Friday News Roundup: "The Friday Five"

In an effort to keep myself entertained, I'm going to start calling this feature the "Friday Five." It's hard work being this clever....

1. While the swine flu continues to spread across the United States and around the world, many leaders are relieved to find that it doesn't appear to be any more dangerous than an "ordinary" round of seasonal flu. Health experts warn us, though, that may come back in a more deadly form this fall. You can read about it here.

2. California's on fire again.

3. One of baseball's biggest names, Manny Ramirez, was suspended for 50 games after he failed a drug test. Meanwhile, the Royals are playing some pretty good ball.

4. The Kansas legislature passed a revised budget for the next fiscal year which includes a 2.75% across-the-board cut to funded programs. While this isn't great news, it's probably a lot better than it could have been. Earlier versions of the budget had included cuts that were closer to 5%.

5. The economy still sucks, but it's not quite as bad as it was predicted to be.