When Cocaine and Broccoli Collide

U.S. Border Patrol agents in Laredo say they've seized nearly $8 million in drugs after searching a bus and a truck laden with frozen broccoli.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday the bus was packed with more than $4 million in cocaine and driven by a 30-year-old from Conroe. No arrest was immediately made after the Thursday seizure, but the agency reports the investigation is ongoing.

A separate search of a truck turned up more than a ton of marijuana and nearly 50 pounds of cocaine worth more than $3 million. Authorities say the man driving the truck was turned over to immigration authorities on federal drug charges.

--via Associated Press

Photo of the Week: Forever with Marilyn

--For sale: eternity with Marilyn Monroe

Getting the Story First

In one murder after another, the "Canal Livre" crime TV show had an uncanny knack for being first on the scene, gathering graphic footage of the victim.

Too uncanny, say police, who are investigating the show's host, state legislator Wallace Souza, on suspicion of commissioning at least five of the murders to boost his ratings and prove his claim that Brazil's Amazon region is awash in violent crime. Police also have accused Souza of drug trafficking.

"The order to execute always came from the legislator and his son, who then alerted the TV crews to get to the scene before the police," state police intelligence chief Thomaz Vasconcelos charged in an interview with The Associated Press.

The killings of competing drug traffickers, he said, "appear to have been committed to get rid of his rivals and increase the audience of the TV show."

--via Associated Press

Photo of the Week: Susan Boyle All Dolled Up

Find the rest here. (Hat tip Sullivan)

Sunday Morning

Finally!

The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.

--via Associated Press

The Evolving Art of the Mugshot

Errol Morris on the mugshot.

Make Me Proud, Iowa

Go, Grassley, Go

Why We Freelance

--via businessguysonbusinesstrips (Hat tip Jason Welch)

Speaking of the Times...

Will they ever learn to link properly?

She thought for a minute and then laughed. “Oh, fine. I suppose they probably don’t attach sexuality to Julia Child, either.” (Dan Aykroyd famously parodied her lack of femininity in a “Saturday Night Live” skit, parts of which Ms. Ephron includes in her film.)
--via "Julie & Julia" review, here.

Where's the skit, you tease? We've all heard of Dan Aykroyd and seen Saturday Night Live already.

The New Face of American Power

What we can really learn from Gatesgate:

...America is being led, to a striking extent, by a new elite, a cohort of the best and the brightest whose advancement was formed, at least in part, by affirmative action policies. ...And yet the consequences of that change remain unresolved.

..Even those who now occupy niches at the top of society, regard their status as complicated, ambiguous and vulnerable.

--from Helene Cooper at the Times