Overspeeding drivers who pass through Holly Spring in Georgia would be issued not only a speeding ticket, but also a $12 fuel surcharge. The extra fee was approved by the city council to cover the extra fuel cost used in chasing overspeeding drivers, said Holly Springs Police Chief Ken Ball. The fuel surcharge takes effect July 1 to augment the department's budget which had been eaten up by escalating fuel prices.

California legislators are on an amendment and enactment mode, targeting principally the state's various driving laws. Among the measures under consideration are a prohibition on drivers carrying live animals on their laps while behind the wheel. Another proposal seeks to ban truants and high school dropouts from driving, while one bill urges a study on the danger silent electric cars hold for blind pedestrians.

To curb the wave of crimes in the national capital, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier made a book on social epidemics a required reading for police officers. The book is "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Its about New York City's efforts to stop its transit system from further decay by cleaning up its graffiti.

Several states are planning to kill two bird with one stone by releasing inmates ahead of schedule to cut costs and decongest jails. Leading the pack is California, which wants to set free 22,000 prisoners by 20 months ahead in an effort to reduce by $1. 1 billion over the next two years the state's penitentiary system budget and to ease the overcrowding in the U. S. most populated jail. The early liberty would apply only to inmates who are in for nonviolent and nonsexual crimes.

The U. S. military and a consortium of biotechnology research organizations are embarking on a program to regenerate damaged tissues and body parts of American soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq. InCytu Inc. , which develops tissue healing and regeneration devices, and Rutgers/Cleveland Clinic will constitute the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM).