USAToday took a look at schools near toxic hot spots - something the EPA has never done, and what they found isn't reassuring:

The result: a ranking of 127,800 public, private and parochial schools based on the concentrations and health hazards of chemicals likely to be in the air outside. The model's most recent version used emissions reports filed by 20,000 industrial sites in 2005, the year Hitchens closed.

The potential problems that emerged were widespread, insidious and largely unaddressed:

• At Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in East Chicago, Ind., the model indicated levels of manganese more than a dozen times higher than what the government considers safe. The metal can cause mental and emotional problems after long exposures. Three factories within blocks of the school — located in one of the most impoverished areas of the state — combined to release more than 6 tons of it in a single year.

"When you start talking about manganese, it doesn't register with people in poverty," says Juan Anaya, superintendent of the School City of East Chicago district. "They have bigger issues to deal with."

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Once again, today's Blog Roundup is brought to you by Steven and the alert uniformed attendants at The Opinion Mill. Keep those digital cards and letters coming to steve[dot]theopinionmill[at]gmail[dot]com. Excelsior, y'all.

Turns out that at Columbia University they just loves them some dictators. Considering who else was being greeted with open arms, it makes you wonder why Lee Bollinger was so eager to harsh out the vibe for Iranian President Unpronounceable.

Children's health? It's all just politics to this "moderate" Rethuglican.

Mark McDonald visits Wikipedia and finds yet another battle line in the endless conservative war against reality.

John Holbo tries to parse Michael Medved's views on slavery and ends up scratching his head. Field Negro cuts to the chase and reaches the conclusion that Medved is a racist winger hack with entirely too much company in the mainstream.

If you don't mind stepping away from political issues for a moment, here's one of the most poignant blog posts you'll ever read -- about a very human moment between a store employee and a customer with a very personal question.

THE BOOK NOOK: Unfortunately for Clarence Thomas, his whiny, petulant, foot-stamping tantrum of a memoir is coming out the same time as Jeff Toobin's Supreme Court book The Nine, in which we learn that even Antonin "Evil Genius" Scalia considers Thomas more than a bit of a flake. How long before the Thomas book turns up as a $1 giveaway from NewsMax?

HOLY CRAP: Rudy and Jesus, not so perfect together. Neocons and Christianist nutters, perfect together. Here's a Garden State winger who has his own ideas about other people's families (gays, needless to say, are not invited). And the Dominionists threw themselves a party in Salt Lake City -- are you wondering why you weren't invited?