A mixture of clouds and fog create “haze” this afternoon on California’s north coast, with sunshine every-once-in-a-while appearing through the dull.
A bit on the cool side, but not unpleasantly so.

News hounds are barking in a whisper this PM, though, there’s a hostage situation still on-going down in Inglewood, south of LA, two police were injured, and a neighborhood is under lock-down.

Meanwhile, new-on-the-job as US ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, put in her two-cents worth on the “crisis‘ over the Senkaku islands — China, Japan and Tawain claim the uninhabited islands, which have oil and gas fields, by the way, and China has also said it controls the airspace around them (an ‘airspace defense zone,’ if you will). On Monday, the US showed how much we care, and flew two B-52 bombers right through the no-fly zone.
Kennedy missed the point: “Unilateral actions like those taken by China with their announcement of an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone undermine security and constitute an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea,” she said. “This only serves to increase tension in the region.”
US Defense honcho Chuck Hagel supposedly chatted by telephone with his Japanese counterpart today to reassure him America will stand with its ally — to what ever end this comes.

And what is to make of this — a black eye for the run-up to Black Friday when a female WalMart shopper discovered a half-naked guy in the girls’ dressing room doing the business (via Mediaite): “Who gets up at 8:30 in the morning and decides they’re going to go to Walmart, take off all their clothes and masturbate in the women’s bathroom?” Davis asked KJRH, Tulsa’s NBC affiliate. “How could you think you weren’t going to get caught?”
Beth Davis, the female shopper, chased the guy out into the parking lot, and eventually he was arrested.
At least he wasn’t another Bad Santa.

And not working can make a difference: About 1 in 6 unemployed Americans suffers from drug or alcohol addiction — nearly twice the rate of substance abuse found in working Americans — according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released Tuesday.
Sucks.

And a cop in San Jose, California, took ticket writing to a new level — and some revenge:

A San Jose police officer’s attempt to gain revenge against a foe in a legal spat backfired and landed him behind bars, authorities said Wednesday.
Officer Charles Chavez, 51, was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of writing a bogus traffic ticket to an opponent in a civil suit that stemmed from an auto collision more than five years ago.
Chavez also wrote two fake tickets to his own attorney in the case, according to Santa Clara County prosecutors.
Deputy District Attorney Daniel Rothbach said Chavez, unhappy about how the suit was resolved, used his police computer to find identifying information on his two victims, then last month sent them the fake tickets — one for a moving violation and two for illegally parking in a spot reserved for disabled motorists.
Chavez allegedly signed another police officer’s name to the citations.

And at least we can sleep good tonight, there’s a-plenty going on: The Dow and the S&P 500 closed at record highs on Wednesday, led by Hewlett-Packard’s jump a day after the personal computer maker’s earnings, while the Nasdaq finished at a 13-year high.

And on into the evening — there’s ‘Agents of Shield‘ and ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘ on Hulu.

(Illustration above found here).