If the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hasn't convinced you yet that California is a third world country, read this post from Overlawyered.com:

May 27 -- "State is suing ex-dry cleaners". California Attorney General Lockyer is suing retired owners of Mom-and-Pop dry cleaners in the town of Chico under the federal Superfund law, accusing them of pouring dry-cleaning chemicals down their drains decades ago. "Bob and Inez Heidinger -- he's 87, has Alzheimer's disease and is blind in one eye; she's 83, has bone marrow cancer and needs shoulder surgery" -- are being sued for $1.5 million on charges (which they deny) of disposing of PCE in such a manner between 1952 and 1974, when they sold the business. Also being sued is "Paul Tullius, a 57-year-old retired Air Force pilot, and his wife, Vicki, who own a warehouse that last housed a dry cleaner in 1972 -- 16 years before they bought the building without knowing its entire history." "This is the most draconian law you could ever imagine," says Tullius. "...Can you imagine what that does to your life? I'm sort of thinking this isn't the country I thought it was." (Gary Delsohn, Sacramento Bee, Apr. 28). (DURABLE LINK)

Can you say "statute of limitations"? Next thing you know, California will arrest little old ladies that smoked when they were teenagers. What are these people thinking?