Dubbed by many as one of the greatest stories in sports (as a long-time tennis player, I’m a bit biased) the lives and careers of sisters Venus and Serena Williams are now the subject of a new documentary.

Released on iTunes today, Venus and Serena follows the sisters during the 2011 season, as they publicly battled health concerns that threatened to end their success on the court (Serena was just returning from a year-long absence for blood clots while Venus was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease).

But exposing fans to a tumultuous time in their pro careers, now nearly two decades old, had its benefits. From USA Today:

In today’s surreal science news, researchers in Kyoto, Japan have reportedly built a “dream-reading machine” using MRI and electroencephalography (come again?) technology, according to a study published today in Science.

A membership is required to view the entire study (you can view the abstract here), but Smithsonian took an inside look at how the findings may be the “first case” of objective data documenting the content of a human brain in dream-mode:

And no, not "bearded" in the same way Rock Hudson married Phyllis Gates back in the '50s — this is for those gentlemen who allow their beards to grow without fear of public disapproval, following in the facial haired footsteps of luminaries such as Taft, Lincoln, Hayes and Garfield.

From The Hill:

The Bearded Entrepreneurs for the Advancement of a Responsible Democracy (BEARD) was founded by 30-year-old Jonathan Sessions, who sits on the Columbia, Mo., Board of Education, according to his website.

“With the resurgence of beards in popular culture and among today’s younger generation, we believe the time is now to bring facial hair back into politics,” Sessions said in a statement.

“We haven’t had a bearded major party candidate run for president since Charles Evans Hughes ran and lost in 1916, and there has been a recent wave of retirements amongst bearded Congressmen, including David Obey and Steve LaTourette. Our hope is that we can start to reverse this disturbing trend.”

Hopefully they'll still be around in 10 years when I begin my campaign to become the first Hispanic president to still be wearing a horribly outdated goatee (erotic fiction scandals hopefully not withstanding).

As so often happens in Internet-land, people have forgotten that not everything that people post is real — and this time, the hubbub has been about the Daily Show's Jon Stewart, supposedly in trouble with Egyptian leadership for making fun of them, according to the Daily Currant:

According to a statement issued by Minister of Justice Ahmed Mekki, Stewart will also be charged with "contributing to the delinquency of an Egyptian" for his role in inspiring Youssef to challenge the Islamist regime.

Mekki claims that since clips form The Daily Show are rebroadcast in Egypt on CNN's international channel, Stewart is open to prosecution under Egyptian law.

This, of course, is obscenely absurd, and only the highly outraged don't have alarm bells starting to ping in the backs of their heads over this. Then you get to this part:

"Mr. Stewart has 30 days to surrender to Egyptian authorities in Cairo," the statement reads. "If he does not comply he will be tried in absentia and we will seek his extradition from the American government.

"This conspiracy to defame the Egyptian government violates our laws and will be prosecuted fully. Mr. Stewart may think he's funny. But in reality he is destroying the moral fiber of Egypt with his numerous references to penises and openly flamboyant homosexuals like Larry Craig, Marcus Bachmann, and Lindsey Graham."

Then it registers, and hopefully you forget about it. Hopefully.

Unlike these folks.

You know people are moving backwards rather than forward when Egypt issues an arrest for Jon Stewart #seriously?dailycurrant.com/2013/04/03/egy…

— Faisal Abdelqader (@FaisalAQ) April 4, 2013

You're doing something #Right when #Egypt Issues Arrest Warrant! #KeepitUp @jonstewart | The Daily Currant buff.ly/XQjTe6

— InvestorsCorner (@CRECorner) April 4, 2013

I'm sure this will fix the economic troubles & general unrest. Egypt Issues Arrest Warrant For Jon Stewart dailycurrant.com/2013/04/03/egy…

— Timothy Reeder (@TimothyAReeder) April 4, 2013

And so on, and so forth.

I don't blame people for getting caught up in it — the Daily Currant isn't bad at newswriting — they're just bad at making things funny.

The thing is, the article glazes right over the important grain of truth in favor of sensationalizing the fake Stewart "arrest": the harassment that Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef has received over his criticism of the Egyptian government:

The prosecutor has charged that the skits on Youssef’s late-night show went too far by “insulting” Islam and mocking Morsi. But Youssef is outspoken in his adherence to his Muslim faith, and he is an equal-opportunity satirist. Originally trained as a cardiac surgeon, he raced to Tahrir Square in early 2011 to treat protesters badly beaten by baton-wielding thugs on camel-back. The experience turned him into a revolutionary committed to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. It also led to a career change. “The [revolution] triggered the idea to do a show exposing the hypocrisy that was happening,” he told me last year. “So I became a comedian overnight.”

Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik says that recent allegation that he urinated in public last week are “bullshit.”

Local right-wing radio jocks have been repeating the unsubstantiated claim, which was first made at the Arizona Daily Independent website.

Kozachik, who was the subject of this week’s cover story, told TW via email:

They're clearly desperate. Anybody can make an anonymous allegation, and that's all the ADI blog is. Nobody is ever on the record and so it makes it easy for them to put guys like me in the position of having to prove a negative. They smeared Ray Carroll during his campaign, and are so fringe that they've called guys like Bruce Ash and Al Melvin RINO's.

If the Republican Party wants to regain any level of credibility in this community, they'll remove the link from their web site.

It also says something about the journalistic professionalism of KNST and Journal Broadcasting that they're running this shit on the radio day after day, but I guess that's the small-minded echo chamber of hatred that the fringe right in this town seems to thrive on. Two weeks ago it was me “testing” prostitutes through my efforts at offering a diversion program. Before that it was me having a “gay wedding with my secret lover” that they had posted on Facebook. I won't be spending the next six months of this campaign giving them any level of relevancy by answering false and anonymous allegations, but I'm more than happy to put it out there with you this one time that this group of children needs to grow up. The fact is that they'll show that they're incapable of that and that'll validate the reason behind them being a bunch of losers in virtually every election in this region.

Widely regarded Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert died today at age 70 after a lengthy battle with cancer, according to the Sun-Times.

This comes just one day after he announced he'd be taking a "leave of presence" from his writing duties with the Sun-Times website, a post that marked his 46th anniversary with the Sun-Times and announced a number of different endeavors he'd be undertaking, from relaunching his personal website, to apps, to his movie festival.

He also noted that the reasoning behind his leave of absence was health-related, as what was originally considered to be a hip fracture turned out to be cancer, which was just another setback for a man who had fought thyroid and salivary gland cancer, losing part of his jaw in the process.

Still, he carried on, reviewing more than 300 films last year, and writing constantly on his blog at the Sun-Times and at rogerebert.com.

Ebert's last words in the post, which sound oddly prescient, were: "...thank you for going on this journey with me. I'll see you at the movies."

See you, Mr. Ebert.

[Roger Ebert's Sun-Times Obituary]

Seriously, I just about blue myself out of sheer exhilaration this morning. It's a good thing that May 26 is a Sunday, because otherwise I'd have to take the day off—though i might anyway, just to deal with Bluth-induced joy.

We've made a huge mistake! There are actually 15 new episodes of @arresteddev on May 26. twitter.com/netflix/status…

— Netflix US (@netflix) April 4, 2013

Joy!

I get that Arrested Development isn't everyone's cup of tea, much like some people out there prefer The Big Bang Theory to the vastly superior (at least, prior to this season) Community, or how not everyone loves Parks and Recreation as much as they should. But for those who haven't given it a shot, Arrested Development is one of the smartest, most detailed comedies that's been on TV — at least give it a shot before you call it overrated and awful, at least.

Democrat Felecia Rotellini, who narrowly lost to Tom Horne in the 2010 race for Arizona Attorney General and who has already announced plans to seek the office in 2014, said today that Horne wasting tax dollars and infringing on personal liberty by threatening to sue the town of Bisbee over the council's recent decision to recognize same-sex civil unions. Rotellini's statement:

Arizonans have every reason to be disappointed by Tom Horne's latest political ploy, threatening a lawsuit against the City of Bisbee for its recent passage of a city ordinance recognizing civil unions. Bisbee's City Charter grants it all of the express or implied powers and authority which are not prohibited by Arizona's constitution—and the constitution is silent on the matter of civil unions.

The people of Bisbee have the right to make their own decisions without interference from the legislature or an Attorney General who continues to be dogged by allegations that he violated the very laws which he is supposed to enforce.

Arizonans take our personal liberty seriously. We do not expect to have it infringed upon by grandstanding politicians. Government should take a step back from the private lives of its citizens. And the Attorney General should show more respect for the people's authority to govern themselves, and stop wasting tax dollars on frivolous lawsuits. When I am Attorney General, I will focus on getting criminals off the streets and will use tax dollars to protect and serve Arizona.

The culinary team at Union Public House at 4340 N. Campbell will be preparing a dinner with the folks at Elk Cove Vineyards. Monday, April 8, a four-course dinner will be presented starting at 6:30 p.m. at $75 per person. For reservations or for further details call 329-8575 or email [email protected].

How often do you hear of big-time musicians lowering ticket prices? Remarkably, when Bon Jovi come to Glendale on April 23, you can actually get tickets for $19.25 before those pesky surcharges kick in. For a band that has sold 130 million albums, 13 top 40 hits and had their most recent album What About Now debut at #1, that seems like a nice touch.

We've got a pair of tickets to give away...all you have to do is click some buttons and type some things on our contest site.

If you'd like to purchase tickets, click here.

Good luck!