The MCC prez: We'll have a reporter at this afternoon's Monroe Community College Faculty Senate meeting. On the agenda: discussion of the selection of a new MCC process. A good number of MCC faculty members are upset about the addition of two non-educators - one of them a former Republican County Legislator - to the list of finalists for the presidency.

The meeting is supposed to start at 4:30; we'll post as soon there's something to report.

Meantime, Channel 13's Rachel Barnhart has posted a nice little tidbit on her blog, which all of us should have figured out before now. Why might former County Legislator Bill Smith be interested in heading MCC? Maybe it's because of the state pension.

Smith told Barnhart that the pension has nothing to do with his interest in the job. And Barnhart notes that Smith certainly doesn't have to rely on the state to make ends meet; he's a lawyer with Harris Beach.

Besides, he's already going to get a taxpayer-funded pension, because of his service in the County Lej. But if he becomes MCC's president, we'll give him a lot more. State pensions are based on your salary. As a County Legislator, Barnhart reports, Smith earned between $18,500 and $23,000. Outgoing MCC president Tom Flynn's making $215,000.

Iraq worries: I'm keeping my eyes on news from Iraq, where tension with Moktada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army is heating up. The New York Times is reporting that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has given the militants in Basra 72 hours to lay down their arms or "face more severe consequences."

Cheney's view: Loved this animated editorial cartoon, on washingtonpost.com, on Dick Cheney's comments about reaching 4000 US-soldier deaths in Iraq.