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VALLEY CENTER, Calif. — The thieves come in the dead of night, after it rains and the hillsides are empty, or during a full moon. They disappear into jungly thickets on steep, remote hillsides, stepping carefully through the groves to avoid crunching leaves before doing their dirty work. They operate stealthily, without clippers, amassing warty, thick-skinned booty by the hundreds. Allen Luce, a retired beekeeper, suspected the worst recently when he spied an unfamiliar red pickup truck parked beside the lush canopies of his neighbors' thousand-acre avocado grove. … They call it green gold. … Here in San Diego County, the source of nearly half of the nation's avocados, harvest season brings with it not only the promise of some $43.5 million worth of cilantro-laced party dip, but also a dreaded local crime: avocado theft. With the price now hovering around $1.20 a pound—roughly two avocados—Karen Grangetto awoke after a full moon last month to the telltale phantom stems at eye level on plucked boughs. She figured she had lost $1,000 to $2,000 worth of fruit.

• The 'religion gap' in presidential elections couldn't be clearer. Weekly churchgoers favor Republican candidates by overwhelming and growing numbers. Not so fast, says Beliefnet editor-in-chief Steven Waldman in Slate. How many people know that "at least 10 million white 'evangelical Christians' voted for Al Gore in 2000"? How many people to whom, "if it's not about Jerry Falwell or Joe Lieberman, it's kind of a blur," can correctly debunk seven myths about evangelical voters? The first myth is that evangelicals all vote Republican. Instead, moderate evangelicals are about split between the two parties, Waldman says. The second myth: the Religious Right turned out more voters than devout Catholics in the 2000 election. The fifth—extremists can only be found on the right. And when it comes to Catholics and abortion, myth upon myth flourishes. Full story
• The nation's breadbasket is emptying out, says The Week magazine. The Great Plains—one fifth of the country's land mass—are in a state of seemingly irreversible decline. The family farm, that irreplaceable ingredient of Americana, faces a hopeless situation: it can't afford the technology to become more efficient, so it can't sell as much food—but since corporations can do both, food prices (and thus profits) keep falling. And those same corporations get the bulk of government subsidies, further dooming the independent farmer. Younger generations are turning their backs on family farms passed down through generations, and are leaving for cities. Those who remain see a grim situation in which crime and drugs are running rampant. "Crystal meth has hit small-town America the way crack cocaine once hit the cities," says The Week. "Much of the Plains region is already well on the way to becoming a series of ghost towns." The Week doesn't say whether more equitable subsidies are a priority of any lawmakers—or whether they would be enough to reverse the Plains' decline. Full story

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