With Jack Abramoff said to be about to cut a deal with federal prosecutors, R. Jeffrey Smith's"The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail," Washington Post, 31 December, is a particularly important read.

James C. Garland,"How to Put College Back Within Reach," Washington Post, 30 December. The president of Ohio's Miami University argues that public higher education is headed toward privatization and makes some proposals about how its public funding can be targeted to allow public institutions to continue serving public purposes.

Into the breach between Christmas/New Year's good will and the annual celebration of their father's birthday, two of Martin Luther King's children sling a threat to sue his other two children over the proposed sale of Atlanta's King Center to the federal government. The worst possible outcome in terms of the public interest: any deal that obliges the government to assume maintenance and overhead costs for the Center, while allowing these spoiledlings to continue to occupy it.

Too late for The Cliopatria Awards, but good reads anyway: Chris Bray nominates The Sneeze as the"Best. Blog. Ever." and Eric Alterman nominates"Poker with Dick Cheney" as the"Best. Post. Ever." (Scroll down. It's 20 June 2004.)