N M P

We were back in court today for a procedural hearing regarding a future trial date in the Leila Fowler murder case. The defense attorneys, Steve Plesser and Mark Reichel explain the status of the case in this clip from KCRA TV in Sacramento. ...

I just got in from a 5 miler on the American River Parkway. On the way back to the office I guy came up from the horse trail and said he just saw a Doe chasing a coyote. I've never seen that happen and I guess she was protecting her young. I think she went "Mommy Deerest" on the coyote. I'm just sayin'

I'm a devoted Red Sox fan and I never doubted that this would be the case.

Schoolwork in His Cell – Boy, 12, Remains Jailed in Sister's Murder

He gets schooling behind bars; their father is "devastated" amid reports of longtime family turmoil

http://www.youtube.com/embed/RJmz7UJK_CY?feature=player_detailpage

Fontella Bass, seen here on the show “Shindig” in 1965 singing her hit song “Rescue Me”, died on December 26. We listened back today to an interview Terry did with Bass in 1995.

Super Bowl Advertising

I am surprised that we didn't see the following announcement during the blackout during Sunday's Super Bowl.

"This power outage is brought you by Buffalo Wild Wings."

Story of cities #29: Los Angeles and the 'great American streetcar scandal'

The last train on the last line of greater Los Angeles’ Pacific Electric streetcar network made its last run on April 9, 1961.

Between 1938 and 1950, one company purchased and took over the transit systems of more than 25 American cities. 

Their name, National City Lines, sounded innocuous enough, but the list of their investors included General Motors, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, Mack Trucks, and other companies who stood to benefit much more from a future running on gasoline and rubber than on electricity and rails. 

National City Lines acquired the Los Angeles Railway in 1945, and within 20 years diesel buses – or indeed private automobiles – would carry all the yellow cars’ former passengers. Does that strike you as a coincidence?

Read the full story.

Photographs: AP (top); Paul Popper/Popperfoto/Getty Images (middle); Dan Chung for the Guardian (bottom)

What does "has a servant's heart" mean?