Fast Tuesday Blog

Expect stories of power problems and rolling power outages later today and tonight. The "grid" is expected to be taxed today as the weather acts like summer..

If you still use postage stamps, better load up on those "forever" stamps. Postage rates are expected to rise 2 cents very soon. A proposal to eliminate Saturday residential deliveries is expected; but that itself would take an act fo Congress (literally) to make happen.

A 2 parter story- a SHOCKING! and a REALLY?!?!?! in one. Ex-Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell has been nabbed in a drug sting in Alabama.The arrest for possession of codeine syrup came as part of an undercover investigation, Mobile County Sheriff Office spokeswoman Lori Myles told the (Mobile) Press-Register.

Like the BBC here in America? BBC Worldwide is to bow more TV channels in the U.S. in the next 12 months as part of its strategy to derive two thirds of its income from outside the U.K. by 2012. Revenue for Worldwide's channel biz grew by 16.4% last year.

British pop singer George Michael was arrested over the weekend after crashing his car into a London store. He's OK.

Jay Leno's ratings are the lowest since 1993. Does this mean he'll be replaced?

Simon Cowell says he helped broker pal Piers Anthony's deal with CNN to replace Larry King this fall.

Sam's Club said Tuesday it will offer loans of up to $25,000 to its small business members. The division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is based in Bentonville, Ark., is testing a program with Superior Financial Group, one of 13 federally licensed nonbank lenders, and will offer $5,000 to $25,000 loans to members who qualify.

Saw pics of the new Conan The Barbarian guy. What's up with his busy, long eyebrows? He looks kinda small to be playing Conan to me.

The Air Force is close to developing a new class of long-range hypersonic missiles. A meeting on June 30 was held to discuss the impact of adding to the Pentagon's arsenal hypersonic missiles, which can reach at least Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, flying 600 miles in 10 minutes. Such a missile could be developed in a decade with adequate funding, backers say. May's flight was a giant leap toward that goal. "This test opens the door for hypersonic weapons capable of prompt global strike," said Brigadier General William J. Thornton, a key Air Force weapons tester.

In a recent interview with a British magazine, His Purple badness Prince states "the internet is over" and

The first stage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is expected to provide coverage to about 1 million uninsured Americans by next year, according to government estimates. Many others — more than 100 million people — are getting new benefits that improve their existing coverage.

Men at Work must relinquish 5% of royalties from the song "Down Under". An Australian court found in February that a key flute riff in the song had been taken from the kids song "Kookaburra" written by schoolteacher Marion Sinclair in 1934; rights have since been purchased by Larrikin Music, which brought the action against the 1980s group.


and finally, if you were watching the NBC Evening News last night, you may have noticed Brian WIlliams in the anchor chair. He wasn't supposed to be there. It seems that Brian forgot that yesterday was a "day off" for most NBC Universal employees due to the 4th falling on a Sunday this year. According to his blog, he wrote "It was as if someone made an announcement that the last person left in New York City would have cooties. You can roll a bowling ball down 6th Avenue outside our building and watch it fall off the other end of the island into the Hudson River. There's no one here. The company bought us cheeseburgers today (baked beans, apple pie, nice) because there are so few places to get take-out."