Not-A-Pundit: The Renaissance

NORMAN MINETA WILL STEP DOWN as transportation secretary next month, leaving only two original members of Bush’s cabinet and no Democrats.
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Seven men were charged with conspiracy for attempting to blow up buildings in Chicago and Miami. U.S. officials said they were ‘home-grown terrorists’ who sought to work with al Qaeda but ended up conspiring with an informant.
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Iraq’s premier declared a state of emergency after insurgents set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and fired on U.S. and Iraqi troops just north of the Green Zone.
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The Supreme Court expanded the definition of what constitutes “retaliatory discrimination” by employers against workers who file bias complaints, which some say will lead to a surge in such litigation.
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A WHO investigation showed that the H5N1 virus mutated slightly in the Indonesian family cluster, but bird-flu experts insisted it didn’t increase the possibility of a human pandemic.
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A Senate Abramoff report suggests more trouble for Ohio Rep. Ney and leading Republican strategists Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist.
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The EU’s top trade official wants a new round of global trade talks that will focus on energy, with the goal of subjecting trade in oil and gas to the same ‘ordinary rules’ as other goods.
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Bush lauded Hungary as an example for nations aspiring to adopt Western-style democracy, in a visit there. Hungary’s prime minister urged Europeans to think more positively of America.
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Palestinian militants fired three rockets into Israel, prompting a prominent Israeli lawmaker to call for a military offensive in Gaza. Olmert said airstrikes against militants will continue.
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Somalia’s government and a representative of the faction that controls the country’s capital signed an agreement that calls for an immediate cease-fire and confers militia recognition on the interim administration.
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The House voted 269-156 to end the estate tax for all but the richest and lower remaining rates, a step back from the repeal Republicans sought. That adds pressure on Senate Democrats to follow suit.
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A car bomb exploded in a public market in a southern Philippine town as a convoy carrying a provincial governor was passing by, killing five people and wounding 10 others.
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Unlicensed tattoo operations have emerged as a worrisome transmission point for drug-resistant staph infections, a report by the CDC warns.
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A panel’s findings on the Earth’s past temperatures drew reactions among climate experts and on Capitol Hill.
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Australia’s Prime Minister Howard flies to Indonesia this weekend, keen to ease diplomatic tensions with Australia’s nearest neighbor.
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Thaksin’s party broke election laws in April’s vote, Thailand’s Election Commission said, a ruling that could result in the prime minister being barred from politics for five years and force his Thais Love Thais Party to be dissolved.
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The IOC chose three cities as finalists to host the 2014 Winter Olympics: Salzburg, Austria; Pyeongchang, South Korea; and Sochi, Russia.