The 300 Hundred Year Hypothesis
by: Josh Johnson

No republic in the history of the world has lasted more than 300 years???eventually the crunch comes.??? David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, recently made that statement at a meeting with The Heritage Foundation and The Brookings Institution to discuss the ???budget nightmare??? that threatens the United States. Mr. Walker explained that by the year 2040 the United States' debt and obligations could total $45 trillion. To pay off this debt completely, every man, woman and child would be sent a bill for $150,000.

Gone to the Birds?
by: Robert Pelfrey

After a 60-year hiatus, the ivory-billed woodpecker has returned to the biological radar. Thought to be extinct, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in New York and The Nature Conservancy recently confirmed that the species is nesting in Arkansas woodlands. Impoverished small towns along the Mississippi River Delta have already begun to cash in on the return of the bird and hope to experience an economic boom from tourism.