Ever since Stephen McGrogan picked up a screwdriver and turned his Toyota Prius into a stealth car, he's had problems. More accurately, others have had problems with him.

For Talmage Layton, tobacco is like family. The 57-year-old North Carolina farmer has been raising the plant for nearly 40 years, and he says: "We look after it as though we would our children. . . . We feed it when it's hungry; we water it when it's thirsty; we set it up when it falls down . . . we send it away from home when it matures."

The war on drugs took a new course this month as Target, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and a number of other national drugstore chains announced plans to move many of their most popular over-the-counter cold medications behind their pharmacy counters.

That's because pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in medications like Sudafed, Nyquil, and Sinutab, can also be used to create methamphetamine, an illegal drug whose popularity and use has surged in recent years.

In the 1970s, it seemed that flying cars and robot housekeepers were the stuff of science fiction and fantasy. But apparently some people were watching The Jetsons cartoon for ideas instead of laughs.

Tokyo-based KMP Inc. says it is the first company to mass-produce humanoids, or human-shaped robots, for the home. Their 15-inch tall robot, called nuvo, is on sale in Japan for $5,450. With a digital camera enclosed, nuvo can take pictures on demand and transmit images through a videophone so that owners can see what is going on in their home.

"When should a public company take a position on a broader social issue, and when should it not?"

That's the question Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer asked himself this week after reports surfaced that a proposed Christian boycott prompted the company's refusal to support a statewide bill in Washington barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Long a champion of the homosexual agenda, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft was criticized by gay-rights advocates for dropping its support for a statewide measure that ultimately failed by one vote.

The answer is a matter of perspective in Stockton, Calif., where workers at the world's largest walnut processing plant reached a new five-year contract in March, ending a strike that was far from ordinary.

When workers at Diamond of California first walked off the job, George Bush was president, but it wasn't George W. Bush, it was his father. That was Sept. 4, 1991.

In a surprise March 16 announcement, Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone said he hopes to divide the company into two publicly held entities in order to increase stock values. That represents a dramatic shift in direction for Viacom since its purchase of CBS in 1999.

Mr. Redstone's plan calls for MTV, Paramount, and other cable channels to be part of one company, while CBS, outdoor advertising, and local TV and radio stations comprise another.