Donate $1,000 to the Red Cross or get Sued By Illinois

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Donate $1,000 to the Red Cross or get sued by the state.

That's the stark choice Attorney General Lisa Madigan has given 18 gas station operators across Illinois to make amends for alleged price-gouging after Hurricane Katrina.

Her office spelled out that demand in letters that began arriving this week. They set off an outcry from the petroleum marketing industry and Madigan's Republican rival, who questioned why the state was choosing one charity over another.

You mean the state isn't a neutral umpire like the proponents of the "nightwatchman state" tell us? The real price gougers work for the government.