Blog Heap of Links for the day 23 May 2009

President Obama on Friday promised the U.S. Naval Academy's graduating class that he will not send them into combat unless absolutely necessary and will always make sure they are properly prepared and equipped, in an apparent swipe at the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

People convicted of certain misdemeanors and illegal immigrants arrested for any crime will have to provide a DNA sample under a bill signed into law Wednesday. Gov. Brad Henry said the measure is intended to help law officers solve cold cases of violent crimes.

Travelling through Oklahoma, Kevin Connolly recalls the life of Cherokee-American Will Rogers, a star of silent and talking movies.

Golden shovels turned the first dirt Friday for construction of a $15 million hotel in the heart of downtown on a corner facing a historic railroad depot and the ConocoPhillips office.

Billy Best ran away from home in Norwell, Mass., in 1994 to avoid chemotherapy, and today he offered conflicting words of support and opposition to Daniel and Colleen Hauser. The mother and son, who are from Minnesota, are now part of an international police search after they fled a judge's court-ordered chemotherapy Monday for Daniel.

The half-sized cows barely reached Kenny's waist. The ranch's border collie stared eye-to-eye with wandering calves. "Aren't they sweet?"

The Obama administration on Friday launched Data.gov, a Web site intended to increase public access to data collected by the government.

"The black and white stripe is basically a contrasting stripe that's kind of a safety enhancement project that we're starting to do," said Paul Green, Oklahoma Department of Transportation construction engineer. The alternating stripes make it easier for drivers to see which lane they are in.

graduate student stands accused of sharing copyrighted music files for years on P2P networks. Tenenbaum is defended by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, but the Free Software Foundation has also shoved its oar into the water and is paddling around a bit, trying to make some waves.

No one's happy about The Pirate Bay verdict. The site admins, who are now on the hook for a collective 30 million kronor in damages plus one year each in jail, have charged that the judge was biased. But the movie and music businesses have filed an appeal of their own, saying that the 30 million kronor in damages wasn't nearly enough

An Oklahoma bill to ban abortions based on an unborn child's sex has been passed by the state legislature and now heads to the governor for signing.