Mary E. Bittner, a Drug Enforcement Administration administrative law judge, decides In re Craker, ordering the DEA to cease blocking the medicinal marijuana research being conducted by Lyle L. Craker, at the University of massachusetts, Amherst.

       [added 6/2/2004] Thanks to Freedoms Phoenix for this entry.

       While the United states Armed Forces (private mercenaries) are stationed at 737 bases, in 130 nations around the world, defending “all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world,” the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (a Federal agency) that oversees the privately owned Federal Reserve System of (central) Banks, along with the central Bank of Canada, the central Bank of England, the European System of Central Banks, and the Swiss National (central) Bank, begin extending 40,000,000,000 “dollars” in emergency short term loans to commercial banks under their purview.

       [restored 6/2/2004] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry

       The Bernanke Doctrine begins: The FRBG announces the formation of the Term Auction Facility, intended to improve the financial position of its member commercial banks by swapping out their toxic (worth less) assets for higher grade Treasury Bills (Federal debt obligations).

       NOTE: A more extreme analogy would be for an investment house to trade out its gold for Zimbabwean government bonds.

       Postscript: A year later the TAF had swapped out 450,000,000,000 worth of T-Bills in this fashion.

       [restored 6/2/2004] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry