1/25: Morning Communique

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Britt Robson breaks down Timberwolves games at Balls!

THESE DAYS

"Reservoir Dogs" actor Chris Penn, younger brother of Oscar-winner Sean Penn, was found dead on Tuesday at an apartment near the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica.

Church and state collided in the Nebraska Capitol yesterday when the opening prayer in the Unicameral asked forgiveness for abortions and the teaching of evolution.

Only about one-third of New Orleans' half-million residents have returned since Katrina struck, leaving its famed restaurants understaffed.

"Brokeback Mountain," the gay cowboy movie that recently won four Golden Globe Awards, will not play in any U.S. military theaters in Europe due to lack of copies.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Darrell Schulte blogs about the Vikings, high school hockey, and his three-year-old's potty concerns at Schulte in Minnesota.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

What happens when you add a bottle of butane to a campfire?

The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"The same brutal cold fronts that stopped Napoleon and Hitler's armies in their tracks resulted in some comical stories."

-- Meteorologist Paul Douglas, setting up a few humorous anecdotes about the frigid Moscow temperatures and its affect on zoo animals in yesterday's Strib