The jailed Amish men's mug shots (Smoking Gun)

Judge Deborah Hawkins Crooks sentenced nine Amish men on Monday to up to 10 days in jail after they refused to pay fines for not putting an orange reflective triangle on the back of their horse-drawn buggies.

The men, who belong to the ultra-conservative Old Order Swartzentruber group, said that using the orange triangle violated their religion's modestly rules, which forbid bright colors. They asked to use gray reflective tape and lanterns instead, but the courts refused. The Graves County jail provided them with dark-colored jumpsuits.

AP Photo/Rick BowmerIt's hardly news that Americans are concerned about the economy. But are they mainly worried about the bleak economic situation in general -- things like slow GDP growth, market turmoil, and the weak housing sector -- or about the narrower issue of unemployment? Lately, it looks like the latter.

Gallup asks people every month what they think is the most important problem facing the country, and offers several choices, including "the economy in general," and unemployment/jobs." In reality, of course, the two are closely connected. Unemployment won't significantly decline until the economy itself gets moving again -- and that won't happen until demand picks up. Still, the question helps get at what's on people's minds, and what the specific focus of their concern is.

This month, with the official jobless rate at 9.1 percent, 39 percent of respondents said unemployment, up from 28 percent last month. Meanwhile, the share who said the economy in general declined from 31 to 28.

Al Stamps and his wife Kim with their children in Jackson, Miss. AP Photo/Rogelio V.  …We've been hearing a lot lately about America's struggles: rising joblessness, increasing poverty, growing inequality, and an education system that's falling behind those of other developed countries. But it's worth keeping in mind that even as things seems to get worse by some measures, they're getting better by others. And perhaps the most obvious area for optimism is in Americans' level of tolerance toward minorities.

For years now, it's been clear that acceptance toward gays and lesbians has been on the rise. In 1996, just 27 percent of Americans said gay marriages should be legally valid. Today, that figure is 53 percent.