The Buzz: Hunger games

Three Republican state senators have introduced a bill that would cut the state Supreme Court from nine members to five by requiring the justices to draw straws.

After that, the measure would thin the ranks at the Department of Social and Health Services through an agency-wide rock-paper-scissors tournament.

Yo! This is your captain speaking: The grounding of the 787 has also grounded the men and women in the cockpit, since pilots usually fly only one model of plane at a time for safety reasons. One Air India pilot even created a rap number about his predicament and posted it on YouTube.

In response, India’s civil aviation minister has asked Air India to take disciplinary action against the pilot. Personally, The Buzz would feel perfectly safe in a jet plane flown by a pilot who can also bust a rhyme now and then.

But you promised: European Union regulators on Wednesday fined Microsoft $733 million for breaking a pledge to offer Windows users the chance to easily select a product other than Internet Explorer as their default Web browser.

Microsoft acknowledged what it called “a technical error,” which might well be MS-speak for “Geez, we’ve lost a truckload of market share to Google Chrome, so what’s the big deal?”

— Mark Carlson, Herald staff

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