Outside the Beltway

Long-time Oakland Raiders owner and NFL icon Al Davis has died.

Pete Gent, the former Dallas Cowboy and Michigan State player best known as the author of “North Dallas Forty,” has died at 69 from pulmonary illness.

Charging soldiers $200 for an extra bag on their way home for war? Really Delta?

An item in the Extra Bases baseball notebook last Sunday misidentified, in some editions, the origin of the name Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, which Mets pitcher R. A. Dickey gave one of his bats. Orcrist was not, as Dickey had said, the name of the sword used by Bilbo Baggins in the Misty Mountains in “The Hobbit”; Orcrist was the sword used by the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in the book. (Bilbo Baggins’s sword was called Sting.)

Most good government jobs require a college degree–but they don’t care much whether it’s a real one.

David Simon on the drug war, the underclass, and America’s seamy underbelly.

Sarah Palin was “interviewed” by Sean Hannity last night. I doubt she helped herself.

The Presidency has lost the aura of mystique that used to surround it, and that’s a good thing.

Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News is a must-read for NFL fans, always offering sharp insights into the game garnered over decades of experience. But, like anyone else, he can develop silly theories from anecdotal evidence.

Newly elected Rep. Andy Harris was aghast when told his health benefits wouldn’t kick in until 28 days after his swearing-in.

It appears that full body scanners, operated by leering yahoos under the cover of government authority, may finally be rousing the sheep who have meekly submitted to the absurd delays and indignities that have been piled on since 9/11 and sundry botched attempts.

Nancy Pelosi is irritating some party stalwarts by funneling money into the campaigns of Democratic incumbents running ads against her.

Some old guy and the man who created “The Wire” are among this year’s recipients.

A new insurance industry survey confirms what anyone who’s spent an afternoon driving in metropolitan Washington, D.C. should already know in their heart.

Harvard has overtaken Princeton to retake the top spot in the US News college rankings.

JournoList’s archives have been making headlines at The Daily Caller, but there doesn’t seem to be any substance to the allegations of scandal.

The Washington DC area has the nation’s highest incomes.