almost buried in the good news is the detail about how Stevens tried to sneak it in by attaching it to another important bill...literally at the last minute..(luckily, caught and removed). This sort of last-minute attachment was supposedly outlawed by Senate rules awhile back, but is 'routinely ignored' according to the Wash Post.

I'd LOVE to see a serious ban against marrying unrelated bills for the sake of pork-barrel legislation....but I suppose every politician wonders when HE will need that trick for his own purposes.