While you were fixated on the election campaign and on the collapsing economy and your vanishing retirement investments, stuff happened.
Iraq stood tough -- against the U.S.; Afghanistan bled; Guantanamo refused to close, all pledges to the contrary notwithstanding; At home, the deficit swelled. So did the national debt. It is now twice as big as it was when President Bush took over from Bill Clinton.
The Big Three automakers raised the possibility of becoming the not-so-big two.
The Bush administration tried to relax rules intended to protect animals and plants in danger of extinction.
You no doubt noticed that a funny thing happened at the gasoline station -- prices dropped. But that made alternative energy sources less attainable.
From Associated Press reporters covering these developments, a rundown of some things that happened while you may not have been watching:
The Big Three automakers raised the possibility of becoming the not-so-big two.
The Bush administration tried to relax rules intended to protect animals and plants in danger of extinction.
You no doubt noticed that a funny thing happened at the gasoline station -- prices dropped. But that made alternative energy sources less attainable.
From Associated Press reporters covering these developments, a rundown of some things that happened while you may not have been watching....

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Longtime Birmingham civil rights leader Abraham Woods, who stood behind Martin Luther King during his "I Have a Dream" speech, has died after a long illness. He was 80.
He was pronounced dead Friday in the emergency department of Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Dodd said. He had been battling cancer for several years.
Woods helped coordinate the March on Washington and stood behind King in 1963, looking out over a crowd of 250,000 as King gave his famous speech.
Woods served as longtime president of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He often led community marches in Birmingham to protest police shootings, slumlords and neighborhood violence.
The Rev. Woods had been pastor of St. Joseph Baptist Church since 1967 and was pastor of the First Metropolitan Baptist Church in the early 1960s...

A city of brittle stars off the coast of New Zealand, an Antarctic expressway where octopuses ride along in a flow of extra salty water and a carpet of tiny crustaceans on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor are among the wonders discovered by researchers compiling a massive census of marine life. "We are still making discoveries," but researchers also are busy assembling data already collected into the big picture of life in the oceans...

Miriam Makeba, the musical symbol of Black South Africans' struggle against apartheid, has died at the age of 76 after collapsing at a concert in Italy....

There are always dogs and cats looking for permanent homes. Check out the Seattle Animal Shelter's website

The Inaugural Swearing-in Ceremony will be held at 12:00 Noon on January 20, 2009, on the West Front of the Capitol. The East Front of the Capitol will be used for the departure ceremony of the outgoing President .... Tickets for the Inaugural swearing-in ceremony are distributed to the public by both Senators and Representatives of the 111^th Congress .... special credentials will be required for access to the Capitol on .... Vehicular Access – virtually all of the streets around the Capitol complex and the Mall will be closed or severely restricted on January 20 .... ALL other Inaugural-related events in Washington, DC are planned and coordinated by the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC). These events include the large parade following the event at the Capitol, balls, etc ....

From the very beginning, some observers say, Jefferson High School's Johnson Young Men's Academy seemed set up to fail.
Enrollment never made it above 60 students, crippling the district's ability to provide enough teachers for the small all-boys academy ...

The grand opening of Art Williams' and Jamaal Lane's Champions Barbershop, at 3827 NE MLK Jr. Blvd., featured Portland TrailBlazers Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and Martell Webster. Other special guests included Shaun Bodiford of the Green Bay Packers, Colorado Crush player Rashad Floyd, and Self Enhancement President and CEO Tony Hopson Sr. Music was provided by DJ OG One.....

Commander Derrick Foxworth this week announced his retirement after 27 years at the Portland Police Bureau.
A party commemorating his service was Wednesday, Oct. 29 at Northeast Precinct. It was open to the public.
Foxworth spoke with The Skanner about his career and his hopes for the bureau in the future.
He says he chose to retire because he's ready for new horizons.
"I'm at that point in my career where I'm eligible and I believe that it's a good time for me to go and to explore other opportunities," he said. "My plan honestly is to take some time off and to just relax and then during that time to kind of reflect on what it is I want to do with the remaining productive years of my life."...

As an Oregonian, the only thing that kept Lloyd Allen from voting was incarceration. Like millions of other citizens, Allen was convicted of a non-violent drug offense – a felony that sent him behind bars for over a year. But after her release from prison on felony charges, Denise Welch, a resident of Washington State, was forced through a maze of requirements so complex, even local elections officials didn't know how it worked....