Early deadline and Stenzel visit

Tom Stenzel of United will be in town tomorrow for The Packer's annual editorial meeting. The meeting has also scooted up our deadlines this week and will take us out of the office, albeit across the street at a venerable Holiday Inn. No doubt we will be wireless, tho.

I note that both Chairman Peterson and Bob Goodlatte will have media briefings tomorrow. Given the animated talk coming from Ag Secretary Johanns about the farm bill commodity title extension - not to mention industry criticism - it should be an interesting few weeks. It will be a real test of Peterson if he can somehow find a way to keep the specialty crop industry from moving their efforts for funding to the House floor.

This AP story about the recall of onions seems to indicate the listeria found on diced yellow onions was limited to one day's output of fresh cut onions.

Here is another type of action against blackberries of the digital world. Big Apple from our discussion board passes along tihs AP story:

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted Wednesday, June 20th 2007, 2:22 PM
PARIS - BlackBerry handhelds have been called addictive, invasive, wonderful - and now, a threat to French state secrets.
French government security experts have reportedly banned - with mixed success - the use of BlackBerries in ministries and in the presidential palace, for fear that they are vulnerable to snooping by U.S. intelligence.
"The risks of interception are real. It is economic war," daily Le Monde quoted Alain Juillet, in charge of economic intelligence for the government, as saying. With BlackBerries, there is "a problem with the protection of information," he said. Juillet's office confirmed that he spoke to Le Monde but said he would not talk to other reporters. Officials at the presidential Elysee Palace and the prime minister's office were not immediately available for comment. Le Monde said information sent from BlackBerries goes through servers in the United States and Britain, and that France fears that the U.S. National Security Agency can snoop. France's General Secretariat for National Defense issued a circular on BlackBerries 18 months ago and later renewed it, the newspaper said.