“Police in Eureka say a woman who allegedly shot a man to death because she thought he molested her granddaughter apparently got the wrong guy,” The Modesto Bee reports. “Dianna Mae Preston of Trinidad is being held for investigation of murder.” Investigators said yesterday that Preston shot Kevin LaPorta of Dinsmore Friday night in a parking lot — then followed him into a Chinese restaurant and shot him twice more.

In literary news, two deaths to report: First, Chiam Potok, author of The Chosen, died from brain cancer Tuesday. He was 73. “Chaim Potok’s Orthodox upbringing and religious training influenced his novels and other work,” The Austin American-Statesman reports. “‘He created an American stream that really didn’t exist before. He wrote directly from the interior of the Jewish theological experience, rather than from the social experience. And they were best

Scenes from yesterday’s Bank of the West Classic upset: Anna Kournikova defeats eighth seeded Israeli Anna Smashnova! [Animated GIF now archived here to speed up loading of main page] Yes, it’s juvenile, I know. My wife doesn’t much like it, either. What can I say? Sorry.

“An argument between two handicapped men over a hospital parking space escalated when one man whipped out a sword, prompting the other to pull out a gun,” Court TV reports. “Lee Damron, 48, was arrested for aggravated assault on March 13 for his bizarre and menacing behavior, authorities said.” Eyewitnesses in the crowded parking lot of Oak Hill Hospital told police that at about 3 p.m., Damron pulled near a

Writing for the editors, David Tell of The Weekly Standard again probes the atmosphere of “Civil Hysteria” in this country, particularly as it pertains to issues of detention and civil liberties: […] as we read the Justice Department’s filings in [Yasser] Hamdi’s ongoing habeas corpus proceedings, it simply isn’t true — as nearly every editorial page would have it — that our government is claiming unilateral, absolute power to call

If anybody needs me, I’ll be watching Costa-Gavras’ Z (1969). I’ll also be enjoying a tuna salad-sandwich and a bowl of New England clam chowder. And perhaps a handful of devil’s food cake cookies. It’s not much, granted. But it’s all I have….

“We won civil rights long ago. Now success is up to individuals.” So argues John McWhorter, writing in the City Journal: The civil rights era ended a long time ago, victorious. Blacks once needed a Black Leader like King to galvanize the conscience of the government and the nation, but what

Interesting bit on the transgendered and their quest for civil rights, from Jonathan Last at the Weekly Standard: It is impossible not to acknowledge the difficulty of the transgender life. The sheer lengths to which some of them go in order to change their bodies are staggering and — in the truest sense of the word — pitiable. Transsexuals who are born male often go through an agonizing process to

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Scott Erickson was arrested Sunday on assault charges. Meanwhile, boxer Felix “Tito” Trinidad announced his retirement on Sunday. Coincidence? You tell me…