Hot Buttons: Talk show topics

ARAB AND MUSLIM BUSINESSES INVESTIGATED

Authorities are investigating more than 500 Muslim and Arab small businesses across the United States to determine whether they are dispatching money raised through criminal activity to terrorist groups overseas, according to The Washington Post.

The investigation into Arab businesses, many of them convenience stores, is part of an inquiry launched after Sept. 11, when law enforcement agents stepped up scrutiny of small-scale scams they think generate millions of dollars a year for militant groups.

The criminal activity includes: skimming the profits of drug sales, stealing and reselling baby formula, cigarette smuggling, illegally redeeming huge quantities of grocery coupons, collecting fraudulent welfare payments, swiping credit card numbers and hawking unlicensed T-shirts.

Some of the criminal rings have operated in this country for decades. Until recently, law enforcement agencies paid only scant attention to the schemes because they are difficult to crack and time-consuming to prosecute.

However, since Sept. 11 they have deployed hundreds of investigators to pursue the plots.

-- Is this type of targeting racial profiling or should all small businesses be scrutinized for illegal activity?

-- Since investigators found evidence of coupon fraud by the group that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, should the FBI have investigated small business fraud more closely after that incident?

RESEARCHER TO LODGE COMPLAINT

Former bioweapons researcher Steven Hatfill, under investigation concerning the anthrax attacks, says the FBI is improperly leaking information about him and he plans to lodge a formal complaint.

Hatfill denies any role in last year's anthrax attacks, which he calls a "terrible" act, and he says he will file a complaint with the Office of Professional Responsibility at the Department of Justice.

"I have had nothing to do in any way, shape or form with the mailing of these anthrax letters, and it is extremely wrong for anyone to contend or suggest that I have," Hatfill says.

Law enforcement officials say privately Hatfill is one of as many as 30 "persons of interest" in the investigation into last year's anthrax attacks that killed five people.

Hatfill, who calls himself a loyal American, says he never worked with anthrax and nothing connects him to the attacks.

-- Should the FBI leak information on people they are investigating?

-- Will lodging a complaint do Hatfill any good?

SELF WORTH AND MATERIALISM

People with chronic self-doubt may be more likely than others to define personal success by having the biggest house on the block or a new luxury car.

A study by Ohio State University in Columbus finds people with enduring feelings of self-doubt scored higher than others on a measure of materialism -- the tendency to value monetary success and material possessions over other goals in life.

Specifically, they were more likely to believe that success was defined by what a person owns.

The study, published in the journal Psychology & Marketing, suggests that for those people who are chronically insecure, materialism seems to be a coping mechanism they use when they are put in a situation that makes them doubt themselves.

-- Do you agree that self-doubters measure success with material goods?

-- What are better measures of success?