James Brown as the second coming and other weekend updates

By J. DeVoy

He is risen?  James Brown’s body is missing, and his daughter claims it’s to prevent an autopsy.  LaRhonda Petit, the 48-year-old progeny of the singer, said

“My daddy’s body has disappeared. I have no clue where it was taken, but I need to know where…I’m convinced his death was suspicious and I want the people responsible brought to justice.”

A strange story indeed, given Brown’s high profile in life.  Still, he looks downright christly in this photo:

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USAspending.gov has been failing lately, reports the L.A. Times.  A review by the GAO stretching from June 2009 to March 2010 revealed “inconsistencies” between the government’s contracts and the information displayed on the website.  Additionally, more than a dozen contracts had never been reported on the site.

The bill creating the site, signed into law in 2006, also provides no mechanism for including subcontract data.  At present, there are no plans to begin reporting that.

In comparison, and for the number-crunchers who read this blog, a whole piping-hot batch of information recently made its way to data.gov.  In addition to holding a wealth of Federal government data, the site has information from state and local governments as well, including California, Massachusetts and New York City (but not New York state, to the surprise of nobody who lives there).

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Finally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is mulling over whether to require black boxes in new cars.  Despite Drudge’s hysterical “SNOOP:” preface, designed to enrage self-styled libertarians and privacy kooks, the black box would have no tracking capacity.  Instead, it would operate like an airplane’s black box, storing data essential to recreating accidents.  In light of Toyota’s recent woes, this may be a good idea.