The 18-foot-tall utensil was stealthily erected as a birthday present. Now the city is considering keeping it as a piece of street art.

Los Angeles Times, By Nicole Santa Cruz, November 7

Pasadena has a fork in the road. And it's 18 feet tall.

Where south St. John and south Pasadena avenues divide, there's a towering wooden silver fork in the traffic median. The utensil has a black steel skeleton and is rooted in 2 1/2 feet of concrete.

The art was originally intended as a surprise for Bob Stane of Altadena, who celebrated his 75th birthday Oct. 29. But Caltrans, which owns the median, and Pasadena, which maintains the land, are deciding whether to keep it up for a while as an impromptu piece of street art.

Steven Cuevas | Riverside, CA | November 7

NPR - The National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group, is holding two rallies in Arizona and Minnesota on Saturday to demonstrate against illegal immigration. Similar rallies in Riverside, Calif., near Los Angeles, have led to violent clashes with counter-protesters.

Late last month, a rally near a day-laborer site in Riverside attracted about two dozen members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), who wore World War II-era Nazi garb. They were outmatched by about 700 counter-protesters.

Orlando, FL | November 6

Orlando Sentinel - Eight people have been shot at an office building in downtown Orlando. Four of the eight are in trauma condition. The building is called Legions Place. Interstate 4 is shutdown eastbound.

Two people are dead and six are wounded, Orlando police said.

Office workers are still inside. They have barricaded themselves inside and have received little information from authorities on whether it's save to leave. One woman inside the building said they have been told the shooting possibly took place on the fourth or eighth floor.

Nina Tottenberg | November 4

NPR - The justices of the Supreme Court struggled Wednesday to figure out whether they should allow lawsuits against prosecutors for framing a suspect. Iowa prosecutors, backed by the federal government and prosecutors across the country, contend that there is "no freestanding constitutional right not to be framed."

Michael J. de la Merced & Andrew Ross Sorkin | November 1

NYT - General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast, and a formal announcement could be made sometime next week, people briefed on the talks said Sunday.

After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal, these people said. Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBC Universal, contributing several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks to the new venture.

From the incredible Narco Polo blog.

Our current system is almost a perfect storm for making bad laws. There is no deliberation in the era of the sound bite and the 30 second ad. Hysterical nonsense rules.

From a MyDD diary by Joe Trippi:

What voters are ready to tell anyone who will listen is that they would like to reject both parties right now if they could. They are trying to find a way to say to both parties, "We want you to change or get out of the way." Both party establishments are in denial. Both party establishments are hard of hearing. And, both party establishments are likely to see the results on Tuesday as Karl Rove sees them - a victory of one party over another. That is the real danger in 2010 and beyond for both parties.

I've heard again and again from Democrats here in D.C. that the Republicans are too damaged by the Bush hangover to really be a threat in 2010 or 2012.

That's really the best we've got, the cold comfort of knowing no matter how shitty a job our party is doing in office, no matter how little we are delivering on our promises that the other party is even less popular and therefore our nominal power will be safe in the coming elections.

Joe Bageant has written something relevant that really pains me as a card carrying Deaniac whose movement ultimately kick-started total regime change in the U.S. only to end up with more of the same weak tea middle-of-the-road corporatist bullshit:

That's what I find disheartening about the so-called grassroots initiatives for change. They are well meaning, but nobody seems to understand that the grass is growing on the turf of a totalist corporate state, with its roots dependent upon the corporate hegemony for nourishment. If the big dogs don't continue to shit on them daily, they whither and die. The big dogs know that, and they know that the grassroots-ers are moreover powerless, and that only the local pups need worry about them at all...

Read the rest at Joe's site.

Thom Shanker | Washington | October 28

NYT - American military officers are expressing concern over the spreading use of makeshift bombs beyond the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan to other countries in the region, as well as in East Asia and South America.

Improvised explosive devices, as the military calls them, have been the largest killer of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing up with devastating effect in Pakistan and India, but also with less notice in Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Colombia, Somalia and parts of North Africa.

Nick Bunkley | Detroit | October 28

NYT - Federal authorities fatally shot a man they described as the leader of a violent Sunni Muslim separatist group in Detroit and took six others into custody during three raids on Wednesday.

The leader, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, was killed after he refused to surrender and began firing at officers from a warehouse in Dearborn, Mich., according to a statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the United States Attorney’s office in Detroit. An F.B.I. dog also was killed in the gun battle.

Jeremy Scahill | Alexandria, VA | October 22

The Nation - On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected a series of arguments by lawyers for the mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater seeking to dismiss five high-stakes war crimes cases brought by Iraqi victims against both the company and its owner, Erik Prince. At the same time, Judge T.S. Ellis III sent the Iraqis' lawyers back to the legal drawing board to amend and refile their cases, saying that the Iraqi plaintiffs need to provide more specific details on the alleged crimes before a final decision can be made on whether or not the lawsuits will proceed.

"We were very pleased with the ruling," says Susan Burke, the lead attorney for the Iraqis. Burke, who filed the lawsuits in cooperation with the Center for Constitutional Rights, is now preparing to re-file the suits. Blackwater's spokesperson Stacy DeLuke said, "We are confident that [the plaintiffs] will not be able to meet the high standard specified in Judge Ellis's opinion."

Peter N. Spotts | Grand Junction, CO | October 21

CSM - From a rock formation near Grand Junction, Colo., comes a tale of a dainty dinosaur.

Meet Fruitadens haagarorum, though it might as well be called Fifi. It's roughly the length of a toy poodle and a fraction of its weight.

It's the smallest dinosaur ever found in North America, according to an international team of scientists formally describing the creature this week. It stretches some 29 inches from beak to tail. In its day, it would have weighed in at just under two pounds.

With the possible exception of Georgia-US-Russia, no US relationship in the former Soviet region is more fraught today than the US-Russia-Ukraine triangle. At a time when Washington and Moscow have variously committed to a relationship reset, a new operating system, and a rerun of the Clinton-Yeltsin strategic partnership, it is disappointing how little substance has followed rhetoric. Meanwhile, Central and Eastern Europe are still reeling from the US Administration’s abrupt and ill-timed reversal on missile defense deployment, and Team Obama is eager for opportunities to demonstrate its commitment to the new Europe, which received no shortage of love from the Bush Administration.

Rex Nutting | Washington | October 21

MarketWatch - The government has spent trillions to rescue the banking system from the brink of disaster, but the biggest cost may be the loss in the government's credibility from an understandably distrustful and angry public, according to a quarterly report released Wednesday by the congressional watchdog over the bank bailout.

"The anger, cynicism and distrust created must be chalked up as one of the substantial, albeit unnecessary costs" of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the TARP, in a report to Congress. Read the report.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton responded today to a question about a justice of the peace in Louisiana who refused to sign the marriage license for an interracial couple out of concern "for the children."

"I've seen the story and I've looked into this a little bit. And I found that, actually, the children of biracial couples can do pretty good," said Burton, who is biracial himself.

"So in terms of anything else, I just think it's something that they're dealing with locally."

Grand Rapids, MI | October 16

PressTV - The grounds have reportedly been established for armed American presence on Somali soil with a US security firm winning a contract in the war-ravaged country.

Michigan-based CSS Global Inc., secured the contract under the plea of 'fighting terrorism and piracy' and 'protecting' Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), reported Michigan Live citing The Grand Rapids Press newspaper.

Ian has an excellent post up on the health of Americans, obesity and SSRIs. You can read it here. I'd also suggest wading through the comments, as they are enlightening and will challenge the conventional wisdom on a few things.

On a personal note: I've written about SSRIs and my own struggles with depression in the past (here and here and here). And, while I won't take them, I do recognize there are some people who really do need them. I also think a part of the problem with SSRIs is that they are for short-term use, a chemical designed to pull people out of the worst part of their depression so that they can move into other forms of longer-term therapy. Of course, it's easier to fill a prescription than sit in a therapists chair and face the demons. Hence, the overprescription SSRIs (and don't get me started on ADHD drugs!). The general thesis that Americans are fat, unhealthy and over-medicated is real. After visiting 54 countries my eyes don't lie.

As I watch more and more coverage from media outlets of interviews with “average Americans” giving “their opinions” I become less believing of the common political and media mantra of the intelligence of the average American. While there are many Americans who are politically, financially, and socially savvy, there is also a large number who are not. My question is, “Are all opinions of equal value?”

An example would be a major medical operation, is my opinion as a layman of the same value as that of say a neurosurgeon? Is an uninformed, illogical opinion of equal worth as someone who has spent years studying, reading, and researching an issue? I believe there are three categories of thought in this country and most of us fit into some combination of the three. continue reading after the jump

At 84, the writer and activist may be confined to a wheelchair, but his rage – at his country, its leaders and citizens – burns as fiercely as ever.

The Independent, By Johann Hari, October 7

In Russian, the phrase "gore vidal" means "he has seen grief". As Gore Vidal is wheeled towards me across an empty London hotel lobby, it seems for the first time like an apt translation. In the eight years since I saw him last, he has lost his partner of 50 years, most of his friends, most of his enemies, and the use of his legs. The man I met then – bristling with his own brilliance, scattering witticisms around like confetti – has withered. His skin is like parchment, but the famous cheekbones are still sharp beneath the crags. "It is so cold in here," he says, by way of introduction. "So fucking cold."

Stockholm | October 5

BBC - This year's Nobel prize for medicine goes to the three US researchers who discovered how the body protects the chromosomes housing vital genetic code.

Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak jointly share the award.

Their work revealed how the chromosomes can be copied and has helped further our understanding on human ageing, cancer and stem cells.

The answer lies at the ends of the chromosomes - the telomeres - and in an enzyme that forms them - telomerase.

[...]

The Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, which awarded the prize, said: "The discoveries ... have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies."

Washington | October 2

Bloomberg - President Barack Obama said today’s report of U.S. job losses is a “sobering reminder that progress comes in fits and starts” and that he is considering additional steps to spur economic growth.

“I’m working closely with my economic advisers to explore any and all additional options and measures that we might take to promote job creation,” Obama said at the White House today.

Andrew C. Revkin | Washington | October 2

NYT - President Obama’s top climate and energy official said Friday that there was virtually no chance Congress would have a climate and energy bill ready for him to sign before negotiations on a global climate treaty begin in December in Copenhagen.

The remarks by the official, Carol M. Browner, during an onstage interview in Washington, were the first definitive statement by the administration that it saw little chance of Congressional passage this fall.

John M. Broder | Washington | September 30

NYT - Unwilling to wait for Congress to act, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it was moving forward on new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from hundreds of power plants and large industrial facilities.

President Obama has said that he prefers a comprehensive legislative approach to regulating emissions and stemming global warming, not a piecemeal application of rules, and that he is deeply committed to passage of a climate bill this year.

But he has authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to begin moving toward regulation, which could goad lawmakers into reaching an agreement. It could also provide evidence of the United States’ seriousness as negotiators prepare for United Nations talks in Copenhagen in December intended to produce an international agreement to combat global warming.

Robert D. McFadden | Rockville, MD | September 27

NYT - William Safire, a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon and a Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for The New York Times who also wrote novels, books on politics and a Malaprop’s treasury of articles on language, died at a hospice in Rockville, Md. on Sunday. He was 79.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Martin Tolchin, a friend of the family.

There may be many sides in a genteel debate, but in the Safire world of politics and journalism it was simpler: there was his own unambiguous wit and wisdom on one hand and, on the other, the blubber of fools he called “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”

The GOP is now lynching Government workers and foiled in blowing up Government buildings. Hanging them from trees in Kentucky. Fox must be proud. So when do we recategorize Republicans as a Terrorist Organization.

Pittsburgh | September 24

BBC - Trouble has flared as world leaders gather in the US city of Pittsburgh for the G20 summit.

Reports said riot police used pepper gas and fired rubber bullets at protesters on a march near the venue.