3/16: Morning Communique

THESE DAYS

The Bush administration last year quietly rewrote the rules for allowing gays and lesbians to receive national-security clearances, drawing complaints from civil rights activists.

The 2006 Best of the Twin Cities ballot is now online.

Organizers of the 15th annual Mountain Oyster Fry -- known among Virginia City locals as the "testicle festival" -- say Saturday will be filled with good food and fun.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Follow CJ as he blogs on his life as an MTC bus driver at Transit Librarian.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The Muppet Matrix

The 20 Most Important Tools Ever from Forbes

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"He said, 'Hello, Wendy, this is Jay Leno. I'm calling about the letter you wrote and I want to apologize. I just want to let you know we make mistakes sometimes and we don't mean to hurt people.'"

-- Television viewer Wendy Brogin, who wrote a letter to NBC after "The Tonight Show" aired a sketch that compared Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident to a 2003 videotaped shooting outside a Los Angeles courthouse. Brogin was a friend of courthouse shooting victim Gerald Curry.