Q&A: Diesel vs. gas prices

Dollars and drugs

I heard recently that some really high percentage of American paper currency has traces of cocaine. Is that right?

You heard right. According to a recent study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, about 90 percent of all U.S. bank notes have traces of cocaine. That's up from about 67 percent found in a similar study about two years ago.

Now, that doesn't mean nine in 10 bills were rolled up and used to snort cocaine. The powdery drug is easily transferred in bill-counting machines.

More than 230 bills were collected in 17 cities for the study. Scientists said $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills had more cocaine traces than $1 and $100 bills.

The study was presented in August at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

What Chris Burke is up to

Whatever happened to the young man with Down syndrome who played Corky in a TV show several years ago?

Chris Burke played Charles "Corky" Thatcher in the TV series Life Goes On, a drama about a suburban Chicago family that aired from 1989-93. It was the first TV series to have a major character with Down syndrome.

After Life Goes On ended, Burke appeared in the TV shows The Commish; Touched by an Angel; Heaven & Hell, North and South, Book III; and more recently, E.R., and the 2003 movie Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts.

These days Burke, now 44, serves as goodwill ambassador for the National Down Syndrome Society and the National Down Syndrome Congress. He has cowritten a book, A Special Kind of Hero, and in 2009 he codirected a documentary, White Water Buddies, about a raft trip he took with his friend Adam Madrid.

Burke also performs across the United States and Canada in a band with his friends Joe and John DeMasi. They have released four albums.You can see several of his videos and interviews on www.youtube.com, keyword Chris Burke.

Diesel vs. regular gas prices

Why does diesel fuel cost more than regular gas in the United States when it is priced lower than regular gas in Western Europe?

Europe has lower taxes on diesel than on gasoline, according to the Oil Price Information Service. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with OPIS, a Gaithersburg, Md., firm that bills itself as the world's most comprehensive source for petroleum pricing information, said diesel is the fuel of choice for global agriculture, so when commodities prices were higher in 2008, there was a huge surge in diesel demand.

Diesel also is the benchmark for measuring global economic growth, so diesel prices soared relative to the price of crude in 2008. Amid the global recession, diesel demand in 2009 has plunged, he said.