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Objectives: Unsanitary food handling is a major public health hazard. There are over 4,100 mobile food vendors operating in New York City, and of these, approximately forty percent are processing vendors--mobile food units on which potentially hazardous food products are handled, prepared, or processed. This pilot study assesses the food handling practices of 10 processing mobile food vendors operating in a 38-block area of midtown Manhattan (New York City) from 43rd Street to 62nd Street between Madison and Sixth Avenues, and compares them to regulations stipulated in the New York City Health Code. Methods: Ten processing mobile food vendors located in midtown Manhattan were observed for a period of 20 minutes each. Unsanitary food handling practices, food storage at potentially unsafe temperatures, and food contamination with uncooked meat or poultry were recorded. Results: Over half of all vendors (67%) were found to contact served foods with bare hands. Four vendors were observed vending with visibly dirty hands or gloves and no vendor once washed his or her hands or changed gloves in the 20-minute observation period. Seven vendors had previously cooked meat products stored at unsafe temperatures on non-heating or non-cooking portions of the vendor cart for the duration of the observation. Four vendors were observed to contaminate served foods with uncooked meat or poultry. Conclusions: Each of these actions violates the New York City Code of Health and potentially jeopardizes the safety of these vendor-prepared foods. More stringent adherence to food safety regulations should be promoted by the New York City Department of Health.

At the margin of the regulated economy lies another economy, in which activity goes unlicensed, unregulated, and untaxed, and whose participants often go overlooked by legal scholars and policy makers. The Yale Law Journal held a symposium on the informal economy to promote discussion among economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and legal scholars to advance understanding of the informal economy. The following papers were presented at the Yale Law School in March 1994. Regina Austin presents the example of urban street vending to illustrate how expanding the black public sphere will require that blacks defy a legal system that has effectively foreclosed them from the realm of production and commerce. Edgar Cahn, founder and president of the Time Dollar Network, argues that the paradigm of legal service is at odds with the dictates of the market economy and its underlying work ethic. He proposes a solution to the growing crisis in legal services that permits both the fulfillment of its original goals and the effective use of a significant, and as yet untapped, resource: exchange of Time Dollars. Time Dollars serve as a medium for trading time spent rendering public service for the receipt of legal services. Time Dollar networks facilitate the integration of otherwise marginalized and neglected people into a system that promotes feelings of productivity, community, and reciprocity. Richard Epstein explores the relationship between one's approach to the underground economy and one's belief about what conduct should be legal. He discusses the link between people's views of a law's fairness and their propensity to obey the law, noting that if those who bear the law's burdens view it as unfair, the fabric of voluntary compliance will unravel. Epstein surveys six case studies of the underground economy: public streets and sidewalks; eagle feathers and elephant tusks; pollution regulation; taxation; rent control and minimum wage laws; and illegal drugs. Lora Jo Foo examines the underground economy in \"sweatshop\" industries, particularly garment-making. She argues for stronger labor laws and stiffer penalties so that the profitability of violating the law disappears. She also advocates the creation of private rights of action to augment state enforcement of federal minimum wage and maximum hour laws. Arthur Jacobson introduces a jurisprudential distinction between the normative structures operating in the \"static jurisprudence\" of the formal economy and \"dynamic jurisprudence\" of the informal economy. The distinction between the two jurisprudences leads to disparate conceptions of norms and discordant expectations of the role of legality in social life. However, he argues, substantial interplay occurs between the two regimes. Morton Paglin shows how a misplaced reliance on households' reported income distorts governmental assessments of the underground economy in the United States. He proposes a solution that incorporates households' reported expenditures and shows how this information can be used to formulate more rational macroeconomics and poverty policies. George Priest critically examines moral judgments about the underground economy and shows that the broader condemnation of underground activity now conventional in modern discussion is highly problematic and cannot be defended. He compares the relative moral position of market-based to state-controlled regulatory activities and shows, through the example of the underground economy, how the market achieves with greater systematic success many democratic values often asserted as justifications for broader governmental regulation. Saskia Sassen challenges the conventional wisdom that informal economies are caused by increased, often illegal, immigrant labor. She argues that the informal economy is a result, primarily, of systemic factors characteristic of advanced capitalist urban societies. These factors include the decline of the middle class as the principal engine of economic growth and increased competition for land and other factors of production among businesses with widely varying profit making capabilities. Christian Zlolniski presents his empirical study of immigrant labor in the Silicon Valley. He explores the relationship between urban poverty and two types of labor in the informal sector: subcontracting of unskilled labor and small-scale vending. He concludes that policy-makers must consider alternative approaches to the regulation of this significant, but all to invisible, labor market.

''Dear [Jimmy],'' the President wrote, ''I was sorry to learn that you have not been feeling well, and I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you that I am thinking of you. I often wish I could walk over to the corner and buy a newspaper from you, and perhaps one day I will.'' The chief gumbo chef is Louis Breaux of Kiln, Miss. ''Gumbo,'' said Mr. Breaux, ''is like the Government in Washington. It's made up of a lot of different ingredients. It's too bad they don't get the same end results as we do.'' Words to Regret ''My personal opinion?'' Mr. [Paul N. Thayer] asked, a tone of wariness in his voice. ''I may get taken to the woodshed.'' He then admitted he thought Congress should delay the tax cut, putting him in opposition to President [Reagan].