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A MAN SUSPECTED OF KILLING FIVE PEOPLE killed himself Monday after a gunfight with police. Joseph Ferguson, 20, left a video suicide note after going on a 24-hour killing spree around the Sacramento, California area. Ferguson reportedly made cell phone calls during which he said he wanted to "outdo" other mass murderers.

RESPECTED WASHINGTON JOURNALIST FRANK SESNO IS STEPPING DOWN from his post as Bureau Chief at CNN. The longtime AP reporter has been with the cable network since 1984 and now becomes just the latest in a series of veteran journalists fleeing the troubled network. Sesno says he's not sure what he'll do next.

THE LATEST.NET EDITOR AUDITED BY THE IRS

Like editors at other controversial websites, TheLatest.Net editor Mike Shiloh has been undergoing an audit by the Internal Revenue Service. And like others, it's his first. Shiloh and TheLatest.Net have been critical of the Clinton administration and the Gore 2000 campaign. 
          Perhaps not coincidentally, Shiloh received his audit notice during the height of the website's criticism of Gore's campaign in October of last year. It being his first, Shiloh says he was puzzled by the timing, considering the notice calls into question an entry on his 1998 tax form.
          "It was my thought that the IRS has computer databases that can catch mistakes on tax returns quickly. It struck me as unusual that the IRS might wait a year and a half to question my return."
          An IRS spokeswoman says flatly, "there are no political motivations behind our audits."  
          Nevertheless, TheLatest.Net personnel now join others of controversial political note, including The Citizens Against Government Waste, the Heritage Foundation, Clinton rape accuser Juanita Broaddrick, television commentator Bill O'Reilly and many others, all of them subjects of oddly-timed IRS audits, all of them outspoken critics of the Clinton administration, some of them like the staff of TheLatest.Net, political Independents rather than Republicans or conservatives.
          While the staff of TheLatest.Net doesn't flatter itself in thinking that the opinions expressed here are of great import to government agencies, we continue to question the policies and actions of the IRS and other federal agencies, employees of which are regular visitors to this website.
          For background on other audits that indicate political motivation -- and a call for the resignation of Clinton appointee, IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti -- see Insight magazine's analysis of IRS tactics in its September 24th issue. 

ANOTHER TAX CUT? Leading Senators of both parties appear to be  backing a new plan to cut the Social Security payroll tax to stimulate the slumping economy. On talk show appearances both Democrats and Republicans such as Senator John Kerry mentioned that a cut in payroll taxes could "give lift to this economy is we see continued weakness."

ONE IN EVERY 100 CHILDREN ARE VICTIMS OF COMMERCIAL SEX, such as pornography and prostitution, a new study says. University of Pennsylvania researchers calls child exploitation "the least recognized epidemic" in America. Most of the children used in the study were middle class runaways, many of them fleeing abuse at home.

EQUALITY OF LIFE IS IMPROVING: The gap between the number of men and women in the US is shrinking and men are living longer, reducing the age differences at which the two sexes die, a new Census Bureau brief says. During the past decade the number of men in the US increased 13.9-precent while the number of women increased 12.5-percent. 

IRAQ AND THE UNITED STATES -- SETTING A COURSE FOR ANOTHER WAR?  Iraq has been expanding its military production at eight factories, producing missile components and other weapons, reports WorldTribune.com. And the CIA reports the Baghdad government is already sitting on an arsenal of missiles that could deliver bombs to Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and could "easily be upgraded" to target other nations. 
             Meanwhile, a US attack on Iraq is "imminent" and will involve US Marines who've recently been training in desert warfare and who are now in the Middle East in addition to airstrikes, according to the intelligence-based electronic news publication DEBKAfile. Scud missiles are now deployed at two Iraqi airbases, DEBKAFile reports, even as the number of Iraqi military personnel stationed in Northern Syria is increasing. 
             The Bush Administration is said to be waiting for more intelligence information before calling the attack.

US TREASURY SECRETARY PAUL O'NEILL CONTINUES TO ASSURE US THE ECONOMY WILL TURN AROUND SOON. He told Asian finance ministers at a China meeting, "you need to be optimistic, not Pollyannaish."