The popularity of shark fin soup in Asia has led to a horrid practice of catching sharks, cutting off their fins and throwing them back in the water. The House and Senate both passed a bill that makes it illegal to transport shark fins without the bodies attached.

And just in case you’re curious – Senators from land locked states like chum seeker Sen. Tom Coburn from Oklahoma tried to block its passage.

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They’re With Stupid: We applaud the LAT effort to sex up its Web coverage with video, but why does that video have to come from KTLA? The incomparably stupid report by a star-struck, ill-prepared Jaime Chambers detracts from Dan Morain and Michael Finnegan measured story about Barack Obama‘s Beverly Hills fundraising effort. At one point, after showing shot after shot of fancy cars driving up to the funciton, Chambers says, “Ron Howard just walked by.” Yeah? How about catching that on film, Jaime? The idiocy continues as he talks to a random Obama detractor who says she’s going to vote for McCain. The detractor’s name? Cindy Cheney. Any relation? We’ll never know: Chambers DIDN’T ASK HER.

At Least Someone Is Making a Smart Call The LAT might not be wise enough to leave KTLA in the cold, but at least the Obama camp is. From the piece mentioned above: “Lest anyone be diverted by the Hollywood spectacle Tuesday evening, Obama’s campaign denied TV crews access to the mansion and hotel events.”

AP TV The LAT thankfully had the sense to go with the AP’s video on this story about how Alaska state employees are refusing to honor subpoenas in the Sarah Palin Troopergate scandal… though, a perverse part of us would love to see how Jaime Chambers would have handled that story.