11.   And new state laws prevent Oregon from enacting pollution requirements tougher than federal minimum standards.

12.   As if a state law were preventing anyone from scraping a Happy Meal off the asphalt.

13.   Ashcroft told reporters that he could not do so because the law properly prevents the department from creating a public black list of detainees that would violate their rights.

14.   At present, state privacy laws prevent welfare workers from reporting those immigrants to the INS.

15.   At the time, federal law prevented any family from adopting more than two foreign-born children.

16.   Attorney General Janet Reno was asked in a news conference yesterday if the proposed anti-terrorism laws would have prevented the bombing in Oklahoma City.

17.   Belgian law does not prevent its citizens from holding a Luxembourg account, so long as it is declared to the authorities.

18.   Bill Vincent, owner of Yesteryears Restaurant, is upset because the zoning laws prevent him from building a back entrance from his parking lot.

19.   A Child Welfare Administration spokeswoman said that state confidentiality laws prevented her from commenting on whether the agency had received these reports or acted on them.

20.   A federal voter registration law prevents states from reducing voter fraud and from easily removing nonvoters from the registry, state officials said Tuesday.