I heard just a bit of a story on the news last night about a 12-year-old boy in Cleveland who was shot by police at a playground. He apparently had some kind of a toy gun that was very hard to distinguish from a real gun and was pointing it at other people. Where did he get the toy gun and why did he take it to the playground? Did the police tell him to drop it? Did they realize he was a child? This is so sad.

Why wasn't the National Guard in place before the Ferguson verdict was announced? I thought they'd been placed on standby in anticipation of problems occurring once the verdict was publicized.