Hot off the Press: When the levee breaks edition

Officials in the Netherlands are poised to make pot shops off limits to foreign tourists. The coffee shops that now sell pot would become private clubs and only adult Dutch citizens, who will need to show ID and buy a club membership, will be admitted: http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-dutch-coffeeshops-drugs-20110601,0,588802.story.

The work of literary journalists is slowly moving from print to online: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-david-ulin-20110515,0,3634450.story.

Here is a fascinating NPR special report about Chinese investment in a Greek port and how it is reshaping the labor landscape: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-ca-david-ulin-20110515,0,3634450.story.

A new book presents evidence that the Smurfs "represents the worst possible prejudices" and are "'an archetype of a totalitarian utopia,' containing characteristics of Stalinism and Nazism": http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,767372,00.html.

After a little court battle, the Bavaria's Upper Palatinate Beer Queen, basically an advertising ploy, gets to keep her crown: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,767461,00.html.

An urn with "Grandma's" ashes was donated to a Goodwill store in Flint, Michigan: http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2011/06/10/grandma-ashes-goodwill.html. Have been a Goodwill employee who sorted donations, I can attest to the weird things people donate.

Red-light and speed-enforcement cameras are all the rage in Cedar Rapids right now, so it is no surprise this article regarding the backlash against red-light cameras in LA surfaced on the CRG website: http://thegazette.com/2011/06/09/la-could-join-backlash-against-traffic-cameras/. If you as me, I think it is a little shady these cameras are installed and operated by private companies that rake in most of the profit at the city's expense. It smells a little fishy.