:
UK FRONT PAGES and more (3#) -

:: Terrorist attacks dominate [sky]

:: Their map of London area [sky]

Shows Times of London
-- Summer Reading feature:

:: "Your 100 best holiday reads" [Ltimes]

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:
SoFlo: TAINTED (3#) -

# "A former Palm Beach County commissioner was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison for using his public office for personal gain... involving tainted land
deals." [ap]

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# A Broward County FL lawyer writes to the Chief Justice in Tallahassee requesting an Independent Monitor for the election of a chief judge in the 17th Circuit Court system:

"I have just learned the entire process for the selection of chief judge will be secret and thereafter the ballots will be destroyed."

Maybe Mexico will send one. [jaab]

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+ SoFlo Fun Fact:

The first immense cloud of Sahara dust of the season is en route to South Florida and due to arrive just in time for this weekend. [mher]

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MORE MEDIA (2#) -

"The changes at LA Weekly in the
past six months have been dramatic."

An extended article and analysis by Jon Wiener about what Michael Lacey & Co have done to that publication. He also owns a free sheet Alt Weekly in Broward County FL. Is it merely cynical or is it sleazy? [nation]

============================

Broadcasting Goof:
The BBC cut away from Tony Blair's farewell
and replaced the occasion with tennis.

:: Blogger Iain Dale: "I am dumbstruck."

:: Biased BBC Blog reacts.

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:
CRIME TIME (3#) -

# JAILED: Felicity Lowde, 41, from Oxford, who cyberstalked Rachel North, was jailed yesterday for six months by District Judge Malcolm Read at Thames Magistrates' Court, according to a report by Mike Horsnell.

# SNEAKERS: Police forensic scientists have revealed that the R*ebok Classic shoe is number two on its league table of footprints left at crime scenes, beaten only by the enduringly desirable N*ke Air M*x 95. [guard]

# MASKS: Michelle Hogg, a hairdresser at the Hair Hectik salon, made prosthetic disguises for a gang that robbed a Brinks-type Depot in Britain's biggest cash heist, according to this report by Adam Fresco.

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:
Popped: POP CULTURE... Alt (2#) -

"Mika Brzezinski reacted badly
to being told she was covering the
Paris Hilton story on MSNBC's
"Morning Joe" TV show, destroying
the Hilton lead story script on camera."

Spice Girls: New Boob Job Tour
--Marina Hyde's cheeky blog entry.

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:
LOOSE LINKS (2#) -

# Pauline Millard gives her picks
of newspapers using innovative
techniques to keep their communities
informed via the Internet. [E&P]

******************************************
"Honey, the hyenas are on the sofa again!"
-- From Robert Basler's Oddly Enough Blog
at Reuters... because I couldn't resist :-)

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:
ACROSS THE POND (3#) -

# Phil Spector, on trial for murder in
LA, is giving his first television interview
in 35 years to the BBC. [tfp]

# TOOTH FAIRY hit by inflation,
must undergo financial reorganization,
threatened by hostile takeover. [anrk]

# The Peterborough Municipal Council says it has lost over 2,000 of the customized recycling bins it issued for the use of its town residents. What happened to them? One of the bins clearly stamped with the city council's name has been spotted in a residential area near the Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach in Bulgaria. [sky]

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:
Bookish: RETRO STYLE (3#) -

# A feature story by Alex Clark about a
Retro mystery writer named Mark Gatiss
whose novel, The Devil in Amber, is about
to be issued as a paperback in the UK. [guard]

# Another book review of it.

# More mystery review links
from last weekend. [ideo]

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:
SoFlo: HOME BUILDING TRADE SAGS -

*Lennar Corp. swung to a $244.2 million loss for its second quarter, as the lackluster housing market continues to levy a toll on home builders.

And there is little end in sight to the slowdown, company CEO Stuart Miller said in a statement. Miller said the company expects another loss for the third quarter and that conditions could even turn worse.* [mherald]

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:
HELMAND OPIUM MENACE -

A dramatic 49% increase last year to a record opium poppy harvest in the country led to a new record in the world production of opium, the UN says.

Afghanistan accounts for 92% of
global illict opium production...

There are about 11 million heroin addicts
in the world, of which 3.3 million are in Europe...

:: from The Guardian ::

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:
MIDEAST MEDIA (2#) -

# Hamas vs Fatah
duke it out on the internet.

# Shakeup at Al-Jazeera:
Director General Waddah Khanfar
removed from board of directors.

...

:
MUSLIM MEDIA GRIEVANCES (2#) -

# SF Sun-Sentinel cartoons unfair to Muslims:
-- from letter to the editor 6/25/07. [sent]

# A fatwa for the death of the editor and
publisher of Octane has been issued by a
Muslim cleric; and the Pakistani federal
government has banned the sale of
the June 2007 issue.

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:
WORTH NOTING (3#) -

# THEIR AGENDA IS ANGER: Christopher Hitchins contends that it is not possible to placate the professional-style Islamist Rage Brigade, so there is no sense in anxiously engaging in self-censorship to avoid their wrath. [slate]

# This feature story by Josh Getlin about an often-overlooked mystery writer in LA comes recommended by J Kingston Pierce:

"John's goal, among other things, has been to write an alternative history of Los Angeles from the standpoint of groups and people who are excluded from the established discourse," said social historian Mike Davis, who wrote "City of Quartz" and "Planet of Slums." "This fits uneasily into people's stereotypes of modern Los Angeles, and it's what makes him so distinctive."

# And Pierce notes other pieces
worth reading here: [rap]

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:
SoFlo: SO, WHAT'S YOUR STORY? -

A mobile van is traveling around to
record the Oral History of residents
in the Treasure Coast area of Florida.

It is based at Indian River Community
College in Fort Pierce which has its own
radio station, WQCS. The exterior of the
van displays the image of Benjamin Franklin.

Watch for it! [pbpost]

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:
SoFlo: MUSLIM PROTESTS (2#) -

We had a relatively quiet weekend here in Broward County FL with the exception of one very strange incident. Some Muslims noisily expressed their vociferous objections to the visit of a Hindu Indian woman who was scheduled to speak at a local venue in Hollywood. And, evidently, they raised quite a fuss.

According to an article in the Herald, those Muslims alleged that Sadhvi Ritambhara was somehow associated with the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya and the protesters used that allegation to oppose her appearance at the local Hollywood Beach Culture and Community Center.

Since Partition, the Indian Government has sovereignty over all territory located in the modern state of India and a Muslim government has sovereignty over territory located in the modern state of Pakistan.

Although I have never heard of this woman visiting in Florida from India, I expect that she has a right to express her beliefs and opinions.

The Herald has not yet reported whether the scheduled event took place or whether she was prevented from expressing herself. We hope a followup article will resolve the mystery.

...