H/T to David Cole /Coeur d'Alene Press for that gift-wrapped pot story that now has gone national. Here's the first two graphs from Washington Post online story: “A Washington state man faces felony marijuana trafficking charges after an officer found 3.3 pounds of marijuana wrapped up as Christmas gifts during a traffic stop in northern Idaho. Jason D. Palmer, 36, of Springdale, Wash., was arrested Dec. 22 as he returned from a trip to Montana, where he had been visiting family, the Coeur d’Alene Press. Kootenai County sheriff’s officials said Palmer was stopped east of Coeur d’Alene because his vehicle was repeatedly changing lanes and following other drivers too closely. The officer said he smelled marijuana as he approached the vehicle.” More here.

Question: Izzit just me, or does this guy resemble the actor in those Geico Caveman commercials?

Amber Miller ran/walked a marathon Sunday and then gave birth to a baby. Slacker. Nearly 39 weeks pregnant with her second child, she was cleared to participate in the Chicago Marathon — and darned if she didn’t finish the race, even though she started having contractions near the finish line. “I got the okay from my doctor to run half [and walk half], and my husband ran with me and supported me along the way,” Miller, 27, told WGN from her bed at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Ill., where she was resting (the nerve) after the arrival of baby June. “I ran half and walked half. That’s how I finished. “Everybody just kind of stared as I’m running by”/Cindy Boren, Washington Post. More here. (AP Photo/Daily Herald, Mark Black)

Question: My wife played softball in Kalispell, Mont., when she was eight months pregnant with Junior, some 22 years ago. Anyone (besides marathoner Amber Miller) top that?

Remarkably, Baker and other African American soldiers did not allow racism or resentment to break their spirit. This is what he would have us remember: “We had made an ass out of everyone who said we couldn’t do it.” Prove the naysayer wrong, Baker said. Do good in school, stay out of trouble and recognize your self-worth even if others do not. “Yet, I still wanted respect and the acknowledgment that we were good,” wrote Baker, a native of Cheyenne, Wyo./Courtland Malloy, Metro Columnist, Washington Post. More here. (H/T: Shea Andersen)

Question: Has anyone in your family won a medal for service during a war?

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few”: Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff”/Politico. More here. H/T: Beth Bollinger/Accidental Rabbit Trails

• Post publisher cancels plans for ‘off-the-record’ salons/Washington Post

Question: What do you think of that fact that a department at a major newspaper actually entertained the idea of providing access to powerful people for thousands of dollars?