Over at Hit & Run, they're linking to the news that Golden State Fence, the company hired to build the fence on our border with Mexica, has pled guilty to hiring illegal immigrants. The IHT has a slightly longer story. I wonder if stories like the following amuse or depress the Onion's writers.

Federal immigration authorities audited Golden State's employee records in 1999 and launched a criminal investigation after a second audit in 2004. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said last year that 100 employees at the company's Riverside office were unauthorized to work, including three who the company had been ordered not to employ after the 1999 audit.

As usual, MABB has an informative analysis of the situation in Bolivia, where 4 of the 9 departments have elected to reject the new constitution if the Constituent Assembly revokes the 2/3 majority rule. Governments and opposition forces have had some violent confrontations, resulting in almost 70 people wounded during one altercation.

In Santa Cruz city, groups of opposition supporters have burned offices, roughed-up government supporters. At the same time, groups of government supporters have also attacked their counterparts. In Sucre, while a group of church supporters gathered to pray and government supporters handed out leaflets against the Archbishop of Sucre, tensions broke down into violent acts.

NASA announced today a rationale for establishing a permanent base on the Moon starting in 2020. What's the chance it'll happen?

The Moon base would eventually support 180-day lunar stays, a stretch of time seen as the best avenue to establish a permanent presence there, as well as prepare for future human exploration of Mars.