Slow Saturday: Nothing Special

I hope you like the new format, readers. Choose the ones you like because you only get eight.

Page one

Bus crash injuresUMass students, driver

A runaway bus carrying University of Massachusetts students on a ski trip to Canada crashed into a roadside embankment and rolled onto its side yesterday, leaving 16 students injured and the driver hospitalized in critical condition.

If the tree fits, click it
For Christmas tree farmers and advocates of fresh-cut firs, online customers may represent their last hope to reverse a wilting tradition. 

I didn't hear it fall.

Brown backs ‘don’t ask’ repeal 

The next phrase is "With some generals and senators opposed, prospects appear dim" 

Then why is it the right-corner, above-the-fold story?    

Songs for an absent hero
Lynn Chang, a Newton resident and celebrated Chinese-American violinist who has played with orchestras around the world, will be among the performers at Friday’s ceremony honoring 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo.

Fears raised over future of minority workforce
A wave of poor minorities is about to come of age, dominating Boston’s workforce. Many face educational and socioeconomic disadvantages, sparking concern that they will not be equipped for the responsibilities that await them.  

Also see: Boston Globe Summer School: Teachers Do Not Understand the Language

Boston Globe School Daze: Kids in Charge of Boston Classrooms

Kids have only themselves to blame!

Metro

• Vice consul in Boston sings of horrors she lived through 
• Pop Warner officials discouraged Mattapan trip to Fla. 
• No takers for health insurance program 
• Boston nightclub faces bias allegation 
• Antigay group, foes face off without incident 
• Man on disability works as stuntman 
• New England in Brief Invasive species spreads in sea off N.E. 

Those are stories I might have read, but not now.  If you want to read about the murderous actions of our allies in El Salvador in the 1980s that's fine; however, I'm sick of football-related stories dominating the Globe's alleged news section.    

As for the health insurance, I'm not surprised at the public servants, are you? Heck, the disability will even get you a pension.

And Marty Coakley trails the health fraud, mortgage scandal, and probation messes but she's out front on gay marriage and patrolling party hot spots.   

Nation

• Deficit plan draws praise from both parties (By Lori Montgomery, Washington Post)
• N.J. smoking suit settled for $4.5m (Associated Press)
• NASA delays shuttle flight to February (Associated Press)
• 21 children injured in La. bus crash (Associated Press)
• US seeks to list 2 seals as endangered (Associated Press)
• 10 children rescued from smugglers (Associated Press)
• Thomas’s wife says voicemail ‘probably a mistake’ (By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff)
• Resident of Disney town kills himself after standoff (By Tamara Lush, Associated Press)
• Political Notebook GOP vows to take the lead on tax cuts (Boston Globe) 

I'm making some cuts of my own.

Business

• N.E. auto show offers more cars, beefier displays (By Clifford Atiyeh, Globe Correspondent)
• Job growth disappoints (By Motoko Rich, New York Times)
• Mass. unveils pitching staff (By Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff)
• Wellington says it is not target of Justice review (By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff)
• Groupon reportedly passes on Google bid (New York Times)
• Google reported to buy NYC building for $1.8b (Bloomberg News)
• Car rearview cameras may become common (Associated Press)
• FDA OK’s expanding procedure for obese (By Matthew Perrone, Associated Press)
• With new debt, bailout rules, Europe’s currency union is changing (By Gabriele Steinhauser, Associated Press)

I love the global-warming paper pimping for the car show, don't you? 

Nothing new on the jobs front, and why don't we leave them this in the rearview mirror?