We're back! Back from a self-imposed maternity leave! Back from the great big elections/inauguration misty-eyed national group hug! Back to digest the news so you've got something to talk about with the others at work/Gymboree/your lame playgroup. We've good air, bad medicine, happiness projects and sad awards ceremonies. Also, why the Wii makes your kid hate you.
In what have been daily reversals of George W. Bush's administration's crappy (and quasi-legal) declarations and judgments, Barack Obama gets us one step closer to breathing easier. No, really! Today, he will direct regulators to let states impose stricter automobile emissions standards than the federal ones -- something Bush wouldn't let them do. That crazy Obama ... letting states have clean air! Now he's just messing with Bush.
But Dallas's new favorite resident may get to do some messing of his own. TPM has a piece on a "burrower" -- a Bush appointee who managed to get a job in the Obama administration. Kathie Olsen, a climate change denier of sorts, moved from her No. 2 post at the National Science Foundation to NSF's Office of Information and Resource management. We hear they're going to actually look at science in the NSF from now on, so maybe Olsen will pick up some actual information and change her mind on human contribution to global warming.
Illinois Governor Rod Blogojevich won't attend his own impeachment trial today. He doesn't actually have to attend, but it's weird that he won't. Also weird that he acknowledges he's certain he'll be convicted. Anyway, we'll see plenty of him on TV this morning as he makes the rounds on today's news shows denying, denying, denying.
Sad but happy: Heath Ledger, who died a year ago from an overdose of painkillers, won the Screen Actors Guild Best Supporting Actor award for his role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight." Ledger's win is getting everyone extra excited that he'll be awarded an Oscar posthumously as well. Also, be sure to read what Meryl Streep, who won Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Doubt," said about being the world's greatest actress. We really heart Meryl.
Coming to a state near you: shrinking pediatric care! As goes California, so goes the nation? Fine, maybe not. But for more than a decade, the number of hospital beds for pediatric patients has been drastically cut. Which is just sad. And scary. And it leaves medical workers to play musical chairs with children so that the sickest get the best care while the medium- to sorta-sick get whatever's left.
Renters beware: this couple got screwed when it came time to renew the lease on their fancy apartment. The owners didn't let them because the couple, expecting a child in a few months, said mean things about their apartment community online.
A Brigham Young University undergrad and his advisor published results
of their study on the personal lives of video gamers. The two found
that the more hours each subject reported playing video games, the
worse their relationships with family and friends. Based on the gamers you know, didn't you kind of assume those results (the undergrad doing the study wanted to prove those assumptions wrong -- he's reportedly bummed by the results and probably not talking to his mom again or something).
Wanna make yourself (and your kids) happy? Just lie to them! That's not a small bowl of ice-cream, it's a large scoop!
That's it for this morning! Thanks to Brett and especially Shannon for keeping the Morning News fires burning, while others of us convalesced and spent several weeks solid in a news vacuum staring at and sniffing a newborn.
Photo: Reuters
