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.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Harvard Study Shows Earmarks Cost Jobs.

Using data spanning four decades, Harvard researchers measured the effects on local businesses as their local congressmen grew in stature in Washington. The study correctly assumed that when a senator or representative acquired a powerful committee assignment, he would exploit his new position to funnel more money to constituents back home. But the Harvard researchers also assumed — incorrectly, they would discover — that local businesses in a member’s home state or district would benefit from opening up the federal largesse.

“It was an enormous surprise, at least to us, to learn that the average firm in the chairman’s state did not benefit at all from the unanticipated increase in spending,” said Joshua Coval, one of the study’s three principal authors. In fact, the study found that in the years following a congressman acquiring a powerful committee assignment, the average company in his state cut back capital expenditures by 15 percent. In one prominent example, Alabama went from receiving $6 million less in annual earmark spending than other states to $90 million above the state average after Republican Sen. Richard Shelby assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1997. Shelby earmarked $15 million for low-cost fabricated housing, but the study found that one of Alabama’s largest suppliers of this housing, Homes Inc., correspondingly reduced capital expenditures by 79.5 percent and downsized its work force by 30 percent.

Coincidence? Not likely. “The pattern repeats itself across decades and over thousands of firms.”

It’s all about the welfare of the political class and its cronies, it’s not even about “taking care of the district.”

THE Carnival Of Homeschooling is up!

Remember, homeschooling is Buffy-endorsed.

THIS IS KIND OF COOL: A video trailer for John Birmingham’s new novel, After America, the sequel to Without Warning. You can see my PJTV interview with Birmingham here.

HELEN THOMAS UPDATE: Lanny Davis says Helen Thomas must go.

Plus, Helen Thomas Dropped By Speaking Agency.

Also: Translating Helen Thomas’s non-apology “apology.”

UPDATE: ADL Says Helen Thomas Apology Insufficient.

“BLACK FLIGHT” changing the makeup of Dallas schools. “Black students formed a majority in Dallas schools through the 1980s and ’90s. Over the last 10 years, though, the number of black children has fallen by nearly 20,000, or about a third. Meanwhile, Hispanic children have filled their seats as the district’s overall enrollment remains fairly flat at about 157,000. . . . Interviews with dozens of parents reveal that the exodus is not fueled by a single reason, but by myriad forces including issues of race, class, perceptions of problems within DISD, an explosion of charter schools and the quest for the American dream in the suburbs.” In other words, pretty much like “white flight.” But there’s also this: “Many black parents are concerned about the attention and money spent bringing native Spanish-speakers up to speed. Some say their children are ignored.” (Via NewsAlert).