Balance Sheet

Jeff Taylor from the October 2003 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

Liabilities

Read-Write Error

A Massachusetts school superintendent making $156K a year fails to pass a basic literacy test after three tries. The state education commissioner won't say how many chances Wilfredo T. Laboy will get.

Tracking Adjustment

The Homeland Security Department's inspector general finds that using the department's "air interdiction" center to track down Democratic members of the Texas legislature was "appropriate." Turns out that such tracking is a "nominal" use of federal resources.

Name Gamed

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit backs the Bush administration's assertion that it can keep secret the names of hundreds detained as part of 9/11 investigations.

Twisted Norm

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University find that over half of Zimbabwean women believe wife beating is OK. Transgressions like burning dinner or leaving the house without the husband's permission can justify a beating, a survey of 5,907 women between the ages of 15�49 reveals.

Tally Whoa

Computerized voting systems are only as good as their security, and experts at the Information Security Institute find that isn't so good. "A 15-year-old computer enthusiast" could make fake cards allowing every voter to cast multiple ballots, they warn.

Busting CAPPS

Two MIT grad students find that the airlines' Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS) provides worse security than utterly random searches would. Terrorists could "game" their CAPPS profiles with as few as six flights.