http://bhamweekly.com/birmingham/articles.sec-49-1-hot-seat-limelight.html Come on Irene: Late last week and over the weekend, Hurricane Irene made landfall in North Carolina and tore up the East Coast, causing structural damage, record flooding and a death toll of over 40.]]> East Coast earthquake: Early Tuesday morning, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in Virginia outside of Charlottesville. ]]> Je suis bankrupt! It’s become a bit of a running gag in the States how weak the dollar has become compared to the Euro. If we go purely on exchange rank, then the dollar loses. But the Euro may actually be the biggest loser in the end.]]> Anarchy in the U.K.: Great Britain, historical home of the stiff upper lip and “Keep Calm and Carry On,” exploded with rioting, looting and general civil unrest in the past week. ]]> Bye-bye boonies: The country is failing. No, I’m not spouting some rhetoric about how the United States is doomed to die. (It’s not.) According to the Associated Press, rural America is at its lowest population in history, with only 16 percent of citizens roughing it in the boonies.]]> Tragedy in Norway: Last Friday, July 22, Norway experienced one of the worst terrorist attacks in recent memory. At around 3:30 in the afternoon, a car bomb exploded outside of the office of the Norwegian prime minister in Oslo, killing eight people and wounding many others.]]> Duel to the debt: The battle of the budget has been going on in Washington for months now, but we’re quickly approaching a do-or-die moment. A compromise must be reached by August 2. ]]> Rupert on the ropes: A few months ago, it seemed almost inevitable that Rupert Murdoch would take over all sources of news and crown himself King of Media. ]]> Their jagged stumps serve to mark the areas affected by the tornadoes. We can rebuild homes and pick up the shattered pieces of life in Alabama, but the barren stretches of land where trees were ripped by their roots from the ground will outline the scars left by the storms for long after.]]> Bye-bye Blagojevich: Remember Rod Blagojevich? He’s the guy with the funny hair who spent the last few years on TV chat shows trying to convince people he was a good, innocent guy.]]> Pakistan Strikes Back: Do you remember when President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had finally been killed, but also cautioned against piling any blame on the Pakistani government? ]]> An Unfortunate Weiner: A month ago, Representative Anthony Weiner of New York’s 9th District was at the top of his game. ]]> U.S. economy slowing: American firms added fewer workers than forecast in May, a sign job growth is struggling to pick up, according to data from a new private report based on payrolls. ]]> Apocalypse Later: Well, we all made it through the “Rapture” promised by a certain Harold Camping last Saturday.]]> Donald Departs: Earlier this week Donald Trump, hotel / casino / golf course magnate and reality TV star, finally dropped his bid for the presidency.]]> Trumped: Donald Trump’s bid for the Republican nomination for president has been interesting,but Seth Meyers put it best at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner:]]> The Long Road Ahead: Last Wednesday, April 27, seven states were ravaged by storms. Alabama was hit worst of all when an F5 tornado cut a swath of destruction across the state, razing some towns to the ground.]]> “You Are Really Dumb” Antoine Dodson, the Huntsville resident who became famous after delivering a heated speech on a local news station (“Hide your kids, hide your wife, ‘cause they rapin’ everybody up in here!”) which in turn went viral on YouTube as the Bed Intruder Song, was arrested recently for charges involving marijuana. ]]> A Lesson Not Learned: It’s been a year now since Deepwater Horizon burned into the sea and released the largest oil spill in history, but are we any safer now than we were then? ]]> Yet Another Ousted Dictator: Earlier this week, Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Ivory Coast, was removed from power and plopped right onto the hot seat.]]>