Top of the morning:

Sorry posting was a little light yesterday, but thanks to everyone who stopped by and made yesterday the most-read day in DOPM history.

Four things to read today:

From the Register: Local interests win over big hog confinements in Dickinson County. This is encouraging for a lot of reasons. I'll probably have more on the issue later this week.

Two related: State 29 has the best post I've seen on the departure of Archie Brooks, and the Register has a pretty solid "what now?" piece this morning. I would hope (and pray) the Des Moines City Council isn't even really considering this:

The council may appoint someone to fill Brooks' Ward 4 seat, which represents the southeast section of the city. The seat is not up for re-election until November 2007.

Appointing someone to the seat and avoiding a special election would save taxpayers $25,000, according to estimates from Cownie.

News flash: Unless the Republicans name their #1 contender for SoS today and give him millions to make his name, you're going to need to hold a special election to fill Mike Mauro's seat anyway. So the "saving $25k" line is bullshit.

Finally, I don't know a lot about Stephanie Herseth, aside from the fact that John Deeth has a crush on her, but this discovery in Bret Hayworth's blog makes me want to send her a check.

KL