Journalism stories:
Don't you love 'em? Miami's Gene Miller, who's heard a lot of them, tells a few in The Herald today. Is this a great news town or what? (Note my contribution, at the end.)

Also in The Herald: Columnist Robert Steinback starts a new Q&A Forum, where he takes readers' questions/comments on his columns or any other topic they want to discuss.

And: the uncomparable Enrique Fernandez on Celia Cruz. As he did with Compay Segundo a few days ago, he gets to the essence:
"Celia was a contralto, with the power of a tenor. There was something paradoxically androgynous about her. She sang with a man's brute force -- even the voice of the great Beny Moré was more delicate. Yet she danced, moving an hourglass body that was almost mythically female."

Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:
A little late again this weekend, I liked the sunflower photo (below) so much I wanted to keep it at the top of the page as long as possible....

The useful links....

Reference

Google University Search search college Websites.

Encyclopedia of Television from Museum of Broadcasting.

Chicago Manual of Style

USDA Plants Database you can download a national or state plant checklist, look up individual plants, get lots of info on plants & environment.

Middle East Directory: guide to Websites.

Online Etymology Dictionary is looking for word sponsors.

AllChin Files: this Website has lots and lots of good reference files, calculators and the like. Among them, USA driving distances between cities, and World air distances between cities (Miami not included). One I'll use: Web colours (via Al's Morning Meeting).
Statistics:

Immigration: Shaping and Reshaping America detailed report from Population Reference Bureau.

Population Reference Bureau's Graphics Bank has population-related Powerpoint slides.

2003 Metropolitan areas info on the newly redefined MSAs.
News:

Foreign Language Newspapers online a directory from MIT libraries.

Liberia: information from National Geographic.

Liberia page: guide to resources from U. Penn. African Studies dept.

U.S. Postal Service team, Tour de France has daily tour logs and photos.

World Press Review still around, and even better online, with special features on topics like China's Three Gorges.

Oxford American has shut down (again). Does that mean the end of the music issue?
Governments, Politics:

First Read: new daily political news/gossip from NBC.

Buying Influence special report from Center for Public Integrity on 527 committees' campaign contributions.

On this note, the IRS has created a new Political Organization Filing and Disclosure site, where you can search for 527s and forms 8871 and 8872.

2004 presidential election contributions analysis from OpenSecrets.org.

U.S. Elections Atlas has detailed results, including presidential results from 1789 on, down to counties....

Unstacking the Deck new book on understanding campaign finance from IRE. One of the authors: TheScoop.org's Derek Willis.
Journalism:

Future of online journalism interview with editor of Online Journalism Review Michelle Nicolosi in journalismjobs.com. She says newspapers should embrace blogs.
Public Records:

Yahoo's public records online Chris Sherman of SearchEngineWatch on personal information available from Yahoo! (via USSearch.com).

Even Shredded documents can be reconstructed: NYTimes story; Research report.
Tools:

More Crayons: lots more colors (over 4000) for Web designers.

TEK search: MIT offers a search for people with no access to high-speed (or even medium-speed) internet. You submit a search and get results emailed to you w/in 24 hours.
Florida:

A new Florida blog: South of the Suwanee, on "Society, history, and politics".
Business, People: no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

From Romenesko: Reading this story warrants a visit from the FBI? (Just keep this in mind....

Also: The St Pete Times gets the real story on the Naples lemonade stand.

British political blogs links to blogging MPs and others from The Guardian.

Macon reacts to Sex and the City slur.

Rhode Island police raid Naragansett smoke shop 'native American' cigarette sales no longer exempt? A good story for any paper near reservations (we have Miccosukee and Seminoles, with casinos and smoke shops, here). This report (with links) on Sheila Lennon's blog.

John Dean says the WMD case needs a special prosecutor.

The Trouble with Google: good dissection in Slate.

Coming soon: a Salam Pax book.

A new Florida blog: South of the Suwanee, on "Society, history, and politics".

Liberal Bias Media, a blog: "You've heard the media talk about a liberal bias media, but always wondered ''where is it?'' Well, this is it!" by "Heckraiser".
Fun/Entertaining:

The Periodic Table of Dessert.

Disneyland Postcards

Turner Online a favorite visit at the Tate Gallery.

1 World Recipes from around the world, concentrating on spicy, from Dave DeWitt, former publisher of Chili Pepper magazine.

Dave's making trouble again....