I continue to be amazed at the evolvement of Huckleberries Online and the local blog community. HBO Blogfest '08 is another example of something happenin' different here. A wonderful mix of personalities and pseudonyms. It didn't start out that way. But I'm delighted that we've gotten to a place where we can set aside ideologies, religious doctrine, politics, disparate backgrounds, etc., to enjoy one another's company. Blogfest '08 was a special time. I'd like to see HBO and the SR sponsor a Dougfest (Doug Clark & Trailer Park Girls) this summer. It might happen. Who knows? HBO works because there's no agenda or much organization. Sorta like the Grateful Dead. If I don't screw things up at HBO Central, we'll get together for another blogfest about this time next year. Now, for your Wild Card ...

No, we’re not related

But instead of one of my usual, meandering deals about life on the road in the NBA, I'm going to yap basketball for the umpteenth day in a row (sooner or later we're going to stray off topic, for real).

After watching these guys practice for the first time it became painfully obvious to me that Josh Smith, Al Horford, Zaza Pachulia and Solomon Jones comprise the entire frontcourt rotation the Hawks will use for the final 33 games of this season - starting with tonight's game against the Lakers - and possibly beyond.

Letters, 2/15: Death penalty is archaic

The American economy lost jobs last month for the first time in more than four years, and rising gas prices continue to squeeze our budgets tighter every day. Against the pain and uncertainty families are now facing, Exxon Mobil posted the largest profit ever recorded by a U.S. company.This administration’s business is finished. It’s time for a change, America.Steven D. Burbach, Lincoln .

The Freedmen's Remedy

Because the issue of water-boarding will not be subject to a protracted legal battle. To the extent the upcoming military commissions address the issue at all, it will happen—as it is happening now—in a black box, cloaked in assertions of secrecy. For one thing, the Military Commissions Act passed by Congress permits the government to assert national security privilege where sources and methods of obtaining information are concerned. They can keep this evidence from the defense, so long as the military judge finds the sources and methods are classified. In Hamdan, the government has already asserted that this prohibition extends to the interviews of the detainees themselves concerning their interrogations, and as such, the government has already erected a wall of silence around the high-value detainees extending even to their interviews.

Willy Northpole and the Phoenix hip-hop scene explode

The fact is, unlike trials for embezzlement or murder or even rape, CPS dependency hearings, which determine custody and whether parents continue to have the right to raise their children, are closed to the public. The agency's paperwork is also sealed.

And that means the entire system operates without scrutiny from outsiders, be they reporters or advocates. (There's a state ombudsman, but he is legally barred from releasing specifics about cases.) We never get to see the evidence that would determine whether kids are wrongly being taken from their parents, as so many callers insist on my voice mail, or whether CPS is instead erring on the side of leaving kids in unsafe homes.

We can write about the big picture because CPS has to release some statistical information every six months.