dody, about your comments..

cleanthlines depends on a lot... most 'inspections' and Health departments in US are State/local issues.
in fact, that is a big difference here--STATES(which started as independent entites,) still have a lot of power, very few thing are nationalized--mostly interstate things are nationalized. (so states issue driving licences, but all states have to honor each others licences, but major roads, that go from state to state, are 'interstate' or (Federal --WashingtonDC) based national roads.

the Feds operate CDC (center for Disease control) but--local stores/restaurants are under local state control.
often the franchize issuer is stricter and inspects more than the local authorities! -- and they(franchize issuer) are very strict.

some locales (notable cities) have good health departments, (and it was health departments in NY, and SF that 'started' noticing, tracking, identifying AIDS, (they soon brought in CDC) but much of the work was done by local authorities.

same goes for schools... there are no national tests (ie, federal governent tests). SAT's are done by a private company. each state gets to say what is in its curriculum, what teacher requirements are, how teacher's qualifications are measured. even the number of days in a school year, and when school starts/ends, vacations (christmas/spring/easter)are local issues (often with state guidelines). only preschool (HEADSTART) is extensively federally regulated.(there are some federal regulation for federal programs, but schools do not have to enter federal programs--most do, but not all)

sometimes, localities have strong regulations, NYC, because its was (and still is) a port of entry to US-used to be boats, now its planes--has a very strong active Health Dept. (its been gutted, in recent years, but its still better than most.)
--for similar reasons, SF, Boston, and others east and west coast cities also have strong HD codes, and enforcement.

In 'traditionally rural areas' (much of south and west) there is less regulation, and enforcement.

as for graft--small and large, it exist, to a small and large degree everywhere, (in NYC, there is lots of graft in building inspections, much less in health inspections, there is lots of graft in construction, but much less in traffic/police (except for some in drugs.. but even there not as much as you might be lead to think by movies/tv/ect.)--

its hard to talk about generalites, because each is state regulated.--and since salaries, and codes varie, from place to place, graft tend to varie too. two examples:
NYC fire code exceeds requirements of 'Insurance undewriters group', and electic code exceeds Underwriters Laboratories(these are independant private organizations) --many localities use these groups recommendations as code.

Note- the WTC (towers that were hit, and 7 other building on WTC 'site')were build by STATE authority, and did not have to comform to NYC code. surrounding building were build to NYC code. NYC code buildings(while not directly hit by planes, did get hit by debree, (both from planes and WTC collapes) some sustained massive damage, but survived, some have 're-opened'. None of WTC buildings survivied. codes do make a difference.

2nd) the movie Chinatown (circa 1970's) is about corruption and graft in 'water rights' and 'water sales' for city of LA. the West coast of US is arid (east coast is water rich) --
graft, reguarding water works are almost unknown on east coast, but have been an issue all over western US. (again, some place very bad, some places, almost none)--
Now, much of (west coast)water is Federally regulated (because FED's built interstate dams (like the big one seen in "National Lampoons Family Vacation(Los Vegas)--but not all of it. and 'water rights' are still a source of greed/graft.(most east coast water works are local or state controlled.--all of NYC's water is 'collected' in NYstate-
(so all is under state and local regualtaion and control)
and it sometimes pisses me off, i pay water tax for local water works, entirely build and maintained by NYC, and i pay federal taxes, to pay for Californians to have water...and for much of the south (TVA is federal program for water managment in south) even the water rich states of oregon and washington have Federal dams that i help pay for...so i get to pay 100% for the water i use to drink and wash, etc, and and get to pay X% more for others water...


my other obsession