Etc...

IT WAS HIT-AND-RUN, OFFICER

A tourist with a rented 2003 Lincoln Town Car returned it heavily damaged from an accident last week near tiny, rural Talkeetna, Alaska. Yet the car was parked at the time and no other vehicle was involved. How could this be? Well, the driver pulled off the highway to gawk at a passing moose, which chose to leap over rather than walk around the Lincoln. But the animal misjudged the distance and landed on the windshield. By the time police arrived, the moose had disappeared, leaving the renter to explain the situation.

Speaking of vacation destinations, did you know that whole chunks of Canada have disappeared? At least they have in a new magazine that promotes tourism there. "Pure Canada," which was commissioned from Fodor's Travel Publications, omits the Yukon and Prince Edward Island. Fodor's was chosen, the Canadian Tourism Commission said, because its guides are the industry's most detailed. The publisher has agreed to correct the error in all subsequent editions.

States missed out on as much as $12.4 billion in corporate income taxes in 2001 as big companies took advantage of loopholes in the law and other "aggressive" strategies, according to a report by the Multistate Tax Commission. The organization of state tax authorities estimates California took the biggest hit ($1.3 billion), while West Virginia and Ohio lost the most percentagewise - more than half their collected corporate taxes. The 10 states with the biggest losses from corporate tax- sheltering, in millions (*New York based on incomplete data): 1. California $1.34 billion 2. Illinois 693 3. Texas 607 4. Pennsylvania 582 5. New York* 577 6. Florida 554 7. New Jersey 540 8. Massachusetts 503 9. Ohio 378 10. Washington 372 - Associated Press