Joe Scarborough put it best this morning on MSNBC: Two days left in '08 means just two more days of foreclosures, two more days for bankruptcies, two more days left for chain store closures this year -- woo-hoo! Er, woo?

Not that today's local news is much brighter for at least two local institutions, though NBAF opponents can continue to breathe easy:

• NCSSM's planned expansion is on ice for at least a year, with the state choosing not to release $7.3 million in planning/infrastructure spending budgeted this year for the $82 million expansion project. It's among $58 in UNC system earmarks now held back as the state government prepares to wrestle with expected budget deficits as tax revenues decline. A UNC system VP muses that the project might qualify for -- what else? -- Obama administration infrastructure funding. (H-S)
• The H-S has their own coverage of the Minor League Baseball brouhaha over the progress, or lack thereof, on the Durham Athletic Park renovations, joining the N&O's late-Monday treatment of the story. (H-S, N&O)
• The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility -- once targeted for Granville Co. just across the Durham line, and encountering strong local grass-roots opposition in the Triangle -- will come before U.S. Rep. David Price's Homeland Security appropriations committee, but Price again tells the H-S he would not interfere in the site selection process to try to steer the facility back towards N.C. from its preferred site in Manhattan, Kansas. (H-S)