Herding Cats: Our Favorite Finance News for the Week of March 21st

This week in vaguely financially-related news stories: cannabis, cheap beer, a reality check for hippies, and TV-watching cows. These are all very pertinent issues in our modern world, I assure you.

Consumerist: Californians To Vote On Marijuana Legislation - I don't think anyone my age remembers a time when California's balance sheets weren't blood red. It's pretty much an accepted fact of life for us that our state is, was, and has always been broke...as inevitable as grass being green or the sky being blue. Luckily, we might get a chance to recoup a few billion dollars if this measure passes, not to mention the fact that law enforcement could refocus their attention on illegal substances that actually cause harmful/dangerous behavior.

WalletPop: Student Loans Now Back In Government's Hands - Pell Grants are saved! Instead of cutting federal student loans from $5,550 to $2,150, a last-minute bill attached to recently-passed health care reform redirected $61 billion headed into the coffers of Sallie Mae to directly help American students pay for college. This is great news for the middle class, and so are a few other changes the bill made to future federal grants, including a ban on securitization of student loans and a lower discretionary income cap during repayment.

MainStreet: 15 Good, Cheap Beers - I was really excited to delve into this list, but shook my head in disappointment and even contemplated closing my browser window when #13 was Miller Chill. Seriously? COME ON. I soldiered on, though, and was satisfied to learn that I've never even heard of six of these beers (the Moo Thunder Stout sounds delicious). I wish you the best of luck in your cheap beer endeavors, but for the love of God, just promise me you won't drink Caguama, no matter what the Legend of the Great Loggerhead Turtle tells you.

DailyFinance: University Thinks The Right Font Could Help Save The Earth - Since no one actually prints out emails (except my mom, who loves to archive hard copies of certain things for some reason), this won't exactly have any ecological impact, but should do wonders for the greenery of UWGB's public image. Apparently over a quarter of today's high schoolers take a university's environmental responsibility record/practices into serious account when choosing where to go to school. I haven't owned a printer in about four years, so besides the lengthy papers I printed out in the computer lab during college, I'm feeling pretty good about my carbon (wooden?) footprint.

Fortune (via CNN Money): 10 Green Myths Debunked - Here's a quick summary for you: As it turns out, tap water is safer than bottled water, food miles aren't always the best reason to buy local, a bunch of pesticides are also allowed in organic farming, cattle produce almost 40% more greenhouse gases than cars do, plastics are rarely safe to microwave, fluorescent light bulbs are more cost-effective and better for the environment than incandescent despite their use of mercury, buying an artificial Christmas trees is worse than cutting down a real one, paper grocery bags require four times the energy to produce as plastic bags, and organic jeans waste as much water as regular ones. You're welcome.

Gizmodo: Russian Cows Watch Samsung LED TV While You're Stuck With Your 32-Inch Coby - This week in ridiculous wastes of money: a Russian farmer buys three top-of-the-line LED-backlit Samsungs because he thinks his cows will be "more happy and productive" if they get to behold the beauty of the Swiss Alps in full 1080p. This brings new and exciting meaning to the phrase "business expense." As one of the commenters pointed out, the worst case scenario here is that when his cows don't increase their milk output, that farmer's got himself the brand-new home theater that his wife forbid him from buying.

This marks my last blog post as the perpetual intern here at Savings--starting next Thursday I'll be a permanent full-time member of our team! If you'll excuse me, it's time to celebrate, perhaps with some of those "good, cheap beers" I had never heard of.