Imagine you're a little kid minding your own business (wait, what kid minds their own business?) and playing on the school yard when a rambling, confused, and chain-smoking woman shows up in a skimpy outfit looking for her kids. No, scratch that--looking for her lawyer's kids. more ›

One of the best lessons from Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek is how firing clients can make you happy. It fits into the 80/20 principle, or Pareto's Law. Think about it this way as Ferriss exemplifies in the book: "80% of the consequences flow from 20% of the causes. 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort and time. 80% of company profits come from 20% of products and customers." It can be applied across the board. Ferriss encourages you to fire clients who take up 80% of your time who gain you little in results, producing headaches, stress and general unhappiness. more ›

• Tribune Company CEO Dennis FitzSimons will be stepping down at the end of the year, letting Chicago businessman Sam Zell take over the company. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times.
• President Bush signed a huge Energy Bill yesterday, in hopes of "reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure."
• Looks like Sean Preston and, uh, the other little Chee-to whose name escapes us will have a little fucked up cousin very soon! Jamie Lynn Spears, following in her sister's dirty, unshod footsteps, got herself knocked up.
• California's population has grown by 11.5% since 2000 -- but the annual growth rate has slowed overall, possibly due to slower job growth: "Those who left... were fleeing an economy in which just 5,800 jobs per month were created -- down from more than 20,000 per month the previous year."
• Sean Penn's road-trip flick "Into the Wild" garnered four SAG Award nominations, including one Best Lead Actor nod for star Emile Hirsch. SAG has reached an agreement with the writers guild that will allow the ceremony to proceed as planned.
• This week's rainfall brings California's yearly total up to the seasonal norm. More relief may still be on the way.
• Approximately 25,000 residents in Northridge and other parts of the Valley were affected by power outages yesterday. Cal State Northridge shut down classes, but power has been restored to most customers.
• There may be hope yet for television in the New Year! Stephen Colbert & Jon Stewart will return to cable on January 7th without their writing staff. Stewart and Colbert commented: ""We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence."

Britney Spears has been having a bad week. I thought it was bad a couple weeks ago when she had a hit and run, bombed at the VMA's and had her lawyer drop her. That was actually sunshine and roses compared to this week... It all started this week when it was alerted to the authorities that Brit was driving without a California license, and had in fact never had one. Us Weekly is... more ›

At the top of CNN.com is a big Breaking News banner that reads: more ›

Nine years we've put up with Star Jones on "The View". Now that Elizabeth Hasselbeck has assumed the role of The Annoying One, Star and her fat salary are expendable. Barbara Walters tells everyone who will listen that ABC did not renew Jones-Reynolds' contract at the begining of this year. However, that contradicts what Walters said just two months ago: "Rosie will be there. And if Star wants to continue to be there, she is welcome." more ›