Morning Brew: December 27th

Courier: "The city wants to assess the historical and cultural significance of the Powell Street neighbourhood once known as Japantown". In other words, it wants to turn it into a tourist spectacle with the added bonus of some funky, heritage, work/live units.

Credit Check: MTV forced Eva Mendes to pick up needles and cook meals for the un-famous at the Portland Hotel as part of a new show called 4Real, a spin-off where parents from My Super Sweet 16 bid on Hastings Hotels and race to transform them into themed boutiques.

Covenant Zone: Povertarians and Povertarianism. Dear pot, meet the kettle.

John Martin. "This was the year that Canadians refused to do what they were told". Or to put it another way: This was the year Canadians finally became as lazy and spiteful towards their right to democratic process as Americans have been for decades. "Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton, teachers and CBC producers are still trying to figure out what hit them". Oh, probably the incessant editorials plucked straight from Harper's press kit and Fraser Institute's website. Your war on "the left", with vitriol towards environmentalists, teachers, women, drug addicts, anti-poverty activists, unionists, and generally anybody who's idea of happiness isn't a two car garage, a plasma screen TV, a trophy wife, an SUV, a double double and a subscription to one of the 3 main newspapers out of 4 that are owned by Canwest which tells them to be angry about gas taxes, marijuana grow-ups in their pristine community, and paralyzed immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Do they even know that this year police tried to start a riot in Quebec? It made the BCCLU's annual list.

P.S. John Martin is from The Fraser Valley, the Bible Belt of B.C.

Mounties save Christmas for victim of theft. Awww look at how cute she is. She almost makes you forget about that whole taser thing a while back. And the Ian Bush thing before that. And that whole corruption thing. And pepper sraying that baby in Squamish. And that whole Maher Arar thing. Almost.

Four years later and still no trial. Oh hey look its the Globe and Mail covering the legislature raid case. Where's Canwest?

King's Corner: New Year's Resolutions or the Emperor's New Clothes?

Harper gov't revs up SUV purchases. Do as I say, not as I do.

Tyee runs The 100-Mile-an-Hour Diet, originally published in Tooth and Dagger.

24 ways to avoid the family - if you have to. Actually, I hope Morning Brew brings you closer with your family, by sharing fresh and relevant news-bits with an exciting and vibrant twist! Also available in Lite.

Chalked Up best of 2007.