Amy Goodman and two producers of Democracy Now! (Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar) were arrested yesterday in St. Paul while covering the Republican National Convention for the show. All three have been released, but the video of Goodman's arrest and reports of the rough treatment of Kouddous and Salazar are disturbing. Goodman served as moderator of Beacon's panel on the Pentagon Papers, and she contributed to Global Values 101: A Short Course and the foreword to Jennifer Harbury's Truth, Torture and the American Way. The SF Gate spoke with Goodman after her release.

Carole Joffe (who has posted at Beacon Broadside about reproductive rights issues) joins Gloria Feldt in asking John McCain for some answers on the role of women in the workplace, health care for children, and his change in position on abortion rights.

Obsessed with the polls? David Moore, author of The Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes the Truth Behind the Polls, reveals a truth that many pollsters downplay: most voters still haven't made up their minds and won't until much closer to the election.

Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel is a finalist for the 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Other finalists include The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Penguin), The Ocean in the Closet by Yuko Taniguchi (Coffee House Press), and Song for Night by Chris Abani (Akashic Press). Previous award winners include Elie Weisel, Studs Terkel, and Francine Prose.

Via Librarian.net, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin apparently approached her town's library to find out how she could go about banning books.

Linda Lenz, founder and publisher of Catalyst Chicago, an educational magazine, defends Barack Obama's association with Bill Ayers by defending Ayers' record as an education reformer.

Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History—and How We Can Fight Back by Alan Michael Collinge will be released by Beacon this February. The New York Times recently talked with Collinge, the self-described "complaint box" for the student loan industry.

A man was ejected from Yankee Stadium for not showing adequate respect to Kate Smith and Irving Berlin.

A new website for Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire is up and running, and includes beautiful color plates of images discussed in the book.