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New anti-rave bills working their way through Congress are meant to stick it to the makers of illegal drugs, but music promoters say they'll be a civil rights nightmare. H.R. 3782 would punish rave promoters for "reasonably knowing" that a controlled substance was used at their event. That broad, vague wording leaves the door wide open for police to arrest anyone who puts on a music festival, much less a rave. "It gives police more latitude to act on a whim or personal prejudices," performer/promoter Oliver Brown tells Mike Connor of Metro Santa Cruz.

Security agencies may already be poring over your grocery list. In a fit of anti-terror zeal, an eager beaver at a national grocery chain gave the company's records for all preferred customers to three federal agencies, Eric Baard of The Village Voice reports. Meanwhile, security forces, both public and private, are devising ever more sophisticated ways to spot potential terrorists. If you like hummus, you might be in their cross-hairs.

Most people work out their gender identification as toddlers. Others don't. Leyla Kokmen of City Pages (Twin Cities) explores the world of transgendered people, those who don't fit in a culture that has only two pronouns -- he and she. "Do you really think I'd choose to go this way?" former drag queen Morgan O'Sullivan laments. "It's not fun. I wish I had been born a female. It would have been a lot less painful." As Kokmen details, the transition from one gender to the other, or even stopping somewhere in between, is a tortured process that ultimately brings peace to most who make the switch.