…a new month, and largely the same ol’ nooze:

• Ron Paul, in town for two quick speeches, brought forth some more of his right-fringe, anti-gov’t. talk. Then he and his aides drove off in a minivan to Spokane, presumably hoping the WSDOT crews had gotten the passes reopened.
• Microsoft offers a whoppin’ $45 billion in an unsolicited bid to take over Yahoo! (which, in turn, owns Flickr, HotJobs, GeoCities, and a bunch of other stuff).Of course, I remember when its name was a “backronym” for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” and its chief service was a categorized directory of other Web sites. For a couple of years, my daily morning routine included a quick glance through the “What’s New On Yahoo!” page, which told me everything that was new n’ exciting on that rapidly-growin’ World Wide Web. In time, as you can imagine, that became a too-cumbersome way to look for stuff online. Yahoo! expanded into other Web-based businesses—a lot of other Web-based businesses.

  Now, MS wants Y!’s search sites, and will pay big bucks to get ’em. What would happen to the rest of Yahoo!’s sprawling network of sites? MS would likely keep (and rebrand) some, fold others into its existing MSN, and close or sell the rest.

• The former Harvey’s Tavern in “Freelard” (Leary Way, between Fremont and Ballard) is yet another ex-dive bar going upscale.
• Remember when Kroger/QFC wanted to take over the Metropolitan Market site on Upper Queen Anne (nee Queen Anne Thriftway), as part of a huge condo project? Now it’ll be a smaller apartment project, and the developers have invited Metropolitan Market back when it’s done.
• Joe Isuzu calls it quits, at least in the U.S. market. No more “millions of standard features.”
• Mayor Nickels hearts Obama.
• A former Bartell Drugs pharmacy technician pleaded guilty to filing fraudulant prescriptions on his own behalf.
• New border rules bring no big delays, at least in terms getting south from There to Here.
• Freak accident of the day: A truck, being towed by a crane, gets loose, rolls downhill, and runs into two bicyclists.
• Sound Transit might suspend plans to extend its still-under-construction light rail line all the way to Tacoma. Don’t stop now! Channel your inner Little Engine That Could!