Brian Gongol
With wealth comes sexually-transmitted disease
Chinese boom towns are experiencing problems with syphilis
Iowa House considering $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes
Extra cash raised is to go to the Senior Living Trust Fund, which is designed to pay for long-term care for low- and moderate-income older people in Iowa. Here's one reason why the tax hike is suspicious: Legislators have stolen more than $100 million from the Senior Living Trust Fund to make up for budget shortfalls elsewhere. Unfortunately, raising the tax as significantly as is planned could increase crime.
It's almost impossible to overdose on vegetables
Though there may be some isolated cases in which vegetables could be hazardous to a person's health
Federal government pulls rug out from under states
Congress and the White House collaborated to revise the laws regulating the National Guard so that now the President has the authority to call up a given state's Guard units without the approval of the local governor. The nation's governors objected, as rightly they should have. The more the national government weakens the states, the less effective disaster-recovery efforts will be. Even if states prove to be considerably more innovative than the national government, that won't get them beyond laws that give Washington too much authority.
Iowa Senate to consider raising compulsory-schooling age to 18
The compulsory age cuts out at 16 today. The Senate is also thinking of banning "amateur unarmed combat fighting" -- so no more bar brawls for public entertainment.
High ethanol demand will make pork pricey
Making Copies
Red Cross adds a new logo
Now they'll be represented by a red cross, a red crescent, and a red diamond shape
Italian court sentences former SS officers to life in prison
The convictions were in absentia, for the murder of 955 people in Italy back in World War II. Another case in which punishments for war crimes are handed down long after the fact.
No one repairs small appliances anymore
Some notes on how small appliances (and even some big ones) are now more expensive to repair than to just throw away
