Hollywood.

Over at Hit & Run, I have an update on the latest in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, a possibly innocent man put to death by the state of Texas in 2004.

The story’s getting even weirder.

Nina Simone’s “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl.”

Philadelphia.

Um. Holy crap.

What year is this?

My compliments to my colleagues on this one. The contrast between union protesters and Whole Foods employees is beautiful.

I’ve emailed with Fred at LivePodium and we’re going to disable the LivePodium system for the time being. Fred’s going to make some major adjustments then we’ll reassess.

‘Til then, it’s back to the old commenting system.

According to a new CDC study, teen pregnancy and abortion rates are both at historic lows.

The pregnancy rate for teenagers fell 40 percent during the 1990–2005 period, to 70.6 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15–19 years. This rate was the lowest reported since 1976.

The overall decline for teenagers is reflected in significant declines in rates for live births and induced abortions, with much steeper declines for abortions (down 53 percent) compared with live births (down 32 percent). The pregnancy rate declined much more rapidly from 1990 to 2005 for younger teenagers 15–17 years (48 percent) than for older teenagers 18–19 years (30 percent). Pregnancy rates declined by 47–49 percent each for black and white non-Hispanic teenagers and by 23 percent for Hispanic teenagers.

These declines occurred over the same period social conservatives have been warning us about the consequences of a sexualized culture, the mainstreaming and widespread availability of pornography, the licentious nature of the Internet, and so on. But like most major social indicators over the last 20 years (last week, the FBI reported that reported rapes are also at a 20-year low), teen pregnancy and abortion rates are moving in the right direction. And pretty swiftly.

Save, I guess, for obesity. Maybe the next panic will be that America’s teenagers are too fat to have sex.

Old Town Alexandria.

I’ll be on WBAL in Baltimore at 5:05 pm ET today to talk about Prince George’s County, Maryland Sheriff Michael Jackson.

Listen here.

Brown bear. Alaska.

We did a point/counterpoint for U.S. News & World Report.

Read my piece here.  Read McCarthy’s counterpoint here.

I’ve long maintained that Frank and Teressa Belissimmo, generally credited with inventing the Buffalo wing, began the greatest marketing campaign in food history. It was obviously uncoordinated. But think about what’s become of the lowly wing. A fatty, sinewy, not particularly flavorful, high low meat-to-bone ratio part of the chicken has been transformed into a celebrated food item that now comes it its own culture, tradition, and rituals. Before the Buffalo wing, chicken wings were generally thrown out or boiled for soup stock. Now America scarfs down millions of chicken flappers every Sunday afternoon.

I bring all of this up because of this NY Times story showing just how far the wing has come. Chicken wings–bones and all–are now selling for more per pound than chicken breasts. This has spurred some restaurants to start promoting “boneless wings,” in which they cut and cook a chicken breast to more resemble a wing. Not because it’s easier to eat or tastier (though in my opinion it’s both), but because customers want wings, and it’s now actually cheaper to make fake “wings” with breast meat.

Last week, attorneys for special ed student Marshawn Pitts released the security video below, which shows Pitts being beaten by Christopher Lloyd, a police officer in Dolton, Illinois who was working security at the school. Pitts’ attorneys say Lloyd administered the beating because Pitts hadn’t tucked in his shirt, as required by the school’s dress code.

When the video first emerged last week, the Dolton police department refused to release Lloyd’s name. With good reason. Lloyd is in jail in Indiana. He was arrested last month for raping an Indiana woman at knife point. He had also threatened the woman weeks earlier, but apparently wasn’t arrested or disciplined for it.

But it gets worse. Lloyd was also fired last year from another suburban Chicago police department . . . for killing his ex-wife’s husband in front of their children. The town of Robbins fired Lloyd after the February 2008 shooting, but Chicago police bought Lloyd’s claim that the shooting was self-defense, so he was never charged. That enabled Lloyd to find work at the Dalton police department 11 months later.

According to a lawsuit filed by Lloyd’s ex-wife, autopsy reports contradict the police investigation. The autopsy shows that Lloyd shot the man 24 times. When contacted by the Chicago Tribune, a spokesman from Chicago PD said details of the department’s investigation of the shooting “could not immediately be found.”

(Via Carlos Miller.)

The Associated Press has a wonderful story today about my friend, Catoite, and Iraqi war vet Joey Coon’s efforts to bring his Iraqi translator to the U.S. and out of harm’s way.

The U.S. government has treated the Iraqis who helped our troops over there pretty awfully. But this story has a happy ending.

Joey’s efforts to save Bandar are pretty extraordinary. If you need a lift this afternoon, this article will do it.

. . . looks at the political ambitions of Prince George’s County, Maryland Sheriff Michael Jackson.

After a dreadful record as sheriff, including overseeing and then displaying galling callousness, obstinacy, and lack of accountability in the Cheye Calvo raid, Jackson now plans to run for county executive.