Desperate to practice eye-hand coordination skills, shoppers riot for Xbox 360

Seeded on Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:08 PM EST (WJZ Baltimore)

In an act sure to make the baby Jesus cry, a group of 500 shoppers in the Baltimore suburb of White Marsh were involved in a heated scene outside a local Best Buy store in a scramble over the store's 48 Xbox 360 consoles. Police were called in to control the crowd, and the 48 lucky shoppers were told to return hours later to pick up their winnings for their own safety.

shopping, odd-news, baltimore, xbox, christmas, groupthink

Whoring it out at the Cato Institute

Seeded on Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:02 PM EST (The New York Times)

Another "independent" columnist is revealed to have been paid for writing articles favorable to the politically well-connected -- this time, it's a senior scholar at the Cato Institute caught taking bribes from the now-radioactive lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

politics, republican, abramoff, cato

Time for Protection for Gays in Alabama Hate Crime Laws?

Seeded on Wed Dec 7, 2005 10:06 PM EST (The Montgomery Advertiser)

A legislator in Alabama who has introduced numerous attempts to add sexual orientation to the state's anti-hate crimes law is planning to do so again, in response to two unrelated attacks on gay men in the state in the past six weeks. It also follows the murder of 18-year-old Scotty Joe Weaver of Bay Minette, AL in July of 2004.

gay, politics, civil-rights, us-news

Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal

Seeded on Fri Dec 2, 2005 4:48 PM EST (The Washington Post)

Prior to the 2003 redistricting effort in Texas spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay, Justice Department staffers unanimously concluded that the plan violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Not that it mattered to Justice Department senior officials — they approved the plan despite their staff's objections. And now the case may be headed to the Supreme Court.

bush, politics, tom-delay