BY AL SUNSHINE

BAD BUSES
They have bad tires, not enough seat belts, and children crammed inside. We're referring to private buses and vans that are hired to carry kids to and from school all year.

As I found out, there are carriers breaking the law every day.

I found one bus with a bald tire and another with a nail sticking out of it. And this is typical of what Miami-Dade inspectors are finding on some private buses and vans. When they find serious problems, they order the vehicles off the road.

However, local school bus safety laws still can't force kids off potentially dangerous buses, even when they have two bad front tires like the bus I found. Despite being ordered off the road, it was still allowed to carry students home. In fact, the bus driver didn't even wait for all the kids to sit down before driving away.

Because South Florida's school year is winding down, inspectors worry some private bus operators are letting potentially dangerous vehicles stay on the road until the end of the school year.

Seat belts are another problem. Sometimes the vans don't have enough for everybody. Who's checking to make sure all your kids are buckled in? If you're a parent, you won't like the answer. Nobody!

My investigation found van after van outside one Hialeah elementary school routinely carrying more kids than there were seatbelts. The drivers I spoke with didn't know that state law requires all kids under the age of 16 transported in anything other than federally certified school buses to wear seatbelts. And none of them could tell me why the buses were inadequately equipped. However, carrying children under the age of 16 without seatbelts can lead to a fine for each violation.

In the case of the Hialeah vans that didn't have enough seatbelts, a local police officer let the vehicle drive off with just a warning. Under current state law, not wearing a seatbelt is a secondary violation. In other words, police can't write a seatbelt ticket unless they can first stop the vehicle for a more serious problem. And even though the county checks private buses locally, there's no local law against carrying kids without seatbelts.

COURT CASES
A pair of new rulings for the U.S. Supreme Court may have important consequences for you and me.

In a recent 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court said the government cannot require cable television systems to fully scramble sexually oriented programming aired during the day. In the ruling the court said the government's rule violated freedom of speech.

The high court also ruled recently that people injured in cars built before airbags were required cannot sue auto makers for not installing them. In a 5-4 decision, the court said federal regulation of car safety blocks lawsuits where product-liability is blamed.

TO RENT OR TO BUY
With mortgage rates at five-year highs, the question becomes -- are you better off renting a home instead of buying?

Most experts say it's better to own a home but that's not always the case. Before you start feeling too bad about renting, look at how much owning a home will really cost you. Transaction costs like mortgage loans and title insurance can make buying a home expensive. And of course, maintenance costs also can be very expensive.

There are tax benefits to buying as opposed to renting, but that depends on whether or not you're paying the same monthly amount in each case. You should compare the amount that you're paying in rent, adjust for taxes and see how they compare in each case.

Experts say your property will have to appreciate about 15 percent annually to make up for transaction and maintenance costs.

Still, if you're planning to live in a house a long time, it makes more financial sense to buy, which will allow you to reap the long-term tax benefits that go along with it.

Watch Al Sunshine weekdays at 5:30 p.m. on CBS4 News.