THESE DAYS

Starved for cash, the New Orleans school district is taking a long shot and hoping to sell its flooded, unsalvageable school buses on eBay.

Super Bowl winning offensive lineman Roy Simmons discusses being a closeted homosexual in the NFL, childhood rape, and drug addiction in his new book Out Of Bounds.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

A new baby is shifting the focus from reading, writing, and beauty products at Girl Detective.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

For the three people who haven't seen it yet: Heat Vision and Jack, the 1999 Ben Stiller-produced TV show starring Jack Black as a super-smart astronaut with a talking motorcycle (voiced by Owen Wilson) being pursued by Ron Silver as... Ron Silver.

Progressive Boink tallies the 25 Best Moments on Arrested Development

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"It's just sad that his life has spiraled down to the point where in all likelihood he's going to go to prison. You never like to see anybody go to prison, let alone somebody who is 54 years old."

-- Morley Pitt, assistant district attorney in San Mateo County, California, bemoaning the fate of Village People singer Victor Willis (the policeman) who has been arrested on drug and gun charges

The move to legalize medical marijuana in Minnesota

State Senator Steve Kelley (DFL-Hopkins) is known for being an education expert of sorts at the Capitol, but this legislative session, he's doffed a new cap: Marijuana advocate. With little notice, Kelly (who is also a candidate for governor) has introduced a medical marijuana bill that thus far has narrowly passed through three committees, and Kelley expects it to hit the floor in front of the full Senate before the session is over in May.

Still, Kelley is doubtful that the House will approve a companion bill, and Governor Tim Pawlenty, buzzkill that he is, has said that he will veto any piece of pot legislation.

But Kelley is undeterred, and views this as a step toward Minnesota joining 11 other states around the country that allow growers to supply marijuana for medicinal purposes to the chronically ill.

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The Pioneer Press reported Thursday morning that residents of City Walk Condominiums had been without electricity for approximately...27 hours. An entire day without electricity?! That's akin to going a full day without a fresh Golden Raisin Scone from Turtle Bread Co. How do they do it? Not well, apparently: According to the Pi Press, the condo residents were feeling "powerless" yesterday morning, a dreary and wet one it was, and were forced to leave their downtown dwellings for coffee since the outage left them unable to brew their own at home. The predicament sparked this headline: "Caffeine deprived condo residents feeling powerless."

This relevant story of desperation got us thinking about other such stories we'd like to see in the Pioneer Press. Yesterday, for example, the entire CP offices were without long distance for almost an hour. Staffers needing to make long-distance calls during that brief period were forced to use their cell phones instead. And others, either without cell phones or a decent service plan, were forced to wait it out in their cubes. Possible headline: "CP staffers want to go the (long) distance, but can't."

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Mid-morning both Wednesday and Thursday, African American man begging at the off-ramp on the southeast corner of I-94 and Highway 55, Near North side of Minneapolis.

He looks to be in perhaps his late 50s, and despite the recent spate of warm weather, is adhering to the Minnesota principles of layering. His cardboard sign, heavy with text scrawled in black marker, reads:

Running for president
President Bush took my job
I want his

Chris Dykstra was initially amused when he learned last summer that the web site that he runs, Gatheroo.com, was being threatened with a lawsuit for trademark infringement. Gatheroo was created by Minnetonka-based software company Warecorp after the popular online networking site, meetup.com, began charging for its services.

But Dykstra is no longer amused. Earlier this month Warecorp was sued in U.S. District Court by Gather, a Boston-based company affiliated with Minnesota Public Radio. The lawsuit alleges that Warecorp is improperly infringing on the company's trademark and engaging in unfair business practices. Gather is seeking an injunction barring Warecorp from using the Gatheroo name, as well as monetary damages.

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It has been hard to avoid the news coverage of the murder of Michael Zebuhr, the 25-year-old graduate student from South Carolina who was shot twice in the head as he walked down an Uptown street with his mother on March 18. Zebuhr, it seemed, was the very unfortunate victim of two cold-blooded muggers.

Or was he? On the internet discussion boards, a competing theory has emerged. Zebuhr, the thinking here goes, was not a random victim; he was, rather, the target of a government black-op.

So why would the government want to kill a promising young bioengineering student about whom no one can seem to utter a negative word? Because, you naive dolt, Zebuhr was a member of 9/11 Scholars for Truth, an organization of students and academics who believe the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were orchestrated by rogue elements within the U.S. government.

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THESE DAYS

Most programs written in the C programming language were immune to the Y2K problem, but suffer instead from the Year 2038 problem.

Smokers often say that smoking a cigarette helps them concentrate and feel more alert. But years of tobacco use may have the opposite effect, dimming the speed and accuracy of a person's thinking ability and bringing down their IQ, according to a new study led by University of Michigan researchers.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Join in the American Idol conversation, and read commentary on music and movies at Society Dome.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

1973 Walt Disney VD cartoon

Gloabl Politics in 30 Seconds from the hilarious Wonder Showzen

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I think Angelina Jolie has done amazing, amazing things, and the international adoption rate just since her has skyrocketed. It's unbelievable."

-- pizza commercial fixture Jessica Simpson, on the possibility of her adopting and caring for children

I wrote about the ridiculously crowded race to replace U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo in today's paper. A couple of additional notes: Rebecca Yanisch dropped out of the race yesterday.

And I failed to make the connection initially, but one of the two Republican Party candidates vying for the post is the guy who believes the roof of the Metrodome is a giant swastika! Who says the Republicans aren't going to be a factor in this heavily Democratic district?

My story in today's City Pages about former Minnesota Pollution Control Agency researcher Fardin Oliaei merits a quick footnote. As the piece relates, Oliaei's 16-year employment at the MPCA came to an end last month--an outcome the scientist attributes to institutional opposition to her efforts to focus public attention and research dollars on pollution from a ubiquitous and highly persistent family of synthetic chemicals known as PFCs. In particular, Oliaei has been concerned with a PFC called PFOS, which was long manufactured by the 3M Company at its facility in Cottage Grove for use in such products as Scotch-Guard.

Well, yesterday, the Minnesota Department of Health announced that it was issuing new fish consumption guidelines for a nearby stretch of the Mississippi River (Pool 2) because of research findings that show unusually high levels of PFOS in the fillets of bluegill sunfish.

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CITY PAGES BLOGS

Jim Walsh has a shot of the reunited Replacements at the Walsh Files.

THESE DAYS

Scientists can grow frog and mouse meat in the lab, and are now working on pork, beef and chicken. Their goal is to develop an industrial version of the process in five years.

Tennessee State Rep. Debra Maggart believes homosexual couples should not be allowed to adopt children because they may molest the children they adopt.

John Claassen is suing the popular online matchmaker eHarmony for refusing to help him find a date. The company says there's one good reason for that: He's still married.

Oil services company Halliburton Co. repeatedly overcharged taxpayers and provided substandard cost reports under a $1.2 billion contract to restore
Iraq's southern oil fields, according to a new report by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Aliecat had an NG tube down her throat for 24 hours. And she hates those eHarmony ads. Read more at The Kitty Kat Lounge.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Star Wars animated GIF

How to earn your first million by starting at age 16

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"Arrested Development reached its end, creatively, as a series."

-- Show creator Mitch Hurwitz, after talks with Showtime to pick up the cancelled series failed