81: Number of Iraqis reported killed on Sunday and Monday, “one of the bloodiest 24-hour periods in weeks.” Thirty of the victims, most of them beheaded, were “found dumped on a village road” north of Baghdad.

The U.S. embassy in Iraq faces criticism for “hiring its local staff from neighboring Jordan, rather than recruiting Iraqis.” One “highly placed American official…told a reporter he hired only non-Arab guards. “I don’t trust Iraqis,” he said.

Predatory lending is increasingly aimed at low-income minorities. A 2005 Federal Reserve study “showed that blacks and Hispanics are far more likely to receive high-cost home loans than whites, even when adjusting for factors such as income.”

Ohio can no longer charge some unmarried people under the state’s domestic violence law because “it conflicts with the state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage” passed in 2004, an appeals court has ruled.

The nation’s railways, which “transport more than 1.7 million shipments of hazardous materials every year,” remain dangerously vulnerable to attacks. “Chemical transport is clearly the greatest vulnerability in the country today and for some reason…the federal government has not acted,” said Richard Falkenrath, President Bush’s former deputy homeland security adviser. Read more