I heard today that the Rice Festival was canceled

yeah, i went to the website, the cookoff and everything's canceled. then talked to a friend of mine (remember sheri) who is married to a winnie devillier, and said yeah, the town is wrecked, not a good time.

Good News: As safety improves in Baghdad, the walls come down.

"“They protected against car bombs and drive-by attacks,” said Adnan, 39, a vegetable seller in the once violent neighborhood of Dora, who argues that the walls now block the markets and the commerce that Baghdad needs to thrive. “Now it is safe.”"

GOOD NEWS IS NO NEWS: US deaths in Iraq plunge to wartime low in October.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081031/D945OKQO0.html

No U.S. military deaths in Iraq in October, for the first time since the war began

"Police say an upstate New York man concerned about the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media beheaded his wife after she filed for divorce."

http://www.kfdm.com/news/wife_30180___article.html/hassan_police.html