By DOUGLAS QUAN, The Press-Enterprise

The economic cost of methamphetamine abuse in the U.S. -- including the cost to jail users, put addicts through treatment and clean up meth labs -- was about $23 billion in 2005, according to a just-released study

Metal-detecting enthusiasts often cut solitary figures as they mine beaches, vacant lots and playgrounds for hours only to turn up a few rusted coins and bottle caps.
This is an incomplete portrait.
The treasure hunters sometimes morph into amateur sleuths as they help detectives comb crime scenes for evidence.

After the country's first mad cow case was found in 2003, the federal government ramped up testing cattle for the fatal disease. But three years later, citing the "extremely low" incidence of the disease in the United States, officials all but eliminated that extra testing, scaling the costly program back by 90 percent.

Loretta Wilson of Rialto, Calif. recently forked over $240 to get her daughter, Alysha, in a private driving school that includes classroom and behind-the-wheel training.