Free Republic

on March 1, lawyers for some of America's biggest corporations — and many of the politicos big corporate money supports — will be glued to arguments in Cuno vs. DaimlerChrysler, a case most people have never heard of. Also watching will be representatives of an unusual left-right, Democrat-Republican coalition that is fighting the enormous tax giveaways given to big businesses to lure them into — or keep them from leaving — specific jurisdictions. "Cuno could be a watershed, tectonic moment in the history of job subsidies and interstate relations," says Greg LeRoy, the founder and executive director of Good Jobs...

Tom Cowart and Denise Orr never liked their grapefruit tree that much. So when the state said it was infected with citrus canker and the cutting crew came to remove it in December 2000, they didn't protest. "I was really nice to them," Cowart said. "I even gave them sodas." But when a crew came to take their tangerine tree last February, things weren't so cordial. Cowart asked for a search warrant. The cutters said they didn't need one. Cowart told them to get off his property. They said they didn't have to.