Balance Sheet

Jeff Taylor from the October 2005 issue

Assets

Payback Supreme

A California developer draws up plans for the Lost Liberty Hotel on what is now the New Hampshire farm of Justice David Souter, who voted with the majority in the Kelo decision allowing governments to seize property and transfer it to private developers.

People vs. Power

After two years of resistance, villagers in China's Hebei province win back their land. The local government had tried to seize it for a state-owned power company.

Don't Super Size Me

A 35-year-old North Carolina woman limits herself to 1,400 calories a day while eating exclusively at McDonald's. She loses 33 pounds in two months.

Wild Europe

Boars, bears, wolves, and other species return to the European countryside as humans abandon inefficient mines, quarries, and farms, especially in territories once within the Soviet orbit.

False Advertising

Two Ogilvy & Mather executives receive prison sentences for overbilling the government. Since they worked on the government's anti-drug ads, overbilling was only a small part of the fraud they perpetrated.

Free Spenders

A British survey finds Internet users who illegally swap tracks spend four and a half times as much on digital music as those who don't, making it harder for record companies to blame file sharers for slumping sales.

Cost Benefit

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff makes the common-sense observation that the feds should focus on protecting airplanes rather than buses and trains from terrorists. Cities with big mass transit investments fume.