A government report says job cuts of 50 or more increased significantly last month. On Wednesday, the government said that the number of layoff announcements involving at least 50 workers rose in September to the highest level since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks seven years ago.

According to CNN, “there were 2,269 mass layoff actions, up 497 from August, according to statistics released by the Labor Department. That was the most mass layoffs since the 2,407 in September 2001.”

Some people may be surprised to learn that Gov. Sarah Palin is now talking to her national press corps more often than Sen. Joe Biden.

CBS News reports that, “while the once silent Palin has taken questions from reporters that travel with her three times in the last week, Biden has not offered the same type of access to reporters who cover his every move on the campaign trail in almost two months.”

Madonna’s friends claim that her marriage was doomed after Guy Ritchie’s “unsympathetic” reaction to her 2005 horse riding accident.

According to Stuff, a New Zealand news Web site, “the turning point in the couple’s relationship came when the singer broke eight bones in the fall, after which Madonna claims she received a ‘complete lack of love and sympathy’ from her husband according to friends.”

Dallas County Commissioner Mike Cantrell, a Republican, has continued his vendetta against elected officials, who are members of his own political party.

Knowledgeable sources at the Commissioners’ Court told the Dallas Blog today that Commissioner Maurine Dickey proposed to build access roads on Interstate-35 going north in her district ,but Mr. Cantrell ambushed her plans and killed the project by conspiring with Commissioner John Wiley Price. Allegedly, Mr. Cantrell was irate with Mrs. Dickey and wanted to seek retribution against her.

San Francisco is a live-and-let-live town where medical marijuana clubs do business next to grocery stores and an annual fair promotes sadomasochism. Soon, prostitutes could walk the streets without fear of arrest.

Fox News reports that, “San Francisco would become the first major U.s. city to decriminalize prostitution if voters next month approve Proposition K – a measure that forbids local authorities from investigating, arresting or prosecuting anyone for selling sex.”

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has demanded the withdrawal from French bookshops of a voodoo doll and a set of pins, which are being sold along with manual on how to put the evil eye on the French leader.

The Times of London reports that, “Thierry Herzog, the presidential lawyer, has told K7B publishing firm that if it fails to halt sales of its joke voodoo kit, Mr. Sarkozy will sue them for usurping his image.”

Tracy Holt, 43, a woman from Gosport, Hampshire, England, should never win a “Mother of the Year” award under any circumstances. She does not seem the least bit worried that her 13-year-old daughter Sam smokes 15 cigarettes a day, drinks beer on the street corner with her friends, smokes pot and leads a sexually promiscuous lifestyle.

 George W. Bush, blue-jeaned and sleeves-rolled-up, marches across his Crawford, Texas, property on a sort of nature hike, formulating world-changing policy while a brigade of his braintrust – “Vice,’’ “Rummy,’’ “Girl,’’ “Genius Boy’’ and the rest of the Dubya-nicknamed lieutenants  – dutifully march along. A fateful conclusion is reached, and then the president suddenly halts – and realizes he’s missed the proper turn on the path.

   It is one of dozens of scenes in Oliver Stone’s “W.’’ that is deep-fried in simple-minded metaphor. But this engrossing film, which feels like a living history lesson in the form of pop-art deconstruction of the frat-boy/cowboy prez, works on many levels, not the least of which is that its simplicity will allow its title subject to understand it.