Rental Market Bubbling in Seattle: Developers have built more apartments this year than in the last 20, and are on target to surpass that record for the next two years.

Prison Break!: In a methodically planned attack, a French prisoner blew the doors off of his prison, took four hostages, and later lit his getaway car on fire, in a dramatic series of events no doubt orchestrated to serve his latest writings on a life of crime, and probably a movie option, too.

Elections to Replace Chavez Are Under Way: The favorite in the race is described by his opponent as an incompetent, corrupt liar, but he's also Chavez's heir.

Beavers vs. Salmon: Beaver dams are keeping salmon young from swimming out to sea.

Senate Hearings on For-Profit Colleges: Senator Harkin says that as long as 25 percent of federal funding goes to the 10 percent of students in for-profit colleges, the mostly online, mostly failing schools will be under scrutiny.

Bringing Bros to the Table: New campaign from Choice USA identifies bro-choice supporters of reproductive justice, including Ryan "Hey Girl" Gosling.

Senate Compromise Should Keep Us from the Brink of Starvation: A new deal would give undocumented farm workers "blue card" status so they can keep working on farms and eventual naturalization.

There's More to the Story of the Philippine Scouts Than Surrender: A handful of geriatric WWII soldiers gather in Tacoma to trade war stories in a conference honoring the 70,000 US-backed Phillipine Scouts who fought the Japanese and who were subsequently abandoned.

Why Hate on Thatcher? Street parties and soccer pitch celebrations strike American commentators as rather undignified. But then, Americans don't really know Thatcher that well. From the Guardian:

Her reputation basks in being part of the warm afterglow of Reagan's presidency – where Democrats and Republicans alike see the 1980s as a sort of high-water mark of muscular Americanism at home and abroad. Certainly Thatcher's domestic policies are either little known or positively portrayed as being part of an effort that "saved" Britain from the threat of socialism – an ideology that is anathema to both of America's political parties.