It had to hurt. Washington State paid $85 million in court judgments and settlements this past fiscal year, a 240 percent jump over the year before and a quantum leap over the highest payout--$26 million-- in the past 10 years. "We tend to be the deep pocket," says Marty Brown, director of the Governor's Office of Financial Management.

Some subway lines are now featuring ads that give a whole new meaning to the idea of tunnel vision. In Atlanta and several large cities overseas, subway tunnels have become the home of flickering product advertisements.

By order of a Florida appeals court, a Martin County developer must tear down $3.3 million worth of apartment buildings that were recently built.

Bans on unmarried couples living together are under fire.

Politics may make strange bedfellows. But it's rare for bona fide bedfellows to be the top elected officials in overlapping local governments.