It all started on Friday afternoon when the sleet began to fall. Just before dusk, this is how our truck looked…

I sure am glad I decided not to fire up the grill this weekend…

Of course, by early Saturday morning, just before the real accumulation of our ice, I noticed a raccoon (or some other clawed critter) attempted to break into the bird feeder…

Notice the "fresh" rip marks on the right side of the feeder.

We spent the weekend chillin', not grillin'. Things got a bit chilly, and the mailbox had over an inch of ice on it by this morning…

Anyway… We are fine, and everything is hunky dory… If you couldn't get here earlier today, it had nothing to do with the ice storm, and everything to do with dns issues at the provider level, but those should be resolved by now.

AIDS among infants, which only a decade ago took the lives of hundreds of babies a year and left doctors in despair, may be on the verge of being eliminated in the United States, public health officials say.

In 1990, as many as 2,000 babies were born infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS; now, that number has been reduced to a bit more than 200 a year, according to health officials. In New York City, the center of the epidemic, there were 321 newborns infected with H.I.V. in 1990, the year the virus peaked among newborns in the city. In 2003, five babies were born with the virus.

Across the country, mother-to-child transmission of H.I.V. has dropped so sharply that public health officials now talk about wiping it out.

"This is a dramatic and wonderful success story," said Dr. Vicki Peters, the head of pediatric surveillance for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This winter, Dr. Peters presented a report in Bangkok for World AIDS Day documenting the improvement in New York.

The success in fighting mother-to-child transmission, a sweeping victory for public health officials, was made possible largely because of better drugs, but aggressive public education and testing, as well as cooperation at the federal and local levels, also played a significant role.

The advent of AZT, a drug used to attack H.I.V. in the blood and central nervous system, was critical. But equally important was simply getting mothers to know their H.I.V. status before they gave birth, a problem complicated by privacy and political and social issues.

Much of the developing world continues to be ravaged by AIDS, however. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than two million people died of the disease last year. "We have had incredible progress," said Dr. Lynne Mofenson, the chief of the Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health. "But if you think about the U.S. and New York and then you think about Africa, it is like a tale of two cities, a tale of two epidemics."

These are significant results.

A Mexican government official has threatened to use international courts to block an Arizona law meant to prohibit illegal aliens from receiving public benefits and voting rights.

Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said in a radio interview Wednesday that an international strategy would be used if other attempts to reverse Proposition 200 fail, the Associated Press reported.

…

Mexican officials have repeatedly complained about Proposition 200, which went into effect Tuesday. The statewide measure denies most taxpayer benefits to illegal aliens and requires state workers to report applicants for such benefits who may not be eligible. It also requires anyone registering to vote in the state to show proof of citizenship and bring a government-issued ID to the polling place.

<sarcasm>Gasp. Can you imagine the atrocity of this legislation? Damn. How can anyone support a law that requires a person to be a legal resident of the United States before given benefits which are only for legal residents of the United States? How can anyone support a law that asks state employees to uphold the law? How can anyone support a law that requires a person to show proof of U.S. citizenship and show valid ID in order to vote in elections within the United States? How appalling.</sarcasm>

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has challenged Prop. 200, saying it is "an illegal, impermissible, unconstitutional state attempt to regulate immigration policy, which is a fundamental function and responsibility of our federal government. Proposition 200 is mean-spirited and un-American."

Proposition 200 does not attempt to regulate immigration policy. It merely attempts to make sure that people who ignore our immigration laws and are in our country illegally do not take advantage of the already limited benefit system and do not attempt to skew the results of our elections, which they have no damn business voting in anyway.

I can't believe Mr. Derbez is actually threatening to bring this to the international courts. We all know it will go nowhere, but the sheer audacity of his idiocy truly amazes me.

The execution of a serial killer who wants to die has been halted, an hour before it was due to be carried out, at his lawyer's request.

The latest twist came hours after the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal to save Michael Ross, who murdered eight women aged 14-25 in the 1980s.

His execution by lethal injection would be the first in the state for 45 years.

His attorney said he was seeking the postponement for 48 hours because of a possible conflict of interest.

Lawyer T R Paulding said that his client had not requested the delay.

The execution has now been put back from 0201 (0701GMT) on Saturday to 2100 on Monday (0200GMT Tuesday).

His attorney requested the stay because the appeals court got it all wrong? The man killed eight woman and now he wants to die. What part of "he wants to die" don't they understand? He committed the crimes, he was tried and convicted, he wants to die. I see no problem granting his last request. Leave him alone already.