Congressman Bill Clay (D-MO), calls it "wasteful spending of taxpayer money," and other congressional members are calling for an investigation into its propriety. At issue is a $175,000 National Science Foundation grant for a study to find out why the best and brightest citizens don't run for Congress. Sandy Maisel, one of the two Colby College political science professors in charge of the study, said that it was not their goal to get more candidates to run for office and that, in her words, "I like the Congress and I like the members of Congress."

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The Agriculture Department's Food and Safety Inspection Service defines "mixed nuts" as "the food consisting of a mixture of four or more of the optional shelled tree nut ingredients, with or without one or more of the optional shelled peanut ingredients, of the kinds prescribed by paragraph (b) of this section.... When 2 ounces or less of the food is packed in transparent containers, three or more of the optional tree nut ingredients shall be present.... Each such kind of nut ingredient when used shall be present in a quantity not less than 2 percent and not more than 80 percent by weight of the finished food." Nuts can include almonds, black walnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, English walnuts, filberts, pecans, other suitable tree nuts, and peanut varieties such as Spanish, Valencia, Virginia, "or any combination of two or more such varieties."

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A coalition that included the AARP, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Federal, State, County, and Municipal Employees, and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare successfully pressured President Clinton to eliminate a commission formed to consider a revision in the Consumer Price Index, which economists claim overstates the true rate of inflation by as much as 1.6 percent.

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