In St. Louis: Airport officials say that theirs will be operating “at 70 percent capacity” today, post-tornado.

In Yemen: President Ali Abdullah Saleh stated yesterday that he will step down, on the condition that his family receive immunity from prosecution.

In Beijing: Officials detained at least twelve people for celebrating Easter today.

In New York: Conjugal visits are now allowed for gay inmates in civil unions.

In Britain, this is news: The artist formerly known as Camilla Parker-Bowles will plant a special wedding cake tree for the upcoming royal wedding of her stepson, BBC reports.

Sneaky, sneaky: Despite US and EU efforts to freeze Gaddafi’s funds, he has been moving billions of dollars back to Tripoli since the rebellion started in the middle of February.

Breaking! Seattle is hella white: According to the census and the Seattle Times. Even whiter? Portland.

No beatification for you! Pope John Paul II’s express bus to sainthood has been stalled by concerns over sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

Moving up in the world? Former superintendent of public schools Maria Goodloe-Johnson is a finalist to take her superintending skills to Newark, New Jersey.

And finally, for no reason, here are some baby bears trying to befriend the most indifferent camel in the world at the Russian zoo where they live. Good morning!

37 replies on “Morning News”

  1. Listening to a Brit say “Box of bears” is almost as entertaining as listening to one say “Banana”….”buh-NAW-nuh”…

  3. I told my partner, who is black, that I wanted us to live in Oregon and New Mexico before we retire to Costa Rica. He has a friend who lived in Portland who told him we’d hate Oregon because its so very white. He said they seem all progressive but they are really NIMBY about everything. Sad.

  5. @3, I’d suggest you shit-can Costa Rica (it’s no longer much of a bargain) and look at Nicaragua instead. It’s what Costa Rica used to be 20 years ago, and a little money goes a long, long way.

  7. “the Stranger even whiter than 66%?”

    And everyone knows Charles isn’t really ‘black’, he’s African. No one has a problem with african neighbors.

  10. Canuck, at my age I’m shooting blanks, so fertility isn’t much of an issue any more. Hey, that can be a good thing, right?

  11. 5280, after that “cracked bleeding nipples breastfeeding moms” thread, I’d say lack of fertility is an excellent thing…works in my house these days, anyway…

  13. @11 Do guys get to say that if they haven’t had a vasectomy? I thought otherwise the little wigglers were still in there, if less potent, up to the end? “At my age I’m shooting blanks” sounds like something a 70 year old would say to a nubile but gullible co-ed, to get out of wearing condoms.

  16. I do wish that when they bring up Oregon’s history on this subject that they would remember that it was the Oregon Territory and Washington was part of the territory, the two states have a shared history. I’m not dismissing Oregon’s shame, though. We sucked.

    I’m wishing for you all to have a day full of love, chocolate, and bourbon* (I’m thinking Elijah Craig 18, a nice biblical name is appropriate).

    * Insert personal choice.

    Now back to to making that key lime pie. Juice, baby!

  18. My, the news is full of surprises today.

    (a) I thought covering up child sex abuse was a requirement on the path to sainthood.

    (b) Turns out Spokane is only 84% “non-hispanic white.” Huh. Last time I heard, it was something like 97%, but that might have been the 1990 census. (The only place whiter among the top 10 is the relatively new city of Spokane Valley, which is kind of like adding Bothell.) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ce…

    (c) apparently people still say “hella.”

  19. Durr, and good morning, Canuck and all.

    Venomlash, I wonder how long until that’s done? Since JPII beatified Steno already he’s 75% of the way to recognized sainthood. It’s interesting that Catholic Central likes to say they don’t “make” anyone a saint, they just get around to recognizing that someone was one the whole time. They like to frame it as a process of incremental perception.

  20. @23 (have spent the last five minutes pondering my abject patheticness when I mope after not getting a “good morning”…sheesh 🙂

    gus, while I watch your video-thanks!-did you see Poor Jane’s Almanac at the NYT Opinion pages? I can’t get my phone to copy, or I’d link it…

  22. gus, your video was a great counterpoint, I love David Sedaris.

    And yes, so sad when you think about how drastically different their lives were, and how aware of that fact she seemed to be. I can’t even imagine the heartbreak of burying one’s child, much less 11. (I had heard there were some African tribes that didn’t name children until they were 5, to avoid getting too attached…) We are so lucky.

  23. Happy Easter / Happy Sunday to all!

    To all my favorite peeps, you guys are good eggs, a little cracked maybe but good!

    Muwah! xoxox

  25. I agree, @Canuck and gus–that was a beautiful piece in the times. Why, with just a bit of education, Jane might have made a fine “socialist”:

    “…Thousands of Boyles Clarks and Newtons have Probably been lost to the world, and lived and died in Ignorance and meanness, merely for want of being Placed in favourable Situations, and Injoying Proper Advantages.”

  30. Awesome, rob!, there’s a lot to look at in that picture…took me a minute to work out the eggs… “ooohh, I see…” Hilarious!!

    despicable me, we used to have one of those monkeys! The rooms upstairs in our house only have walls up to 8 ft (no ceilings) which, in hindsight, sucks royally for parents and teens alike, but was MOST excellent for being able to lob one of those shrieking monkeys into a child’s bed…”wakey wakey”!

  31. @21: We’re coming up in the world. From the 2010 Census website:

    Spokane city, Washington

    One race 95.4%
    White 86.7%
    Black or African American 2.3%
    American Indian and Alaska Native 2.0%
    Asian 2.6%
    Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.6%
    Some Other Race 1.3%
    Two or More Races 4.6%

  32. The fact that Seattle is so white just explains soooo much about how “tolerant” and “accepting of diversity” Seattlelites claim to be. And just explains how and why they seem so clueless, ignorant & naive all the time. When I first moved here, I literally felt like I walked onto the set of Leave it to Beaver and still feel that way sometimes. White people here are veeeeery different from white people who are accustomed to living in real diversity in their day to day lives.

  33. As a minority who lives in Seattle I have got to disagree with @36, whites here are very tolerant and open to other races.

  35. @36: As a white-looking Jewish guy living in Woodlawn, Chicago (~95% black), I can tell you that your head’s not on straight.

  36. I should point out that census stats are very bad at portraying mixed race, for political reasons.

    Take all the census stats you hear with a grain of bleached white sea salt.

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