Bet on it. Amount contributed to Republicans by commercial gambling and casino companies in the 1995-’96 federal election cycle, according to University of Illinois professor John Kindt, writing in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (March): $1.5 million. Amount contributed to Democrats by American Indian tribes in the business: $1.2 million. Annual budget of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling: less than $150,000.
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Kids, don’t try to reach the Web site of the amateur-astronomy magazine Sky & Telescope if your school has one of those “net-minder” programs. According to New Scientist (March 28), “Because of the frequent appearance of the term ‘naked eye’ on its Web pages [referring to observations made without a telescope or binocular], some of these search-and-ban programs have blocked access.”
“We are amazed (but not surprised) by [Amtrak president and CEO George] Warrington’s explicit admission that, after 27 years in business, Amtrak management still does not know what their customers expect of their service, or why they choose to ride Amtrak’s trains for the first time or, hopefully, a second time; or even precisely what it costs to provide Amtrak’s various services,” states an editorial note in Chicago’s 20th Century Railroad Club newsletter, the “Fast Mail” (April). “We can’t help but wonder just exactly what the hundreds of employees in their ‘sales and marketing’ and ‘finance’ departments have been up to all these years.”
