Editor's Note: Peter Freyne is on vacation this week.

The call came in last week: Peter Freyne had split for an undisclosed beach, and they wanted me to suit up for "Outside Track." I played it off like no big deal, but down deep? There were qualms. Because, let's face it: It's a brutal business, political muckraking. You stick your toe in -- big toe, pinky toe, whichever -- you'll never be clean again.... Read more

Trust me, you don't know what you'll do if things get really bad. You think you do, but you don't. If things get really bad, you find yourself in an entirely different dimension of behavior, one in which choices about what you will and won't do cease to be choices. You'll do stuff that you wouldn't believe, believe me.

That goes for every person, and because cities are finally just the sum of their people, that goes for cities, too. When the economy of a city just stops dead, then everybody does things that make no sense whatsoever.... Read more

We got a Siberian Husky puppy a little while back, and although the animal's only 12 weeks old at this point, she's seen some strange people come through our door. Strange is normal, in my business. Usually, however, those strange people are on Our Side, politically speaking. But tonight is different. Tonight a black helicopter, fat and dark as a turkey vulture, has touched down in the backyard, clearly full of people from the Other Side. The husky is puzzled, her little black-and-white mask pressed against the sliding glass door, trying vainly to smell the two men approaching in the dark.... Read more