Favored Source

I tend to pick up a newspaper every day when at work, usually the Indianapolis Star, but sometimes I get the Noblesville papers. When nothing else is available, I get the USA Today.

That's not a slam on the USA Today, although if I have my first choice for a national paper, I get the Investors Business Daily. That's an excellent newspaper. I just prefer to read the local papers.

I ended up picking up USA Today three times this past week. It was just as well, since the local papers were loaded with little but flood coverage. Since I work for the County Surveyor, I get my fillover flood coverage first hand.

One thing had me riveted through three lunches: the States section. It lists one item from each of the 50 states every day. Here are some that caught my eye:

Tuesday, July 8
Columbus - Ohio State University lost a $540,000 state grant for reducing tobacco use among adults in two rural counties after accepting a grant from Philip Morris. The medical school's neuroscience department is using $590,000 from the tobacco company to study how nicotine affects nerve cells. The state grant prohibited recipients from taking money from a tobacco company.

Sounds like OSU is still money ahead, no matter what politically correct edit is issued.

Tuesday, July 8
Portola - Six years after the state poisoned a Sierra lake to rid it of voracious northern pike, the population of the non-native fish is growing fast. A recent effort using explosives to destroy spawning pike in Lake Davis also failed. The pike threaten native fish, and officials fear they will escape from the lake.

If California poisons a lake, it's considered environmental action. If anyone else does it? I've love to see what would happen if a group of sportsmen took to the lake with explosives.

Friday, July 11
Los Angeles - The city will pay nearly $170,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by dozens of homeless people arrested during police sweeps of Skid Row. About $75,000 will go to about 58 people. A class-action lawsuit claimed that the two-day probation and parole sweep resulted in the arrests of many without a violation being properly documented.

How many forties of St. Ides will that buy?

Monday, July 7
Nampa - A former Mexican police officer was among those arrested in a drug bust that netted 100 pounds of marijuana. Adan Diaz, 28, of Stockton, Calif., and two others were arrested on an anonymous tip.

And the Free State Project is seriously looking at Idaho... I guess there will be some changes to be made right away!

Bloggers take note. These are rarely the big stories, but often, they should be. The bonus of the online edition: a full week for each state, per page!