Jingle, jingle--"Investments may pay as war looms"--Lead headline, September 24 business section, Los Angeles Times.

No shotgun marriages?--"Wade Horn, the nation's new welfare chief, believes a ring, a walk down the aisle and a promise to love, honor and cherish may be the key to moving families out of poverty. Horn...admits he has no evidence that government can do anything to persuade poor people to get married."--News item.

No muckin' around--Tough-minded California environmental enforcers ordered an end to the creek-borne flow of trash responsible in large measure for the heavy pollution of the Santa Monica Bay. The state order, apparently nonnegotiable, demands the cleanup be completed in 14 years.

First things first--In the past decade, milk sales in Idaho schools have dropped 29 percent and soft drinks have zoomed more than 1,000 percent. Nutritionists say this contributes to a third of the state's young adults being overweight. This has posed the question: Why not yank the soft drink machines? We think that's the wrong answer. But not for the reason given by school bureaucrats, namely, that it would mean a big-time revenue loss.

Now that's an upgrade--In California's spiffy Laguna Beach, a chap is unloading his beach house for $11.5 million. and has bought another for $16.5 million.

Isn't that great?--A glowing report from the Census Bureau said that in the year 2000 the number of people living in poverty had shrunk by half a percent, the fourth annual decline in a row. For those who are Black, the poverty rate was 22.1 percent, double the national rate; for Latinos, 22.2 percent; for single mothers, 24 percent. The census turned up 31 million people living in officially defined poverty.

Downbeat--Reporting on the census findings, the Los Angeles Times observed: "But analysts cautioned that the...golden era [?] has abruptly ended, given the many woes that now beset the U.S. economy."

How long did it take to shut them off?--Hit by soaring rates, 60,000 Georgia residents have had their gas shut off. And even when they scrape up the money to pay their bills, they will still wait for their gas. The Atlanta Gas Light Company says it takes four to six weeks to turn the gas back on.  
 
 
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