Senate Democrats plan hard-fought battles against the Bush administration’s request for another $87 billion for Iraq and the nomination of Gov. Michael O. Leavitt (R-Utah) to head the Environmental Protection Agency . . . Labor unions are starting to flex some muscle, primarily over healthcare costs. Let’s hope for more of the same. Boycott Wal-Mart! . . . Rittenhouse is still undecided among the current crop of aspirants for the Democratic presidential nomination but hopes Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who recently made his candidacy official, can at least hang around long enough to have a meaningful impact on the party, its nominee (assuming it isn’t him and who knows?), and its platform . . . Bolivians are -- justifiably -- pretty angry these days, but this time it has nothing to do with McDonald’s . . . Is the New York State Board of Regents dumbing down graduation requirements or just being realistic? . . . A horrible tragedy on the Staten Island Ferry today . . . The New York Post is filled with creeps from top to bottom, and, no, this link has nothing to do with John Podhoretz, a/k/a/ Tiffany Midgeson . . . New York University’s Elmer Bobst Library, which I think is magnificent but many others think is a monstrosity, already has been the site of two suicides this semester . . .

Interior View, Elmer Bobst Library

Detroit’s beautiful Book-Cadillac Hotel, designed by Louis Kamper and the tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1924, but which has been closed since 1984, and reminds me much of Philadelphia’s famed and beautifully restored Bellevue Hotel, is slated for a full-scale, upscale renovation . . .

The Book-Cadillac Hotel

Meanwhile, Frank Gehry is throwing up more of his xeroxed junk, this time in New York . . . And Tom Wolfe takes on 2 Columbus Circle, the former home of the Huntington Hartford Gallery of Modern Art. And as in the abysmal A Man in Full he goes on and on, and on and on, about it . . . Requiescat in pacem: Bill Shoemaker, world-renowned jockey, 1931-2003 . . . The Paris Review, established and edited by the late George Plimpton, threw a party for itself Tuesday night to celebrate the journal’s 50th anniversary. Congratulations, Paris Review! But, really, did anyone ever read that thing? . . . A newly discovered, at least by me, Philadelphia-based journal, discovered when its editor discovered Rittenhouse, that’s worth your attention: The Wissahickon.