Etc...

We couldn't be more sorry

Have you ever found a stash of your empoyer's old stationery and decided to use it up rather than see the paper go to waste? That's essentially why the postal service in Estonia is apologizing profusely to people whose new voter-registration cards arrived in the mail last week. It seems conservation-minded elections board workers stuffed them into official envelopes left over from the era when the Baltic state was a Soviet republic. They even carried the hated hammer and sickle symbol of the Communist Party. "It is not our practice to use [them]," an Eesti Post spokeswoman explained. "We banned them long ago." Estonia regained its independence in 1991.

In a designation that Mayor Oscar Goodman (D) disputes vigorously, Las Vegas last month was rated the "meanest" city in the US by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The advocacy group's report rated 147 municipalities on laws and policies that make it difficult for those who live on the streets - policies defended by many city officials as quality-of-life issues for other residents. The 10 cities singled out as toughest in their attitudes toward the homeless:

1. Las Vegas
2. San Francisco
3. New York
4. Los Angeles
5. Atlanta
6. Cincinnati
7. Key West, Fla.
8. Austin, Texas
9. Orlando, Fla.
10. New Orleans - Associated Press