Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Root of All Evil: A Florida resident who recently died was so enamored with the United States that she left 70 percent of her estate to the U.S. Treasury. The woman immigrated from Germany in 1959 and made a decent living here. When she died, at age 80, her estate totaled $98,000.

But before you think we've taken care of that whole ballooning deficit problem, the IRS has given us other problems to worry about. The government is suing a Pennsylvania cafeteria worker who received a $2.1-million tax refund after claiming to be a Hawaiian princess and heir to a billion-dollar estate. Now the IRS is trying to get that money back to make up for the mishap.