The Mexican military has recently broken up several secret telecommunications networks that were built and controlled by drug cartels so they could coordinate drug shipments, monitor their rivals and orchestrate attacks on the security forces.

A network that was dismantled just last week provided cartel members with cell phone and radio communications across four northeastern states. The network had coverage along almost 500 miles of the Texas border and extended nearly another 500 miles into Mexico's interior.

The last total lunar eclipse of 2011 — and the last one until April 15, 2014 — occurs Saturday morning.

Arizona celebrates its centennial next year, and to help get folks spruced up for the occasion, the Heard Museum in Phoenix recently opened an exhibition featuring the state's official neckwear — the bolo tie.

The roots of the bolo tie aren't known for sure. But the story goes like this: Back in the 1930s and '40s, when Western swing was in full swing, a cowboy and silversmith in Wickenburg, Ariz., named Vic Cedarstaff was out riding his horse. The wind picked up, and to keep his silver hatband safe, Cedarstaff looped it around his neck.

The government of Malawi announced, yesterday, that it would review its ban on homosexuality. The announcement comes just days after the United States said it would use its foreign aid to advance gay rights. President Obama also directed his agencies to "to find ways to deter countries from criminalizing homosexuality."

Fifty years ago it was still OK to smoke in hospitals.

And on Friday, Dec. 8, 1961, someone, nobody knows who, dumped smoldering cigarette ashes down a trash chute at Hartford Hospital, igniting a ferocious fire that killed 16 people.

The fire began at 2:38 p.m. Within minutes a ball of flame zoomed from the basement to the ninth floor, blowing out a rickety trash chute door and engulfing much of the floor in flame and smoke.

An investigation into the fire and how it spread led to changes in fire codes for hospitals across the country.

In American offices, it's the water cooler.

On Russian trains? The boiler.

It's where passengers gather to make tea, coffee, oatmeal, soup, instant pasta or instant anything whose preparation demands hot water.

The boiler – standing proud and tall near the train attendant's compartment in each rail car – is a metal canister keeping water scalding and available at any hour.

Occasional passengers - including myself - refer at times to the appliance as a "samovar."

But this risks offending traditionalists.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — A report shows Tennessee's solar power and related industries provide more than 6,400 jobs and are helping put people back to work.

The report by the Tennessee Solar Institute shows the state ranks 22nd in installed solar power. The group says Tennessee needs to stay aggressive to compete with other states that have growing solar sectors.

The Institute’s Director of Programs, Dr. John Sanseverino, says solar’s cost-to-benefit ratio has finally reached the tipping point.

Japan's prime minister said that the Fukushima nuclear power plant crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in March is on schedule to be stabilized by the end of the year.

The AP reports:

"Temperatures of the three melted reactor cores have fallen below the boiling point and radiation leaks have significantly subsided, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Governor Bill Haslam says he opposes efforts to water down Tennessee's open meetings law that bans city or county officials from deliberating over official business in private.

The Tennessee County Commissioners Association is promoting changes to the law that would allow closed-door talks among officials as long as a quorum isn’t present.

David Connor is the TCCA’s Director. He says the way the law is currently written, commissioners are afraid to communicate with each other on any subject, outside official meetings.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT)  WMOT News told you yesterday about the American Civil Liberties Union and the Sumner County Board of Education settling a law suit claiming the system was promoting Christianity.

In a consent decree announced earlier this week schools officials agreed to a long list of changes.  However, David French, the attorney who represented the school system in the case, downplayed the scope of those changes when he spoke with WMOT.