Events

Molly Ivins, on congressional reform: Tom DeLay gets indicted, and all the Republicans can think of is a $20 gift ban. Forget the people talking about "lobby reform." The lobby does not need to be reformed, the Congress needs to be reformed. This is about congressional corruption, and it is not limited to the surface stuff like taking free meals, hotels and trips. This is about corruption that bites deep into the process of making laws in the public interest. The root of the rot is money (surprise!)...

Josh Marshall poses this astute question: Isn't offshoring port management and security sort of like offshoring the shore?

In its efforts to starve the Federal government out of existence, Bush cut $28 million—and 32 jobs—from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Then he mentioned, in his state of the union speech, that we need renewable energy. Forgetting for a moment that the pusher-in-chief suddenly got religion on our addiction to (foreign) oil, it's still kind of embarrassing that he cut our renewable energy budget at the same time. Or, more to the point for these clowns, embarrassing that they got caught doing...

The city of Eureka, Nunavut, in way-Northern Canada, has its first sunrise of the year today around 11:30 CT (17:30 UTC). Technically the sun never actually gets above the horizon, but a tiny bit of it will scrape along the southern horizon for about an hour before disappearing until tomorrow. Eureka is typically the northernmost weather station that sends hourly reports to NOAA, and this time of year it's almost always on the world's coldest places list. For example, at this writing, Eureka is -41°C...

The 7:00 am (13:00 UTC) temperature at Chicago O'Hare was -22°C (-7°F), the coldest temperature recorded there since 1 February 2004. Yes, this is Chicago, where you can see wacky temperatures like these: Feb. 2006 Max temp Min temp Sat 11th 1.7°C -3.3°C Sun 12th -1.1°C -5.0°C Mon 13th 3.9°C -8.9°C Tue 14th 13.3°C -4.4°C Wed 15th 5.6°C 0.0°C Thu 16th 2.8°C -5.6°C Fri 17th -4.4°C -15.6°C At least we're not in Douglas, Wyo., where they're waking up to -36°C (-32°F) this morning.

Software security expert Bruce Schneier reports on a database error in nearby Porter County, Ind., that has cost the county millions of dollars, and what that means to software design: A house erroneously valued at $400 million is being blamed for budget shortfalls and possible layoffs in municipalities and school districts in northwest Indiana. [...] County Treasurer Jim Murphy said the home usually carried about $1,500 in property taxes; this year, it was billed $8 million.

Two days ago it was 13°C (56°F) in Chicago. Yesterday a storm dumped 28 mm (1.1 in) of rain on us before the cold front behind it dropped us below freezing. This was the largest temperature drop in 42 years here. Here's our street after the storm: Today we're looking forward to overnight lows around -18°C (-1°F). Fortunately, the local El stop has heat lamps to stand under when it gets cold. Sometimes, though, you have to share them with these guys: In related news, scientists report that Greenland's...

Some items in the news today that probably should go without comment: Spotsylvania County, Va., sheriff's deputies tried a novel approach to catching prostitutes: having sex with them. British scientists hooked a robot up to slime mold to model the mold's behavior. The British newspaper The Economist pointed out that hardly anyone mentioned Cheney's bird-killing as an issue in itself this week. The Washington Post has a lengthy analysis of the Danish cartoons and why they became the focus of such...

...even if she doesn't need men. In her column today (sub.req.) she pulls no punches with two men no one needs: As the story of the weekend's bizarre hunting accident is wrenched out of the White House, the picture isn't pretty: With American soldiers dying in Iraq, Five-Deferment Dick "I Had Other Priorities in the 60's Than Military Service" Cheney gets his macho kicks gunning down little birds and the occasional old man while W. rides his bike, blissfully oblivious to any collateral damage. Shouldn't...

Anne made me watch the Westminster Kennel Club Show yesterday and Monday. OK, she was right. I found myself rooting for Shaka the Rottweiler, but Rufus the Bull Terrier won instead. Photo: AP