Four today

1. The newest Senator from Delaware argues for a robust federal shield law for journalists. LAT

2. The San Francisco Chronicle claims that it has cut itself to profitability. SF Weekly

3. Caught in trap of naughtiness, Canada's second-oldest magazine will reluctantly change its name: "Market research showed us that younger Canadians and women were very very unlikely to ever buy a magazine called The Beaver no matter what it's about." Reuters

4. The sportswriter who outed Mark McGwire's steroid use gets some vindication. E&P in Exile

Four in the morning

1. News sites can now track when readers cut and paste text from articles. It should add another dimension to measurement's of story popularity; it's probably also a good tool to track content pirates. Nieman Lab

2. Rubber-neck journalism: A "story" made entirely out of tweets. Universal Hub

3. Something to dampen that Boston pride: two members of the 2004 and 2007 World Series champion Red Sox tested positive for steroids in 2003 - Manny Ramirez, now an LA Dodger, and David Ortiz. Ramirez suffered a 50-game suspension this year for a positive test. NYT

4. Who does the public blame in the Crowley-Gates affair? Most of them blame both men. ABC News

4.5 Some poor decision-making here: The beers of choice for tonight's picnic-table summit: Bud Light (Obama), Red Stripe (Gates) and Blue Moon (Crowley). Chicago Tribune

Speaking of names

The New York Times has the names, pictures and stats of all the baseball players the Mitchell report identified as having used performance-enhancing drugs. See if your favorites are in the clear or on the clear.

Swollen head blues

Nothing in the Mitchell report on steroid abuse in Major League Baseball comes as a surprise (well, except that Sammy Sosa wasn't included).

One has only to compare the pictures of today's baseball players to those of a few decades ago to know the sport is rife with anabolic steroids and growth hormone. I don't know many people whose heads keep getting larger during their 20s without it, and I don't think pitching curve balls causes Cro-Magnon jaw.

According to AP, there's an All-Star at every position on the list. If only the Fantasy Baseballers had known this when choosing their rosters!

Mommy, there are monsters in the outfield.