The ABC reports:

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has arrived in London on Sunday to tackle a crisis that has spiralled beyond a phone-hacking scandal at one of his papers and threatened to scupper a multi-billion-dollar deal.

Things are spinning out of control, and politicians are seeking pay-back for years of pressure and fear delivered by News Corp and its minions. Rupert may think that he can scare enough people for this to go away, but there is ‘blood in the water’, and the politicians aren’t going to miss this opportunity for pay back.

The ABC News 24 program has a video up of an interview with Paul McMullan, the former News of the World executive who has been ‘helping the Guardian with its inquiries’. McMullan says that Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks knew about the hacking. McMullan is a charming piece of work who is apparently expecting to be arrested shortly, but still thinks that hacking the phones of ‘celebrities’ is OK, but hacking the phones of ‘the little people’ is wrong.

His comments about the costs of these investigations confirms my feeling that reporters don’t have the kind of budget authority necessary to carry off these operations without the approval of executives.

The Democratic National Committee is polling again, and as I am required to have a landline with my DSL, they called me.

They asked a question about the Ryan Budget Proposal that was interesting in its framing – they described it as the Republicans describe it – choice, private vs government, the whole load of BS that Ryan is attempting to sell in a TV ad campaign that I have seen a couple of times.

They are not going to like my answers when they are compiled, especially the ‘none of the above’ for the questions about the 2012 campaign and possible match-ups.

The Agitator got the ball rolling by picking up the story from a Fox affiliate in Detroit : Oak Park Woman Faces 93-Days in Jail For Planting Vegetable Garden

Their front yard was torn up after replacing a sewer line, so instead of replacing the dirt with grass, one Oak Park woman put in a vegetable garden and now the city is seeing green.

The list goes on: fresh basil, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, cumbers and more all filling five large planter boxes that fill the Bass family’s front yard.

Julie Bass says, “We thought we’re minding our own business, doing something not ostentatious and certainly not obnoxious or nothing that is a blight on the neighborhood, so we didn’t think people would care very much.”

But some cared very much and called the city. The city then sent out code enforcement.

Asked for a comment Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski said:

“If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster’s dictionary, it will say common. So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what’s common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers,” he said.

Apparently a lot of people decided to check out Mr. Rulkowski, because ‘suitable’ was the number one search at the Merriam-Webster site today. Sorry, Kevin, but ‘common’ is nowhere to be found in the definition.

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Issoire – Saint-Flour

Distance: 208.0 kilometers.

An E-Ticket roller coaster for those in pursuit of the Polka Dots. In the first half there are rolling hills then a Category 3, more rolling hills and then the meal break. After lunch it gets vertical – two Catergory 2s, then two Category 3s, another Category 2, a sprint, and finishes with two Catagory 4s. Tomorrow is a rest day, so there should be a lot of attacks.

One of the attacks was car, according to Cycling News:

A race that has been packed with drama so far continued in the same vein. An early crash that resulted in Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Amets Txurruka and Vacansoleil-DCM’s Wout Poels quitting the race was merely the prelude. As the bunch descended the second climb of the day, the Pas de Peyrol, a number of riders went down, both on the road and into the ditch and woods on the right-hand side of it.

The most seriously affected were Omega Pharma-Lotto GC leader Jurgen Van den Broeck and teammate Fredrik Willems, Astana leader Alexandre Vinokourov, and Garmin-Cervelo’s Dave Zabriskie. All were forced to abandon with broken bones.

With 36km to the finish, the lead break was reduced from five riders to three when a French TV car that was overtaking on the grass swerved to avoid a tree and side-swiped Juan Antonio Flecha, sending the Sky rider somersaulting into Johnny Hoogerland, who flew off the road to the right and into a wire fence. Fortunately, both riders were able to continue, Hoogerland receiving some compensation at the finish in the shape of the King of the Mountains jersey.

Thomas Voeckler ( Fra – EUC – 181 ) [Yellow] 38h 35′ 11″
Philippe Gilbert ( Bel – OLO – 032 ) [Green] 217 points
Johnny Hoogerland ( Ned – VCD – 204 ) [Polka Dot] 22 points
Robert Gesink ( Ned – RAB – 041 ) 15 [White]

Team: Eurocar ( 181-189 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Luis-Leon Sanchez ( Esp – RAB – 047 )
Combative: Johnny Hoogerland ( Ned – VCD – 204 ) [Red numbers] [Extra credit for car assault]

They’ve gone 1,591.0 kilometers [988.6 miles] at an average speed of 41.3 kph [25.6 mph] ↓.

OVERALL STANDINGS:
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From FIFA’s official site:

In Game One at the end of regulation it was Sweden 3-1 Australia. Sweden makes it through to play Japan in the Semi-Finals.

In Game Two at the end of regulation it was Brazil 1-1 US. At the end of the overtime it was Brazil 2-2 US. The match was decided by penalty shots: Brazil 3-5 US. US makes it through to play France in the Semi-Finals, but this definitely wasn’t the quality of play one expects from these teams. Own goals and players sent off is not great football.

ESPN has the replay on the ‘Net.