Funerals were held this weekend for four of the 11 women whose bodies were found in a Cleveland, Ohio row house earlier this month, apparent victims of convicted sex offender Anthony Sowell. Sowell, 50, has been charged with multiple counts of rape and murder as investigators continue to dig around his former residence.

Since yesterday, we knew the official public announcement was coming and today we got it.  Oprah Winfrey announced on a live broadcast that she will end  "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2011 after 25 years.After much prayer and months' of careful thought, I've decided next season, season 25, will be the last season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show.With those words, the most powerful woman in television shook up not only the daytime TV world, but the TV world as a whole.

At the same time that leading journalists and scholars are calling on college journalism programs to help fill the void left by the decline of newspapers, a court case in Illinois is raising questions about the legal status of student journalists that could have a chilling effect on the risks that journalism professors will ask their students to take.

Count me underwhelmed by Sarah Palin, or, to be specific, the person Sarah Palin has become. Or, to be even more specific, the person Sarah Palin became to be interviewed on Oprah about her book yesterday morning.

I visited a friend in London this past weekend. While I was there, I ate lots and lots of yummy chocolate and cheese and baked goods. I basked in the idea that national health care was a given. Even more, the UK National Health Service doesn't rob women of their reproductive rights by allowing religion to dictate what health services are covered; except for in Northern Ireland, termination (abortion) services are covered. After a horrible week in the US, where Democrats sold out women and allowed religious lobbies to impose their beliefs on my health, I thought about defecting. London is perfect! Well, except that even in the UK, women are told that you need set aside your own preferences and needs if you want to get and keep a man.

The release of the movie Precious has gotten black folk atwitter.

Yoani Sánchez, popular Cuban blogger from "Generación Y", was forced into a car and beaten by secret police in Havana along with Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo and Claudia Cadelo, who writes for OctavoCero and Global Voices.

For the past four years, the World Economic Forum has studied the gender gap - that is, the amount of resources dedicated to boys and girls and women's opportunities to fully participate in society - in over 100 countries, then ranked them. (In 2009, the Index included data from 134 nations. At least 12 of 14 indicators used for the Index must be available in order for a country to be included.) The goal, according to the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, is:

1 Man, older and less educated than the woman 1 Woman, at least 5 years younger (be sure to check freshness date!) and smarter than the man 0 Couples of the same sex 0 Previous divorces 0 Cougars Place man and woman in same home. Stir. Voila! Enjoy your happy, lasting marriage!

Last year during national Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and I mean exactly one year ago on October 28, 2008, I wrote about one of the most disturbing cases with a connection to domestic violence the nation had seen in a while. A tale of horror unfolded, the murders of the mother, brother and young nephew of acclaimed actress and singer Jennifer Hudson. The alleged perpetrator, her sister's estranged husband William Balfour, was later arrested.

I've actually been anticipating this two-part, four-hour program with glee since it was first announced that CNN would follow up it's controversial Black in America this summer. But what interested me most about the Docs is what bloggers are saying. As a Canadian, I believe that because of the Immigration debate, y'all Yanks will have a different perspective on the program, so it is Wednesday night, and I'm searching to see what bloggers are saying. And it didn't take me too long.

A new report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism -- the home of the Pulitzer prizes, no less --  suggests that government funding might be a necessary part of the solution for preserving independent local news reporting. The report has been greeted by reactions ranging from interest to skepticism and outright dismissal. The need to preserve independent journalism