12/30: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay star in Kickback Mountain, now playing at American Idle.

THESE DAYS

Reno Tobler, a truck driver whose route regularly brings him to the Des Moines area, was charged with littering and harassment for throwing laundry detergent-size bottles of his urine into residents's backyards.

A former officer in the Peruvian army whose hands were injured after handling an explosive has two new "thumbs" after doctors transplanted one of his toes to one hand and turned the index finger into a thumb on the other one.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Cyclist Sascha from Minneapolis spends her holidays making home improvements instead of filling her face with chocolate and white zinfandel. Check out her new and improved living room at First and Last and Always.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The Smoking Gun looks back at their favorite mug shots of the not-so-famous in 2005.

Aaron Eckhart is a smooth-talking Big Tobacco spokesman in the comedy Thank You For Smoking, also starring William H. Macy, Maria Bello, Rob Lowe, Katie Holmes, and Robert Duvall.

Rex Sorgatz has posted his predictions for 2006 at Fimoculous.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I think people have different points of view and they can be discussed in school. They don't need to be in the curriculum."

-- Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL), on Darwin's theory of evolution not needing to be part of the Florida's public school science standards