Some surprising news on the economy this morning -
First, the U.S. Economy grew in the first quarter of the year so, technically, the U.S. Is not in a recession.
Second, the Cdn economy shrank in February, largely because of a decline in manufacturing. That surprised most forecasters who predicted ...   more »

Since joining Confederation in 1949, the annual budget of the government of Newfoundland and Labrador has included a big helping hand from Ottawa.... Meanwhile, Newfoundland's seat in the have-not club looks to be taken up about the same time by Ontario, which hasn't taken an equalization dollar since 1983.

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Calgary Grit has a good one ...

Dearest Candidate,

Good morning, how are you and your family? I hope fine. Please, I am sorry to bother you with my problem.

Please know that it's not by mistake I am contacting you but by the special grace of God. My name ...   more »

For the last several weeks, one of the major themes I've been reporting so far as Canada's economy is concerned is the phenomenon of two economies within one nation. One economy is B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador and those provinces are booming. The other economy is in central ...   more »

The Washington Post today looks back at more than a 100 years of Bisphenol A, the chemical recently labelled as a a possible problem by Health Canada (a big victory for environmental activists; a bitter defeat for industry types).... My government, which, above all else seems to want to be prudent, says: "The scientists concluded in this assessment that bisphenol A exposure to newborns and infants is below levels that may pose a risk, however, the gap between exposure and effect is not large enough."

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Still, she's a pretty smart cookie if politically, er, unlucky. And she tells Canwest's man in Paris that Harper is "very controlling" but "competent": PARIS - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is running a competent government but should curb his "control freak" tendencies and make clear to Canadians his government won't impose a socially conservative agenda if he wins a majority, according to former prime minister Kim Campbell...

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They not only know stuff about the clients they represent but they know a lot of stuff about their competitors and about the industry they're in. If I'm looking to sniff out a rumour, let's say, about an airline company, the PR folks at that airline company are unlikely to tell me much.... The good ones know that relationships they establish with a journalist should outlast whatever client they're representating or whatever project their office is involved in. Which brings me to Joe Thornley of the public relations firm Thornley Fallis.   more »

Barry Bearak has been reporting for The New York Times from Zimbabwe's capital Harare.... His account of the arrest is fascinating: One of my captors, Detective Inspector Dani Rangwani, described the offense to me as something despicable, almost hissing the words: “You’ve been gathering, processing and disseminating the news.”   more »

This line in his speech jumped out: In 2006, we ran a national leadership campaign in the world’s second largest democracy—by geographic size—for a little over 2 million dollars, and we did it with a wider base of donors than any other candidate.... The campaign finance reforms initiated first by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and then improved upon by Prime Minister Stephen Harper prove that it is possible to have a vibrant and democratic political culture, in which free speech rights are preserved, without the distorting effects of "Big Money" in the life of the state.   more »

So I'm wondering if AppleScript can help me out here, taking any message that comes into a designated folder on my local machine and then saving that message with a unique filename in a designated folder on my local drive.... The name of the file doesn't matter just so long as these mail messages get out of their .mbox format and into a plain-text format on my drive.

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