Passports

If you decide to walk across the border tomorrow morning to pick up a Mexican blanket made in China and get your pill bottles refilled at bargain prices, better have a valid passport in your pocket or you will be in a heap of hurt.

Beginning June 1 a valid passport or passport card is required for every person crossing any border into the US. Things that might have worked in the past but are no longer accepted: military identification cards, birth certificates, drivers licenses, library cards or letters from your mom.

You probably won't be stuck selling Chiclets or shining shoes for the rest of your life but you can bet the hassle you will go through will make a trip to the DMV look like a walk in the park.

The information on this has been going around for at least the past five years and about the only people who can claim they never heard it will be someone who lives on top of a mountain and plays a banjo.