I first heard this story on the local Washington, D.C. news radio station on my way home from work on Friday.  But I just found the story that proves that what I thought I had misheard is, in fact, true.

Appellate Panel Bars Tests for Mad Cow Disease

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 30, 2008

A federal appeals court has ruled that the government can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease. Because the Agriculture Department tests only a small percentage of cows for the deadly disease, a Kansas meatpacker, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wanted to test all of its cows, but the government says it cannot. Larger meat companies worry that if Creekstone is allowed to perform the test and advertise its meat as safe, they could be forced to do the expensive test, too. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said restricting the test was allowable.

Let me see if I have this right. 

Brad Delong, who obviously never sleeps and, therefore, makes it hard for the rest of us who do to keep up, has an interesting post from Dean Baker (follow the bouncing ball here) about how those who expouse free market capitalism whenever and however they can are getting on board the notion of a federal bailout for Wall Street and homeowners.

As I've said before, as soon as the Bear Sterns deal became acceptable, it was only a matter of time -- in this case, really only a matter of days -- before a homeowner bailout was discussed seriously. Yesterday, two days after the end of the Easter recess, Congress confirmed that when Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell agreed that a plan had to move forward. The resulting bi-partisan vote to consider specific plans was overwhelming.

1. If drivers continue to be willing to pay higher and higher gasoline prices, why shouldn't we expect them to keep rising?

2. One of the cell phone companies advertises that it has "more bars" than anyone else. Wasn't there a time not too long ago when that would have been an ad for a resort?

I'm just starting to understand why The Daily Show is the most-watched "news" program for college students (and, I hear, Wall Street analysts).

News reports this morning said that the price per gallon for regular gasoline had risen 6 cents in the past two weeks.

I like low prices on things I buy as much as anyone, but here's the most basic question no one ever seems to ask when discussing energy prices: If consumers keep paying higher prices for gasoline, why should the oil companies do anything other than raise them?