Former Beatle John Lennon was happy living in New York City after moving there with wife Yoko Ono in 1971. “John loved New York with the affection one could only associate with home,” according to author and native New Yorker Keith Elliot Greenberg.

Time still ticking for Birmingham: A&E’s documentary series First 48 is returning to the Birmingham area after making its first appearance in February 2009 during the ninth season.

A long time coming: A white former state trooper pleaded guilty Monday in Marion to misdemeanor second-degree manslaughter in the 1965 shooting death of a black man at a civil rights demonstration, according to Phillip Rawls of the Associated Press

Sorry, Democrats: The political news doesn’t get any better for you, even looking ahead to the next national election, according to an Associated Press report by Charles Babington. Senate Democrats running in 2012 will be trying to hold seats in states where Republicans scored big gubernatorial and congressional victories in last week’s midterm elections—Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Virginia.

It’s the economy, Barack: On the hot seat we find President Barack Obama, who was slapped in the face by voters in off-year elections Tuesday. His mandate for change from 2008 is gone, along with the large margins the Democrats enjoyed in the U.S. House and Senate.

Blackmail Boys, a genre-busting, sexually explicit, black-comedy noir photographed by Birmingham filmmaker Adam Wingard, won a Special Jury Award at the Indie Memphis film festival in Memphis, Tenn., last weekend.

I ask Damien Jurado, during our recent telephone conversation, if living in the often rainy, gloomy Pacific Northwest, specifically Seattle, has an impact on the tone and feel of his songs. The singer-songwriter answers the question by describing the typical work pattern of Seattle musicians.

The air’s better… sort of: For the first time since the mid-1990s, the Birmingham area seems to be on course to meet federal air quality standards, according to an article by Birmingham News environmental reporter Thomas Spencer. That’s good news, especially since current standards are tougher than they were in the 1990s, Spencer tells us. But wait, there’s more.

According to Chevron.com, their campaign “describes the actions the company takes in producing energy responsibly and in supporting the communities where it operates.” But mere hours before Chevron formally announced their campaign on Monday, the Yes Men released their own satirical version of the campaign under a very believable Chevron banner.

Charles W. Ireland Sculpture Garden.