The graph below is from a USA Today article on the significant rise in employment discrimination claims filled by people with disabilities in the past year. The increase coincides with both the recession and passage of legislation that undid the Supreme Court’s overly restrictive interpretation of what constitutes a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The more cynical might look at this graph and complain about litigious workers, but I find this news encouraging. Disability discrimination in the workplace is still pervasive and employers are still inclined to target people with disabilities when trimming their payrolls in harsh economic times. Congress always intended for the ADA to provide broad protection to workers with disabilities and many were denied that protection because of the Court’s dim view of the original law. A spike in claims now might send a message to employers that they must make a real effort to accommodate their workers with disabilities.

Skyline is the latest entry on my “movies-that-I-really-want-to-see-but-upon-seeing-will-probably-leave-me-feeling-disappointed-and-cheated” list.

Ray Bradbury has become a crazy old coot.

The deleted scene from Return of the Jedi of Luke Skywalker fashioning a new lightsaber is intriguing. Rumor has it that another scene shows Luke and Leia stealing one last forbidden kiss in Jabba the Hutt’s palace, right in front of a carbonite-encased Han Solo.

A few years ago, a movie like The Kids Are All Right would have caused a lot of consternation in the media. “A movie about lesbians? Lesbians with children? Lesbians with well-adjusted children? Liberal Hollywood has gone TOO FAR!” Such sentiments can still be found in the more conservative portions of the Internet, but perhaps it’s a sign of progress that Kids hasn’t sparked much controversy and is instead being hailed as one of the movies that might have saved the summer movie season from being a complete disappointment.

Nic and Jules (Annette Benning and Julianne Moore) are a couple with two teenage children, Joni and Laser, who were conceived with the help of an anonymous sperm donor. They live a comfortably middle-class life somewhere in California. Their marriage isn’t perfect; Nic is a driven physician who sometimes enjoys her wine a little too much and Jules bounces from one business idea to the next, but they’re committed to each other. Meanwhile, Laser has become curious about their biological father and persuades Joni (who just turned 18) to contact the sperm bank to get contact information for the donor. They eventually connect with Paul (Mark Ruffalo), an aging and somewhat self-absorbed hipster who just happens to live nearby. Paul soon meets the whole family and complications soon ensue.

The movie goes to some fairly dark places, but the writers don’t let the story get mired in tragedy. That’s not to say the movie is without flaws. The event precipitating the conflict (I’m trying to avoid spoilers) is forced and pushes the boundaries of willing suspension of disbelief. But the otherwise clever script and compelling performances (especially Benning’s) are enough for me to add Kids to my “recommended” list.

This Times story about the drastic budget cuts state and local governments are enacting has been on my mind since I read it last week. In better times, most people could comfortably advocate for spending cuts because they had little reason to worry that those cuts would personally affect them. But now that school weeks are being shortened, street lights are being turned off, and buses are no longer running, the consequences of budget shortfalls are more noticeable to people who never previously considered the role of government in their lives. Most people aren’t going to be happy to pay more taxes to balance those budgets, but they also aren’t going to be happy to live in the midst of crumbling infrastructure (which in turn chases away the employers with the good-paying jobs).

Minnesota has weathered the recession better than many states, but we could be forced to take equally drastic measures if we can’t come up with a responsible solution for our fiscal woes. I like to think that we value our quality of life too much to allow our state to descend into go-it-alone individualism, but then I remember that one of our major political parties nominated a person with just such a philosophy to run for governor. And I start to wonder if I should enjoy my publicly funded one-on-one nursing care while I can.

Count me among the estimated 10% of eligible voters who voted in today’s primary. Holding a primary in August is a strange way to engage potential voters as politics is the furthest thing from most people’s minds at the moment. Kelliher earned my vote because she’s enough of a wonk to grasp the complexities inherent to issues like health care and taxation. And I’m not entirely comfortable with Dayton’s newfound populist evangelism, although it may be enough to put him over the top today. The structural nature of our deficit demands a more comprehensive solution than simply targeting the wealthy and Dayton seems unwilling to take a more nuanced approach. Then again, voters don’t generally reward nuance.