Working for change: three stories.(Have You Heard?)

In 2003, 26-year-old Kelsen Young packed her life into a rental truck to begin her move from Washington to Montana. The next morning, the parking space outside her hotel room was empty. The truck and everything in it, including her bank records, birth certificate, and checks, were gone. Young called the police, her bank, and her credit-card issuer, doing everything right and fast. But the thieves were faster; within hours they had stolen funds from her bank account. Three years later, the theft still plagues her credit record. Now Young is working to protect other victims of identity theft. It's not easy.

Young's is one of the few voices standing up to powerful business interests that benefit from easy access to consumers' credit files. She has joined AARP's efforts and Consumers Union's Financial Privacy Now campaign to fight for legislation that includes security freezes to stop thieves from opening opening new accounts with stolen information. Thanks to those efforts, an ID-theft bill will be on the agenda in the next session of the Montana legislature, beginning Jan. 3, 2007.

When Raquel Claveria Sanchez's 88-year-old father, Joaquin Claveria, experienced fatigue and chest pain, the family checked him into the Houston hospital where he'd had bypass surgery three years earlier. An intravenous insertion led to an infection. Despite courses of antibiotics, three months and three hospitalizations later, Claveria died.

The death certificate listed the cause as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Lab reports showed that he had MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant infection most commonly acquired in hospitals. Sanchez was furious that hospitals in Texas ...