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This article discusses the effect that increased corn production for ethanol may be having on the cost of producing dairy products and meat in the United States. Farmers are complaining that the ethanol production mandates from the government have forced them to grow more corn and that this has caused corn prices to rise and has forced them to stop growing other crops. New and higher ethanol mandates will cause prices to rise even more.

The article discusses controversy surrounding the mandatory inoculation of young girls against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. Twenty states are considering the mandate, but opposition has arisen among health experts as well as the vaccine's manufacturer, Merck. Religious conservatives claim the mandatory use would encourage sexual activity by young girls. Experts question the rush to inoculate and the vaccine's high cost.

Nobody knows what the Supreme Court will decide with regard to the Affordable Care Act. But, after this week's hearings, it seems quite possible that the court will strike down the ''mandate'' -- the requirement that individuals purchase health insurance -- and maybe the whole law. Removing the mandate would make the law much less workable, while striking down the whole thing would mean denying health coverage to 30 million or more Americans. Given the stakes, one might have expected all the court's members to be very careful in speaking about both health care realities and legal precedents. In reality, however, the second day of hearings suggested that the justices most hostile to the law don't understand, or choose not to understand, how insurance works. And the third day was, in a way, even worse, as antireform justices appeared to embrace any argument, no matter how flimsy, that they could use to kill reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON -- President Obama urged American businesses on Monday to ''get in the game'' by letting loose trillions of dollars that they are holding in reserve, saying that they can help create a ''virtuous cycle'' of more sales, higher demand and greater profits that will put people back to work. ''If there is a reason you don't believe that this is the time to get off the sidelines -- to hire and invest -- I want to know about it. I want to fix it,'' Mr. Obama said in a speech to business leaders at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BEIJING -- On the eve of the Lunar New Year festival, when Chinese flood train stations, bus terminals and airports to reunite with loved ones, one Chinese ministry is proposing that the government mandate closer families. Under a proposal submitted last Monday by the Civil Affairs Ministry to China's State Council, adult children would be required by law to regularly visit their elderly parents. If they do not, parents can sue them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the issue of states' rights and federal power in the U.S. Reactions of states to what they consider the renewed threat of expanding federal power; Suggestion that major political battles in Washington, DC, may be between the states and the federal government; Reference to Republican Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America," which called for ending so-called unfunded mandates; Views of analysts; Examples of state-versus-federal conflicts in 2004; Possibility that federal pre-emption may expand into the area of state regulatory powers; History of tensions between federal government and the states; Outlook.

Reports the approval of two Senate committees to a proposal of the New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and others requiring the state to pay for mandates it imposes on local government.