Stateline
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September 2008
Gambling for Gas
This past summer, Florida joined Georgia, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Washington in giving away gasoline as a lottery prize. “Gas has become more precious than cash now,” says Bernard Feldman, a customer service supervisor at a supermarket that sells lottery tickets. Florida made the decision after 90 percent of regular lottery players, responding to a poll in which a year’s home mortgage payments were among the other choices, said the prize they would most prefer was free fill-ups. For two months, the second-prize winners in the “Summer Cash” game won free gasoline for life: They were awarded 26 prepaid gas cards, each worth $100, every year until death. First prize remained $250,000.
No Smoking, Period
Smoking by an actor on stage is still banned by the state’s indoor smoking law, even if it is important to the character, ruled a Colorado appeals court. “Smoking, by itself, is not sufficiently expressive to qualify for First Amendment protection,” ruled the three-member court, upholding a lower court’s verdict. “Murders are not committed, actors do not fire live bullets at each other or at the audience, the theater is not set afire to illustrate the burning of Rome in ‘Julius Caesar,’” the court said. “The audience is aware that the scenes are not real.” Many states have laws that ban indoor smoking of tobacco only, so herbal cigarettes can be used without violation. Colorado’s law, the court said, is specific: Smoking is smoking whatever is being burned. Representatives of the theaters that filed suit say an appeal to the state Supreme Court is likely.
Help With Hurricanes
Florida will pay Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate $224 million in exchange for a pledge to provide cash if the state is rocked by hurricanes this season. Buffet has pledged to buy $4 billion in bonds if Florida’s hurricane Catastrophe Fund needs a bailout this year. The fund is liable for as much as $29 billion to reimburse insurers for claims if a Katrina-sized hurricane strikes densely populated areas in the state. But it has only about $8 billion in cash.
Diabetes Gets Help
Tennessee legislators recently became the first in the nation to establish a diabetes coordinator in the state’s Department of Health to work with other government departments and agencies to ensure that all programs dealing with diabetes are coordinated, that duplication is minimized and effectiveness is maximized. And in Kansas, a new five-year statewide effort has begun to increase awareness of how to control and prevent the disease. There are 24 million children and adults in the United States, or 8 percent of the population, who have diabetes. The national cost of diabetes last year exceeded $174 billion.
Victory for Veal
Colorado recently passed a law to phase out veal crates and pig gestation crates. These crates imprison an estimated 150,000 breeding pigs in 2-by-7 foot metal enclosures where they are unable to move or lie down comfortably. Although there is no veal industry in Colorado, lawmakers believed its sizable dairy industry could possibly attract veal operations in the future. Arizona, Florida, and Oregon also prohibit gestation crates, and Arizona bans veal crates as well. Californians will vote on an anti-cruelty ballot initiative this November that would prohibit veal and gestation crates and battery cages used to confine egg-laying hens.
Votes and Vaccines
The flu kills about 36,000 people a year. Yet, despite an extensive public outreach effort, only about half of adults 50 years and older (those most likely to die from it) get an annual flu vaccine. Among Hispanics and African Americans, the rates are even lower. Since almost 70 percent of voters in national elections are 50 or older, beginning in 2004, several local health agencies (with support from the Sickness Prevention Achieved Through Regional Collaboration and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), offered flu vaccines at polling sites. The Vote & Vax project resulted in an increased number of vaccinations among this age group. This year, the groups hope to hold vaccination clinics at more than 1,000 polling places across the country.
Motorcyclists See Red
The wait is over. Motorcyclists in a number of states are being allowed to run certain red lights when sensors aren’t able to detect they are there. Some lights are controlled by devices buried under the road that operate as metal detectors do. They aren’t always set correctly to detect motorcycles. South Carolina recently joined Arkansas, Idaho, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin in allowing motorcyclists to proceed with caution through a red light after stopping first. Georgia, Missouri and Oklahoma have also looked at similar bills. California passed a law last year that requires new traffic-activated signals to detect motorcycles and bicycles.
Healthy San Francisco
Under an initiative called Healthy San Francisco, the city is hoping to offer health care to all residents. Currently, the program is open only to those with incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, but city officials are committed to allowing people with incomes up to 500 percent of the poverty level by next year. Participants are assigned to one of 27 primary care facilities, which focus on preventive care, and have access to a range of other health services. Enrollees contribute a quarterly fee and co-payments, depending on their incomes. The program is funded by employer contributions, a state grant and beneficiaries’ fees. The city has halted expansion of the program, however, while it awaits a verdict from an appeals court in a lawsuit challenging the program’s legality by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. It claims the program violates a federal law (ERISA) prohibiting state and local governments from regulating employee benefits.
Amish Heyday
Cheap is in. As the country’s economy struggles, Amish-run salvage stores are doing well. These stores, often tucked away in America’s farmlands, sell expired food and medicine dirt-cheap, according to the Associated Press. Shelves are filled with, for example, water-damaged taco shells (25 cents per package) and pesto sauce that expired four months ago (five packets for $1). There also might be tubes of old toothpaste, year-old Tylenol or ripped boxes of cereal. Except for baby formula, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t prohibit the sale of expired foods or medicines. The Amish live in 28 states, with the highest populations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
The Evolution of Teaching Science
Louisiana’s new Science Education Act allows science teachers to “use supplementary textbooks, and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique and review scientific theories in an objective manner.” Supporters see this as a way to encourage critical thinking about hot-button science issues such as evolution, global warming and cloning. Opponents argue the law is designed to inject religious views such as Christian creationism and intelligent design into public school classrooms. The law allows the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to ban supplemental science materials it finds objectionable. And local school boards have to approve new materials before they enter science classrooms.
Religion and Politics
While religion is a vital force in the lives of most Americans, relatively few say they look to religion as the primary source of their views on social and political issues, according to the latest report from the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. When asked where they look for guidance, 52 percent said they count on practical experience and common sense, 29 percent cite religious teachings and 9 percent point to reason or philosophy. The survey found, however, widespread agreement across religious communities on the need for “more government support for the needy, even if it means going into debt.” Majorities also supported environmental protection and good diplomacy over military strength as “the best way to ensure peace.” The survey interviewed 35,000 adults.