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National Public Radio's John Burnett has a brilliant series of stories that is worth your time. It is also worth a look locally. The story says that the U.S. Department of Agriculture now estimates that last year it paid out $160 million in fraudulent crop insurance claims:

The crime scenes are cotton crops in Texas and tomato farms in Tennessee. The felons are farmers who falsely claim that weather ruined their crops so they can collect the insurance. This crime is growing in size and complexity, and some insurance companies are looking the other way. 

Burnett discovered that the multi-billion dollar federal crop insurance program is ripe for "insurance farmers."

As a result of the spotty oversight, the program became a magnet for farmers looking to scam the system. According to John Brown, an agricultural investigator based in Columbia, Mo., there's even a name for them: insurance farmers. "They just farm for crop insurance," Brown says. "I want you to know that. That's how they exist. They have no intentions of harvesting a crop. In many cases, they don't even plant a crop. They don't even plow the soil sometimes. And they get away with it."

Who is investigating all of this? NPR reported:

The chances of getting caught are still slim. The USDA's Risk Management Agency has 100 employees to monitor 2 million policies nationwide. So the government depends, as its first line of defense against fraudulent claims, on the 17 companies that sell crop insurance. Some aggressively pursue suspicious farmers, but some observers say the industry as a whole has little self-interest in policing itself.

In one case, some tomato farmers got a bag of cocktail ice and tossed it on their plants. Then they hired a guy to go around and beat up the plants with a stick. They snapped some photos, lied on insurance claims forms and the insurance folks mailed them a settlement check. Click here for pictures.

In the meantime, investigators are using satellite technology to inspect farm fields to see if there is even a crop in the fields that could have been damaged.  

Hottest Holiday Gifts of 2005

Forty-five percent of all shoppers will buy toys this holiday season, The National Retail Federation says. The National Retail Federation's new hottest-toys list includes:

Precious Metals Get More Precious

Copper prices are nearing a "historic high." This is being fueled partly by some wild trading in China. Just look at this list from the Copper Development Association about how copper is widely used in so many ways:

Architecture, Automotive, Electrical, Building Wire, Energy Efficiency, Power Quality, Tube, Pipe & Fittings, Fuel Gas, Industrial, Marine, Machined Products, Telecommunications, Copper Compounds 

Here are some big users/manufacturers in the world of copper, if you want to localize the story.

Gold prices spiked yesterday to levels not seen in 18 years. Platinum is not cooling off. 

Uninspected Air Cargo

As you go flying off to Grandma's house this Thanksgiving, you know that airport security will search every inch of your body and carry-on bags looking for contraband. Meanwhile, in the belly of the plane may well be thousands of pounds of cargo. Now we know that most of that cargo is not inspected. OOPS.

The Government Accountability Office reports [PDF]:

In 2004, an estimated 23 billion pounds of air cargo were transported within the United States, with about a quarter of this amount transported on passenger aircraft. Recently, [the U.S. Department of Homeland Security] reported that most cargo on passenger aircraft is not physically inspected. Specifically, according to industry estimates, only a very small percentage of the total cargo placed on passenger aircraft is physically screened or inspected. To enhance air cargo security, Congress recently enacted legislation authorizing $902 million for air cargo security and required that [the Transportation Security Administration] take additional steps to secure air cargo, including increasing the percentage of cargo being inspected on passenger aircraft.

USA Today points out:

Terrorists could foil the government's strategy for keeping bombs out of cargo holds by meeting a few basic requirements that would allow them to put an explosives-laden package on a jet, the Government Accountability Office said. [...]

"TSA has not taken needed steps to identify shippers who may pose a security threat," the report said.

The TSA said in a statement that it has improved cargo security but "recognizes the need to do more."

Religious Clubs in Schools

The Boston Globe says that increasingly, when schools close for the day, religious groups are opening for business in the school building. You have to wonder what the criteria are for who can and cannot use school property. The story says: 

[A] growing number of religious leaders around the nation ... are taking advantage of a four-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows religious groups to meet in public schools when classes are not in session. In Massachusetts, the first Jewish Student Union club opened last year at Newton South; this year, chapters of the national nonprofit began in Brookline, Lexington and Framingham. Evangelical Christians have been running clubs in the last few years in some Boston elementary schools and in some rural towns.

 

As some principals are banning Christmas trees, menorahs or Halloween costumes, others are warming to the presence of religious clubs in their schools. They say the clubs' regular dose of religion is improving discipline among younger students and giving older students of minority religions a sense of camaraderie.

 

''I certainly welcome it," said Deborah Dancy, principal of William Ellery Channing Elementary School in Hyde Park, where Child Evangelism Fellowship opened a Good News Bible Club this year. ''The children who participate in the program are much more courteous, cooperative and respectful. Anything we can do to reduce discipline problems and develop character we are willing to do at this school." 

The story includes this passage:

In some cases, groups that monitor separation of church and state worry that the clubs are becoming too much a part of a school's fabric, because teachers are leading them or students are registering them as official high school clubs. The Supreme Court ruling didn't set restrictions on how the religious clubs should operate in public schools, leaving the ruling open to interpretation. Schools and legal groups have been struggling to figure out how the ruling fits in with an existing federal law that governs equal access to school buildings by outside groups.

''The lines are getting blurrier, and that's most unfortunate," said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. ''One of the great strengths of American schools has been neutrality in religions."

 

To help school districts wade through the murky waters, the Anti-Defamation League has developed guidelines for public schools. Religious groups can advertise meetings, but need parental permission for students to participate, according to the guidelines. In high schools, students must initiate and run official student clubs, while school leaders must avoid being seen as endorsing or disapproving of a faith, the guidelines say.

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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible.