropriately represent this Democratic body."

Neverson said he made the comments in an extensive article about his personal life and his political leadership. The article quotes Neverson as saying he would have supported the constitutional clause decreeing that each slave be counted as three-fifths a person because "to produce a republic you have to make sacrifices."

"If it offended anyone, I apologize," Neverson said. "It wasn't meant to say that Norm Neverson supports the three-fifths compromise. It was taken completely out of context. When you don't have all the facts and you don't have all the information, ignorance rules supreme. Get the information."

Now let's consider Mr. Lampo's truly distorted view of the Constitution.

Mr. Lampo contends that Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, erred by noting that the Constitution does not define any right to privacy, which it doesn't. Then Mr. Lampo concedes that "the Constitution doesn't say anything about sex at all." Yes, the framers left such matters largely to the states, which is why it would be a colossal act of judicial tyranny if the Supreme Court strikes down the Texas sodomy law.

Then Mr. Lampo says the Constitution was "meant to restrict government power." He neglects to note that the Constitution was designed to restrict federal power, leaving most matters to the states. If states decide that discouraging sodomy is good public policy based on public health and moral concerns, then it is no business of the federal government to usurp that power.

Overcoming adversity is one of our great desires and one of our great sources of pride. But it is something that our anointed deep thinkers strive to eliminate from our lives, through everything from grade inflation to the welfare state.

The anointed want to eliminate stress, challenge, striving, and competition. They want the necessities of life to be supplied as "rights" -- which is to say, at the taxpayers expense, without anyone's being forced to work for those necessities, except of course the taxpayers.

Nothing is to be earned. "Self-esteem" is to be dispensed to the children as largess from the teacher. Adults are to have their medical care and other necessities dispensed as largess from the government. People are to be mixed and matched by race and sex and whatever else the anointed want to take into account, in order to present whatever kind of picture the anointed think should be presented.

This is a vision of human beings as livestock to be fed by the government and herded and tended by the anointed. All the things that make us human beings are to be removed from our lives and we are to live as denatured creatures controlled and directed by our betters.

Those things that help human beings be independent and self-reliant -- whether automobiles, guns, the free market, or vouchers -- provoke instant hostility from the anointed.

* * *

The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.

One of the most dangerous things about the welfare state is that it breaks the connection between what people have produced and what they consume, at least in many people's minds. For the society as a whole, that connection remains as fixed as ever, but the welfare state makes it possible for individuals to think of money or goods as just arbitrary dispensations.

A lawyer for Tab Turner, the head of a Little Rock law firm under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, suggested Thursday that his client had not been aware of an election law that prevents him from reimbursing employees who contribute to U.S. Sen. John Edwards' presidential campaign.

"Mr. Turner learned about the campaign rules due to the media's calls to his office," said Ed Dowd of St. Louis. "Since then, he has been doing all he can to set this matter straight, and he will cooperate with the Federal Election Commission or other officials."

Turner and four legal assistants from his firm collectively gave $10,000 to Edwards' campaign during the first quarter of the year. One employee who gave $2,000 reportedly told The Washington Post last week that Turner said they would be reimbursed.

The Edwards campaign returned the money as a "precautionary" step.

"It's not enough to stop a supply glut," said Michael Rose, director of trading for Angus Jackson Inc. He said prices may fall well below OPEC's $25 target, depending on how fast Iraqi exports return.

Given the profits oil producers have raked in this year as the result of high prices, many analysts question whether the cartel will be disciplined enough to stick to its self-imposed limits.

"OPEC often says one thing and does another," Mr. Rose said. "I think they will have a hard time getting all members to actually cut. They have a history of cheating."

By treating the "unborn child" as a separate and distinct victim of crime, the legislation would, for the first time, consider a fetus--and even a fertilized egg--an independent victim for purposes of federal law.

If a fetus, or a so-called "unborn child, at an earlier state of pregnancy, were later deemed entitled to the same legal protections as the woman, it would be impossible for a woman to obtain an abortion without violating the fetus's rights.

If a fetus, embryo, or other so-called "unborn child" is recognized as a "person" under the law, not only would the reproductive rights of women be eviscerated but a fetus--or even a zygote--could seek federal benefits, bring lawsuits, and otherwise claim civil rights.

This week marks the 91st anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. In the wee hours of April 15, 1912, the great ship slipped into the deep waters of the North Atlantic, sending 1,503 passengers and crewmen to a watery grave.

The vast majority of the dead were men, many of whom stood bravely as they watched lifeboats full of women and children row away from the doomed ship.

During a U.S. Senate inquiry, First Officer Charles H. Lightoller was asked, “You discriminated entirely in the interest of the passengers – first women and children – in filling those lifeboats?” Lightoller replied: “Yes, sir,” to which the senator pressed, “Why did you do that? Because of the captain’s orders, or because of the rule of the sea?”

Lightoller answered simply, “The rule of human nature.”

Another witness, Canadian Army Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen, described the action at one of the lifeboats: “Only women were allowed in, and the second officer stood there and carried it out to the limit. He allowed no men, except sailors who were manning the boat. I did not see one single male passenger get in or attempt to get in. I never saw such perfect order. The discipline was perfect. I did not see a cowardly act by any man.”

Watching America send some of its daughters to their deaths or capture in Iraq makes one aware of how far we have drifted from the ideal epitomized by the brave men of the Titanic: Women and children first.

More women are facing actual combat because the Pentagon weakened the “risk rule,” which barred the placement of women in areas likely to come under fire. Ever adaptive, the Navy introduced a program a few years ago in which men were conditioned to endure the tortured cries of women captives. Do we really want thousands of men to be indifferent to women’s screams? That’s a recipe for domestic violence and rape.

Not all men have abandoned their role to protect. As Pfc. Jessica Lynch lay wounded, a team of men who would have been right at home on Titanic’s deck boarded choppers. They gambled their lives because an Iraqi man reported that an American woman was being tortured at an Iraqi hospital. Later, our troops freed Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson and other P.O.W.s The mother of a 2-year-old, whose haunted photo reminded us of the cost of putting a woman in the hands of enemy male soldiers, Miss Johnson was rescued and is winging home with a bullet hole in each ankle.

Sending women anywhere near combat is wrong. It is bad enough for children to lose their father, but it is utterly unnecessary for them to lose their mother.

Unlike the sanity and honor that prevailed in 1912, we are not supposed to care that wives, daughters and sisters are killed, maimed or at the mercy of enemy troops.

Women have served honorably in the U.S. military through many wars. Their sacrifices and hard work have contributed mightily. But it is barbarism, not progress, to put women deliberately in harm’s way.

What would the men of the Titanic have thought, watching women kiss their toddlers goodbye, slap on a helmet and ship off to the front? They would say we have not only lost our minds but a good deal of our hearts.

[Ohio] Attorney General Jim Petro announced Thursday that Ohio and all other states have resolved an antitrust lawsuit with Bristol Myers-Squibb Co. involving the cancer-fighting drug Taxol.

Ohio, which led negotiations for the plaintiff states, will recover more than $1.5 million for state agencies and hospitals as part of a $55 million settlement to help compensate the state and consumers who overpaid for the drug, Petro said.

"This is a significant victory for Ohio because Bristol Myers-Squibb Co. has agreed to much more than just financial reparations," Petro said. "The company will also provide free quantities of Taxol to DEA-approved health care facilities, provided the recipients meet eligibility guidelines, and will abide by a strong agreement prohibiting anti-competitive conduct in the future."

While the ultimate allocation among the litigating states has not yet been determined and must be approved by the court, more than $37.5 million will be set aside to be divided for this purpose. An additional $12.5 million will be set aside to reimburse consumers for some of their out-of-pocket payments.

Prior to the acquisition, the competitive rivalry between these two dairies produced lower prices and higher quality service, to the benefit of schools and school children. By acquiring Southern Belle, DFA has eliminated or reduced that competition for many school districts in Kentucky and Tennessee. The [Antitrust] Division seeks to restore this competition.

The FTC pursued significant investigations involving the rules of conduct for various professional associations. Agreements among professionals that limit competition among themselves, often under the guise of professional association by-laws or codes of conduct, harms consumers much like 'smoke-filled room' conspiracies.

The FTC is pursuing other potentially harmful restrictions imposed by professional associations, or boards, using means including sophisticated 'spider' software to search the Internet for restrictions of this kind.

Kevin and Frances Scroggins home-schooled their youngest child, 8-year-old Michael, for two years. They sent him back to a public school this year.

And they have decided to home-school him again next year.

The governor does not agree with that decision. She has criticized programs like vouchers and home-schooling. "While I support choice, I believe choice must be accomplished within the public school system," she said last year in a candidate questionnaire.

Napolitano this year refused to sign a proclamation declaring "Home Education Week." Staff members were concerned that signing the proclamation's timing was "inappropriate," that it might offend other education "stakeholders."

Those stakeholders apparently do not include Michael Scroggins.

The proclamation was not an ideological manifesto. It was perfunctory, just recognizing the excellent job some parents have done with their children, a fact beyond dispute.

"Whereas, the State of Arizona is committed to excellence . . . and recognizes the importance of family participation and parental choice in pursuit of that excellence . . . and individualized preparation for citizenship and life work is provided by home education . . . Now, Therefore, I, Janet Napolitano, do hereby proclaim the week of February 3rd as Home Education Week in Arizona."

In the last nine months, the New York Times has run 95 stories on Martha Burk and Augusta. So, aside from being outnumbered by police and reporters, Burk's 40 supporters were outnumbered more than two to one by New York Times stories on Burk. Every time the Times mentioned this allegedly raging furor, it attracted approximately another 0.4 of a supporter to her cause. . . .

The Times' carpet bombing of Augusta has proved a pathetic bunker-bust. This is supposed to be the most influential newspaper in America, the one whose front page all but dictates the agenda of the network news shows. And its most fiercely sustained campaign can't fill a single school bus?

The yearning for historical context misses the point. It should not be necessary for Nike to prove the existence of its First Amendment rights by identifying specific historical statements in support of “commercial” speech. Indeed, where would one find such “dispositive” evidence? Presumably, not every state legislature—at any given time—holds identical views regarding commercial speech, the Fourteenth Amendment, or any other identifiable topic. It has never been necessary in other First Amendment contexts for a challenged party to demonstrate positively that their expressive acts represent a “long accepted practice.” Under such a requirement, this Court would never have recognized First Amendment protections for flag burning, the distribution of adult magazines, or student expression on school grounds.

In short, a lack of historical evidence must not foreclose protection for “commercial” speech. But if evidence were needed, the Ninth Amendment provides it. The amendment provides “The enumeration, in this Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Historically, the Court has been reluctant to read much into this amendment, choosing to uphold non-enumerated rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments instead. Then, in June of 1965, the Court handed down its radical decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, wherein the Court upheld the unenumerated right of a married couple to use contraception, availing itself of the Ninth Amendment in rendering its holding. In a concurring opinion, Justice Goldberg, joined by Justice Brennan and Chief Justice Warren, wrote:

Nor am I turning somersaults with history in arguing that the Ninth Amendment is relevant in a case dealing with a State’s infringement of a fundamental right. While the Ninth Amendment—and indeed the entire Bill of Rights—originally concerned restrictions upon federal power, the subsequently enacted Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the States as well from abridging fundamental personal liberties. And, the Ninth Amendment, in indicating that not all such liberties are specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments, is surely relevant in showing the existence of other fundamental personal rights, now protected from state, as well as federal, infringement. In sum, the Ninth Amendment simply lends strong support to the view that the “liberty” protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments from infringement by the Federal Government or the States is not restricted to rights specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments. Cf. United Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U.S. 75. 94 – 95.

In the case now before the Court, the Ninth Amendment provides the key to understanding the scope and reach of the First Amendment.

"[Yet,] the views of these Germans -- and my own views of official American power -- are heretical in America, highlighting the wide gulf between the iconoclastic Bay Area and the rest of the United States. This gulf, always present, seems more intensely felt now. There are no American flags waving on my street, or any of the streets I pass each morning when I bring my children to school.

WHAT used to be known within TV networks as "standards and practices" forms, must've been turned face-down, stacked in a corner and now serve as scratch paper.

Dick Vitale, ABC and ESPN's lead college basketball analyst, recently revealed that he, along with Louisville head coach Rick Pitino, is the co-owner of a two-year-old thoroughbred, named Awesome Baby.

Of course, this creates both a per se and an outrageous conflict of interest, one that ABC and ESPN surely can't dismiss unless they choose to ignore - or trash - the most basic tenet of broadcasting ethics: You don't do business with those you cover.

But this is 2003, when the indefensible is, at best, ignored, and, at worst, given full approval.

Then again, perhaps ESPN's accustomed to indulging such conflicts. Vitale once had a sneaker deal with Nike, then, when his friend and Nike college basketball influence peddler, Sonny Vaccaro, left for adidas, Vitale switched to adidas, too.

But such a deal would never prevent Vitale from delivering one of his hard-hitting commentaries on the insidious role that sneaker companies and their oily reps play in the continued corruption of college basketball.

PRESIDENT BUSH COURAGEOUSLY LED THE FORCES OF FREEDOM.

BUT SOME SO-CALLED "ALLIES" LIKE FRANCE STOOD IN THE WAY.

AT HOME, PRESIDENT BUSH HAS PROPOSED BOLD JOB-CREATING TAX CUTS TO BOOST OUR ECONOMY.

BUT SOME SO-CALLED REPUBLICANS LIKE GEORGE VOINOVICH STAND IN THE WAY.

AMERICA NEEDS STRONG ALLIES ABROAD.

AND PRESIDENT BUSH NEEDS STRONG SUPPORTERS IN THE SENATE.

HEY GEORGE VOINOVICH: JOIN PRESIDENT BUSH'S FIGHT TO CUT TAXES AND FIX THE ECONOMY.

He now is in position as never before to reshape the U.S. military along the lines he has talked about since taking office, "transforming" it into a more agile and precise force built not around firepower but around information, and willing to take risks to succeed.

Legislation that would clear the way for the new flag is up for a vote Tuesday. The bill does not list specific measurements for the flag, but it does define proportions for three stripes and a blue square that encompasses the state seal and 13 stars.

A historian says those proportions would throw the state flag out of proportion with the standard American flag by making Georgia's a foot longer.

Supporters are afraid to change the legislation because then it would have to return to the Georgia House with just two days left in the legislative session.

A woman and her male partner - a psychologist who works with autistic children - do not belong on a state list of alleged and confirmed child abusers for punishing her 13-year-old son by paddling him with a plastic serving spoon, a state court ruled.

Even if the boy suffered bruises and had trouble sitting for a couple days, the injuries did not justify keeping the two on the list, a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel said Thursday.

653:9 Presidential Primary Election. – The presidential primary election shall be held on the second Tuesday in March or on a Tuesday selected by the secretary of state which is 7 days or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election, whichever is earlier, of each year when a president of the United States is to be elected or the year previous. Said primary shall be held in connection with the regular March town meeting or election or, if held on any other day, at a special election called by the secretary of state for that purpose.

In 2002 individuals, businesses and non-profits will spend an estimated 5.8 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code (henceforth called “compliance costs”), with an estimated compliance cost of over $194 billion. This amounts to imposing a 20.4-cent tax compliance surcharge for every dollar the income tax system collects. By 2007, the compliance cost is estimated, conservatively, at $244.3 billion. However, this estimate does not take into account the recently enacted Economic Growth and Tax Reform Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA) of 2001. Taking EGTRRA into account shows that the compliance cost could soar as high as $350.2 billion by 2007.

NEW YORK—A brawny bouncer at a trendy East Village nightspot was stabbed to death yesterday after he confronted a man who lit up a cigarette in defiance of the city's tough new anti-smoking law, police said.

Dana (Shazam) Blake, 32, of Queens, was allegedly set upon by two Chinatown brothers after one of them refused to stop puffing inside Guernica on Avenue B, cops said.

"My brother lost his life because of this stupid smoking law," said the Rev. Tony Blake, who preaches against smoking and drinking at his Humble Way Church of God in Christ in Queens.

"This is not the end of the violence because of it," he added.

Actually, Congress originally put tax day on the calendar. When the 16th Amendment, which allows Congress to institute the income tax, was adopted on Feb. 3, 1913, Congress chose March 1--one year and a few dozen days later--as the deadline for filing returns. Then, with the Revenue Act of 1918, Congress inexplicably moved the date forward to March 15. The next overhaul came in 1955, when buried between tax-code revisions was yet another date change, this time to April 15. According to an IRS spokesman, the move "spread out the peak workload," but there's another explanation. Turns out that as the income tax applied to more of the middle class, the government had to issue more refunds. "Pushing the deadline back gives the government more time to hold on to the money," says Ed McCaffery, a University of Southern California law professor and tax guru. Still, the IRS's rigidity works in your favor: By law, it must mail your refund within 45 days or pay you interest.

Burk has been wrong -- factually, philosophically and ethically -- so often since this fiasco began that she has actually managed to turn most neutral parties and even some who agree with her in principle against her. In fact, she has done the nearly impossible: turned the membership of Augusta National, one of the least sympathetic groups of people in America, into sympathetic figures in the eyes of many.

Most women in American -- and most reasonable men -- probably agree with the notion that there should be female members at Augusta National, if only because it would be a symbolic gesture, an acknowledgment because the club conducts a public event once a year it is different than other private clubs.

But almost no one sees the issue as the cause celebre that Burk, The New York Times and one self-promoting columnist at USA Today have attempted to turn it into.

Voices For Choices will hold its second annual Safer Sex Party Tuesday night in the Thurston Hall Piano Lounge from 8:30 to 10: 30 p.m.

Students will have the opportunity to talk to local clinic representatives about safer sex and sexually transmitted infections. Free condoms, food and information will be available.

"Government establishing a Christian cross on government property treads on their rights and makes second-class citizens of non-Christians," said Charles Wilson, a federal employee from nearby Oxnard and one of three men threatening to sue the city over the cross.

He said the cross is a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.

Stan Kohls, a resident of nearby Somis and another of the men complaining about the cross, said the symbol represents a dangerous intrusion of religion into public life.

"All you have to do is look at Israel or Northern Ireland to see how destructive religion can be when it is brought out in public," said the semiretired special education teacher. "A society that is democratic must be secular as well."

The smell of cigar smoke, burning plastic and pepper spray filled the air Saturday night as several hundred people rioted following Minnesota’s men’s hockey team’s 5-1 NCAA championship victory.

In an alcohol-fueled frenzy, rioters smashed windows, burned trash bins and toppled items throughout Dinkytown, Stadium Village and parts of the East Bank campus.

University officials were still assessing the damage when University President Robert Bruininks met with members of the news media Sunday afternoon.

“We don’t really have enough facts,” Bruininks said. “You can be assured that we’re going to turn over every stone to find the people responsible for this.”

Mark McSherry, an economics senior, said the police presence made the damage worse.

“People burn stuff because the cops keep chasing us and they keep Macing us. We’re going break stuff until they quit chasing us,” he said.

McSherry said this year’s riots were worse because a lot of people, including incoming first-year students, saw riots on television last year and wanted to participate.

“Riots are some of the top three memorable college times of my life. When else do you see all these students come together to do one thing?” he asked.

Q. Your comment about wishing for "a million Mogadishus" has attracted the most attention. I read your letter in the "Columbia Daily Spectator," which gave some more context, but I have to confess I don't see how the context changes the meaning of that statement.

A. I was referring to what Mogadishu symbolizes politically. The U.S. invasion of Somalia was humiliated in an excruciating way by the Somali people. And Mogadishu was the premier symbol of that. What I was really emphasizing in the larger context of my comments was the question of Vietnam and that historical lesson. ... What I was intent to emphasize was that the importance of Vietnam is that it was a defeat for the U.S. war machine and a victory for the cause of human self-determination.

The growing ranks of legal permanent residents in our armed forces build on a rich legacy of military service from America’s immigrants. It reflects the tremendous pride and patriotism of our immigrant communities, particularly among Hispanic immigrants.

But right now, U.S. immigration law erects unnecessary and unfair hurdles for these green card troops who want to become citizens in the nation they defend.

Typically, they are among the lowest in pay and in rank, but the naturalization process can cost them thousands of dollars in fees and out-of-pocket travel expenses. And if they’re serving overseas – as many are – the law makes the process even more difficult by requiring legal immigrant servicemen and women to schedule interviews at local INS offices in the U.S. – and to pay their own travel expenses to get here.

Last year, President Bush signed an Executive Order making non-citizens who had been on active duty since September 11th immediately eligible for citizenship. But this does not remove any of the barriers to actually getting citizenship, and it lacks the permanence of statutory law.

That’s why the “Citizenship for America’s Troops Act” is still needed. It waives naturalization fees for green card troops, and allows immigration officials to conduct interviews at consulates, embassies and overseas military installations. It also decreases the service requirement to qualify for citizenship from three to two years.

“We should not unreasonably enrich trial lawyers at the expense of states suffering severe financial crises. Like any other client, taxpayers in states that participated in the tobacco lawsuits deserve a fair share of the settlement reached. Yet attorneys’ fees in this case far exceed even the most generous standards awarded in other lawsuits of similar magnitude.”

"Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard—awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

BOB GARFIELD: I'm sure you have seen Franklin Foer's article in The New Republic which charges that the Western press is appeasing the Iraqi regime in order to maintain its visas -- to be there reporting should a war ultimately break out. What's your take on that?

EASON JORDAN: The writer clearly doesn't have a clear understanding of the realities on the ground because CNN has demonstrated again and again that it has a spine; that it's prepared to be forthright; is forthright in its reporting. We wouldn't have a team in northern Iraq right now if we didn't want to upset the Saddam Hussein regime. We wouldn't report on the demonstration if we didn't want to upset the Saddam Hussein regime. We wouldn't have been thrown out of Iraq already 5 times over the last several years if we were there to please the Saddam Hussein regime. So the story was lopsided, unfair and chose to ignore facts that would refute the premise of the article.

BOB GARFIELD: Well what is the calculus? In the New Republic article he cites the coverage of Saddam Hussein's birthday by CNN which he deemed to be not a huge news event. Are you tossing bones to Saddam Hussein in order to be there when, when it really matters?

EASON JORDAN: No. I don't think that's the case at all. Now, there is Iraqi propaganda that is news! I mean there is propaganda from a lot of governments around the world that is newsworthy and we should report on those things. Saddam Hussein's birthday is a big deal in that country. We're not reading Iraqi propaganda; we're reporting as an independent news organization.

Dozens of travel agents are accusing major airlines of violating antitrust laws by colluding to eliminate commissions on ticket sales.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the travel agents claim that 21 airlines conspired to ban commissions to agents who sell tickets for the carriers. An attorney for the plaintiffs says the industry, beginning in 1997, reduced 10 percent commissions to 8 percent.

Two years ago, commissions dropped to 5 percent of the ticket price and in March 2002 many airlines eliminated commissions.

A similar suit, which has class-action status, is pending in a federal court in Wilmington, N.C.

The 49 plaintiffs in the San Francisco suit opted out of the North Carolina case.

"The Arab street is very frustrated, and to America, I repeat, I repeat, I repeat, the real war hasn't started yet. We have to be careful with such euphoria. It will only increase the feelings of anger in the Arab world. No Arabs want to welcome an occupying power."

"I hate it," said Ahmed Samir, the manager of a trading company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as he watched scenes of Iraqis shaking the hands of American soldiers in Baghdad. "It can only mean they hate Saddam more than they hate the Americans."

"What is striking, though, is that after people get through complaining to you about their situation, they each seem to have a story about a family member or cousin who was arbitrarily jailed or killed by Saddam's thugs. They are truly glad to be rid of him. America did good in doing that, so now we must build a peace we can be equally proud of.

"But this is such a broken land. Its spirit was broken by Saddam long before we arrived, and now, because of this war, its major cities and iron-fisted order are being broken as well. Killing Saddam alone will not bring America the thank-yous it expects because Iraqis are not yet feeling free. Only replacing Saddam's order with a better order will do that. "There is no freedom because there is no security," said Dr. Mohammed al-Mansuri, the hospital's director. . .

". . .America broke Iraq; now America owns Iraq, and it owns the primary responsibility for normalizing it. If the water doesn't flow, if the food doesn't arrive, if the rains don't come and if the sun doesn't shine, it's now America's fault. We'd better get used to it, we'd better make things right, we'd better do it soon, and we'd better get all the help we can get.

All things equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith.

* * *

The reason that Christian schools and Christian universities are growing is a result of a strong value system...In a religious environment the value system is set. That's not the case in a public school where there are so many different kids with different kinds of values.

Although nearly the entire world pays lip service to democracy, there is still no global consensus on the self-expression values—such as social tolerance, gender equality, freedom of speech, and interpersonal trust—that are crucial to democracy. Today, these divergent values constitute the real clash between Muslim societies and the West.

But the real genius of the modern American way of war is the way they have combined their logistics with the best of civilian technology, from communications to information technology. It is one thing to marvel at the way the Vth Corps post office in Kuwait delivers 100 tons of incoming mail a day, quite another to see the massed ranks of PCs in the giant hangars at Camp Doha, with GIs e-mailing home and surfing the Web to see what al-Jazeera or the British media has to say about their war.

The supply systems are stupendous, because the U.S. military has applied the technologies of commercial companies such as Fed-Ex and Wal-Mart to track the use of equipment, locate spare parts through bar codes, and start shipping them forward to the combat troops even before they ask for them. German troops froze for months in their [World War II] Russian campaigns. American troops outside Nasariya were able to take hot showers less than 48 hours after they reached the place—despite the worst sandstorm in a decade.

As a result, the U.S. armed forces defeated the best army in the Arab world with one hand tied behind their back. The U.S. Army did not even field its first team. The 4th Division, the most technologically advanced of all, with a computer in every vehicle and TV camera on the helmet of every squad leader sending real-time images back to headquarters, never even arrived on the battlefield.

“Emotional abuse” means the willful infliction of mental or emotional anguish by threats, humiliation, intimidation, or other abusive conduct which is intended to demean, frighten, intimidate, or isolate.

In an attempt to sneak the “RAVE Act” through the Senate Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) has just introduced the Act into conference committee as an add-on to the National AMBER Alert Network Act of 2003 (S151). S151 is a bill about child abduction that has nothing to do with drug policy issues. The “RAVE” Act, in contrast, has not passed a single committee this year. In addition, it was so controversial when it was introduced last year that two Senators withdrew their sponsorship. The “RAVE” Act is a bill that would make it easier for the federal government to punish business owners for the drug offenses of their customers – even if they take steps to stop such activity.

S151 has passed the Senate and House and is now in Conference. If the Democrats are successful in their efforts to attach the “RAVE” Act onto an unrelated bill, it is likely to become law without ever having a public hearing, debate or a vote. Opponents of the “RAVE” Act argue that it would put innocent business owners at risk of criminal prosecution, threaten free speech, be detrimental to public health, and could be used by overzealous prosecutors to target racial minorities or politically unpopular groups.

If enacted, the “RAVE” Act would make it easier for the federal government to punish property owners for any drug offense that their customers commit – even if they work hard to stop such offenses. If enacted, nightclub and stadium owners would likely stop holding events – such as rock or Hip Hop concerts – in which even one person might use drugs. Because of its broad language, the proposed law would even potentially subject people to twenty years in federal prison if one or more of their guests smoked marijuana at their party or barbecue.

Philip Morris USA won a victory Tuesday when a Chicago judge Tuesday temporarily blocked part of a multibillion-dollar award it was ordered to pay, which, coupled with comments from another judge, allayed fears the cigarette maker could be forced into bankruptcy.

The downstate Edwardsville, Ill., judge who ordered the award, after finding Philip Morris USA had deceived customers into thinking "light" cigarettes were safer than regular cigarettes, indicated he may not force the company to post a $12 billion appeal bond.

"I don't want to put this company out of business. At the same time I'm concerned about protecting this judgment," Madison County Circuit Court Judge Nicholas Byron said during a hearing in Edwardsville, on Philip Morris' request to reduce the bond. He added that he could consider a "guarantee" from Altria Group Inc., Philip Morris's parent, but did not elaborate.

Byron last month ordered Philip Morris USA to pay $7.1005 billion in compensatory damages to smokers and awarded Illinois $3.0 billion in punitive damages.

Michigan's argument does not pass the smile test: It is not something you can argue with a straight face. True, diversity does add something to an educational environment; however, it comes in many stripes. It would do wonders for the freshmen of our elite universities to have among them more poor whites from Appalachia, a few more diehard Christians and maybe a few more students from Muslim nations such as Iran and Kyrgyzstan.

Indeed, research conducted by Stanley Rothman, professor emeritus at Smith College, indicated that the benefits of diversity in higher education are questionable at best, with diversity resulting in increased dissatisfaction with the quality of education and increased complaints by students about discrimination.

The weakest link in Michigan's case is proffered by its law school dean, Jeffrey Lehman: "When we teach our students about difficult issues such as whether it's appropriate for police to be able to use race [sic] profiles, when we ask our students whether it's appropriate to decriminalize crack cocaine, the discussion, the analysis, the learning that takes place is better in a racially diverse classroom."

The implication of Lehman's statement is that a white person cannot make a powerful case against racial profiling—or a black student for it. If this argument is upheld, the law school would need gay students for a discussion of civil unions, mental patients to examine involuntary commitment laws, and so on—a truly nutty idea. Moreover, some of the most strident voices for social justice are lily-white.

Michigan and company would do best if they stuck to "old" arguments. Some social groups suffered—and are still suffering—from gross injustices.

NBA commissioner David Stern told WNBA players Tuesday that unless they settle their contract dispute by April 18, the 2003 season for the women's league will not be played.

"We want to get a deal and work with the players," said Stern, announcing at the same time that his league had voted an additional $12 million to subsidize its women's affiliate. "But if that's not to be, it's not to be. We'll know in the next 10 days if there will be a WNBA season."

Calls by The Associated Press to the NBA Players' Association, which represents the women as well as the men, were not immediately returned.

The contract with WNBA players expired last Sept. 15 and negotiations have gone nowhere. The union is demanding substantial pay increases and free agency among other things.

The college affordability index is a reasonable test to determine if institutions of higher education are keeping their college costs increases within a reasonable rate. For example, a 25 percent increase in tuition and fees is not reasonable, it is scandalous and we can no longer sit idly by and accept such increases as the natural course of things. We can not turn a blind eye to such increases because too many qualified students are not even entertaining the thought of college because they simply can not afford even the tuition of a two year public college.

[C]omplacency ... made Hitler possible. This complacency has cost us about 50 million lives. It also worked well for Stalin. ‘Better red than dead!’ Pacifism is a kind of complacency. ...

I could not look at myself in the mirror if Saddam Hussein were still in power because I have been to a demonstration against Bush, and as a result, the people in Iraq had to live in this totalitarian regime for another twenty years.

If you debate the new genetics in Europe and America these days you get asked the same question in two different ways. The average European says, with dread: "How do we stop people doing x?" The average American says with excitement: "When will I be able to do x?" For x, read "test myself for future dementia risk," "change my unborn children's genes," or even "fill my blood vessels with nano-robots to enable me to live to 150".

To the jaded European palate, the American attitude seems silly and irresponsible. Caution should be the watchword for all new technology. I beg to differ. I think the American optimism is necessary and responsible. It is the European pessimists who are in danger of causing real harm. Caution has risks, too.

The facts underlying the charge to which McCoy pleaded guilty arise from a single photograph taken in April 2000. The government does not allege that Rhonda McCoy, or her husband Jonathan McCoy, were or are commercial producers of child pornography. At the time charges were filed against the McCoys, the couple had two children: Kala, a ten-year-old daughter, and a twenty-month-old son. The family lived in housing provided by the Navy in San Diego, where Jonathan McCoy served as a Naval Petty Officer. Sometime in April 2000, Rhonda, Jonathan, and Kala were spending an evening at home, painting Easter eggs and taking family photographs. Rhonda, who, according to the presentence report, has a substance abuse problem as well as mental health problems, had substantial amounts of alcohol thatnight. At some point during the evening, Rhonda and Kala, partially unclothed, posed side by side for the camera, with their genital areas exposed. This pose was captured in one photograph.

Approximately two months later, Rhonda left five rolls of film with the Navy Fleet Exchange for processing. Shortly thereafter, Rodd Wilson, a loss prevention manager for the Exchange, contacted the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigation Service and informed it of the existence of photographs that appeared to present a child in sexually suggestive poses. Agents of the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigation Service, in conjunction with the FBI and the San Diego Police Department, responded by conducting a search of the McCoy home pursuant to a federal search warrant, and seizing numerous photographs, as well as the family still camera, video camera, and computer.

In January 2001, the government filed an indictment charging both Jonathan and Rhonda with four counts of manufacturing child pornography by a parent using materials transported in interstate commerce, 18 U.S.C. § 2251(b). Rhonda was also charged with one count of manufacturing child pornography using materials transported in interstate commerce, 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a).

Petitioners include several health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and a Kentucky-based association of HMOs. In order to control the quality and cost of health-care delivery, these HMOs have contracted with selected doctors, hospitals, and other health-care providers to create exclusive “provider networks.” Providers in such networks agree to render health-care services to the HMOs’ subscribers at discounted rates and to comply with other contractual requirements. In return, they receive the benefit of patient volume higher than that achieved by nonnetwork providers who lack access to petitioners’ subscribers.

Kentucky’s AWP statutes impair petitioners’ ability to limit the number of providers with access to their networks, and thus their ability to use the assurance of high patient volume as the quid pro quo for the discounted rates that network membership entails. Petitioners believe that AWP laws will frustrate their efforts at cost and quality control, and will ultimately deny consumers the benefit of their cost-reducing arrangements with providers.

Consider, just as one example, this excerpt of a message to families of deployed Marines from Lt.Col. Chartier, Commanding Officer, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division. "If we go into combat it is with a clear mission - we do not want Islamic militants or any government that supports them threatening our cities or hometowns. Nobody wants to relive September 11th, ever."

It seems the men and women of 1st Tanks know what this war is about.

And consider how many times President Bush's line about Islam being a "religion of peace" is used against such a proposition. President Bush's sentiments toward Islam are more often treated as an object of ridicule then as a credible statement of the facts.

So why then, do we have an administration that does not call a spade a spade? It's less about the failure to understand the threat of militant Islam and more about the failure to understand the genius of America.

America is free, secular, and self-interested. But as long as reason and egoism are not firmly entrenched in our culture, and people genuflect toward faith and sacrifice, even as they implicitly practice the opposite in their lives, we will go into battle at least partially disarmed.

Arming America is going to take effort. If I may be so bold, here's a good place to start.

Messages spraypainted included the slogans "Stop the War," "Leave Iraq" and "Stop Killing," clearly indicating the reason this ELF cell targeted the military facility. It was also reported that all cars and vans targeted carried the ELF signature in spraypaint.

This is the first specifically anti-war action carried out by the ELF in North America, though there has been at least one direct action attack on a military recruiting center since the start of the war in Iraq (Edison, NJ - March 18th - claimed by the Direct Action Front).

If true, I hope the direct law enforcement action is swift, the trial of the perpetrators just, and their punishment severe.

Affirmative action transfers places from Asian-Americans to African-Americans and Latinos. Yet both supporters and detractors cast the debate as black vs. white. The true issue is whether we want or need a policy that systematically restricts the places for Asian-Americans in our elite universities.

We will never resolve this contentious issue if we continue to frame the debate in simplistic and misleading terms of white versus black.

Recasting the debate can also help us see why so much of the current rhetoric supporting affirmative action to include minority groups as defined today sounds so much like the rhetoric used earlier in the 20th century to exclude a minority group as defined then -- Jews. Then as now, university administrators wished to control the racial mix (Jews were considered and called a "race" then). Otherwise, they feared their campuses would be "overrun" with members of a small but academically very high-achieving group.

Until the early 20th century, even the most elite American universities, such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, were largely regional campuses. But faced with a high influx of academically talented Jewish students, they sought to reduce the numbers of that group. Aware that Jews (and to a lesser extent Roman Catholics) were concentrated in Northeast cities, they devised a system of national recruitment to restrict numbers of Jews while avoiding charges of overt discrimination.

Then as now, a key concept was diversity, only then it meant (in public) geographic diversity. Then as now, quotas were publicly denied even while an elaborate system to maintain de facto quotas evolved. Then as now, administrators argued that other things besides grades and examinations mattered as much or more -- character, for example, or obstacles overcome. Then as now, the result was to transfer places that would have gone disproportionately to members of an academically talented minority group to members of other groups.

I find it so baffling that so many of my fellow liberals oppose the war against, arguably, the most vicious dictator since Hitler. In case you missed it friends, the Sunday before the war began was the 10th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's nervegasing of 5,000 Iraqi civilians in Halabja. Have we forgotten the horrific pictures of distorted bodies in piles? Have we forgotten in that human tyre were the bodies of hundreds of little babies? If so, read the reports out of Basra of Saddam Hussein's secret security force putting guns to the heads of little children to force their fathers to fight, or reports of suspected coalition collaborators having their tongues cut out and left to bleed to death in public parks as a warning to others? Or reports after the last Gulf War of Hussein's thugs rounding up accused spies and forcing them to drink gas in front of their families and then lighting them on fire?

The Iraqi National Olympic Committee headquarters was bombed and largely destroyed Tuesday by U.S. war planes, prompting mixed reaction from former Iraqi athletes who said they have been tortured by Olympic committee chief Uday Hussein.

"That's great news, lovely news," said Sharar Haydar, a former national team soccer player.

Haydar claims to be one of many athletes who was imprisoned in a first-floor prison, and punished by Uday, son of Saddam Hussein.

The overnight bombing of selected targets inflicted serious damage on the bottom four floors of the nine-story building in east Baghdad, according to the Associated Press. Walls were blown out, and mangled wire and steel protruded. The building sits in a big complex of housing units, and they appeared unscathed.

A federal judge has denied a request by Visa USA and MasterCard International to throw out an antitrust lawsuit against the credit card giants, clearing the way for a trial later this month.

In a ruling issued Tuesday in Brooklyn, U.S. District Judge John Gleeson rejected defense arguments that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other plaintiffs failed to produce evidence that Visa and MasterCard conspired to monopolize the lucrative debit-card market.

"There is evidence, direct and circumstantial, from which a jury could find a conspiracy," Gleeson wrote in a 16-page decision.

The judge also denied MasterCard's demand for a separate trial. He set jury selection for April 21.

Wal-Mart, Sears Roebuck and Co. and other merchants across the nation are seeking billions of dollars in damages in a class-action suit brought in 1996.

The retailers allege the defendants secretly schemed to extend their dominance to debit cards by mandating an "honor all cards" policy, meaning any merchant who accepts their credit cards must accept their look-alike debit cards as well.

The plaintiffs claim excessive transaction fees have cost them more than $15 billion in the past decade - costs ultimately passed on to the consumer. The credit card companies argue that the "honor all cards" rule is necessary to protect consumer choice.