Q: Is it legal for a policeman to run your tag for no reason?
A: Yes. License plates are not covered by the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, said Caren Morrison, a former federal prosecutor and assistant professor in Georgia State University's School of Law.
"There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in your license plate because it's supposed to provide identifying information to law enforcement and to others," she said. She said a police officer can run your tag number as long as it is in public view and the officer has a legal right to be in the spot where he or she sees the tag (as opposed to trespassing on private property).
Q: How would one know that you have a tapeworm and how would you get rid of it?
A: Tapeworm is a mildly infectious disorder, typically acquired by eating raw or undercooked beef or pork and most often occurring in adults, said Dr. Brian Nadolne, chief of family medicine at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.
Symptoms can include anorexia, abdominal discomfort, loose stools and weight loss. Because these symptoms also can be attributed to other diseases and disorders, diagnosis of tapeworm is usually not made until proglottids, or worm segments, are found in the stool, especially when they're moving. If tapeworm is diagnosed, treatment includes oral medication.
Q: I would like to know who made the decision that the elderly are not eligible for the swine flu vaccination and what is the reasoning behind it?
A: The decision that healthy people over 65 would be the last eligible for the swine flu vaccine was made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is comprised of medical experts and advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Healthy individuals older than 65 are the least likely to contract swine flu, according to information from the committee cited in a New York Times story. The paper reported that data from the CDC showed that half of the cases occur in those aged 5-24 compared to seasonal flu, which typically afflicts a greater number of elderly individuals.
Q: I have noticed that the last couple months the Weather Channel puts the rainfall amount, and then a day or two later, subtracts the monthly totals. Why are they doing this?
A: The Weather Channel makes an immediate estimate of hourly, daily, monthly and yearly rainfall, which is updated every 20 minutes, for about 2 million points in the U.S. The monthly rainfall amount appears on the lower display line associated with your "Local on the 8s," and viewers can see this value changing when precipitation is falling.
The TruPoint technology created by The Weather Channel is as close as possible to real time, said spokeswoman Melissa Medori. Once per day, at about 8:30 p.m. ET, the monthly (and yearly) estimates of precipitation are refined or corrected for the previous day.
This adjustment is necessary because there is a great deal of delayed rainfall observation information that becomes known about 24 hours after it occurs, Medori said. This shift upward or downward in the monthly rainfall amount on The Weather Channel is to be expected and is done to ensure the running tally of monthly rainfall is as accurate as possible, she said.
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