49 to 46, with 34 Abstentions:

Alex Salmond has made political history after becoming the first Nationalist to be elected first minister of Scotland.

The SNP leader was voted into office in parliament by 49 votes to 46, after he was supported by the Greens. The Lib Dems and the Conservatives abstained.

Mr Salmond will head the first minority administration since devolution, saying he would seek parliament’s approval “policy by policy”.

…The Scottish Parliament election almost two weeks ago saw the SNP win 47 seats, just one ahead of Scottish Labour, while the Scots Liberal Democrats were left with 16.

The Scottish Conservatives have 17 MSPs, although one of their number, Alex Fergusson, has taken up the politically neutral job of presiding officer.

The Scottish Greens have two MSPs and the colourful Independent Margo MacDonald, who abstained from the first minister vote altogether, was also re-elected.

Mr Salmond was voted first minister after seeing off a final challenge from Scottish Labour leader Jack McConnell.

He became the first Nationalist to win power in the party’s 73-year history.

His election was greeted with applause and cheering in the Scottish Parliament chamber.

…”I believe Scotland is ready for change, ready for reform,” he told MSPs

Mr McConnell, the former first minister, congratulated Mr Salmond on his victory and said he would be proud to lead the largest opposition party the Scottish Parliament has ever had.

…”Voltaire once said that governments need both shepherds and butchers and I think Alex may need to be more of a shepherd than a butcher in his new role, looking around this flock here and trying to secure majorities for his policies,” said Mr McConnell.

Read the whole bloody lot :). Oddly enough, though the Paper-thin-Plurality ScotNats now Lead their devolved government whilst the plainly second-Place Northern Ireland republicans play [appropriately] 2nd Fiddle :) in Theirs, it seems that the Northeast Ulster rebels may be Chronologically closer to their goal of a united Ireland than the Highlands & Islands folk are to theirs of an independent Scotland. / Go figure, Angus. :)

* * * * * * * * * *
In Other UK news, looks like GordonBrown has a Labour Lock on 10 Downing come 27 June; and seems Prince Harry will not be deployed to Iraq after all. Now why couldn’t they have just Announced that in the First place? Bloody ‘ell. Get ye the Sons your Fathers got, and God will save the Queen. (Apologies to A.E. Housman :)

Looks like there’s some prospect for getting some law school student loan forgiveness, but there’s a decent sized hitch.

The House passed a bill yesterday that would forgive up to a maximum of $60,000.00 of law school loans for lawyers who agree to work as a public defender or a prosecutor for three years.

The bill would provide loan repayments of up to $10,000 per year - up to a cap of $60,000 - for law school graduates who work as criminal prosecutors or public defenders instead of taking what are often more lucrative jobs at private firms. The measure, which would expire in 2013 unless reauthorized, has backing from the American Bar Association and other legal groups.

This would seem to work out well for any law student who had aims of being a prosecutor anyway. I don’t know a lot of law students that set out to be P.D’s, but nonetheless, they’re out there. I know that law school was expensive enough when I started eleven years ago (at an in-state, public institution), but couldn’t imagine the cost of law school these days.

P.D.’s and D.A.’s (especially the P.D.’s) are largely thankless jobs, but they’re excellent ways to get tons of experience really quickly. You won’t be trying murder cases anytime soon, but you’ll see the inside of a courtroom, and be in charge of your own minor cases right off the bat.

[Bumped to top. -ed.]

I totally forgot about American Idol last night, what with the tornado warnings and the 3L Dinner and the Backer and so forth. But the results in ~16 hours will narrow the field from the Top 3 to the Final 2… who will be gone tonight? Jordin, Melinda or Blake? Contestants in the BrendanLoy.com American Idol pool, please e-mail your picks to laurenelizabeth [at] alumni.nd.edu by 9:00 PM EST Wednesday!!

Despite some reports suggesting a small tornado was responsible for the damage on the Notre Dame campus yesterday, the official line from the university is that the culprit was simply “high, straight-line winds.” From the ND press release:

There is no evidence that a tornado touched down on University property, according to Notre Dame officials who were on campus when the storm hit.

(Hat tip: Domer Connect.) As I said yesterday, I thought it was straight-line winds based on the nature of the damage — all the trees seemed to fall in the same direction, whereas in a tornado, you would expect to see them fall in all different directions. On the other hand, it’s unusual that the damage was confined to such a narrow area, basically in a straight line from the Grotto to Hesburgh Library, with the rest of campus virtually unaffected. Also, it’s surprising to me that a spire from the Basillica could be toppled by mere straight-line winds; a funnel cloud knocking a piece of debris into it at high speed would make more sense. But in light of the nature of the damage that I saw, I still think the straight-line-wind explanation is probably correct.

I’m still working on getting my photos and videos online (sorry for the delay, but it’s hard to find free time between all the 3L Week social activities — for example, I’ll be leaving in about an hour for the “booze cruise” on Lake Michigan), but for now, here are some photos by another student… and ND Nation also has pictures. And here’s some video taken by an ND Nation poster:

Here’s another video… and here are a couple videos of the storm damage set to music.

Some other blogs covering this: bird_style, Rakes of Mallow, Irish Round Table, Lani, Heather, The Kloska Family Blog, City of Steeples and A Texan in Indiana. Also, more ND Nation threads can be found here, here, here and here. And here’s a USA Today article about the damage.

Dammit.

More here.

Bah. Humbug, I say! Humbug!

I have many more photos of today’s storm to share, but the 3L Dinner just ended, and now people are heading out to the Backer to celebrate… so I don’t have much time. To tide you over, here’s a before & after shot of the destroyed spire:

The pictures are taken from slightly different angles, but you can clearly see that the large spire at left is… GONE! What happened to it? Well…

Pretty amazing. I don’t know how strong the winds were, but they must have been pretty impressive to cause that. (I do believe they were purely straight-line winds, though, blowing west to east. No tornado here.)

Like I said, I’ll post more later (i.e., tomorrow), but now I’m off to the Backer!

P.S. Here are a couple more quick storm-damage photos:

Here’s the WSBT article.

Trees and large branches down all over campus. A big cleanup job before graduation! More pics & videos later. Going to 3L Dinner now.

A spire from the Basilica was blown off in the storm and lays in ruins on the ground in front of the main entrance.

There are reports of damage to campus… trees down, etc. Trying to go check it out now. Stay tuned.

Tornado sirens are going off outside. Details here. Radar here.

A twister has been spotted in LaPorte. I think it will go north of the Notre Dame area, but it might be a good idea to take shelter in a basement or interior room, just in case.

UPDATE, 4:57 PM: The tornado sirens seem to have stopped. So far as I know, however, the warning is still in effect.

UPDATE, 5:35 PM: The tornado warning has expired, and the danger appears to be past. But not before a gust front produced damage from strong straight-line winds — a power line is down in the middle of South Bend Avenue, large branches, storefront signs, and at least one tree is down, etc. Mobile updates coming shortly; full-size photos later.

My grades are in.

I passed. :)

No more caveats. I’m going to graduate from law school on Sunday. Woohoo!

The Rev. Jerry Falwell has died at age 73, The Associated Press reports.

Visit CNN for the latest.

Televangelist Jerry Falwell is being given CPR after being found unconcious and taken to a Virginia hospital, Falwell assistant Ron Godwin says

Visit CNN for the latest.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN, 1:41 PM: Rev. Falwell has died, according to the AP. May he rest in peace.

JK Rowling has asked those with knowledge of the plot of her final book not to disclose the details to the public.

Never underestimate the wrath of disgruntled Harry Potter nerds.

“If Harry dies, we don’t want to know about it until J.K. Rowling decides to tell us,” Leaky Cauldron webmaster Melissa Anelli wrote. “And if you decide to tell us before that, you’ll incur the wrath of a staff of almost 200, most of whom have been waiting almost 10 years for these final revelations and can NEVER get back the moment you rob by spoiling them.

“That’s some wrath right there. We own pitchforks, hot wax and feathers. And we’re not afraid to use them.”