Every now an then you have to take in the local paper to gage what really matters around you. Today, one article told the story of a local homeless shelter which had run out of money to purchase soap for its visitors to shower with; the Holland American line stepped in to donate unused shampoo and soaps not used by its travelers.

The battle of the pythons has extended to The Keys. For some time, The Everglades has been fighting the growing presence of pythons in its realm; not indigenous to the area, the creatures are proliferating in an environment stocked with lots of meals and not naturally ready to fight off a new threat. The alligators, themselves, battle with them for dominance.

Authorities of The Keys--an area south of The Everglades--have summoned volunteers into a new, python attack group. This group has been educated to avoid a frontal attack, a death grip, and the vile, but harmless "poo squirt". Rangers first found the pythons by monitoring rare mammals equipped with monitors; when tracking those creatures, the most recent were found in the stomachs of sunning pythons. The rangers have been deputized to take no prisoners.

Washington should adopt the same rules for Wall Street.

But the most important story on the front page today was that the Miami mansion housing the video cam headquarters of CocoDorm, Miami would not be closed down. The city manager had sought to close it using old laws against business in a residential neighborhood; the federal judge ruled that since no customer actually visited the mansion, it did not violate any local laws.