Ohio…Where Post-Election Lawsuits May Come to Sit The New York Times has predicted that should the election be a close one, angry folks in swing state Ohio will be suing to find out whether their votes really counted…or not.
Palin in Comparison A CBS/The New York Times poll showed 59 percent of voters had serious misgivings about Sarah Palin’s level of competence and her abilities to lead the country should the unfortunate occasion arise in which she would have to.
Not Perishing, But Ready for a Make-over Los Angeles city officials have agreed that Downtown’s ever-changing Pershing Square could stand some aesthetic improvements. They’d encourage adding more grass and trees to the desolate island between 5th and 6th streets, hoping that would make it a bit more welcoming to the hordes swarming to L.A.’s, until recently, erstwhile epicenter.
Passport to Identity Theft These valuable midnight blue booklets are usually coveted for the opportunities they yield, not the trouble they cause (especially within the country’s borders). The State Department has just warned 400 D.C.-based people waiting for the documents that the department’s system has been hacked, allowing sensitive credit card information belonging to those in queue to become accessible to third parties.
A Kegger While Pregger?! Still an emphatic no. But…an English study has just explained that drinking moderately (e.g. a drink per week) while pregnant may actually benefit, and not inhibit, the baby’s development. Then again…why risk it?
Tempelhof is Off to the Sky The Nazi-built, Berlin-based airport closed today. Despite its questionable origins, the airport has, since 1948 and ‘49, been much loved by many for being the site of the U.S.’ and U.K.’s airlift during the Soviet siege, thus becoming what The New York Times termed “a symbol of the Allies’ commitment to protecting the city and indeed Western Europe.” Also admired for the its architecture, the airport’s closure was the eye of a legal storm. The final verdict: the airport was too large a drain on the city’s financial resources. So as midnight approached, it sent “two vintage airplanes,” Junkers Ju-52 and a DC-3, off into flights as the goodbyes to the German landmark.
Wish They Were Phoenixes Rising Fifteen years ago today, the night snuffed two luminous stars out. R.I.P. River Phoenix and Federico Fellini.
Sex Offenders at Homes for the Holiday Judges in Missouri plan to uphold a state law commanding registered sex offenders to stay home this Friday from 5 to 10:30 p.m. unless a medical emergency forces them to leave. The offenders must not have lights on outside their homes and must place signs reading “no candy” visible near the door that they have absolutely no holiday-related contact with children on a night when the kids will be out “trick or treating.”
Halloween in Wittenberg October 31, 1517, Martin Luther celebrated all Hallows by revolutionizing western religion forever. The monk posted 95 theses criticizing the Catholic Church. And while he made those points in Latin, and credit for getting the message out should go to a random (still unknown!) interested passerby who translated Luther’s words to the German vernacular, those theses sparked the Protestant Reformation of Christianity. Here’s betting the 16th c. church, none too fond of the pagan Halloween, never expected it should have so much to fear not from spirits, goblins or the rabble, but from one of its own.
LA’s [all] Hallowed Halls The Los Angeles Times‘ Elina Shatkin gets paper readers stoked for a West Coast Samhain with this list of things to do in order to turn the city of angels into one of ghouls.
