Atlanta publisher Andrew B. Adler’s “kill Obama” column challenges my “fight-words-with-words” standard response to vicious publications and speech. It never should have been published. No, he’s not a racist, anti-Semitic crank or advocate of sex among boys, clerics and coaches. Sick as they are, I wouldn’t muzzle them so long as they are willing to accept the consequences.    

The state representative Alicia Reece has introduced a bill that would reduce the number of reasons for making voters cast provisional ballots and also clarifies that election officials will be held responsible for errors instead of blaming voters.  

After a flight from Canada to Shanghai, the singer for Behind Sapphire was detained and placed in jail for six days for what he claims to have “accidentally” hidden in his luggage. A glock? Hand grenade? Snacks from Panda Express? Nope — the vocalist was reportedly jailed because his suitcase contained collectible antique bullets from World War I.   

Talking to scientists is always kind of crazy — you know they’re smarter than you but the slightest amount of eye contact makes them start talking so fast you can’t even pretend to be following. The AP today checked in with a group of extremely enthusiastic scientists on their own terms (by phone), reporting the details of a black hole eating a star 3.8 billion light years from Earth and then shooting matter out of its center at 80-90 percent of the speed of light (I know, right?!?).  

The hillside neighborhood that overlooks downtown to the west is making a rebound after years of suffering due to bad policy decisions by bureaucrats. Crime reported in the East, West and Lower Price Hill areas took a steep 20.2 percent drop in the first six months of 2011 compared to the same period a year ago, according to statistics compiled by Cincinnati Police.  

It’s time to change your shopping habits to help save democracy. That’s the message of the loosely organized, shadowy group of computer hacktavists known as “Anonymous,” the group responsible for coordinating online protests to promote freedom of speech and free, unrestricted access to the Internet.  

Those of us who long ago replaced our iPods with the one Apple invented that also has a phone in it don’t have to worry about getting our cars broken into for leaving our 8-gig sitting on the seat (in which case we’d only really care about the broken window and change missing from the console). Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis today broke Rule No. 2 when it comes to leaving electronics in plain sight of thieves: Don’t forget about the charger.  

Concern is quickly growing over the New Year's Eve deaths of red-winged blackbirds, grackles and starlings that fell out of the skies over Beebe, Ark., with the most likely explanations involving biblical end times, secret government weapons testing and aliens mistakenly thinking birds are in charge of Earth because they can fly.  

Here's a newsflash for Tea Partiers: You've been played like a fiddle by your so-called friends in the Republican Party. And don't start scoffing, progressives. Your chosen presidential candidate who now sits in the Oval Office has reneged on yet another of the few rock-solid pledges he made during his campaign two years ago.