Balance sheet.

• Author: Taylor, Jeff A.
• Position: News briefs - Humor - Column

Bye Polar

Scientists from NASA say the ozone hole over the South Pole continues to shrink and is now, in fact, two smaller holes that together measure 6 million square miles. That's down about 30 percent from previous readings of 9 million square miles.

Instant justice

Yakima County, Washington, experiments with virtual traffic court. E-mail to a judge can substitute for several hours in a court-room. The catch: It only applies to guilty pleas.

Fish Tales

Down-market restaurant chains Long John Silver and Red Lobster resist an enviro campaign to swear off engineered seafood. Various chichi chefs, meanwhile, join in claims that biotech fish are too unnatural for their clientele.

Fair Game

The Digital Media Consumers Rights Act, which would push U.S. copyright law back toward the center after years of tilting toward the content owners, awaits a congressional committee vote. If ultimately passed, it will exhume the notion of fair use from the cold, cold ground.

Zone Coverage

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit finds unconstitutional a Cincinnati law that bans former drug offenders from particular neighborhoods. The city's "drug exclusion zone" banned anyone with a history of drug offenses.

International Currency

Dire poverty has taken a worldwide hit in the last few decades, finds the Institute for International Economics. Those who live on an inflation-adjusted $1 a day or less shrank from 63 percent in 1950 to 35 percent in 1980, then down to 12 percent in 1999.

Ultra Orthodox

The Upper House of Parliament in Belarus backs a bill that would enshrine the Russian Orthodox Church as the official state religion. Churches with less than 20 years' presence in the country could not publish literature or set up missions.

False Start

The North Carolina General Assembly, swamped by a budget deficit...