7/17 Morning Communiqué

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Steve Monaco is back with the Monday Movie Quiz at Couch Pundit!

Britt Robson interviews Jennifer Mattson, who announced yesterday she will be challenging attorney general candidate Matt Entenza in the DFL primary in September.

Jim Walsh reviews yesterday's performances by Graham Parker and the Buzzcocks at the Walsh Files.

THESE DAYS

The average British male spends 5% of take-home pay on beer and post-booze snacks.

You'll need 70,000 valid signatures on a petition if you wish to run for office as an independent candidate in North Carolina, due to their stringent ballot access requirements.

A Drake University student from Minnesota, arrested in a forgery investigation last Wednesday, is believed to have been making bogus driver's licenses for underage Iowans for two years or longer.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Congratulations to one of the more long-standing Minnesota bloggers, Crystal resident Steve Gigl, on the 4th of July birth of his son. Check out the "little burrito boy" at Perspective and Soda.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

A public service announcement: Notice Your Nuts

Mac developer Wil Shipley has bet Bill Gates $10,000 that Windows Vista would not be ready for shipping in January 2007, per Gates's claim. [via Digg]

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"As a spiritual man, I felt it would be a sin against my God for me to wear all that gold again because I spent a lot of time with the less fortunate."

-- Cultural icon Mr. T, on his decision to no longer wear his signature gold chains after visiting the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast region