BREVITAS

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CHINA

BBC - China is facing a very severe unemployment problem, says Labour
Minister Tian Chengping. He said 20 million new workers entered the
labor market each year, chasing only 12 million jobs. . . Correspondents
say China's unemployment figures tend to understate the situation as
they only cover the urban jobless.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7286024.stm

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OUTLYING PRECINCTS

DENVER POST - Barack Obama told a cheering crowd at a town hall meeting
in Casper today that he would restore respect for law in the White House
by reviewing every executive order issued by President George W. Bush
and discarding any deemed unconstitutional. Obama's comments came in
response to a question from a man in the audience who said he worried
that presidents sometimes consider themselves above the law.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_8492078

AP - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to
backpedal Friday from comments she made in October suggesting
Mississippi was a backward place for women's progress. Speaking to radio
station WJZD-FM in Gulfport, Miss., the former first lady said the
comments she made about the state in the run up to the Iowa caucuses
"were not exactly what I said," even though they came directly from an
interview she gave to the Des Moines Register in October.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8V8QUGO0&show_article=1

BERNIE SANDERS PLAN TO START EVENING THINGS UP A BIT IN THE U.S. ECONOMY
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/08/7555/

MCCAIN BAWLS OUT NY TIMES REPORTER FOR ASKING GOOD QUESTION
http://www.breitbart.tv/html/59014.html

WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF ONE OF THE DEMOCRATIC CONTENDERS UNDERSTOOD
WHAT WAS WRONG WITH REAL ID AS WELL AS THE GOVERNOR OF MONTANA?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87991791

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DRUG BUSTS

NEWS 7 DENVER - Denver voters made it clear last November that they
don't want police spending time and resources busting people who smoke
marijuana. But marijuana activists have said possession arrests are
actually going up, and they want to know why. In Wednesday night's
Marijuana Policy Review Panel, members questioned police and city
prosecutors about whether their policies have changed since the
successful 2007 ballot initiative to make adult marijuana possession the
"lowest law enforcement priority.". . . Police and prosecutors said they
have not changed any policies, and that marijuana possession has always
been a low priority. They said they are required to enforce state
statutes, however.

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UPDATES

LA TIMES - A Quaker math instructor who was fired by Cal State East Bay
after she refused on religious grounds to sign a state loyalty oath has
been reinstated, university officials said Friday. Marianne
Kearney-Brown, a pacifist, was concerned that signing the oath to
"support and defend" the California and U.S. constitutions "against all
enemies, foreign and domestic" could commit her to take up arms. She was
fired Feb. 28 after she inserted the word "nonviolently" before "support
and defend" and signed that version. The university, averting a showdown
over religious freedom, agreed to rehire Kearney-Brown after the office
of state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown helped draft a statement declaring that
the oath does not commit employees to bear arms in the country's
defense.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-loyaltyoath8mar08,0,6976917.story


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FASHION

WIRED - Here's a strategy that's sure to help you stand out at your next
live action role-playing game, cosplay event or upscale wine tasting --
show up wearing a custom-built suit of armor. Real armor costs thousands
of dollars. But if you want to be the envy of your friends without
shelling out big bucks, you can still build your own armor using free
(or almost free) materials scavenged from your recycling bin.
Specifically, you can build a nimble suit of chain mail using discarded
aluminum soda can tabs. You'll need a lot of them, but the results will
look tremendously impressive. Unfortunately, your armor will be for show
only -- it may stop gawkers dead in their tracks, but it won't stop
arrows.

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Make_a_Suit_of_Chainmail_Armor_From_Soda_Can_Tabs


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WAR DEPARTMENT

TELEGRAPH - The students' union at University College London passed a
motion attacking the Government for "waging an aggressive war overseas"
in Afghanistan and Iraq. To the dismay of the university management, it
also prohibited the military from setting up recruitment stalls at
freshers' fairs. The students also voted to break off links with the
Officer Training Corps, which recruits up to half its number from
universities up and down the country. The union motion, passed by a
majority of 80 votes to 50, said: "This union believes that because the
British military under the Labour Government is currently engaged in an
aggressive war overseas, for the union to use its resources to encourage
students to join the military or participate in military recruitment
activities at this time would give political and material support to the
war."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/08/
nmilitary208.xml

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DISPUTE RESOLUTION

AP - A spurned Chinese wife set fire to more than 400 cell phones owned
by her and her husband after he walked out on their marriage, a news
agency reported Friday. The official Xinhua News Agency said the
37-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Wang, was arrested for
arson. The couple had owned a successful retail phone business in
Weifang, the eastern province of Shandong. However, their shaky
relationship hit rock bottom when her husband left her on March 3, the
news agency reported, citing the local Qilu Evening News.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-03-07-china-wife-phones_N.htm?csp=34


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BUSH NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME WATCH

BUSH VETOES BILL THAT WOULD BAN WATERBOARDING, OTHER TORTURES
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/washington/08cnd-policy.html?ex
=1362718800&en=8f3ee954c2c17b14&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


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FURTHERMORE. . . .

REUTERS - The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened
residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room
left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them. In an ordinance posted in
the council offices, Mayor Gerard Lalanne told the 260 residents of the
village of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the
cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying
in the parish." It added: "Offenders will be severely punished."

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0552076620080305

MAPS OF STARBUCKS & WALMARTS PER CAPITA IN U.S.
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/
archives/2008/03/starbuckswalmar.html


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