Of Heartburn And Bunco Enthusiasts

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And that is why the makers of Prilosec OTC (it's a heartburn medication, I'm sure you've seen the commercials) has targeted bunco-playing middle-aged women.

"That's where her passion -- and her heartburn -- lie," Prilosec OTC's marketing director told the Wall Street Journal.

Why the correlation between bunco and heartburn? Games are often accompanied by an "extensive array of food and drink," including, for some, something called a "Snickers Salad" -- Cool Whip, marshmallow crème, cream cheese, chopped Snickers bars and apples – for which heartburn is an "occasional hazard."

And now, writes the Journal, "[a]n old pastime played with three dice now has four regional tournaments, a nationally televised Bunco World Championship, licensing deals and a dossier of sophisticated market research."

That has included an hour-long special on a two-day bunco championship on the Oxygen cable network – during which players were "rolling dice on purple tablecloths identical to the purple of Prilosec's packaging."

The Latest In Administration Initiatives

USA Today and the Washington Post highlight a few new Bush administration initiatives on their front pages this morning.

USAT discusses a proposed "$200 million grant program to help law enforcement agencies respond to surging violent-crime rates in cities across the nation." Violent crime increased 2.3% nationwide in 2005 compared with the previous year, which is "the first such rise since 1991," and a trend that continued into 2006. The program would provide grants for local and state agencies to improve their anti crime task forces.

Federal Regulations: A Blessing And A Curse

The NYT reports that President Bush has signed an executive order that requires federal agencies to have "regulatory policy office[s] run by "political appointees" to "supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries."

In other words, a gatekeeper (we sure need more of those in government bureaucracies) will be in place in each agency to "analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president's priorities."

Business likes it, "saying it had the potential to reduce what they saw as the burden of federal regulations."

"Consumer, labor and environmental groups" – not so much, "saying it gave too much control to the White House and would hinder agencies' efforts to protect the public."

Says a Columbia Law School professor: "Having lost control of Congress, the president is doing what he can to increase his control of the executive branch."

Meanwhile, In Iraq…

Sunday's bloody battle near Najaf has resulted in the death of a Shiite cult leader who "claimed to be a revered Muslim figure who vanished in the 10th century," writes the Washington Post. Estimates of the number of militants killed Sunday are still sketchy, but Iraqi officials say it is somewhere in the range of 200 to more than 400. The U.S. military says more than 100 fighters were captured and two U.S. soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash.

The Post and the New York Times also give front page attention to growing concerns about Iran's influence in the Middle East. The Post reports that many believe the United States has exacerbated sectarian rifts. Iran has accentuated its influence with Palestinian Islamic groups; "fighting proxy battles" against the US in Lebanon and Iraq; and "exerting power and prestige that recalls the heady days of the 1979 Islamic revolution" in Afganistan and Iraq.

Why? Says the Post: "Iran has found itself strengthened almost by default, first with the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to Iran's east, which ousted the Taliban rulers against whom it almost went to war in the 1990s, and then to its west, with the American ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, against whom it fought an eight-year war in the 1980s."

The NYT writes that while the U.S. would like European countries to reduce exports and freeze assets of some Iranian companies, those countries are "resisting" such demands for "quick action," threatening to "open a new rift" between the two powers over Iran.

The U.S. wants to isolate Iran commercially, but Europe "has more commercial and economic ties with Iran than does the U.S." One anonymous "European official" told the paper: "We are going to be very cautious about what the Treasury Department wants us to do. We can see that banks are slowing their business with Iran. But because there are huge European business interests involved, we have to be very careful."

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