Journal

Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.

Uncanny parallels with U/North in Michael Clayton. I think Monsanto’s “Round-Up” is the product they secretly criticize in the film.

The last original Dunkin’ Donuts sign standing anywhere has been dismantled and is now in storage and facing an uncertain fate.

The 1957 neon landmark, which towered over the intersection of Market and North Beacon streets in Brighton, was in poor condition with extensive rust. A backlighted fluorescent plexiglass sign with a modern Dunkin’ Donuts steaming coffee cup logo was erected in its place after the old sign came down on April 3.

The artist who is a member of the Critical Arts Ensemble was cleared of all charges by a judge who ruled that the indictment against him was “insufficient on its face.” Steve Kurtz, who was the subject of the 2006 film Strange Culture, was charged with suspected bioterrorism after police came to his home to investigate the death of his wife and discovered biological specimens he was using for an art project about genetically modified foods.

Now, with conference committee negotiations over the final shape of the Farm Bill at a critical stage, Congress needs to change the foreign food-aid program and help avert this calamity. The Bush administration has urged, rightly, that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) be allowed to buy food locally, particularly in Africa, instead of only American-grown food.

By helping Africa develop a self-sustainable agricultural system, we can work toward curing the disease and not just the symptoms.

UCLA basketball, recently left short-handed by the one-and-done departure of freshman All-America center Kevin Love, may soon get bigger and better.

The Dallas Morning News has reported that J’Mison Morgan, a senior center at South Oak Cliff High in Dallas, has asked out of his letter of intent at Louisiana State and is interested in transferring to UCLA.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Senate on Thursday voted to prohibit smoking in all bars, restaurants and workplaces.

The 25-12 vote, a major development in efforts to enact a smoking ban in the state, came after a Democratic senator asked to discharge legislation from a committee where bills traditionally have gone to die.

Great news, this is my biggest complaint about Ann Arbor since moving from California.

On July 8, 1965, Otis Redding was a young soul singer of modest renown, less than three months removed from releasing his first Top 10 r&b hit single. By July 10, he had become something else entirely: It took only 24 hours to lay down 10 of the 11 songs that would make up Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul, arguably the 1960s’ greatest studio-recorded soul LP. (The only track not recorded at that time was the #2 hit, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”.) Friends and associates had noticed Redding’s growing confidence as a singer, and once Otis Blue hit shelves it was clear he was poised enough to pick up the mantle of the recently slain legend Sam Cooke, up to that point the greatest soul singer in America. He was also prepared to take on the Temptations and the Rolling Stones and B.B.King on their own turf; the only way to top him would be to give one of his original compositions to Aretha Franklin (”Respect”). In the simplest terms: It’s a hell of a record, the crowning achievement of a man who could sound pained and celebratory and tender and gritty and proud all at once, with a voice that everyone from John Fogerty to Swamp Dogg to Cee-lo owes a debt to.

The 2008-2009 home kit from Adidas, now available in the U.S. from soccer.com.

Underworld is beginning a series of quarterly web broadcasts from their recording studio starting today. The show begins 6 PM UK/1 PM Eastern.