News Bits!

-A judge upheld the smoking ban put in place a few months ago, but reduced the violation fine to $500.

-In his "State of Downtown" address, Mayor Will Wynn reported that roughly 17,000 jobs were created last year, and forecasts that the number of poeple living downtown will rise to 10,000 within the next three years.

-Several Austin companies made Inc. and Deloitte's annual list of the fastest growing private and public companies, respectively. Among the top were local software firm NetQos and Green Mountain Energy, the latter providing hope that there may be profitability in conservation, after all.

-There might be oxygen on the moon!

-A crazy woman in SF tossed her three children into the bay.

-Apple's rockin' new Power Macs now come with four separate processing cores.

-An arrest warrant for Tom Delay was officially issued.

-Hey, Ashton! We don't care about your douchebag antics in real life, much less on television.

-Wilmaaa! She weakened ever-so-slightly overnight, but is expected to pick up strength again before she approaches the Florida coast.

-News in the world of oncology: a drug known as Herceptin, when administered to breast cancer patients with particularly aggressive mutation, seem to cut the chances of a relapse by half. Also, scientists have discovered a vaccine for cervical cancer - with a 100% efficacy rate. And, of course, the righteous right are not so happy.

-Sexy headline of the day (well, yesterday): "Hillary’s Chest Gets Bigger As ’08 Gets Closer"

-The Pentagon claims that China's 2005 defense budget is over $90 billion. China's defense chief pegs it closer to $29 billion. It seems that both sides have lost sight of the fact that it's still a lot of money.