Public Citizen has taken the San Diego-based SureBeam Corporation to task for falsely claiming that its food irradiation technology can kill anthrax bacteria. "SureBeam has made these claims without any supporting scientific evidence that the company's 'electron-beam' irradiation equipment is capable of killing the anthrax bacteria or its spores," states a Public Citizen news release.

Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy had a queasy feeling as she watched President Bush with D.C. school children promoting his newly created America's Fund for Afghan Children. "I get nervous when public officials trot out the children. What president whose country is involved in a dicey war, what mayor whose approval rating is down doesn't look good when flanked by a group of earnest and trusting kids?" McCarthy writes. "The children's fund is pure public relations.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has issued a new statement of policy that encourages federal agencies to resist Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The new statement supersedes a 1993 memorandum from Attorney General Janet Reno which promoted disclosure of government information through the FOIA unless it was "reasonably foreseeable that disclosure would be harmful." The Ashcroft policy rejects this "foreseeable harm" standard and instructs agencies to withhold information whenever there is a "sound legal basis" for doing so.