Etc...

NO exceptions to the rule!

It's going to cost Elvis Pricina and Iulian Gherghel $105 each for walking on the grass in a restricted green space in Craiova, Romania, late last month. They were the first to be caught by a camera that monitors the site under a new city ordinance. But what makes their story notable isn't the hefty fines . It's the fact that Pricina and Gherghel are policemen - and were ordered by the irate mayor to write their own tickets. He demoted them, too.

Planning to relocate the family home this summer? Andrew Schiller, the founder of Location Inc., a Rhode Island company that specializes in real estate investment advising, has identified the most family-friendly communities in 10 major US metropolitan areas. Because some are pricey, he did a companion "best value" search in the same markets, using such criteria as good schools, low crime rates, high home ownership rates, and high numbers of college graduates. In alphabetical order from his research, here are the most family-friendly locales by market, with the best-value alternatives (in parentheses):

Boston Sudbury, Mass. (Holden, Mass.)
Chicago Lake Forest, Ill. (Wheeling, Ill.)
Dallas-Fort Worth Highland Park, Texas (Richardson, Texas)
Detroit Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (Troy, Mich.)
Houston Sugar Land, Texas (Stafford, Texas)
Los Angeles Moorpark, Calif. (Simi Valley, Calif.)
New York Manhasset, N.Y. (Andover, N.J.)
Philadelphia Richboro, Pa. (Downington, Pa.)
San Francisco Los Altos, Calif. (Suisun, Calif.)
Washington Potomac, Md. (Columbia, Md.)