Info2008/2009

Lehman Brothers said that it would sell a majority stake in its investment management unit and spin off commercial mortgages as it tries to stay afloat.

1) Flat Chested Girl from Maynardville, Bobby Bare Jr. and the Young Criminal's Starvation League. My favorite song involving cat torture. Bobby Bare Jr. was nominated for a Grammy at the age of five, for the song "Daddy What If," which he recorded with his daddy (Bobby Bare Sr.). That song was written by Shel Silverstein, and there's something Silverstein-esque about this song, too, about an angst-blasted teenage girl in her bedroom: the goofy, playful title, the calliope-like organ swirls, and the dark lyrical wit that gets darker and darker until, really, it's scraping dark bottom (that's when the cat gets it).

In Kirkuk, Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Suadad al-Salhy report that Kurds are increasingly using their control of the Iraqi police and their own secret police to further enhance their power.

Senators Obama and McCain each cite the mess at Fannie and Freddie as a consequence of lobbying, but each has ties of his own.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art reached into its own ranks to choose Thomas P. Campbell, a tapestries curator, to succeed Philippe de Montebello.

In selecting Thomas P. Campbell as its next director, the museum affirmed its own priorities.

Oil producers call for compliance with quotas, effectively cutting output if members follow through with the decision.

Hurricane Ike barreled across the Gulf of Mexico on its way toward Texas after crashing through Cuba’s tobacco country and toppling aging Havana buildings.

Candidates have a shorter election season, partly due to more early voting.

The most powerful microscope ever built for investigating the elemental particles of nature was turned on at the Swiss-French border.