theCLog

Psychology: That rifle-toting guy on the clocktower? He probably didn’t get to play as a kid. (Scientific American)

Media: Congressional Quarterly’s owners look for a buyer (Romenesko)

Economy: Tell Gawker what ridiculous things your company is doing to save money. (Gawker)

Photography: And the award for Mugshot of the Day goes to …the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. (The Asheville Citizen-Times)

Economy: People like to drink when times are bad? Really? (Fox5)

Relationships: The New York Times finds the real victims of the recession. (NYT)

Crime: A Clover, S.C., man was arrested and charged with 190 sex crimes. (WBTV)

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Rights: North Korean government arrests blogger and says his acerbic writings cost the economy billions. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Politics: Blagojevich wouldn’t let The View stylists touch his hair. (MSNBC)

Open government: Need that public information? It’ll take a few years. (The New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Psychology: Revenge may be a dish best not served at all. (Scientific American)

Politics: Sarah Palin to attend dinner at club started to honor Robert E. Lee. And this will help her 2012 chances? (New York Post)

Religion: Ted Haggard may have had more than one secretive gay relationship? Quelle surprise! (The New York Times)

Insanity: Mexican women can only blame themselves if they’re raped or murdered. (El Universal) Translated here.

Liberal Hollywood: Wingnut wants to see Matt Damon debate Bill Kristol. Please? (Jezebel)

Media: A bailout for the French press. (Financial Times)

Food: Another reason why high-fructose corn syrup is bad for you. Mercury, yum. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Crime: Man arrested in hit-and-run death of 12-year-old Albemarle boy. (NewsChannel36)

Politics: Some observers, foreign and domestic still don’t believe Obama’s presidency is for real. (Slate)

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A report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform was challenged by the N.C. Justice Center. The report by the anti-illegal immigration group calculated that illegal immigration costs North Carolina more than $1.2 billion. It looked at education, public health and incarceration.

The N.C. Justice Center says the report’s contention has been debunked by other researchers and is an attempt to blame a minority group for the state’s budget problems. It points to research that found Hispanic immigration is a net economic gain for the state.

FAIR’s findings didn’t receive much media attention when it was released Jan. 13, though WBTV did do a brief report. The state’s budget problems, however, will receive a lot of attention when the General Assembly convenes Wednesday.

Edited to add: I didn’t mention this previously, but the Southern Poverty Law Center considers FAIR a hate group.

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Health: A S.C. police officer is back on the job after, um, dying. (NewsChannel36)
History: President Barack Obama, U.S. Rep. John Lewis and the March on Washington (The New Yorker)
Politics: $2 billion shortfall awaits General Assembly (The Wilmington Star-News)
Sex: Can a man really break his penis? (Scientific American)
Economy: Banks may need more buyout money, Biden says. (The Washington Post)
Terrorism: al Qaeda resorts again to name-calling (The Washington Post)
Animals: The Humane Society of the United States’ agenda and how to support it. (HSUS)
Politics: Blagojevich made Oprah laugh. (Politico)
Books:Check out the finalists for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Awards. (About.com)
Family: Another study confirms that most divorcing women aren’t getting everything. (The Daily Mail)
Relationships: Yes, men and women can be just friends. But can your significant other stand it? (CNN)
Religion: Catholic official calls Obama “arrogant” for lifting gag order. Pot, meet kettle. (Jezebel)
Economy: The midtown Home Depot will close. (NewsChannel36)

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The Senate last night finally passed, by 61-36 margin, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the wage-discrimination bill that counters a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it extremely difficult for women to sue employers for pay discrimination.

Here’s some background: Ledbetter was a Goodyear employee who discovered after decades on the job that even less-experienced male colleagues made more than her. She sued successfully in lower courts, but the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that existing anti-discrimination laws couldn’t help her because she had not filed a complaint within the 180 days of her first (decades prior) discriminatory paycheck. Most courts, as well as the EEOC, previously had determined that each unequal paycheck could serve as basis for complaint.

Republican opponents had said the bill’s passage would result in an onerous burden on the courts and on business. Incidentally, the Senate’s four female Republicans broke party ranks to vote in favor of the Act. One male Republican colleague, Sen. Arlen Specter, joined them.

North Carolina’s senior senator, Richard Burr, did not.

You can check out the vote here. The bill now goes back to the House of Representatives for a final vote.

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Charity: More United Way woes. (WCNC)
Immigration: Nashville voters defeat “English-only” referendum. (AP via Yahoo)
Cuba: Fidel Castro contemplates the end. (BBC)
Child abuse: A 23-year-old Raleigh woman has been charged with murder following the discovery of her 19-month-old son’s corpse. (News & Observer)
Pets: The latest salvo in the struggle between animal-welfare advocates and Petland. (Consumerist)
Civil Rights: De facto school segregation continues to increase. (Institute for Southern Studies)
Appearances: Chris Rock’s new documentary Good Hair. (Jezebel)

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Pets: Can’t afford to feed your pets? Here’s help. (NewsChannel 36)

Economy: Even government employees aren’t safe from being pink slipped. (News Channel 36)

Big surprise: Cheney wanted Scooter Libby pardoned. (The New York Times)

Dogs: Jacques Chirac’s depressed dog mauled him. (Daily Mail)

Economy: The state of New York is actually having to borrow to pay unemployment claims, because the economy’s in the toilet. (The New York Times)

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Then Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care and Control desperately needs you. The shelter is having an adoption fair this Saturday that’s cats-only.

Cats that end up in shelters have lower adoption rates than dogs. An astonishing 82 percent of cats that entered the Charlotte-Mecklenburg shelter from July through December were euthanized.

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Creative Loafing’s owners will remain at the helm of the company, which publishes papers in five other cities as well as Charlotte.

Owner Ben Eason was in a Tampa courtroom today for a hearing in which the company’s biggest creditors were expected to seek ownership of the chain. The hearing, however, was continued until March 11, reports Wayne Garcia, political editor at the Tampa Loaf.

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Consumerism: Is there any product in America that hasn’t been turned into Obama memorabilia? (BrandFreak)

Inauguration: Security efforts at the Mall were a success: no arrests, no serious injuries, no significant property damage, and 30 lost children returned to parents. And that’s with more than a million people gathered. (The Washington Post via Fark)

Global warming: A huge Antarctic ice shelf is teetering on collapse. (Scientific American)

Politics: A former Big Tobacco advocate goes to that big smoking section in the sky. (News & Observer)

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