They are growing in number and political appeal, but special courts to deal with drug users can still get a judge's dander up.

Beach erosion threatens the existence of many coastal communities. Solutions are expensive and may ultimately prove futile.

States are taking steps to protect their pocketbooks as Washington tax cuts take a toll on state revenue.

The key to sensible government reform is refocusing the system around results.

In 1979, Richard Howorth moved back to Oxford, Mississippi, to open a bookstore. He had more than simple commerce in mind. Oxford was home to the University of Mississippi and William Faulkner's native turf, yet it remained a cultural backwater, remembered around the country, if at all, as the site of anti-desegregation riots in the early 1960s. Howorth, who'd grown up in Oxford, saw his store as a place of culture, literacy and broad-mindedness that could help the town nurture those values in itself.