Good Question: 'Reply All': Hot Dogs, Fines & Lawn Watering
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- There have been a lot of drug companies getting hit with colossal fines lately and that got Katie from Minneapolis wondering: Where does the fine money go?
The money usually goes to the bottom line of the government. Fines can be criminal and civil. The criminal fines go straight to the U.S. treasury, our national bank account.
Civil fines get directed specifically. With drug companies, the money goes back to Medicaid and Medicare; and a portion usually goes to the states.
Sometimes there are whistleblowers who turn in a bad-acting company and they can get money. In one recent case, whistleblowers got about 10 percent of the fine - $84 million.
Jim from Pine City is trying to make his lawn look great, he wonders: What's the best time to water your yard?
The University of Minnesota's extension service says the most efficient time to water lawns is early in the morning, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. The water doesn't evaporate at those hours and the wind is usually light.
Midday isn't bad, but the water can evaporate on the leaf, and so some of it doesn't get into the soil.
Late at night is actually the worst time, according to the extension service. If grass plants go into the night time hours wet, they stay wet longer, and that can promote disease.
Laurie Menke from Woodbury enjoys a nice grill out, loves hot dogs, and buys them in these packages of 10. But she wonders why hot dog buns come in packs of eight?
Hot dogs come 10 dogs to the pound. This is easy math for a meat producer, and so there it is: 10 per package.
As for the buns, the early baking pans were either for four or eight loaves of bread. Eight was the most popular; it made it easy to load a couple pans into an oven.
