Hey, smokers, give up the filthy weed, and you might win the state's $2,500 prize:
In order to enter the contest, you must be 18 or older and pledge to stop using tobacco between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15.
All Quit 2 Win entries must be received by Sept. 5.
The winner will be drawn at random and tested to make sure they are tobacco-free.
One of the downsides of this job is that I have to pay attention to excrutiatingly boring accounts of dull government bureaucrats policing their fussy rules, as in this story about hapless Jasper County, which committed the unforgiveable sin of not getting its paperwork in on time:
Here I am, the true believer in markets and free enterprise, alarm-sounder over government intervention and over-involvement, praying that the FDA nips this heresy in the bud:
Like many battles, this one's being fought block by block. Victory, for whoever prevails, will be sweet. Or bitter — or even bittersweet. It all depends on how you like your chocolate.
Elizabeth Edwards on why her husband John might be an underdog for president:
"We can't make John black, we can't make him a woman. Those things get you a lot of press, worth a certain amount of fundraising dollars."
Can't make him smart, either.
The Matt Kelty grand jury is heading to its third day of deliberation, and either way it turns out, it's a big story, isn't it? If there is a recommendation to charge him with a campaign-finance-reporting violation, the talk will be about whether he should drop out of the mayor's race and who might replace him if he does. If the conclusion is that no violation occurred, we have to acknowledge that there is a big loophole in state law.
I know that I harp on property rights -- they are more important than civil rights -- to the point where some of you tune it out. But if you still think what's yours is yours, read this. (You don't need to go to the link unless you want to check it out; what follows is the story in its entirety.):
NEW ORLEANS -- Jason Banks got his trash hauled away, obtained a building permit, gutted his Ninth Ward home and was ready to renovate.
Bloggers are cowboys, outside the mainstream, anarchists throwing bombs at the establishment, iconoclastic philosophers who go their own way, loners preaching truth to power -- well, you get the idea. So, naturally, they need to band together in solidarity:
Diversity isn't all it's cracked up to be:
IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger.
Steven Malanga, senior editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, says the lease of public assets, as in Go. Daniels' toll-road deal, are a way to get much needed infrastructure capital to help avoid more tragedies such as the Minneapolis bridge collapse:
For every story about cities being caught by surprise when disaster strikes, you can always find one about some place that's thinking ahead:
A major hurricane hasn't hit New York City in nearly 70 years, but the city has pumped at least $15 million into stockpiling supplies for hundreds of hurricane shelters for the upcoming storm season.
Hey, they'd be perfect for the homeless.
