Five by 8 – 3/17/10: Steal these links, pass them on

What is happening in your world?

1) If bin Laden is found, he’ll be killed, Holder says

Osama bin Laden “will never appear in an American courtroom,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told House members at a hearing Tuesday.

“Let’s deal with the reality here,” Holder said in response to questions from Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.). “The reality is, we will be reading Miranda rights to a corpse.”

According to the Post piece, Holder went on to say that bin Laden would be killed by us or his own people. I’ll look for your comments on this one.

2) If you look at one infographic today (off the MPR site, of course) take a look at the one here: forget lakes. we got bikes.

A design collective in Minneapolis called 2&21 brought it together. Their structure:

Each month is a new project. We start on the 2nd and wrap it up by the 21st. It’s a reason to hang out, get our hands dirty, and make some cool stuff along the way.

h/t Than Tibbetts

3) 70 pallets of prescription drugs totalling $75 million (that’s wholesale, you’ll hear) were stolen in Connecticut over last weekend.

According to multiple news outlets, Eli Lilly & Co. said the thieves cut a hole in the roof of a Connecticut warehouse, rappelled in, disabled the security system and removed the drugs. Eli Lilly is trying to track the stolen pharmaceuticals and maintain supply of the drugs, such as Prozac.

4) Veterans programs dodge budget-balancing ax. Our own Tim Pugmire provides the story:

5) Keep up with flood information on Updraft. MPR Meteorologist Paul Huttner writes major flooding is expected in St. Paul:

Flood forecasters at the Twin Cities NWS are burning the midnight oil these days. New flood forecasts late Tuesday evening predict that the Mississippi River in St. Paul will now reach major flood stage and now see a potential crest near 17 feet by next Tuesday.

What does that look like? According to his blog entry, at 17.0, secondary flood walls are deployed at the St. Paul Airport.

TODAY’S QUESTION

From Fargo-Moorhead to downtown St. Paul, residents and business owners are bracing for spring floods. In some areas, such floods are becoming a regular occurrence. Does it make sense to live in a flood-prone area?

WHAT WE’RE DOING

Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) – First hour: Later this week, lawmakers are expected to vote on Pres. Obama’s health care overhaul bill. Two observers who have been watching the process closely weigh in on the implications of the upcoming decision.

Second hour: A recent report from the Alzheimer’s Association finds that African-Americans are twice as likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s than caucasians. We’ll discuss the latest research and treatement for this prevalent disease, especially as it involves dementia and memory.

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