We have two unrelated actions in court today that affect different parts of Yonder. The first comes from Sacramento, California, where federal prosecutors announced that a key figure in an investigation of food price fixing had agreed to plead guilty. The owner of a New Jersey-based food wholesaler routinely paid bribes to purchasing agents to ensure customers paid an inflated price for food and bought food from a particular vendor. According to the Sacramento Bee newspaper, "The investigation has raised concerns within the government that collusion among farmers, processors and retailers may be driving food prices higher."

Meanwhile, a few thousand miles away, groups in Mississippi have sued the federal government to stop the distribution of nearly $600 million in Hurricane Katrina relief aid from being spent to expand the Port of Gulfport, Mississippi. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour had sought to redirect the aid from building affordable housing to reconstructing and expanding the seaport.