Francis Slay, the Mayor of The City of St. Louis, is pushing for a plan to  eliminate parking meter fees near Downtown restauraunts during happy hour.

Downtown parking meters currently run until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Weiss said he's losing business to city's {sic}such a {sic} Clayton that ends {sic} meter parking at 4 p.m.

"Frankly, we are at a competitive disadvantage downtown," he said.

...

Slay said a person who recently received two parking tickets emailed him, saying he would be more inclined to bring friends downtown to shop and eat if they didn't have to worry about plugging a meter.

On his blog, Mayor Slay wrote, "I don't see why my correspondent shouldn't be able to have a beer, eat some wings, and buy a new hat without worrying about feeding a meter for an hour or two."

Such a move would take money from paid parking lots and bring it to area businesses, according to John Slaughter, a downtown resident.

"I think more people will come down because it would be better than parking in the parking lots giving all the money to them and you would get more business downtown, that's how I feel," Slaughter said.

I apologize for the subpar writing of my local media.

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Wow. It looks like the daughter of the guy who owns the NY Jets gets around.

"Casey {Johnson}had a fight one night with her current girlfriend," heavily tattooed Lisa Marie Alvarez, a Los Angeles source, told Page Six. "Casey went to Courtenay's house, and Courtenay proceeded to beat the crap out of her, and then she lit her hair on fire. Casey had to be hospitalized." Casey's mother, Sale Johnson, reportedly flew to LA and consulted with lawyer Robert Shapiro. No one returned calls except Courtenay, whose father Terry Semel ran Yahoo for years. Casey — who isn't speaking to her father, or her aunt, Libet Johnson — is the mother of an adopted girl from Kazakhstan

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 Especially after she slams The Fairness Doctrine, Katie Couric, and anyone else in her way.

If there's anything that demonstrates the straying of the Democratic Party leadership from basic liberal principles, it's this blasted Fairness Doctrine -- which should be fiercely opposed by all defenders of free speech. Except when national security is at risk, government should never be involved in the surveillance of speech or in measuring the ideological content of books, movies or radio and TV programs.

Broadcasters must adhere to reasonable FCC regulations restricting obscenity, but despite the outlandish claims of Democrats like Sen. Charles Schumer, there is no analogy whatever between pornography and political opinion. Nor do privately owned radio stations have any obligation to be politically "balanced." They are commercial enterprises that follow the market and directly respond to audience demand. The Fairness Doctrine is bullying Big Brother tyranny, full of contempt for the very public it pretends to protect.

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I mean, who wouldn't love to hear a judge act like this English one?

Esther Cunningham drank brandy before appearing as a solicitor to represent her cousin in a dangerous dog case.

She told an usher to 'f*** off' and called the CPS lawyer 'a f***wit', the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal heard.

Six months later, the 54-year-old was drunk when she taught students on a legal course, the tribunal heard.

Cunningham, of Grantham, Lincolnshire, accepted she had a drink problem and blamed it on personal problems.

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I don't know which party he belongs to (and at this point in the day, I honestly can't be bothered to look it up) but this guy is good people:

North Dakota law allows limited sales of locally produced beer and wine. A Minot legislator wants to give the same rights to people who want to make hard liquor.

Rep. Dan Ruby's proposal establishes a new "farm distillery" license for North Dakotans who want to make whiskey, vodka or any other grain-based spirit.

God bless you, sir!

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Some old lady in Fresno found a rare baseball card. How rare? Try 139 years old.

"I didn't even know baseball existed that far back," Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. "I don't think that I've ever been to a baseball game."

Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.

"I never make phone calls after 8 o'clock at night," Gallego says. "My mother taught me never to do things like that."

Huddleston's answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it's worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: "Get this thing off the Internet."

So the next morning -- with no bids yet on the card -- she canceled the auction. She wanted to find out more about the card.

Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.

In the meantime, Gallego didn't want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.

"If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it," Gallego says. "Well, or the dog."

When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was -- an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Mirigian says.

"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."

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Namely, grant Oktoberfest cultural significance protection.

According to the association, the traditional Bavarian beer bash on the Wiesn apparently has the same influence on culture as World Heritage Sites like the pyramids of Giza, the Taj Mahal or Stonehenge, and they want it to be recognized as a cultural monument under UNESCO protection, DSB revealed at their annual meeting in Berlin this week, though they aren't likely to go far UNESCO has said.

“At the moment the Oktoberfest has no reasonable chance to get on the list,” UNESCO spokesperson Dieter Offenhäußer told The Local on Tuesday.

Bastard.

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A company that delivers beer and tobacco.  Sweet.

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To bag blog.

Want. Like. Burning.



From here  Though it's currently backordered. Bastards.

Oh, hey, speaking of buying things, I say we all chip in and buy the Seattle P-I. I mean, I'm sure we can come up with $1.99 or so.

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The Magnificent One is on Twitter. Yes, it's really him. Yes, he uses it. Yes, he's following me. ::faints::

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Gee, what could go wrong with this combination?

David Allan Tolson, 50, does not remember his actions in the Queen Street Mall on September 24 and 25 last year, Brisbane Magistrates Court was told today.

Prosecutor Sergeant Dave Bradley said Tolson went on a bender when he received news his mother had breast cancer.

He approached several groups of Asian women over a two-day period and in front of them he would squeeze and stroke a latex vagina masturbation aid.

He was arrested after a witness reported him to police and he was identified on CCTV.

Tolson pleaded guilty to two counts of committing an indecent act and a charge of sexual assault.

The court was told the latter charge related to him groping an Asian woman outside Brisbane's Central Station on July 17.

Sgt Bradley said Tolson also made lewd remarks and followed the woman, who has been "extremely traumatised" by the incident, out of the station.

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But at least their hearts are in the right place.

VicHealth chief executive Todd Harper says making low-strength beer more attractive would be good for the community.

"Alcohol consumption, particularly too much alcohol consumption, has a significant impact on many other people in the community, whether it be through the forms of assaults, late night violence, drink driving," he said.

"It might also encourage the alcohol industry to develop new low alcohol products which are popular with consumers and also to encourage consumers to think about switching to lower alcohol products."

Good luck with that one, buddy.

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Yay!

Thanks to Robert

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You have to admire a guy willing to mix profanity and store signs to express your opinions of the mayor of your town.

Herman contends Polk City for years has harassed him with zoning violations, tied him up with lawyers and sent squad cars to deliver letters to his Johnston home in a bid to embarrass him. Polk City, for its part, has alleged that Herman ran an illegal salvage operation from 300 Sandpiper Court and routinely dumped vehicle fluids into the city's storm sewers.

The dispute, which spills through five Polk County court files, turned nasty last fall, when the Mighty Good sign for three days described Polk City Mayor Gary Heuertz as "a lieing little Nazi turd."

The commentary returned last week, when Herman's sign began telling Polk City residents that "Our mayor and council sure are ass holes."

City leaders say Herman's messages have drawn complaints from some residents - mostly parents who came across them while transporting small, reading-age children - but insist that the city has no plans to try to interfere with his right to free speech.

"A lot of people are coming out of the woodwork to look at it," Heuertz said of the sign. "So tourism's not a problem ... .

"I guess it's a good display of the intellectual level we're dealing with."

Herman, who moved to the Des Moines area from Sigourney in 1999, said his Polk City problems peaked in March 2007, when 14 law enforcement officers descended on Mighty Good for a "routine title audit." The audit ultimately sparked Herman's August 2007 arrest on misdemeanor charges, later dropped, of running an illegal salvage operation.

Among other things, Herman complains that he since has had problems getting access to public documents and that police call his home at odd hours for no reason.

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This kid is the greatest evah!!!11!!!12!!

Only one downer:

College student Cary Silverman has developed "Pub Corn", an alcohol flavored popcorn.

The popcorn doesn't have any alcohol content, {boooo!!-ed.} but comes in flavors such as beer, pina colada and Irish cream.

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Leave it to Texas to be awesome.

The men, both in their mid-20s, kicked open the door at a house in the 100 block of Horace Street around 11:30 p.m. and entered, said San Antonio Police Sgt. John Slaughter. A resident in the home fired several rounds at the intruders with a handgun.

One of the intruders, who was armed, collapsed on the sidewalk outside the house, where he was pronounced dead. The other intruder was critically injured and transported to University Hospital.

The homeowner was unharmed, Slaughter said.

“I don’t think (the deceased person) even had a chance to fire (his weapon),” he said.

Police are investigating whether the attempted home invasion was a robbery or if the intruders had another motive.

Relatives and neighbors of the said break-ins and vehicle robberies were common in the block.

The shootings happened two days after a West Side homeowner shot and injured a 15-year-old boy as the teen and his father attempted to break into a residence. The 33-year-old homeowner was not charged in Monday's shooting.

I have argued with my wife and her side of the family over The Way Of The Gun. They claim a bat or heavy leveler (no shit. They claim they use that for defense) is good enough. Maybe. But I trust a firearm more.

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And we should all be thankful for it.

During the course of 2008 65-70 adverts were found to be sexist by ERK, a record high. In 2007 the number was closer to 50 and in previous years has typically been even lower. At the same time the number of adverts reported to ERK has remained constant.

"I think this is due to a greater knowledge over the council's praxis, what would receive censure and what would not. Reports are now predominantly made up those that are over the line," said Tobias Eltell of ERK to news agency TT.

One example of an advert that in 2008 incurred the wrath of ERK was for Coca Cola Zero where a guy breaks up with his girlfriend who says that she understand that he does not want to keep to one girl when there are so many to choose from.

Another contravening the ethics council's rules was an advert by Black & Decker for a drill press when they offered a spa treatment for "the wife" if the man spent a large sum of money on their tools.

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