US News reports on the urban/rural divide on guns. A lot of the interstate comparisons rely a lot on suicide rates. Which is not typically how it is portrayed. There is a similar disconnect on car deaths versus gun deaths.

Many laughs were had at the folks in North Carolina who objected to a solar energy installation for fear it would “suck up all the energy from the sun,” and it’s a pretty ridiculous argument. Dollars to donuts, though, it’s a NIMBY thing and they aren’t well-versed in the NIMBY lingo.

The GAO is accusing the EPA of covertly propagandizing the Clean Water Rule. The CWR got a lot of attention in Arapaho. Uniformly negative, which of course lead to some to wonder why westerners don’t want clean water.

The last of Britain’s coal pits have been shut down.

Monica Potts writes about the downsides to regional economic success, of course referring to pricing out existing residents. If San Francisco wants to help subsidize these folks, I can’t really object so long as they’re not just passing the bill on to landlords. Or asking people everywhere else to help people live in the most expensive part of the country.

Newish mother Bethany Mandel used to like SVU, but can’t really get into it like she used to. I’ve found that being a father has changed the way that I see a lot of TV programs. At some point there will be a post about it.

Are Michael Bay and the CIA conspiring? The comment about one of the Transformers movies being a critique of Obama is interesting. I’d heard it before, but I thought it was one of those cases of conservatives trying to find redemption where they can.

It turns out, legalizing pot leads to more pot-related hospitalizations.

The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at how student loans are subsidizing college athletics programs and its arms race.

Bethany Mandel looks at a study purporting to find that religious kids are less altruistic, and finds it lacking. {More}

How uncharitable is it of me to read this piece as a long, eloquent statement that “I love living in California and hate that other people are ruining it by living here, too.”?

Jason Russell writes of how charter schools may be helping Hispanic kids assimilate.