He followed what American offficials of both Administrations saw as a relatively responsible economic policy, reduced the public payroll and abolished the jobs of the rural sheriffs who ruled the countryside with impunity.

And not everyone here was laughing when the film's heroine, a rural sheriff named Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), politely dresses down an uncooperative suspect with "You have no call to get snippy with me!"

To reduce the probability of their mugshot going online, at least one Florida attorney suggests that his clients pick a rural sheriff's department when they surrender to authorities.

He later became the agency's first black special agent in charge and, as its first black inspector, worked with groups of white rural sheriffs in the 1970's.

In Tennessee, officials are worried about rural sheriff's and police departments, whose ranks have been depleted by the guard call-up.

In addition to his usual base, Long also won support from corrupt rural sheriffs who were angry at their loss of gambling revenues after Kennon's reforms and Grevemberg's raids.

Later in the campaign, he permitted himself to be photographed in front of Confederate flags and ran a television ad in which a burly white rural sheriff endorsed him.

As President, he followed what Administration officials view as a relatively responsible economic policy, reduced the public payroll and abolished the jobs of the rural sheriffs who ruled the countryside with impunity.

To the Editor: Frank Keating requests that the $800 million earmarked for urban areas in the Department of Homeland Security be spread around to include the "two-person rural sheriff's office."

While a two-person rural sheriff's office may have little need for new bomb disposal equipment or chemical suits, grant decisions reached with prudence and common sense will also include some allocations for cities in the American heartland.