Sunday, 9-10-06: This week the Senate plans to take up a White House proposal shielding CIA interrogators by limiting the punishable offenses when questioning "high-value" terrorist suspects. These include hypothermia, stress positions and waterboarding. In recent polls, 55% of Americans favor the use of these harsher techniques than the Geneva Conventions allow, and 15% favor outright torture. Ow! Monday, 8-11-06: Yesterday Pope Benedict preached against "over-reliance on science." Since the clothes he wears, the car he drives, the building he lives in, the plumbing and electricity in the building, the phone he uses and the TV he watches are all provided by science, he announced that from now on he'll be going naked, walking everywhere he goes and sleeping on the ground. In India such people are called "mastanas:" god-crazy.... The clandestine US commandos searching for Osama Bin Laden haven't received a credible lead in more than 2 years. Despite the most extensive manhunt in history, the trail has gone "stone cold." Intelligence officials think he's hiding with the Taliban in Waziristan, which recently (you'll recall) signed a peace deal with the Pakistani government. It's known that Osama is still alive, as Al Qaida would mourn in a big way if he died. In Baghdad, legislation's been introduced that would carve Iraq into a federation of three atonomous states. The Sunnis are against it, to put it mildly, as it would leave them with a vast desert devoid of oil. Tuesday, 8-12-06: In London, a man leaned out his window to complain about the noise coming from an upstairs apartment, and caught a woman who had fallen out her window and was clinging to the sill by her fingertips. In Rogers, Arkansas, a 9-year-old girl caught a 2-year-old boy who fell from a second story window. And in Sosnowiec, Poland, a man caught a 110-pound Saint Bernard who was thrown our a second story window. Well, not caught exactly. The dog landed on him. Surprise.... Baylor University recently completed the most detailed study ever done on religion in America. 10.8% are not religious. Wow! I would have guessed much higher. 91.8% believe in God. "Bible believing:" 47%. 79% expect family members to make it to heaven. 70% expect friends to make it to heaven. Evangelicals make up 33.6%. Mainline protestants: 22.1%. Catholics: 21.2%. Black protestants: 5%. Jewish: 2.5%. Other: 5%. Horoscope consulters: 28%. Said they'd had a dream that later came true: 43%. Believe in ghosts: 21.5%. Consulted a medium, psychic or fortune teller: 12.5%. In local news, a couple who've been on the run for a year were arrested in Arkansas last week, and are being extradicted to Oregon. The case began in 2005 when their 15-year-old daughter escaped from the storage trailer where they'd kept her locked. She said they beat her with belts and an ax handle. When Michael Maez came at her with a sledghammer, she escaped. When the police went to get the parents, they'd fled. Wednesday, 8-13-06: An Israeli military court ordered the release of 18 members of the Palestinian legislature. Among them are the speaker of the parliament and three cabinet ministers. The judge ruled that because Israel allowed the election to proceed with the participation of Hamas, the group's candidates could reasonable assume they wouldn't be prosecuted for being members of Hamas. The deforestation of the Amazon appears to be slowing. The region lost 6450 square miles of rainforest in 2005, a decrease of 11% as compared to what was lost in 2004. This is thought to be due to beefed-up enforcement of environmental laws. Killer bees attacked a South African animal shelter and killed 22 dogs. No one knows what caused the swarm to attack. The monkey population in central Uganda is exploding. Animal control officers there killed 50 monkeys in an effort to prevent more damage to plantations. That didn't even dent the population, but they ran out of bullets. Children are having to stay home from school to guard crops. In local news, the Cougar Ace was towed into the Port of Portland yesterday. It tipped over on its side in the northern Atlantic in late July. It had 4812 cars aboard, and they'll be sold as used cars with full new-car warranties. "No cars fell into the ocean," said the Mazda spokesman. Friday, 9-15-06: The number of migrant workers dying while trying to cross from Mexico into the US has more than doubled the past decade. Most are dying from exposure, and almost all of them are dying in eastern Arizona. In 1998,254 migrants died. In 2005, the number jumped to 472. Even though there's been no increase in the number of migrants overall. More and more, the dead are women. 10 years ago it was 9%. Now it's 21%. Segway is recalling all 23,500 of its two-wheeled scooters. A software glitch can make the wheels unexpectedly reverse direction, throwing off the rider. Segway has received reports of six incidents. New software can be installed at any dealership. This is the second time the Personal Transporter has been recalled. It was recalled in 2003 cuz the scooter would fall over when the battery was depleted. Everyone all over the nation is being advised to throw away packaged spinach, because of possible e-coli contamination. There have been 50 illnesses in nine states, and one death. Wow! How'd you like to be a spinach farmer right about now?... Ignoring threats and warnings from President Bush, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved legislation yesterday that would ban abusive CIA interrogations. 4 Republicans backed the bill, along with 11 Democrats. Bush made a rare visit to the Capitol to lobby House Republicans before the vote. What it boils down to is that Bush doesn't want to obey Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits "outrages upon personal diginity," including "humiliating and degrading treatment." He wants to do water-boarding and stress positions and keeping people naked in cold wet cells and not allowing people to sleep, things like that. Senior citizens have higher rates of mental illness and suicide than other age groups, a panel of health experts told a congressional committee yesterday. Older adults account for 20%of suicides. 40% show signs of depression, but only 3% seek counseling. In local news, the Clackamus County deputy who used his service weapon to rob four businesses last year was sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was addicted to pain killers, so he'd call in sick and rob pharmacies. David Verbos wiped away tears as he said, "The hardest part was to see some of my colleagues investigate me." In more local news, it turns out that the intruder who was strangled to death by an emergency room nurse was actually a hit man who was there to kill her. Susan Kuhnhausen's estranged husband Michael hired him, and let him into her house. The hit man put on yellow rubber gloves and waited four hours for her to get home. Michael was distraught because Susan was insisting on divorce, and he wanted to reconcile. When Edward Haffey came at her with a hammer, Susan wrestled him to the floor. He bit her, and she bit him back. She got on top of him, and choked him till he stopped moving. At first Michael denied he knew Edward, but that got rediculous when it emerged that Edward was a janitor at his business, Adult Fantasy Video. Saturday, 9-16-06: Margaret Cho, one of my favorite comedians, was ruminating about Steve Irwin's death. "I thought he was an amazing person, who brought millions of people to a new understanding of nature. At least he died doing something that he loved, tracking wild animals out in the open sea. When it is my time to go, hopefully I will be online shopping." This is rich! The Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, has been accused of being too heavy-handed in fighting crime. Mayor Frank Melton was indicted yesterday on charges he directed young people to knock out the walls of a duplex with sledgehammers where he suspected drugs were being used. Then the mayor and his entourage attached the manager of a club. 2 police officers who served as his bodyguards were also indicted. The man who lived in the wrecked duplex was arrested for marijuana possession. President Bush made an impassioned defense yesterday of torture. Speaking in the Rose Garden, George said that he would have no choice but to end a CIA program for the interrogation of high-level terrorism suspects if Congress passes new rules outlawing torture. Ohigod, that would be the most fabulous thing!!!!! The rules he's talking about were adopted Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee in defiance of Bush. 4 Republicans voted along with 11 Democrats. One of the Republicans was John McCain, who was tortured when he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Publicly supporting them is Colin Powel, who says the world has come to "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." In local news, the Multnomah County DA's office is reopening an investigation into a sheriff's deputy who pulled over women and asked them to lift their shirts, remove their bras and unzip their pants. He said he was looking for a suspect with a butterfly tattoo. In 2005 the DA's office declined to bring charges against Chris Green because they didn't think they could prove the charges. Now they say new information has come to light. Ooh, I wonder what....