KEEPING A WARY EYE on solar weather. “The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.”

EVERY PROMISE HAS AN EXPIRATION DATE — but even “Save the Whales?” Obama Under Fire for Backing Deal to Lift Global Ban on Commercial Whaling. “Environmentalists, already peeved with the administration’s handling of the Gulf oil spill, are accusing President Obama of breaking his campaign pledge to end the slaughter of whales. The Obama administration is leading an effort within the International Whaling Commission to lift a 24-year international ban on commercial whaling for Japan, Norway and Iceland, the remaining three countries in the 88-member commission that still hunt whales.”

FOR TERRORISTS, UNDERSTANDING. For corporations, punishment.

BUT IF SOMEONE HAD SHOT A VIDEO, IT WOULD BE A FELONY: Off-Duty Officer Fatally Shoots Unarmed Marine.

According to Baltimore City police, Tyrone Brown — a 32-year-old Marine who has served two tours of duty in Iraq — was shot 13 times at close range. He died a short time later.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the officer shot and killed Brown, saying Brown made advances toward a woman who was with the officer.

“After the advances, the officer and the individual exchanged words,” Gugliemi said. “There was an argument, and the altercation turned physical. At that point, the officer pulled out his service weapon and fired multiple shots at our victim.”

I’m beginning to think that cops in Maryland should be watched all the time. But instead, they’re granted anonymity: “The officer, who Guglielmi said is a 15-year veteran, has not been named. Police said they are investigating whether alcohol was a factor. The officer declined to take an alcohol breath test.”

SHIMON PERES’ ADVISER: An Open Letter To Helen Thomas. “In light of your recent remarks that Jews must ‘get the hell out of Palestine’ and ‘go home,’ I think I should tell you about my parents’ families.”

ARE DEMOCRATIC INSIDERS sabotaging the Obama Administration? I blame Clintonista moles!

Actually, I think it’s just Conquest’s Third Law in action: “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.”

PC COUNTERTERRORISM: Civil servants feared inquiry into 7/7 bombings would focus negatively on Muslims.

A SALE ON Men’s dress pants and shirts. Also, wallets and belts.

PROSECUTING BP: Um, won’t that be a little awkward, since the regulators gave the Deepwater Horizon a safety award just last year? Not to mention this.

HOT STALKER-ON-STALKER ACTION! Well, if by “hot” you mean “hilarious.” Plus, a possible explanation for the Al/Tipper splitup?

CRAIG CRAWFORD cuts Helen Thomas loose.

EXPLAINING THINGS TO those prudes at Newsweek.

FINALLY: Dimple Implants.

GEORGE WILL: Why should education be exempt from recession budgeting? “We are witnessing a familiar government dance, the Prosperity-to-Hysteria Two-Step: When revenue grows, governments put in place permanent spending streams; when revenue falls, governments exclaim that any retrenchment, even back to spending levels of a few years ago, is a ‘catastrophe.'”

THIS WEEK in the future.

8000 PROTEST proposed Ground Zero Mosque.

LOU CANNON: “California’s political system is broken.” Well, it’s hard to argue with that part of his analysis, anyway.

CHANGE: Bloomberg: U.S.’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP.

ANOTHER PIECE ON A THEME SIMILAR TO MY WASHINGTON EXAMINER COLUMN TODAY: Subprime goes to college. I don’t think that for-profit education is necessarily bad, though — and I don’t think that “not for profit” education is necessarily any more honest. Indeed, as Anya Kamenetz notes, with some surprise, in her new book DIY U, the for-profit sector is sometimes better at providing actual education to students who need it. I expect that the Obama Administration will impose “standards” on for-profit schools that traditional schools won’t have to meet — quite possibly because they’d have a hard time doing so, at least with honest accounting.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: New Jersey Style.